Detained deputies case in Turkey & attitude of the administration
Deputies elected by the votes of Turkish citizens have been held in detainment (in prison literally) for a long time now.
The AKP government in power takes every chance to emphasize on how democracy and “the SAY of the citizens” are of top priority for them. The leader and the followers also frequently mention they do everything for the Turkish people and based on the wishes of the citizens (meaning to comply with their votes).
However, the case with “the deputies currently HELD IN PRISON” is obviously contradictory to such statements. The reason is said deputies have been elected by the votes of the Turkish people as well and this fact is supposed to be of number one importance for the ruling party to comply to their definition and understanding of democracy, as well.
Now, when asked this question the heads in senior management of the ruling party (to include the PM in the first place surely) come up with the answer “jailed deputies in question are on trial for allegations of planning coup to throw over the government and the related court has deemed it necessary to keep them in jail until final decision is made etc.. and furthermore the government cannot and would not either – taking into consideration principle of separation of powers and their respect for the court – interfere in the field of authority in possession of judiciary”
The administration also comments that it is out of their capability to bring about a practical solution to correct this unreasonable mistake and injustice thus committed against elected deputies and to be more important to deny the definition of democracy adopted by the government itself.
So far so good..
However judging on the application practiced by the government in the case of Mr. FIDAN, the head of MIT (National Intelligence Organization of Turkey), it is observed that there is a lack of consistency between what the government says (and the application practiced) regarding the jailed deputies case and the FIDAN situation, in which case they passed a law to prevent the head spy in specific from having to bear testimony to the prosecutor of the state, which might possibly lead to detainment or further unwished disturbance for the government.
Many people to include journalists, opinion leaders and opposition have found and described this situation as double standard approach of the government. Because they claimed, it is now clear that the government can with a small effort pass necessary amendments in the parliament to pave the way to freedom for detained deputies and show their sincerity in regards to their comprehension of democracy.
Unfortunately this was not the case and the government has preferred to be deaf so far, creating questions in minds about if said deputies in jail are truly being punished withouth being senteced so far for revenge.
Only a short while ago were hopes raised again after the initiative started by Mr. Cemil ÇİÇEK who is one of the most reasonable and agreeable politicians at AKP and speaker of the parliament.
Mr. Çiçek, after dense meetings with all opposition parties, as well as seniors from ruling AKP, managed to form a positive and constructive platform to work out a solution within the parliament to free jailed deputies.
The concern now is if the ruling party – instead of trying to provide the genuine support they did with the MIT case (referred above) – will chose to slow down the process to put this plan to free the deputies into application, swiftly.
Hoping and praying Ak Parti will chose to abide by their understanding of democracy –as declared – breaths are held and everybody is waiting for the outcome to arise from the Ak Party group
Editor, BTT
02.05.2012
