Turkish Deputy Elections to Be Held on June 12th, 2011
With elections looming in less than two months’ time, a political duel between rival leaders dominated the agenda Monday, signaling a tense pre-election period especially on issues around the ongoing Ergenekon case and restricted freedoms.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, is basing its rhetoric on the government’s growing pressure on dissident voices, namely media, intellectuals and artists, while the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is hitting out hard at the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP’s, decision to nominate Ergenekon suspects as parliamentary candidates.
Both the AKP and the CHP are also flexing their muscles about how many people they can rally to their cause.
On the same day Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan implied that he could organize counter-protests against the students who are unhappy about the latest university entrance exam, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review learned that CHP chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is planning to actively join May 1 Labor Day meetings with his organization.
Erdoğan slammed almost all his political rivals Monday during a meeting introducing AKP candidates to the public, criticizing the opposition for putting suspects from the ongoing Ergenekon coup-plot case on their candidate lists.
“First they said they were the lawyers of the gang. As if that was not enough, the leader of the main opposition party said, ‘Where is this Ergenekon gang? I am going to join them.’ They could not find anyone on the outside, so they nominated candidates from Silivri Prison,” Erdoğan said, referring to the prison where many arrested suspects in the case are being held.
“I want to ask the CHP and the MHP: Do you represent the will of the people, or the will of Silivri, gangs and the mafia? Do you get your power from the people, or from dark organizations?” the prime minister asked.
“I thought you wanted to remove diplomatic immunity? Be consistent. Stand behind your word for once,” he added. “We are used to you now. You make U-turns all the time. But we have not bowed down to any threats in the past 8.5 years [that we have been in power]. We have not given in to gangs, the mafia or dark criminal organizations.”
No difference from Sept 12 coup days
Kılıçdaroğlu meanwhile described the country’s current situation with the days following the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup. “[Things are] not much different from the Sept. 12 days. We are passing through a process in which books are seen as offensive weapons,” he said in an address to a group of nongovernmental organization representatives.
Criticizing the government’s understanding of an independent judiciary, Kılıçdaroğlu accused the ruling party of ending judges’ independence.
According to the CHP chief, the current Constitution and the laws governing political parties are the main obstacles before a genuine democratization process in Turkey. “Those who worked to amend the Constitution [in the Sept. 12, 2010, referendum] have given the judiciary into the hands of the executive,” he said.
“Let’s not deceive each other. Our democracy cannot be improved with this law on political parties,” Kılıçdaroğlu added. “Democracy can only be developed on the day when the citizens can directly elect their own representatives.”
The 10 percent electoral threshold for parliamentary representation is a product of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup ideology and should immediately be reduced to a lower level, the CHP leader said.
‘CHP is French to Istanbul’
As reflected at the party’s manifesto, Istanbul will be a key part of the AKP’s election campaign. Erdoğan, a former mayor of the city, heralded his own expertise while criticizing CHP group deputy chairman’s Akif Hamzaçebi’s claims of ownership over his project to split the city in the two parts.
“I served as Istanbul mayor and I know Istanbul well. Akif Hamzaçebi should first know Istanbul, as should his leader,” Erdoğan said, adding that when Kılıçdaroğlu ran as a candidate for Istanbul mayor, he called the Kağıthane neighborhood “Kağıttepe.”
When Hamzaçebi came up with the proposal in 2007, he said, he proposed to create two cities, one in Saros Gulf, in the western party of Istanbul, and the other in Sakarya’s Karasu district, in the eastern part of the city.
“Do they have any connection with Istanbul? His project has nothing to do with our project,” Erdoğan said. “As I said, they don’t know where Istanbul is. His leader doesn’t know either. They are French to Istanbul.”
The Turkish phrase, which the prime minister recently used while addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, refers to someone who is a stranger to a place.
Campaigns begins this week
The AKP will launch its election campaign April 22 at 2 p.m. in the northeastern province of Bayburt, Erdoğan said, adding that the second stop will be made in Gümüşhane on the same day. The prime minister said he would try to visit all provinces as long as the election schedule permits; when it does not, his ministers and deputy leaders will visit other cities.
On the same day AKP starts its campaign, the CHP will announce its election manifesto; the opposition party will hit the campaign trail April 24 from the Black Sea coastal town of Samsun.
CHP to join May 1 rally
Amidst the election campaigning, Kılıçdaroğlu and his team will also attend the May 1 Labor Day rally held by workers at Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to call on party members in other cities to join workers on the streets on May 1.
The last CHP chairman to attend Labor Day celebrations was Erdal İnönü in the early 1990s. Former leader Deniz Baykal, who held his position as CHP chairman for 19 years, did not participate in the marches, which were not allowed in Taksim during his term.
Party officials will march alongside workers, as will artists Sabahat Akkiraz and Tolga Çandar, and former Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions, or DİSK, head Süleyman Çelebi, all of whom are candidates for the CHP in the upcoming general election.
April 18, 2011
SOURCE: HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
