Non-Muslim minorities inclined to say ‘yes’ in referendum

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has taken a major step to save the country from its current Constitution, which was drafted under martial law after the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d'etat. Like many civil society groups, non-Muslim minorities have expressed the view that while the constitutional changes on the ballot fall short of fully democratizing Turkey, they are still a considerable step in the right direction.

According to Ara Koçunyan, editor-in-chief of the Armenian daily Jamanak, published in İstanbul, non-Muslim minorities have benefitted from the government reforms.

“The referendum means that the reforms will continue,” he told Today’s Zaman and added that the Turkish-Armenian community will act conscious of the fact that Turkey has been going through a change.

“The members of the Armenian-Turkish community approach the issue with great awareness of citizenship. They are aware of the process of change in Turkey, and supporting that kind of process is natural for minorities,” he said, referencing the Turkish-Armenian community, the largest of the minority groups in Turkey with a population of approximately 60,000, mostly in İstanbul.

For Aris Nalcı, editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, it is also a personal matter, as he had to leave Turkey when he was an infant in the days of the military coup.

“My mother had to leave Turkey when I was a 40-day-old baby in 1980. When we returned two years later, I did not know my father,” he said, indicating that Turkish-Armenians were among the groups to suffer from the effects of the military coup.

“Constitutional change is about touching an untouchable, a taboo. It’s a step forward for more important broader changes,” he said. His guess is that most of the Turkish-Armenian community will vote for change.

The Sept. 12 coup d'état was the third coup d'état in Turkey's history, and arguably its most violent. It came after a period of ideological armed conflict on Turkey's streets during the second half of the 1970s. An estimated 5,000 people were killed during the political violence.

After the 1980 intervention, the military ruled the country through the National Security Council (MGK) before democracy was restored.

Some 600,000 were reportedly detained during this time. More than 200,000 were tried, more than 10,000 were stripped of their citizenship and 50 people were executed. Hundreds of thousands were tortured and went missing.

This is what was emphasized by Denis Ojalvo, an international relations expert and one of the 20,000 members of İstanbul’s Jewish community.

Ojalvo said the conditions of violence that led to the Sept. 12 military coup had also badly affected all minorities. Hence, the military intervention brought a relative relief to the people, among them the minorities.

From his political point of view, the most important issue for Turkey is that currently the legislative branch is not independent of the executive branch, and deputies act like the deputies of their party leaders rather than that of their voters.

“This points at shortcomings in our Political Parties Law and election system. Since the political parties do not want to lose absolute control over their organizations, they do not solve this problem. Submitting a constitutional reform for a referendum without tackling that basic problem is like black humor to me,” he said, adding that the “judiciary-military tutelage” seems to be replaced by an “executive tutelage” by the proposed changes in the Constitution.

The 1982 Constitution was approved by referendum in June 1982. The first elections were held in 1983, out of which came a single-party government under Turgut Özal's Motherland Party (then ANAP, now ANAVATAN).

The basic character of the 1982 Constitution has been described by experts as being based on a tutelage system; many experts hold that the Constitutional Court, by regularly canceling actions by the legislative branch, in violation of the Constitution, and the Council of State, by abrogating acts of the executive branch, in violation of the law and the Constitution, control the whole system.

Kezban Hatemi, an attorney specializing in minority rights, pointed out that many civil society groups have joined efforts to launch a referendum campaign called “Yetmez ama evet” or “Not enough, but yes,” saying that this also reflects the views of the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey.

She said that what they are expecting from the government as the next step is a brand new civilian constitution which will broaden individual rights and freedoms.

Hatemi also pointed out that the government has taken big steps as part of the European Union harmonization process, greatly relieving non-Muslim minorities.

“This is the first time that non-Muslim minorities have had a fresh breath of air,” she said, also adding that their problems related to the return of all confiscated properties to their rightful owners have not been solved yet but that there have been improvements.

“I don’t think non-Muslim minorities will follow the path of the Republican People’s Party [CHP], which opposes the change,” she said, stressing that it was Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the new leader of the main opposition CHP, who took the Foundations Law, which was passed to aid minorities, to the Constitutional Court be overruled.

“We need to say ‘yes’ on Sept. 12. Saying ‘no’ would give hope to coup supporters,” said Mihail Vasiliadis, editor-in-chief of Apoyevmatini, a weekly Greek newspaper serving the 2,500-strong Greek community in İstanbul.

Laki Vingas, head of the Greek Schools Foundation, said that is not right to view the referendum as a match between the AK Party and the CHP.

“If the CHP had proposed the same changes, I would still say ‘yes’ to them,” he said and added that the Greek community tends to approve of the constitutional amendment package.

When it comes to the Syriac community’s position on the reform package, Daniel Gabriel, the human rights and United Nations non-governmental organization director of the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), said that the Turkish government could do much more to help its society democratize according to European standards, especially with respect to the protection and promotion of all minority groups in Turkey.

"The SUA sincerely applauds the Turkish government call for constitutional change,” he said in a written statement from Europe.

Indicating that the current amendment package is “more symbolic than real,” he said, “It’s truly one step forward and two steps back.”

“Ethno-religious minorities such as the Syriacs [Arameans] in Turkey will still not benefit from the long awaited changes. This is regretful because Sept. 12 2010 could be the defining moment in Turkish history. Here is a great opportunity for the Turkish nation to really align itself with EU democratic principles and not miss another chance. The flotilla has sailed and the flotilla's name is called ‘True Democracy’. The Syriac Universal Alliance asks Turkey to get on board before it’s too late.”

Nevertheless, Zeki Basatemir, a member of the board of directors of the Syriac Catholic Church Foundation in Turkey, said they will vote “yes” on the referendum because this is the first time they’ve found politicians in the government interested in their problems.

“Most of the Syriacs think that the reform package is good. We will vote ‘yes’ with the feelings of pacta sunt servanda,” he said.

Note: Due to an error in the copy editing process, an earlier version of this article inadvertently misquoted Denis Ojalvo. Today’s Zaman apologizes and regrets the error. This version has been updated and revised to reflect the original statements.