The Solution is Early Election

Naci Kutlay, deputy head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party, DEHAP, Filiz Kocali, member of board of directors of the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP), and Masis Kurkcugil, deputy head of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP), commented on the appeals court's decision about DEHAP.

Kutlay, Kocali and Kurkcugil, who all think that the appeals court's decision is political, emphasized it would not be a democratic move to cancel the votes of two million people. They suggested amending Turkey's elections law and going to early elections.

An appeals court, on September 29, upheld the convictions of four top officials from DEHAP for fraud. The party leaders were sentenced to a year and eleven days in prison for forging documents ahead of the November 3, 2002 elections. With this decision, the two million votes in favor of DEHAP became questionable.

"Canceling those votes would mean ignoring the choice of two million people. This would be illegal," said Kutlay, who suggested early elections.

"The result of the case will not interest us. Our party, while fighting for democracy, was faced with big difficulties from the very beginning. We see this as one of those difficulties," Kutlay added.

Kocali from SDP also found the decision political. "The will of DEHAP, which got two million votes, and the will of the voters is trying to be ignored."

"It was possible to solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey in a just, democratic and a permanent way. Turkey, instead of solving it that way, will send troops to Iraq and become a partner in the occupation. And in return, KADEK will be dissolved."

"They are discussing what will happen to the votes for DEHAP. There is only one solution to this artificial problem: early elections. If they really want a democratic and pluralist parliament, the first step should be amending the elections law, lifting the 10 percent threshold level, and launching a democratic elections period," said Kocali.

Kurkcugil from ODP reminded the fact that "the will of 45 percent of the voters was not reflected in the parliament."

"A solution leading to ignoring the will of two million voters cannot be legitimate or democratic," said Kurkcugil.

"The acceptable thing is to renew elections. The threshold level should be lifted, election restrictions should be removed and the parliament should be highly representative of the society. Also, by wasting time with such artificial problems, they are postponing the democratic solution of the Kurdish problem," added Kurkcugil. (BB/EA/NM)