INDEPENDENT TURKEY – UNRELAXED EUROPE

AKP member of parliament from Adana Talip Kucukcan who is head of Turkish committee of Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE) joined to seventh meeting of Western Platform as the mean speaker. Once more a significant subject was addressed in the meeting which was made under EU former minister Egemen Bagis’s coordinatorship.

Head of Turkish committee of PACE Talip Kucukcan shared his opinions on things to do after this by giving a brief on backstage of the decision in the meeting. On the other hand, the vision come into prominence as ‘’in spite of PACE’s political decision, the dialogue door should not be closed, lobbying activities should be focused on and NGO’s should have a more active position in this process’’.

‘’A prejudiced and sided, a scandal decision’’

Recently, head of Turkish committee of PACE Talip Kucukcan gave voice to a serious adverseness is a matter about Turkey and it has been effective base on the taken decision; ‘’Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe signed for a scandal decision regarding taking Turkey to political controlling. By ignoring the conditions that Turkey is in, a prejudiced and sided report was prepared. Regrettably, this report got approval from PACE general Assembly in April. When we look at the decision, in fact, it is loud and clear to see all prejudices. Under normal circumstances, this decision is a decision that should administer purviews such as democratization, human rights and rule of law in Turkey.  However, when we look carefully at the content, it is possible to see between the lines, actually all amendment proposals requested by Turkey are rejected. We are face to face with a report that cannot express terrorist to PKK and FETO who are conducive and backstage of July 15 coup attempt in Turkey and protects them. We are a country who has a good relationship with Europe Committee under normal circumstances and has valued it so far. Turkey signed and almost more than half of Europe Committee’s conventions. As you know, conventions are already approved above our law regarding to our constitution’s 90th article. We accept them as significant norms and values.

In Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe’s either general assembly or inspection commotion we express that Turkey has gone through an extraordinary process and hence there are attacks against the existence and security of Turkey in this process and to prevent these attacks all states have taken the necessary precautions. They say to us that remove state of emergency. Saying to a country to remove its state of emergency means actually interfering to that country’s sovereignty. Why does a country announce state of emergency? There should be very serious problems, issues and risks about security of that country, as happened in France. Saying just remove state of emergency by harping on Turkey’s state of emergency by bringing it up perpetual without discussing Turkey’s security problems actually contains that kind of result. Likewise, some jurisdictions have been initiated in Turkey, some of the members of parliament have been arrested or taken into custody, some journalists have been taken into custody, and regardless of the indictment of any of them, they have been calling Turkey with a few preliminary judgments. They have immediately called for Turkey with a set of bias about topics like member of parliaments and some journalists who have been already judicial procedure and taken into custody without looking at those topics’ accusation and content. In the background of these calls, especially when we look at who did contribute to prepare this report, we transparently see that

In the background of these calls, especially when we look at those who contribute to the writing of these reports, we see clearly. There has been a serious controversy recently about Turkey. Unfortunately, these oppositions have had such an effect in the Parliamentary Assembly of the European council’’ interpreted as like that.

‘’This decision is unacceptable’’

The head of Turkish committee of PACE Talip Kucukcan indicated that Turkey did not participate to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s April work and mentioned about the path to be followed from now on; ‘’We are going to draw a road map for our participation in the upcoming works in terms of how and which level it should be. We are going to act as the way that our road map shows. This decision has no sanction, only meaning of taking turkey into the control process is the previous reports about Turkey have been written once in three years, from now on is going to be written once in a year. From this point of view, we see that there is not much that actually changes as a mechanism. But we express that the decision is not fair, objective and rational. We have done a lot of work in this regard and have negotiated with our counterparts using both parliamentary and diplomatic channels, but we have not achieved much. Well, would we keep having our relationship when there is such an unfair decision? Would we act like nothing happened? Our honourable the President of the Republic, Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister have already expressed in their speeches before. We both talked with the President of the PACE and the General Secretary of the Council of Europe and said this decision is unacceptable that threatens the future of the council and allows to a group of people shaping all the work of council which is inarguably not right. In recent times there has been a lack of confidence for international institutions and organizations anyway. This insecurity perception also applies for the Council of Europe. People are now approaching sceptical to institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the Council of Europe because the decisions of those institutions are not the decisions that applies for everyone. In this regard, we would like that the Council of Europe should continue its existence and respectability as a norm producer institution. These decisions are not acceptable for Turkey, we have expressed already. A new road map is going to be drawn in the following days about whether we participate or not to future general commissions and committees, revision of the budget contribution of Turkey by the Council of Europe. It is important to implement norms produced by the Council of Europe and keep them alive. As long as Turkey applies does these things, we will be doing its part. Our expectation from parliamentary parliament is to evaluate the conjectural situation that Turkey is in. We cannot say that they evaluate it very well. We think that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not get especially the situation between Turkey and PKK, DAES and FETO, how they threat our democracy and democratic institutions. Otherwise PACE would not have issued a decision like that.’’

‘’PACE is creating an artificial problem’’

Istanbul Aydin University Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Mustafa Aydin expressed his considerations with following words; ‘’Primarily it should be said that in the last years and especially in 2017 Turkey is in the attack, as the Turkish Republic’s the great leader Ataturk’s statement, by its internal and external enemies. They are attacking treacherously to Turkey in any platforms such as economy, politics and military. They never stop any attempt to destroy the unity, economy, social structure, politics of the Turkish Republic. We saw the last example of them in the European Parliament. By creating an artificial problem, they decided to take control of Turkey with thinking to bring Turkey the period of before 2003. We are as Western Platform, today, after this decision coming together with honourable political scientists, businessmen and academicians going to discuss. and we are going to file a report moving from remarks of political scientists and academicians also conclusion of the discussion to our competent authority. This decision should whip us up more, make us work hard more, cause us to look forward, proof that nobody is a friend other than us, literally say that we should build all our structures on our unity and brotherhood, underline that it is a necessity to revive Canakkele spirit. Today, here, we have again discussed in detail these topics and examined.

‘’This decision is the reflection of abdication of reason in Europe’’

EU former minister and coordinator of Western Platform Egemen indicated that Western Platform came together to give suggestion to Turkey and brought his reaction out with this statement; ‘’ Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe really have signed for a calamity decision. It is clear that the decision is political and no relationship with the reality. Also observably it is a step for wafting Turkey to trouble perspective and taking Turkey under its control to be able to get it’s a set of requests and pretending democracy is problematic in such a country which sacrificed its life on 15 July to protect democracy. We are going to put this on a table, evaluate this decision as the reflection of abdication of reason in all across Europe and discuss about essential precautions. I believe that out meeting will provide beneficial suggestions. I wish all the best.’’

güncelleme: 21.8.2017 17:47