AKP-CHP Conflict Deepens Despite Meeting Between Parties

PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was assigned yesterday to form the 61st government.

The crisis revolving around the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, jailed deputies deepened Wednesday after an upper court rejected the proposal to release Mustafa Balbay from custody and the first meeting in Parliament with the new government yielded no progress toward unlocking the stalemate.

The CHP, whose deputies have refused to take the parliamentary oath in protest of their colleagues not being released from prison, was expecting a decision from the upper court regarding Mehmet Haberal, another jailed CHP deputy.

Depending on the result, the party has said it could submit a bill to Parliament to change the relevant laws, though it expects a move from the ruling party for legal arrangements to solve the crisis if the courts do not. “We are still evaluating whether we will submit a parliamentary bill outlining a solution for the issue of the elected deputies who are behind bars,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters.

CHP deputy Süheyl Batum told journalists that if the government does not bring a proposal to Parliament to solve the issue, the CHP could submit its own proposal.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek and ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, deputy leader Haluk İpek met with Kılıçdaroğlu for nearly a half hour in Parliament on Wednesday. Joining Kılıçdaroğlu from the CHP was Rıza Türmen, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Akif Hamzaçebi and Muharrem İnce.

AKP group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdağ responded to the CHP’s refusal to take the oath by telling the CHP: “Do not use threats. Take the oath and then bring your proposal to Parliament.”

Deputy PM Çiçek said after the meeting that the boycott and the jailed CHP deputies were not brought up.
However, information obtained by the Hürriyet Daily News indicated that the oath crisis and the jailed deputies were in fact discussed at the meeting and were brought to the table by CHP İzmir deputy Rıza Türmen, who said in the meeting that the long detention period is illegal, violating both the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The CHP indicated at the meeting that if the judiciary ruling is not positive, ultimately it is the ruling party that should step in to solve the issue. According to the information obtained by the Daily News, Çiçek responded by saying such an issue was not anticipated while preparing the Criminal Court Law’s in 2002 and 2005, and did not provide any new suggestions for a solution to such incidents.
Türmen said after the meeting that Çiçek agreed that the judges did not pay enough attention to the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and that the meeting’s agenda did not include possible solutions, adding that at this point the CHP did not have any suggestions or proposals.

CHP deputy leader Tanrıkulu also said after the meeting that a solution proposal was not brought to the table by the CHP. Speaking to the Daily News, Tanrıkulu said no joint steps were being taken regarding a solution, and that the CHP is “in Parliament, waiting.”
Parliament Speaker?

Meanwhile, no names were brought up regarding who the Parliament speaker, set to be elected on Monday, should be. Kılıçdaroğlu had however previously hinted that they would not object to Çiçek becoming Parliament speaker, and even told journalists that he predicted that Çiçek’s name would definitely be brought up. k HDN

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
SOURCE: Hurriyet Daily News