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Kurdish politicians slam BDP opposition to package
KADEP Secretary-General Nizamettin Maskan said the BDP is acting against the interests of Kurds, though the party claims to be the representative of Turkey's Kurdish residents.
“The BDP should say in Parliament what it wants in the name of democratization. In this way, Kurds will see what the people they elected have done so far,” he stated and linked the path of the BDP to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). According to Maskan, the party is losing the confidence of its voters due to its current stance, which contradicts its raison d’être.
The BDP had vowed to support the government’s efforts to amend the Constitution but changed its mind after the constitutional reform package was presented to Parliament for a vote. The party said it does not plan to support any constitutional change unless the government agrees to take the necessary steps to reduce the 10 percent election threshold.
Maskan also criticized the BDP for refusing to support the abolishment of Article 15 of the Constitution, which bans any legal action against the military members who staged the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d’état. According to Maskan, those who are responsible for the coup, which caused great suffering to Turks and Kurds alike, should be called to account before the court. The article of the reform package that amends Article 15 was passed in Parliament on Tuesday. All three opposition parties -- the CHP, the MHP and the BDP -- refused to vote in favor of the removal.
The KADEP secretary-general also voiced support for the government’s efforts to thaw the ice between the state and the nation’s Kurds through a massive democratization package and slammed the BDP for working to hinder the implementation of the package.
“Kurds really need the package. Victims should be allowed to benefit from the package. We support the government’s democratization package and its efforts to make it come reality,” he remarked.
Şahin Bilgiç, a former head of the Adana Ülkü Ocakları -- the youth branch of the MHP -- said he cannot understand why the victims of the Sept. 12 coup are opposed to government efforts to change the Constitution.
Bilgiç also recalled that he spent four-and-a-half years in prison after the coup. “I cannot understand why the victims of torture in prisons [after the coup] do not want the Constitution to change,” he said. The current Constitution was drafted under martial law after the 1980 coup d’état.
Parliament is currently voting on whether to amend the Constitution. The single party that favors amending the Constitution is the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
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