Turkey’s ruling AKP: Declaration of autonomy ‘political assassination attempt’

ANKARA

AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik speaks at a press conference late on Dec. 29, 2015. AA Photo

A recent call for self-governance supported the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is “a political assassination attempt” targeting law order and societal peace in Turkey, a senior executive of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said.

AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik also said members of political parties who are against legitimate political order should pay the price for that, while underlining that his party is principally against closing political parties.

“Nobody can create a de facto situation on a system on which there is no wide agreement by the people within the current political principles and principles of democratic state ruled by law,” Çelik said at a press conference late Dec. 29.

“If you embrace a stance saying, ‘I have declared this in that region of the country, I have declared autonomy in that region of the country and I have declared such an administration in this region of the country,’ then this would not only constitute a political situation, but it would also constitute a political assassination attempt aimed at harming and destroying the current law order and societal peace tradition of Turkey,” Çelik said.

A Turkish prosecutor opened an investigation into HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş on Dec. 28 after he made calls for greater Kurdish self-governance over the weekend. Demirtaş was a participant in a two-day congress of Kurdish groups that called for more self-governance. At the conference, he said there would be a Kurdistan in the next century and it could include an independent state. 

In an apparent reference to remarks by the other HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ earlier on Dec. 29 when she suggested that a declaration embraced at the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) conference held in southeastern Diyarbakır was open to discussions and contributions, Çelik said, “They are not saying that ‘We are discussing this.’ They are saying that ‘We have declared this; they are saying that ‘We are implementing this.’” 

The AKP spokesperson was also asked to comment on the prospects of a closure case to be initiated against the HDP after the recent developments that he said were not in line with “constitutional ground.”

“We are not in favor of the closure of political parties in anyway. In order to protect the ground for civilian politics, political parties need to not be closed down,” Çelik responded.

“However, if there are [individuals] who are against constitutional order and legitimate democratic politics inside those political parties founded by the people, then those [individuals] should pay the price for that,” he added, noting that praise of terror and terrorist activities was not permissible within democratic rules.