Opposition Leaders Harshly Criticize Democratization Package

The much-anticipated democratization package that was announced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday met with harsh criticism from opposition party leaders, who say the new reform package lacks sincere pro-democracy reforms.



Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli strongly criticized the package on Tuesday, saying the measures introduced do not meet the expectations of the Turkish nation.



"The Turkish nation and its expectations are missing from the package. The will of Parliament is missing. The expectations of our nation do not exist at all in the package," Bahçeli said on Tuesday while addressing his deputies in the new legislative year's first parliamentary group meeting.



Prime Minister Erdoğan unveiled the much-anticipated package on Monday at a press conference. The most important reforms in it include the removal of restrictions to wearing of the Islamic headscarf; providing for education in one's mother tongue; the restoration of the original names of villages, districts and provinces to those in use before 1980; sweeping changes in the law on political parties, including the possibility of lowering the 10 percent electoral threshold for entering Parliament; improving freedom of assembly; and other more specific rights for religious and ethnic minorities.



Bahçeli was highly critical of the steps that aim to boost Kurdish rights, in particular that which provides for education in one's mother tongue at private schools.



"Education in one's mother tongue is a serious dead end for the Turkish nation. The outcomes will be grave and drive Turkey toward division," Bahçeli added.



"If the prime minister really sees this package as a result of Turkey's history of democratization, he must have lost his mind in Kandil and his intelligence on İmralı," Bahçeli said. Kandil is a region in northern Iraq where bases of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are located, and the leader of the terrorist group is imprisoned on İmralı Island.



Stating that the democratization package is procedurally and substantively anti-democratic, Bahçeli added: "The package contradicts the spirit of democracy. It was prepared, but the government did not seek anyone's advice while preparing it. Even some Justice and Development Party [AK Party] deputies were not aware of the contents of the package before it was made public. What is more desperate is that the package was written as a result of threats by the PKK to meet the demands of the PKK and satisfy the PKK's passion for blood and separatist desires."



He argued that no one other than the separatist group and a "small minority" would be happy with the package.



ARABAŞLIK---CHP leader accuses gov't of not being sincere



Speaking during a press conference held at the Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara on Tuesday, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu harshly criticized the package, accusing the AK Party government of not being sincere about strengthening democracy through the reforms.



Sharing his party's views on the package made public by Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu said that his party had earlier proposed many of the measures introduced by the government. "The package announced is a bad copy of our proposals," Kılıçdaroğlu said.



Stating that the package fails to address Turkey's fundamental problems, the CHP leader added: "The new reform package is far from healing the wounds in Turkey as the government is not sincere where democracy is concerned. Turkey's problems cannot be covered with makeup. It is willful blindness and a lack of seriousness. We need more integrative and extensive democracy."



Kılıçdaroğlu noted that Turkey's democratization process started 90 years ago and said Turkey does not deserve to be at the bad point it has reached after 11 years of AK Party rule. "We have lost much time. The steps that should have been taken were not taken by the government," he said, adding: "Turkish democracy has been suffering great erosion for 11 years. No coups have happened in Turkey in this time, but democracy has been damaged much more rather than a coup could do. This package cannot fill the deficit."



Kılıçdaroğlu said the democratization package was not prepared democratically as all such work was done behind closed doors. "The package was announced far from participation, social consensus and transparency."



Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu visited CHP İzmir deputy Mustafa Balbay at the Sincan prison were he is currently in jail, Turkish media reported on Tuesday. Deputy leaders and parliamentary group deputy chairmen of the CHP also joined Kılıçdaroğlu on his visit.



Kılıçdaroğlu said after the visit in remarks to the press that he and Balbay had opened the new legislative year together in prison. He added: "We wanted to show the whole world what kind of a democracy ours is by visiting a member of parliament in jail. It is a shame of a democracy that keeps a deputy in prison in the 21st century. I would like to hear a few plans regarding the arrested deputies in the new democratization package." (Cihan/Today's Zaman)