Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVlEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RNISTA
Monday, October 25,1993
STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN OZETi
turkish daily news
'Parliamentary COUpl
proposed to counter
possible military coup
• A group of deputies, fearing developments in the
Southeast are preparing to recommend a
-Government of National Consensus. -
By Hayri Birler
Turkish Daily News .
ANKARA- Argui.ng that ~urkey. IS
heading towards an Impasse wIth the Increasing
violence in tlle Sout~east, and
accusing the government of beJßg a mere
"spectator" in the face of these developments,
a group of deputie.s of different
party affiliations is prepanng to recommend
the formation of a "Government of
National Consensus."
These dee.uties, mostly from the True
Path Party (DYP) -- the senior partner in
the ruling coalition government -- and t~e
Motherland (ANAP) party --. the maIn
opp6stion party -- say' they WIlltake. action
in this direction If the local elections
scheduled for March do not take place in
the region, or in the whole of the country,
for "security" reasons.
These deputies say the government has
remained ineffective as large numbers of
citizens are killed every4ay' in the So~~east.
They remin4 that this ISalso precIpItating
the notion Jß the common man and
woman's mind in ot~er parts of th.ecountry
that the region should?e glyen up
and the problem thus gotten nd of.
The common point of view that these
deputies -- said to number aro~nd 3~ at
the present time -- put forward Jß arguJßg
for a "Government of National Consensus,"
can be summarized in the following
manner:
"Something.strang~ that we ~annot fully
grasp is gOIngon In the regIOn.. What
weare sure of, though, it that the United
States and Great Bntain are bent on the
establishment of a Kurdistan in Southeastern
Anatolia. The first step towards this is
granting the region. ~utonomy: ~Ve f~ar
that in the end a mIlItary admmlstratlOn
will be forced to take this step toward.a~tonomy
because it is a step that no cIvilian
government would have the c~u.rage
to taKe. This of course means a mlh~a~y
coup or a military ultimatum to the Cl:llian
administration. What we are seeKmg
is a 'Parliamentary coup' to counter the
prospect of such mIlitary a coup."
The first signs .
Last week two ANAP deputies, ~adl
Pehlivanoglu and Hüseyin Ozalp, organized
a press confe~ence after consultmg
with theIr party chaIrman, Mesut Ylimaz,
and gettin~ his blessing. Th~se tw~ veteran
politicIans, who served Iß Parhament
before the military coup ~n Se~t. 12,
1980 avoided clarity in makmg thm concerns'known
and merely referred to a
governme~tal model that involved rising
above parties.
The next day, Ylimaz made a state~~nt,
and blaming those who proposed a pohtlc~l
solution to the problem in tile Southeast saId
these proposals would lead to nowhere.
"We must prevent bloods~ed first, ~nd ~he
state must fig~t the sepa~atlst o~g,~mzatlOn
with all its mIght to achIeve thIs Yllmaz
said.
In 'the days that followed these developments,
certain deputies, espec,ially. those
within the DYP wing, began whlspenng the
words "martiallaw" in the corridors of Parliament
in connection with the Southeast.
The first reactions to these deputies, who
included the heads of the Parliamentary
Commissions on National Defence and Interior
Affairs, came from the Chief of Staffs office.
The Chief of Staffs office announced that
during the the National Security Council
(MGK) meeting this month they would not
be proposing that martialla"Y.~ .d~lared. "
Throwing the ball to the clVlhans court
the statement said: "The ma,tter can be resolved
within the context of the Emergency
Rule which is currently in force in the region.
Provided, that is, that th~ gove~me~t
makes full use of its legal ngbts 1ß thIs
framework."
The Chief of Staff statement caused tumult
in Parliament, especially among DYP
and ANAP deputies who felt t~e blame. for
the inability to prevent separatist terrons~
was being placed on civilians. Soon after this
statement, all talk in Parliament of the need
to declare martiallaw ended.
Meanwhile, President Süleyman Demirel
gave a statement to a newspaper around this
time, and also said there was no need for
martiallaw. He later invited Parliamentary
Speaker Hüsamettin Cindoruk to his office
for a meeting. While no statement followed
this meeting, it was whispered in Parliament
that events 1ß the in Southeast had been discussed.
DYP deputy for AydJß, Tunç Bilget,
whose name had frequently come up among
those in favor of martiallaw, issued a statement
within the context of these developments,
and declared himself against martIal
law. For the first time he uttered the notion
of a "Parliamentary coup."
"Mrs. Çiller cannot see the truth ..."
The Turkish Daily News decided to investigate
the matter following further references,
not just by hardline dep,uties but also by others,
to the notion of a 'Parliamentary coup."
This investigation revealed that a group of
mainly DYP and ANAP deputies -- wllose
numbers range between 35 and 40 -- had
come together, both in parliäment and in private,
to e\'aluate the overall situation.
It became clear that these deputies also
aimed at increasing their numbers by lettin~
their plans be known to other "small groups
of deputies.
These "small groups" included deputies
from the ultranationalist, National Action
Party (MHP), and the pro-islamic Welfare
Party (RP). In time these opinions were also
relayed to some deputies from the Social
Democrat Peoples' Party (SHP) and the Republican
Peoples' Party (CHP) who were felt
to be "close.'
This is what a DYP deputy, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, had to sayan the
subject:
"Our !!eneral convention will take place in
November. Mrs. Çiller (PM Çiller) is in a
cloud of dreams, running all over the place.
Her feet never touched the ground. She never
saw the truth, or understood where she is
heading. Yet, on the question of the Southeast,
the country is on the brink of division,
The press was removed from the Southeast
(by threats from separatist terrorists). Now
the activities of political parties are being restricted
(because of similar threats). The
mentality spreading in the Southeast is one
of "liberated region." While this is happening
Mrs. Çiller does not seem to care. Her indifference
applies also to question of economic
investments in the region."
Expectations and the timetable
IndIcating that the problem of the Southeast
will again be put on the back burner because
of the upcoming DYP Convention, and
pointing to the fact that straight after this, on
November 27, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) will be celebrating its foundation
anniversary the same deputy said the
following: "The PKK will now change its
tactics to avoid the winter operation an-