Turkish parliament speaker takes initiative for deputies’ personal benefits

Nuray Babacan ANKARA

AA Photo

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek has submitted his own draft law to improve the personal benefits of lawmakers, after failing to create a consensus between the political parties.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet, Çiçek underlined on Feb. 13 that his draft did not outline any new “financial favors” for lawmakers.

“We have prepared the ground. We will get it passed into law before parliament goes into recess. I tabled the proposal because this situation is a cross-party one. It should not be a polemic of this party or that party,” he said.

“Some wrong assessments are being made. This draft merges all of the arrangements in different laws. While doing this, some problematic fields have been smoothed out and some social rights have been granted. But there is not a single fiscal arrangement, unlike what some are saying,” Çiçek added.

“Whatever wage or pension current or retired lawmakers are currently receiving, they will continue receiving the same amounts,” he said, noting that all political parties represented at parliament have been approached “constructively and with sensitivity” in order not to create a misperception among the public.

Meanwhile, the parliament speaker noted that they had left the issue of founding a “political ethics commission” to the initiative of the parties themselves.

“If they agree on the matter in commission-level debates, they can add it in the form of a motion,” Çiçek said.

The ground for outlining the principles of political ethics is now ready, and parties will be able to make the required amendments to detail these principles after the statuses of lawmakers and retired lawmakers are cleared through the adoption of this draft, he also said.