Gül’s messages have been met with various reactions from different circles. While some praised him for urging all parties to carry out EU reforms, others found Turkey’s EU aspirations a bit meaningless because there is still military meddling in politics, as senior military officials boycotted Wednesday’s ceremony due to the presence of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).The fact that Gül gave so much space to EU-related reforms and a new constitution shows what the president expects Parliament to focus on in the new legislative year, says Radikal’s Murat Yetkin. He thinks the writing of a new Constitution is somehow relevant to EU reforms; however, an extensive constitutional reform package, which would require an extensive consensus in Parliament, would need a miracle in Turkey’s current political turmoil. Yetkin finds Gül’s emphasis on EU reforms and a new constitution important in two respects. “First of all, EU reforms are not on Turkey’s agenda at the moment. Apart from the Third National Program, a roadmap for EU reforms the government announced recently, the EU reforms issue is not on the government’s agenda, either. But it should be. As experience showed in the 2003-2005 period, when Turkey concentrates on EU reforms, it gets away from unnecessary political debates and becomes productive in politics and economy. Secondly, Gül highlighted the EU issue thinking that it is something that no political party will oppose, like a common denominator. It is an attempt to reduce the increasing tension among the political parties in Parliament and shows that EU reforms could be a common ground for consensus among parties,” Yetkin writes.
Star’s Mehmet Altan complains that the new legislative year started in Parliament with an embarrassment for democracy, as the chief of general staff and other military commanders boycotted the inaugural ceremony on the grounds that they did not want to be under the same roof with deputies of the pro-Kurdish DTP. “We have a military bureaucracy that takes a stance against the will of the public. In our democracy, what the public wants is not important; what the military wants is important,” Altan writes in criticism of the military boycott. As Gül underlined in his message, EU-relevant reforms will be on Parliament’s agenda in the frame of the government’s national program, Altan says, adding that this makes him smile. “If you were in the shoes of the EU, what would you do if a country like Turkey, where the military still boycotts Parliament when it does not like the nation’s will, had applied for membership? I think the EU is being very polite in continuing negotiations,” Altan writes.
Hürriyet’s Oktay Ekşi suggests that it would have been better if Gül had talked about other issues, such as the fundamental laws on elections and political parties, instead of dwelling on the need for a new constitution, which the government shelved a while ago.
