Many see this legislative term as a turning point for Turkey and its democracy and believe that Turkish democracy will come out of this process stronger if Turkey can solve the its major problems. “With the start of the new legislative year on Thursday, Turkey is embarking on a long and difficult road. At the end of this road, Turkey's democracy will either be strengthened or the country's problems will be aggravated,” says Sabah's Erdal Şafak, who states that the first test of Parliament will concern efforts to normalize ties with Armenia. “Two protocols were signed by Turkey and Armenia on Aug. 31, and a six-week-long negotiation process will end in the middle of this month. Foreign ministers of both countries will meet in Zurich on Oct. 10 and sign the protocols. There may be some surprises at the Zurich meeting. For instance, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to attend the meeting. After being signed, the protocols will be sent to the parliaments of both countries, and the approval process will officially begin,” explains Şafak. He says while Turkey is making efforts on the one hand to normalize its relations with Armenia, Parliament will handle the most important problem of the year, which is the government's democratic initiative and national unity project. In his view, the results of the negotiations that the government has had with political party leaders and nongovernmental organizations about this initiative throughout the summer will be made concrete with short-, medium- and long-term steps. “Will the former names of places be restored? Will outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] members be open to leaving the mountains? Will the village guard system be reviewed? Will Article 221 of the Turkish Penal Code [TCK], which is the repentance law, be revised? Will the political parties and elections laws be amended? We will learn the answers to all these questions eventually,” he says.
Şafak fears that some circles might find the reforms insufficient because pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies placed the bar too high concerning their expectations from Parliament, and very radical reforms can only happen through a new Constitution, which seems impossible with this Parliament.
Radikal's İsmet Berkan says that although President Abdullah Gül, who delivered a speech in Parliament on Thursday on the occasion of the start of the new legislative year, discussing the democratic initiative and expressing hope about the solution to the Kurdish problem, he is not very hopeful about prospects of a solution being found to this problem. “I believe that the government is very sincere about its efforts to solve the Kurdish problem. In other words, there has not been any incident that would shake my belief, but I do believe that this initiative was not explained to the public in a good way. It was wrong for the government to not delineate an outline for the debates on this issue from the very beginning and to not determine its theoretical and philosophical framework from the beginning,” says Berkan.
