Çiçek urges parties to continue charter work

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Cemil Çiçek. DHA photo

Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek has warned that any party that leaves the table during the ongoing work of the Parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Commission will pay for it. The deputies of all four parties represented in the commission have expressed their wish that no one leave the table.

During yesterday’s debate, presided over by Çiçek, the main focus was possibility of the withdrawal of a party from the commission and the repercussions of such a withdrawal.

“The parties have declarations. ‘We will not be the side that leaves the table,’ has been said. The most important item of the political agenda is the drafting of the new constitution. The people give great support to the drafting of a new constitution. A new constitution was a societal demand a year ago; today it is an obligation. Leaving the table means a loss of prestige. Anyone who leaves the table will pay for it,” Çiçek was quoted as saying during the debate by reliable sources.

In response to Çiçek, deputies from all four parties represented in the commission – the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) – declared their intention not to withdraw from the commission. According to an agreement text signed by all four parties, if even one party withdraws from the commission, the commission will be disbanded.

“No one should leave the table. Everyone sitting around the table must say his opinion. No one should be forced to leave the table. We have not said that we will leave it,” the BDP’s Altan Tan was quoted as saying by the same sources.

However, the MHP warned that the BDP might withdraw, saying if they did new conditions would emerge.