Politics & Society

TURKEY/ The Puzzle of the Turkish Parliament

Valeria Giannotta

mercoledì 20 luglio 2011

If June 12 marked the biggest triumph for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayipp Erdogan, only a few days afterwards, a new chapter was opened in the political history of Turkey, which found itself confronted with a serious and important crisis.

For the first time since the foundation of the Republic, the ceremony of the opening of Parliament was boycotted by the opposition parties because some of the elected candidates, who had previously been imprisoned under suspicion of terrorist activities and plots against the government, cannot enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot obtain the seats that await them in the National Assembly.

According to statements by the judges, eight representatives cannot sit in Parliament and therefore two of the parties in question, the BDP—the Kurdish Party—and the CHP—The Republican Party—refused to swear-in as members of the current legislature. Instead, the nationalist MHP, which has an empty seat anyway, expressed its deepest respect for the will of the nation, but participated in the opening.

Behind the act of protest of the BDP and CHP, there is the conviction that that AKP is exerting some kind of influence on the decisions of the Court which is holding their representatives in prison. The government defends itself by claiming not only that the justice system exercises its power independently, but also that the crisis is the result of a strategy planned on purpose by the opposition to attempt to diminish the action of the government.

The boycott, however, has not blocked the system and Recep Tayipp Erdogan has been resolute in nominating new ministers and in making the announced changes to the structure of the new cabinet, abolishing eight ministers, introducing six new ones, and merging and transforming two more for a total of 26 ministers, including the Prime Minister and the four Vice-Prime Ministers. But the most important new thing is the introduction of the Vice-Minister positions, held by people nominated to assist each minister in his duties.

This is certainly a new aspect in the Turkish parliamentary system and underlines once again the growing power of Erdogan’s government, which, enjoying full legitimacy (as the surprising electoral results demonstrated), exercises a dominant position in every area of the political sphere. The important substitution of the former Minister of Defense with a young man who has grown up in the party, and therefore will be able to support the interests of the party in the now storied iron arm of the country’s armed forces, also demonstrates this growing strength.

While the BDP continues to maintain its position, the CHP, knowing the risk of remaining marginalized from the decision-making process, abandoned the protests, showing that they were willing to negotiate with the AKP in the drafting of the new Constitution. Without a doubt, this attitude underlines the face of Kemal Kilicadroglu’s party that repeatedly has been characterized by its inclination to dialogue.

Despite the imprisonment of the legitimately elected representatives, the news was favorably received by the international community and both Europe and the United States agree that the resumption of the legislative process is an important sign of credibility and, above all, is a sign of the maintaining of the internal reforms necessary to complete the path towards European Union membership.

The picture remains dark, if one considers that the continuous self-exclusion of the Kurdish independent candidates in Parliament contributed to the terrorist attacks of the PKK (the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, considered a terrorist group by many countries) in south-east Anatolian Turkey. In the last week, the escalation of violence has led to the killing of thirteen Turkish soldiers and an underlying discontent in local public opinion on the management and possible solutions of the Kurdish question.

This is why, today more than ever, it is important, and necessary, to have a strong and responsible opposition in Turkey that finds the right compromise to smooth the democratic process and confronts the spiny issue of the state of democracy in the country, with particular emphasis on the too-limited freedom of expression.

(Translation by Maria Bond)