Coup panel’s report hailed by Speaker

ANKARA

This report is very important, Cemil Çiçek says. DAILY NEWS photo

Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek hailed the final report by Parliament’s Coups and Military Memorandums Commission Nov. 26, while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said it did not address the public’s expectations or advance democracy.

“This report is very important; it is important in regards to our future,” Çiçek said. “The importance of this report will be better understood in the upcoming period. It will be a reference study,” he said after the commission members, led by Chair Nimet Baş, introduced the product of their eight-month study to him.

“Institutionally, the first-hand victim of the coups is Parliament. That’s why having such a report from an institution that was the victim of coups is particularly meaningful. This study has increased the confidence of Parliament to a great extent,” Çiçek said, noting that the report would be introduced to the General Assembly for review after being published.

However, Baş said the report opened a Pandora’s Box of coup concerns.

“We are at the point of no return in regards to democracy and law. Those who in the past defied the will and call of Parliament repetitively voiced regret at our commission,” she said, noting that their proposal to draft a civilian Constitution was in the report. According to Baş, the report is not “perfect” but has “historical importance.”

Disagreements

The main opposition deputies representing their parties at the commission – Ali Rıza Öztürk, Süleyman Çelebi, Mehmet Şeker and Ahmet Toptaş – said they didn’t agree with the content of the report although they approved of the conclusion. “There are big flaws in the writing of the report,” the CHP deputies said in their reservation note, adding that there were methodical, political and content-related limitations during the drafting of the report and suggesting that it was full of probable mistakes that would lead to despair for people who embraced a widening zone of democracy and freedoms.
“It was not possible for us to accept this report, which doesn’t make a contribution to satisfying the public’s expectations and to the deepening of democracy in our country,” the CHP deputies said.