Kurdish initiative under threat from closure case, İmralı row

The court rapporteur’s statement on the case submitted to the court yesterday called for the party’s closure in line with the demand of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals, that had initially filed a complaint against the DTP. The party is being accused of “being a focal point for separatist activity” in the indictment.

Co-chairwoman of the DTP Emine Ayna and Ahmet Türk made statements yesterday following a party meeting where they laid out a roadmap to handle the upcoming process.

Türk said in his initial remarks there would be no meaning for DTP deputies to be in Parliament if the party was shut down. “We talked about the closure case today. Our friends believe that there is no meaning in remaining inside a Parliament with bans.” Türk said if the party was closed, all DTP deputies would resign from Parliament.

DTP Co-Chairwoman Emine Ayna said the government’s approach to the needs of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving life in prison on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea off İstanbul, showed its approach to the Kurdish question. “The initiative is now over with the approach toward İmralı,” she said. She did not elaborate, but she was referring to recent allegations voiced by the DTP that Öcalan was being kept in poor conditions.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who formerly headed the Diyarbakır Bar Association, stated that the closure case was not the only potential hang up in the process. He recalled that the Kurdish package was announced in late July, noting that the government has failed in the past five months to present a concrete roadmap with a schedule and deadlines laying out how to proceed with the initiative.

“The government should immediately set up a schedule. It is impossible to expect the hope that came about when the initiative was first announced to continue forever.” He said in addition to the closure case, recent allegations voiced by the DTP about Öcalan’s jail conditions, were a problem that added to the ambiguity in the Kurdish initiative process. He said, however, this was easy to fix. “If it was possible for İmralı Prison, along with other prisons in the country, to open up to civilian inspection, this could be solved without any tension.” Tanrıkulu said the current legislation on prison inspections was not being enforced.

Political parties’ law

On the party closure case, Tanrıkulu said the political parties’ law should be changed to comply with EU standards for party closure known as the Venice Criteria. He said if in addition to closure, the court rules for political bans on some DTP members causing them to lose their parliamentary membership, the political cost would be too high. “Serious consequences that are unstoppable and irrevocable would ensue.” He said, instead, the government should work to rejuvenate the dwindling hope in the Kurdish initiative.

Ümit Fırat, a Kurdish intellectual and writer, said the problem was part of a wider issue about democracy and party closures in Turkey. He said Turkey was making an effort to keep political parties out of politics, and described the country as a graveyard of political parties. He also said that the timing of the court trial was known and expected. “It is not right to associate this trial directly with the process. We knew about this two years ago when the Chief Prosecutor applied. The Constitutional Court can’t simply cover up this case forever.” He said under the current laws, it was nearly impossible for a political party to save itself from the hands of the Constitutional Court. “The decision not to shut down the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was an exceptional case,” he said, noting that there was too much political pressure on the court both domestically and internationally. “The Constitutional Court can only take decisions in line with the regulations. It can’t say, ‘it would be bad for the initiative’.” Recalling that the government was planning to pass a draft making changes to the authority granted to the Constitutional Court, Fırat also said political parties in Parliament were expected to make the necessary changes to the political parties’ law long ago, adding that this is the only remedy for the solution of both the Kurdish question and the larger questions about democracy in Turkey.

Öcalan’s cell conditions

In the past few days there has been controversy about the jail conditions of PKK leader Öcalan. Last week, Öcalan’s lawyers claimed that a new cell built for Öcalan is six-and-a-half square meters, compared to the old cell’s 12 square meters. The new cell’s window is reportedly high and cannot be looked through unassisted. Öcalan, in his latest meeting with his lawyers last week, warned that his new prison conditions are harming his health and he feels that he is at the bottom of a well.

Since his statement to his lawyers there have been demonstrations across the country to protest his new living conditions. The Justice Ministry yesterday released a statement, asserting that the quality of Öcalan’s new cell was much higher than standards set for inmates by the EU and UN. The ministry also released pictures of the new cell. However, 98 members of the DTP released a joint statement, reacting to the ministry’s statement that Öcalan’s conditions are in line with international standards. Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbakır, read the statement: “If these conditions are good then Erdoğan, Bahçeli and Baykal should try spending 11 days, not even 11 years in there. Let’s see [if they’ll think] it is in line with standards, in line with humanity.”

He also said that Kurds, the DTP and the PKK were ready to contribute to the solution of the Kurdish question. “If the state is ready, all the Kurds are ready,” he said.

Meanwhile, Suat Kılıç, deputy chairman of the AK Party’s parliamentary group, said in a statement he made to the press that Öcalan’s conditions were completely in line with Turkey’s legislation as well as the legislation of the EU. He said, “We don’t think it is right, particularly for DTP members, to abuse this issue and take to the streets.”

Protests against Öcalan’s alleged prison conditions continued in the early hours of Friday night. A group of PKK supporters in Şırnak attacked a teacher’s guesthouse in the İdil district. Two students were hurt by stones thrown from outside. The attackers could not get into the building, but teachers and students trapped inside had to endure two hours of terror until the police and gendarmerie forces intervened to disperse the protestors.

Case against the DTP

The Constitutional Court will on Tuesday start hearing the case of the Supreme Court of Appeals vs. the DTP. The prosecution demands the party’s closure on charges of separatism.

In November 2007 the Constitutional Court announced it had accepted an indictment from Supreme Court of Appeals’ prosecutors to shut down the DTP. The prosecution claims that the DTP has ties to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The indictment also calls for 220 DTP members to be banned from politics, including deputies Ahmet Türk, Aysel Tuğluk, Sebahat Tuncel, Osman Özçelik, İbrahim Binici, Sevahir Bayındır and Fatma Kurtulan. The DTP has 20 members in the 550-seat Parliament. To shut down the DTP, the Constitution requires that at least seven of the 11 members of the Constitutional Court vote for its closure.