New Anatolian, Turkey
May 11 2007
Secularists allow DTP independents to stall AK Party
The New Anatolian / Ankara
The war between the secularist establishment and the ruling Justice
and Development (AK) Party is taking a new dimension as the
pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) announced its decision to
field independent deputies during the July 22 elections in eastern
and southeastern provinces of Turkey.
The big question is not whether the DTP will be able to field
independent candidates in the southeastern and eastern provinces but
whether the coalition of state forces that united under the
secularist umbrella to prevent the AK Party from electing the new
president will allow the independents to actually participate in the
polls.
The secularists have successfully defeated the government in its bid
to elect the new president in Parliament. Now the second round of the
fight will be at the polls.
The secularists will try to stall the AK Party and reduce its
majority. Thus the DTP independents will be a good weapon to cut the
AK Party down to size especially in eastern and southeastern Turkey.
In the 2002 elections the AK Party won all the seats that would have
gone to the pro-Kurdish party simply because the Kurds could not pass
the ten percent elections threshold. It is estimated that the AK
Party won at least 40 extra seats from the region which may now go to
the DTP independents. AK Party sources estimate the Kurdish
independents could win up to 34 seats.
On Wednesday DTP Chairman Ahmet Turk announced the party will field
independent candidates in elections in a bid to bypass the high
threshold for parliamentary representation.
"We have decided to run in the elections with independent
candidates," Ahmet Turk declared.
He was speaking after a two-day party meeting in the mainly
southeastern provincial capital of Diyarbakir to decide on their
strategy for early legislative elections brought forward from
November.
Many Kurds have entered the Parliament as deputies as members of
mainstream parties, but pro-Kurdish parties have failed to overcome
the 10-percent threshold, even though they usually overwhelmingly
dominate the vote in most provinces areas in the southeast and
routinely win the local administrations. Until now the pro-Kurdish
parties were resisting the idea of fielding independent deputies and
felt participating in the elections showed their strength. However,
the fact that their consistently remain outside the Parliament denied
them a legitimate voice in the legislative body.
There was also talk that PKK terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan serving
a life sentence in the military prison island of Imrali who is said
to be the mentor of the DTP and all other pro-Kurdish parties formed
before it was against fielding independent deputies. DTP sources told
The New Anatolian Ocalan does not oppose independent deputies this
time.
DTP leaders and other Kurdish sources say fielding independent
candidates will allow them to by-pass the elections threshold. Once
in parliament, the winning deputies will again regroup under the DTP
banner.
Turk said they would field independent candidates in areas where the
DTP is traditionally strong and back "enlightened, democratic
candidates" in other regions.
The New Anatolian learnt that the DTP feels it can win seats in
Ankara and Istanbul in the Kurdish dominated districts of these
provinces. So it has decided to back people like the wife of slain
Armenian journalist Hirant Dink who for a seat in Istanbul.
The New Anatolian also learnt that Selim Sadak, Leyla Zana, Orhan
Dogan and Hatip Dicle are sure to enter the race. Speaking to The New
Anatolian Sadak said the DTP has accepted their candidacy. The three
have been convicted on charges of cooperating with the PKK and have
been served more than ten years behind bars. However, Sadak said
there are no legal restrictions to prevent them from becoming
candidates in the elections.
Sadak, meanwhile said despite this recent examples in Turkey show
that judges can interpret the laws in a different manner and could
ban him and Zana, Dogan and Dicle from becoming candidates.
However, political sources told The New Anatolian that the secularist
establishment feels the participation of the DTP independents in the
polls will stall the AK Party and cut down its parliamentary majority
so they will not be prevented from participating in the polls.
The current fight in Turkey is between the AK Party government which
some claim have Islamic roots and the secularist establishment which
also includes the powerful military.
The secularists put up a tough fight and prevented AK Party from
electing its candidate Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president.
The secularists claim a president with an Islamic background, would
allow religion to have more influence over politics and so undermine
their Western way of life.
They used the military, the judiciary and even staged mass rallies
attended by hundreds of thousands of people to stall the government.
On April 27 the military said it was watching the presidential
elections process with concern and reminded Turks that it was "the
absolute defender of secularism" and would act to prove it if
necessary.
The parliamentary opposition blocked the election of the president by
taking the first round balloting to court and had the Constitutional
Court annul the voting. This was regarded as a victory for
secularists and a setback to Erdogan’s government.
So AK Party called for early elections. By holding early general
elections, the government hopes to resolve the issue but secularists
now feel if
AK Party wins the elections and comes back with a big majority it
will still have a major say on who will be the president. So they aim
to cut down the possible AK Party majority in Parliament and force
Erdogan to seek a compromise candidate.
Observers said the constitutional amendment that the AK Party hopes
will stall the independents may not work. On Thursday the Parliament
approved an amendment that would make it harder for the DTP to field
its candidates as independents in general elections.
The amendment says independents will also be placed on the same
ballot papers as the political parties and thus it will be hard for
the illiterate people of southeastern Turkey to identify and mark the
independents on their lists.
Kurdish politicians speaking to The New Anatolian said this was an
empty gesture. "All it will do is to increase our votes," said Selim
Sadak.