CHP Chief Asks Parliamentary Speaker to Do His Duty for Jailed MPs

The chief of the main opposition party has called on the parliamentary speaker to do his duty for parliamentarians who were not released after being elected on June 12 general elections.

“Mr. Cemil Çiçek should do his job,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chief of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview Thursday in his office. Two CHP deputies, former journalist Mustafa Balbay and medical Dr. İbrahim Haberal, are in prison on charges of being members of an alleged gang, known as Ergenekon, that allegedly tried to topple the government in 2003 and 2004. Apart from these two CHP deputies, one elected member from Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and five elected members from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, are in jail, because the courts rejected their appeals to be released after the elections.

“Those who are in jail are members of the legislative body. Their imprisonment is against universal principles of law and also article 90 of the constitution. The parliamentary speaker cannot turn a deaf ear to these calls,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Last week, an Istanbul court, which rejected the releases of Balbay and Haberal, informed Parliament that the prosecutions of these deputies were set to continue. Former Parliament Speaker Hüsamettin Cindoruk criticized Çiçek for not responding to the court in a move to protect the rights of the jailed deputies. However, sources said Çiçek interpreted the court’s move as being only informative, and did not require an action from Parliament. According to Turkish law, the power of the parliament speaker is purely symbolic and does not entail taking action.

“Mr. Çiçek says he has no right to take action. This is correct. But having symbolic power should not mean he can ignore the rights of jailed deputies,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
“If he continues to remain inactive, then he can no longer do his job in this post. Being elected to this post with the votes of the ruling party should not necessarily let him turn into the Parliament Speaker for only the ruling party. If he is the head of Parliament, then he is the speaker for all deputies, including those behind bars,” he said.

The CHP deputies at first refused to take their oaths as long as Balbay and Haberal were still behind bars. The conflict caused a severe crisis in Turkish politics, but was overcome when the CHP and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, signed a protocol regarding the status of the jailed deputies. The BDP deputies, however, have yet to take their oaths.

August 12, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News