Wise Persons to wrap up at the weekend, says member

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, a member of the Wise Persons’ Commission, said the reports will be sent to parties. AA photo

The government-formed Wise Persons’ Commission will be ending its two months of work at the weekend, according to Marmara region group member Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, who attended an Istanbul meeting with the Suriçi Group May 29.

Arıboğan said the commission’s subgroups’ reports would be sent to every party structure in Turkey, including ruling officials, opposition members and those who are excluded from Parliament. “We want to share as much as we can with the public,” Arıboğan said. “We have a short time left. Hopefully our work will be done this weekend. We want to prepare a worthy report and complete this process.” 

Arıboğan said that though they set out to speak about the peace process in relation to the Kurdish issue, they soon discovered issues related to union rights, non-Muslims, people who did not wish to live under Islamic rule and many others. “There needs to be a great effort to initiate a process of democracy in Turkey. Constitutional changes need to open the way for democratization. We are starting to show efforts for democratization as a whole,” Arıboğan added. Turkey is set to experience “an adaptation period,” according to Arıboğan. “This painful period hurts Turkey, it bothers us. One of the key ways of standing straight through times like these is to have a strategic mind. 

There is a fire that could jump over to our country. There are sparks coming over from the Middle East. We need to be very wise, and we need buffers in between,” Arıboğan said.