European socialists shun CHP over military tribunal law

It is not the first time that European socialists and their sister party in Turkey have been at loggerheads on major problems facing Turkey. European socialists have in the past strongly criticized the CHP for not being democratic enough to push the country's path to EU membership. In an exclusive interview with Today's Zaman, one of the new heavyweights of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Adrian Severin, said they did not agree with the CHP, which took a government-backed law to allow the trial of military officials in civilian courts for certain crimes to the Constitutional Court for cancellation.

According to Severin, the vice-chairman of the socialist group who is responsible for the Turkey dossier, the move by the government to curb the power of military courts is an initiative “enhancing the basic democratic principles that were always defended by the European socialist family.” The socialist politician said some CHP members did not seem to be able to understand that “times have changed.”

"We need to talk to the CHP, but some of them do not understand it properly: times have changed. Maybe in their analyses they reach the conclusion that Turkish society is not mature enough. I cannot claim I know Turkish society better than Turkish politicians, but my hope and feeling is that Turkish society can protect her civil liberties while the Turkish army can take her role of protecting Turkish borders," Severin said.

"Our political family is very big and diverse," he said, referring to the socialist parties throughout the world. "So sometimes we disagree with some members in our political and ideological family, as in any other human family. Sometimes, members of the family have some opinions which are not embraced by other members of the family. We should talk friendlily and frankly with our partners in Turkey. It appears to us that the law on military courts enhances the basic democratic principles that were always defended by the European socialist family. We should ask the CHP about the reasons for their endeavor."

According to Severin, a former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Romania, commitment to civilian democracy is essential in the 21st century. "I know some of the arguments of the CHP. Our sister party in Turkey has a Kemalist origin and Kemalist background, and we know the specific way Turkey reached its modernity and how it switched from its Ottoman past to become a modern nation-state. This was perhaps the right choice for that time to make Turkey a part of the modern, democratic world, and it worked. On the other hand, we cannot stay in the past mainly when this past is so specific. We cannot deny the fact that a 21st century modern democracy is a civilian democracy and not 'a military guaranteed' democracy. Military guarantees were, maybe, needed for a very fast transition. When the transition is fast, you need guardians, and there you need to take measures to prevent nostalgia from taking political shape. But the time has come to see that civilians are now the best guardians of civil liberties and not the army," he said.

The Romanian politician, who follows political developments in Turkey closely, also said he was "encouraged by the efforts made by the Turkish government toward a true, European democracy" and announced his support for Turkey's efforts to limit the power of military courts. "We support what the government did in particular when we speak about the military courts. I think civilian courts should prevail in a modern state, and they should be the norm. The best way for a society to become mature is to let that society take her own responsibilities. I know Turkey pretty well, I follow Turkey closely and I was impressed by the developments in recent years," he said.

Severin said he backed an investigation into the shadowy Ergenekon network, which is believed to have plotted to create chaos in Turkey in order to pave the way for a coup against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, as well, saying the investigation should continue as it is always better to know “unpleasant facts rather than ignore them.”

"Transparency is very important. The truth should come out. This would give confidence to a certain society; we should not hesitate in discovering unpleasant truths," he said. "It is always better to know what happened rather than ignore it. From this point, the investigation must go on. On the other hand, Turkish society will be well advised not to take these developments too emotionally."

While calling on Turkey not to be disappointed and discouraged by negative messages from some circles in the EU concerning its bid to join the 27-nation bloc, the socialist leader also said he believed Turkey's membership could make a difference in boosting the EU's capacity to become a key player on the world stage.

Turkey's bid to join the EU is advancing slowly amid objections from some European countries to Turkey's membership as well as problems stemming from the continued division of Cyprus, represented in full in the EU by the Greek Cypriot administration. The EU will review Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus at the end of this year and a decision to suspend the accession negotiation process with Ankara is one of the possible options that could come out of that review.

But Severin played down the risk, saying the end of 2009 was no deadline for Turkey's EU bid. "Deadlines do not exist when it comes to very complicated issues; it is such a long story. Turkey should mobilize all its wisdom and imagination to overcome this problem. We should work with Cyprus to ask the same wisdom and imagination for the solution," he said.