Turkey’s CHP and HDP stand firm against propsed constitution of AKP and MHP

HÜSEYİN ŞİMŞEK
huseyinsimsek@birgun.net / @simsekhuseyinn

CHP (Republican Peoples’ Party) parliamentary group leader Özgür Özel and HDP (People’s Democratic Party) spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen stated that they will be giving all effort necessary in order for the proposed constitutional amendments, which will be brought to Turkey’s parliament today (January 9) to be rejected.

CHP: ‘If discussions are not broadcasted on TV, we are going to broadcast it online’

As CHP, they want to ensure transparency and creation of a true platform for discussions, which was not achieved under AKP’s leading in committee meetings, Özel said. Noting that creation of an effective public awareness on the issue is crucial, CHP parliamentary group leader Özel added: “Immediately before the General Assembly meeting starts today, we are going to hold a closed group meeting and have a final talk on our approach… Our main goal is for the discussions (at the parliament) to last long as much as possible and for public attention to be gained as much as possible…”

Reminding that the content of the proposal was not known at all when the work of AKP and MHP on drafting a new constitution had started initially, Özel said both political parties and the public became aware, when the draft was brought to parliamentary committee, that the intention behind the amendments was actually far from standing as remedies to Turkey’s contemporary problems.

Underlining that AKP’s proposed changes suggest for parliamentarian system to be weakened to a level of having almost no meaningful function, Özel said: “Now, the truth about it has been learnt by a significant part of the public... People must watch (parliamentary discussions) and see this process. If our request (for discussions to be broadcasted from parliament’s TV channel) gets denied, we are going to broadcast it online with our own means.”

HDP: ‘We see the proposed changes as a means to make state of emergency permanent’

HDP will also be holding a parliamentary group meeting right before the start of the General Assembly, in order to have a last talk on their strategies. Highlighting that they ‘do not see this process as a process of constitutional amendment’, HDP’s spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen said: “We see this as state of emergency becoming permanent, where polarization is deepened to a level of civil war in Turkey… We are going to work effectively in order for this proposal not to be passed.”

Arguing that even the minimum requisites for launching and leading a process of constitutional amendment have not been achieved given the conditions where a great number of parliamentarians, journalists, and academicians are either detained or pressure, Bilgen added: “Our parliamentarians will act in awareness of this picture. Our group will do its own planning in regards to obeying the bylaws… We are also going to hold meetings, with the topic of ‘state of emergency and constitution’, with different parts of the public in order for people to monitor the process closely rather than staying just as a passive watcher.”

Also touching on the claims that have spread around about HDP’s stand on the amendments, where it has been questioned whether HDP will say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, Bilgen said this was part of a propaganda of Erdoğan against Kurds and added: “These kinds of polemics work to the advantage of Erdoğan... We remind that such arguments should be avoided...”

Front-page article of BirGün on 9 January 2017, Monday

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/hayir-icin-son-ana-kadar-mucadele-142463.html