Deal falls through as AKP insists on internal rules draft

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Party group representatives fail to strike an agreement over a proposal to amend Parliament’s internal regulations. DAILY NEWS photo

Party group representatives failed yesterday to strike an agreement over a draft proposal to amend Parliament’s internal regulations due to an article that limits the amount of time allotted to deputies to speak about group proposals.

“The proposal we have made regarding article 19 represents our final frontier. No agreement could be struck over the entire package because we could not agree with the opposition over this [one particular] article,” said Nurettin Canikli, the deputy group leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The group deputy leaders of political parties that have seats in Parliament met on Feb. 6 following Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek’s mediation efforts, as they had previously failed to strike an agreement twice before.

“We clearly expressed our view in relation to the articles that limit the opposition’s right to speak and give the amendment proposal its true colors, [and indicated] that existing internal regulations ought not to be altered,” said Akif Hamzaçebi, the deputy group leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
“We thought it unethical to haggle over how many minutes [are to be allotted to deputies] with regards to the [discussion] over limitations. We thought it unethical to bargain over the nation’s will,” the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) Hasip Kaplan said