"The Necessity of An International Condemnation of The Crimes of Communism"

Europe is preparing to investigate and to judge communist regimes as it did with Nazi administrations.

The Committee on Political Affairs of the Council of Europe Parliamentarians Assembly in Paris on Wednesday adopted the report, which condemns communist regimes just as the Nazi administration was once handled.

The report, accusing the communist regimes of many Central and Eastern European countries of "violating human rights, conducting torture, and organizing mass murder in concentration camps" last year, suggests the criminals be found and punished just as the Nazi administrators were punished.

Such crimes result from the theory of class-struggle, implying that the kind of regimes mentioned above are still in power in many countries, reads the report; adopted despite the opposition from Russia on the Committee, over which Republican People's Party (CHP) member Abdulkadir Ates presided.

The proposal to use the terminology "totalitarian communist regimes" instead of "communist regimes" was accepted; the latter expression was put forward by the Judgment and Development Party (AKP) member Murat Mercan, president of the AK Turk Delegation.

Goran Lindblad, a Swedish parliamentarian, said in an interview with Zaman that all communist regimes are totalitarian anyway, and "the crimes that they committed and continue perpetrating against humanity" are a natural consequence of the class-struggle theory. Members of communist parties from about 70 countries, including the Turkish Communist Party (TKP), were angry at the comparison of communism to fascism, arguing that this is intended to rewrite the history of Europe.

The report will be put to vote in December at the Council of Europe Parliamentarians Assembly.