Turkish PM tells BDP ‘to see glass as half full’ over democratization package

ANKARA

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed Sept 30 the details of a much-anticipated democratization package. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has advised senior Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies “to see the glass as half full” regarding the much-anticipated democratization package.

“You should see the half full part of the glass. Effort should be applauded sometimes,” Erdoğan told BDP deputies Sırrı Sakık and Hasip Kaplan during a reception on Oct. 1 in Parliament on the occasion of the opening of the new legislative year.

The democratization package announced by the government on Sept. 30 was the main topic of the top politicians’ conversation during the reception. BDP officials previously voiced their disappointment with regard to the democratization package stressing that their demands outlined in the context of the Kurdish resolution process were not met. Allowing Kurdish education in non-state schools as part of the package, a step taken by the government to satisfy Kurds who demand mother tongue education in schools is unsatisfactory for Kurds who were asking for the right to be educated in their mother tongue in state schools, BDP officials previously said.

When they met at the reception, BDP deputy Sırrı Sakık expressed their dissatisfaction over the democratization package saying that their expectations had been higher. “Believe us, everybody was expecting the democratization package with bated breath. For instance we were expecting [an amendment] to the Anti-Terror Law. Thousands of people are behind bars. There was an expectation for such an amendment,” Sakık lamented. An amendment to the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) that would secure the release of members of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) under custody was a key demand from the BDP for the democratization package.

BDP’s Kaplan told the premier that they “see the full part of the glass, but they also express what is missing.”

Erdoğan carefully listened to BDP deputies but preferred not to elaborate further. “Let’s hope for the best,” he said.