Democratic Society Party (DTP) Closure Case

Turkey’s political parties regime considers parties as any kind of establishment, entity, accidental gathering and etc. For the regime political parties are both indispensable element of the democracy and powerless… Political parties are considered as entities, which can be closed down, given notice, and should be monitored, controlled by a special unit (basically police-security unit) of the state.

They are considered as danger.        
For the state…

For the regime…

Citizens become members of political parties and compete with each other; struggle for power in democracies (democracies are regimes of organized societies).

However Turkey’s political parties regime is surrounded with prohibitions. There are limits for political parties to express their opinions. They cannot discuss the Directorate of Religious Affairs; they cannot criticise existing mentality of authoritarian secularism. They cannot discuss Kurdish question; produce ideas, produce models about local administrations. Political parties even cannot say, for example, ‘hello’ in Kurdish. They cannot publish invitation in Kurdish. Is such a system related with democracy?

 

Questioning, judging existing political parties regime in terms of the principle of pluralism and democracy rather than judging DTP…

Making Venice Criteria dominant…

Being able to establish domestic peace via actualizing the principles of rule of law and democracy…Even being able to apologize…

Recognizing human rights and freedoms and cultural rights for all citizens…

Respecting citizens’ will.

These are the points that the system should do.

Hüsnü Öndül
General President