CHP once again at odds with Socialist International's values

    The amendment, which was passed with the approval of all parties represented in Parliament, prevents civilians from being tried by military courts and allows the trial of military personnel by civilian courts when charged with forming gangs, terrorism or crimes against the Constitution. The CHP voted in favor of this legislation but changed its stance less than 12 hours after it was approved because, party deputies say, they were fooled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The CHP then brought the amendment before the Constitutional Court, demanding its annulment.

The CHP's move has been criticized nationwide because the amendment is widely seen as an opportunity to bring coup planners within the army to justice since the military judiciary, by its very nature, is not capable of conducting an independent and impartial hearing. Turkey's military courts and their rulings have incessantly been criticized by the European Union as their judgments are neither immune to the General Staff's influence nor independent of the hierarchical command structure of the military.

If this amendment is annulled by the Constitutional Court, Turkey will again be the only member of the 47-nation Council of Europe where civilians can still be tried by military courts.

SI condemns coup backers while CHP protects them

A recent statement from the SI read, “The Council of the Socialist International … condemns in the strongest terms the coup d'état against the government of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales in Honduras,” inspiring people on the streets in Turkey to carry banners with the message “The CHP can now join the government in Honduras,” accusing the party of aligning itself with coup supporters. The SI defines itself as an “association of political parties and organizations which seek to establish democratic socialism.” Therefore, political parties affiliated with the SI should by definition be social democrats and should never inspire this kind of public criticism.

The CHP has violated many articles in the SI's Ethical Charter. Article 3 in the SI's Ethical Charter states that its member parties will “reject and resolutely oppose any drift to authoritarianism as well as any political system which allows or practices the violation of human rights to conquer or impose its power (political assassination, torture, arbitrary detention, press censorship, banning or repression of peaceful demonstrations, etc).” Almost all the offenses listed here are in the thousands of pages of indictments prepared by civilian prosecutors against the defendants standing trial in the ongoing Ergenekon case, which is widely believed to be a historic case, strengthening Turkey's democracy. However, CHP leader Deniz Baykal has stated on several occasions that he is the advocate of the Ergenekon defendants, who are primarily charged with plotting to topple the democratically elected government. With its latest attempt to have the judicial reform legislation annulled by the Constitutional Court, the CHP simply added to its record of standing by the prime suspects of anti-democratic actions.

The party, however, no longer surprises observers in the country since it already revealed that it was not going to take a stance against interventions into Turkey's democracy by welcoming the General Staff's April 27, 2007 memorandum, which mainly criticized then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül's presidential candidacy. The statement was slammed by the government as well as almost all political and non-political circles in the country, but while Baykal remained silent and did not show any reaction at all, the party's deputy chairman, Onur Öymen, said his own thoughts were completely in line with what was written by then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt in the memorandum.

All the same CHP

Besides the CHP's most recent move, many other instances showing the CHP's tradition of being in stark contrast with the SI are still fresh in people's minds. Article 3 of the SI's Ethical Charter also says member parties will “respect and reinforce fundamental human rights, be they individual rights (respect of private life, freedom of thought, belief, education, sexual orientation and the right to equal treatment, etc.)” and “fight against all forms of discrimination based on gender, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, language, religion and philosophical or political beliefs.”

The CHP, however, which is supposed to be fully committed to observing these principles, previously had legislation allowing women who wear headscarves into universities annulled by the Constitutional Court. The legislation was passed with the backing of more than 400 deputies in the 550-seat Turkish Parliament in February 2008. Thanks to the CHP, female students wearing headscarves simply out of respect for their religious duties are still unable to attend universities in Turkey.

This was neither the first nor the last of such discriminatory behavior by the CHP. The party took no action when CHP İzmir deputy Canan Arıtman made racist statements about President Gül. Arıtman alleged that Gül was of Armenian origin and that was why he had adopted a moderate stance toward an apology campaign to Armenians initiated by a group of intellectuals in the country last year. The CHP went under fire for tolerating Arıtman's attitude, described as “fascist” by many both in and outside Turkey. It is easy to see that Arıtman's statements in particular and the CHP's lack of action against her in general violate the SI's code of conduct.

The CHP has a long tradition of violating the SI's proclaimed values and principles, which the association vows to comply with “in the strictest way possible.” The only question remaining here is whether the association will take any action against the CHP for its conduct, particularly in the last two years, or if it will risk losing credibility in the eyes of social democrats, not only in Turkey, but also on a wider scale.

‘CHP should be expelled from SI immediately’

Public concern about the CHP was conveyed to the SI at last year's congress in Athens. Professor Baskın Oran demanded the CHP's expulsion in a letter he sent to members of the association in 2008. Speaking to Sunday's Zaman, he said the CHP's application to Constitutional Court last week has made it even more necessary for the SI to take action against the party.

“I wrote last year to SI members that the CHP was not a social democratic but a statist and pro status quo political party. I had backed up my argument with what they had done during the presidential elections and in the headscarf issue. This year, it is continuing to do more of the same. Now, the SI should not lose one more minute and immediately expel the CHP, not only for its own credibility but also for the sake of making the CHP a real social democratic party,” he suggested.

Tarık Ziya Ekinci, a Kurdish intellectual and an ex-deputy from the now-defunct Turkish Workers' Party (TİP), also told Sunday's Zaman that the CHP is not qualified to be a member of the SI. “The party's last move was a blow to Turkish democracy, and such an undemocratic and also anti-democratic party can have nothing to do with the SI's code of conduct,” he said, openly calling for action from the association.