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Turkish Islamist AK Party Wants More Than Just Trying Secularist Coup Generals
30 June 2009
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has prepared a 15-article reform package, which includes the trial of coup generals, following a recent call by Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal to confront the Sept. 12, 1980 coup planners and to abolish an article in the Constitution preventing their trial, AK Party sources reveals. CHP leader Baykal last week proposed that Parliament remove all obstacles that stand in the way of the generals who led the Sept. 12 coup being brought to justice. Although Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Baykal of insincerity in his call to settle accounts with the perpetrators of the Sept. 12 coup, the AK Party is getting ready to propose a package of amendments to the Constitution, including Article 15, which exempts coup leaders from being tried, to Parliament in August. After Erdogan's critical remarks about Baykal's call, CHP parliamentary group deputy chairmen paid a visit to their AK Party counterparts to convince the government that the CHP was sincere in its call about the trial of Sept. 12 coup perpetrators, prompting the government to respond to the CHP's move with a constitutional reform package. AK Party parliamentary group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdag said all traces of the Sept. 12 coup should be eliminated from the Constitution. His party will present the mini reform package to Parliament in August; it covers articles making party closures more difficult and granting individuals the right to file cases at the Constitutional Court. Indicating that Parliament, which would normally be on vacation in August, may gather for an extraordinary meeting that month to elect its new speaker, Bozdag said his party would propose the mini reform package to Parliament at this gathering, asking political parties to examine its proposal by Oct. 1, the day Parliament resumes work after the summer recess. The generals staging the Sept. 12 coup banned any legal action against them by adding an article to the Constitution -- temporary Article 15. Currently, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) support the annulment of this article, backing an important part of the mini reform package prepared by the AK Party. On the other side, the CHP claims that the government lacks the authority to change the Constitution and is threatening to take the constitutional amendments to the Constitutional Court if the AK Party takes such a step. Kuzu: We are ready Head of Parliament's Constitutional Commission Burhan Kuzu of the AK Party said that although the trial of the Sept. 12 coup perpetrators is difficult due to a number of political and legal factors, his party was ready to take the necessary steps to this end. “It should first be determined whether there is a statute of limitations. It is easy to abolish temporary Article 15 of the Constitution, but the trial of around 2,000 people who either perpetrated the coup or helped the perpetrators could lead to big problems. But even so, we are ready to do what is necessary. First of all, temporary Article 15 of the Constitution, which is anti-democratic, should be abolished. We can start with that and think about the rest later,” Kuzu told Today's Zaman. 15-article reform package ready
Imparting some information about the content of the reform package, Kuzu said one of the striking articles in the package will be the overall change of the party closure system. He said Turkey will begin to implement the Venice Criteria in party closure cases after the adoption of this package; parties will be closed down only if they are engaged in acts of terror and violence and individual punishments will be given to party members who commit offenses. Kuzu said the second article in the package will be about the tenure of Parliament and the president. Following a referendum on Oct. 21, 2007, the tenure of Parliament was lowered from five to four years and a popular vote was established to elect the president. Kuzu said the package foresees a four-year term for Parliament and a five-year term for President Abdullah Gül. In response to criticism of the 10 percent election threshold, which requires political parties to receive at least 10 percent of the nationwide vote to be represented in Parliament, Kuzu said the package will introduce a new system which will make it possible for political parties that receive more the 1 percent of the vote to enter Parliament. A hundred out of the 550 seats in the Turkish Parliament will be distributed among parties according to their vote percentages. The establishment of a Political Ethics Commission and the enactment of a Political Ethics Law are among the important amendments in the reform package, Kuzu noted. The reform package, which foresees granting individuals the right to file cases at the Constitutional Court, also brings changes to the structure of the court. The package proposes increasing the number of members of the court from 11 to 18. The package also foresees the enactment of an Ombudsman Law, for which the European Union has been pressing Turkey for a long time, and the right to strike will be expanded to include civil servants.
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