Turkish ruling party's Kurdish bid panel offer hits opposition wall

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

CHP deputy parliamentary group chair Akif Hamzaçebi speaks at the parliament in Ankara. AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has announced that it will not take part in a parliamentary assessment commission concerning a resolution process to the Kurdish issue.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) proposal for the establishment of a Resolution Process Assessment Commission is against Parliament’s internal regulations, as well as the Constitution, CHP deputy parliamentary group chair Akif Hamzaçebi said at a press conference in Parliament today.

Parliamentary investigatory commissions are supposed to deal with past events, while the prospective commission is slated to deal with the future of an ongoing process, the CHP said, insisting on its earlier proposal for the establishment of such a “Societal Reconciliation Commission” in Parliament to work on the resolution of the Kurdish issue along with a group of “wise people” linked to the parliamentary commission.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also announced that it would not take part in the commission, as it also argued that the proposal was against the internal regulations of Parliament.

The government announced 63 prominent names to take part in the wise people group, who will meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan later today.

Wise-people commissions work under Parliament elsewhere in the world, but such panels are brought into being by government decree in Turkey, Hamzaçebi said.

The investigation commissions are composed of 17 members, and the AKP has 10 seats, more than the number of the seats required to form a commission with an absolute majority, which is nine.

“It is a requirement for all parties to name deputies for the commission. Yet, even if they don’t, we will be working with whoever names deputies,” AKP deputy parliamentary group chair Nurettin Canikli told the Hürriyet Daily News today.

When asked whether this was meant to say that they are ready to work solely along with the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Canikli replied in the affirmative.

The government responded favorably yesterday to requests to submit the country’s fledgling peace process to greater parliamentary oversight, submitting a motion to establish a legislative panel.

The BDP introduced two separate proposals for parliamentary investigations which call for the formation of a truth and reconciliation commission and a commission dealing with the history of the Kurdish issue since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

Since these proposals could be united with the AKP’s proposal, the name of the prospective commission could change in a way that would be satisfactory to both the AKP and the BDP.