HAK – PAR
Party for Rights and Freedom

Press Statement

HAK-PAR’s Third Extraordinary Meeting of the Party Committee

Because of the “Closure Proceedings” and the developments taking place in our region, our party committee held an extraordinary meeting on April 13 2002 which dealt with, and passed resolutions on, the developments in Turkey and our region as well as the “closure proceedings” being taken against us.

The “closure proceedings” against our party are arbitrary and unlawful...

The chief state prosecutor of the Court of Appeal initiated, in great haste, “closure proceedings” against our party three weeks following its founding. We publicly stated that this was prejudicially flawed, arbitrary and unlawful. Our party committee upheld this view and, more importantly, pointed out and analyzed the dangerous and unreasonable thinking behind the chief state prosecutor’s claims.

The chief state prosecutor claims that our party referred to a minority using the term “Kurds” in our statement that “the Kurdish question was a basic problem of Turkey and that as long as the Kurdish question was not resolved it would be difficult to resolve Turkey’s other problems, and in resolving the Kurdish question the party would take on an active role in Turkey’s future and well being”. However, the Kurds in our party manifesto are not at all, as the chief state prosecutor claims, seen as a minority, but instead – even if not explicitly expressed – as one of the oldest civilizing, indigenous people in the history of Turkey and the region.

In the course of Turkey’s EU membership candidacy, civil and military representatives from the EU and Turkey have referred to the Kurds. From the chief prosecutors point of view, then they have also taken a risky path, which must be seen as an offence, with those responsible having legal action taken against them. It is obvious why this isn’t possible - the Kurdish question cannot be concealed.

The chief state prosecutor also sees the demand for native language tuition in Kurdish as a desire to give up Turkish as a mother tongue. This is also seen as grounds for banning our party. This is clearly incompatible with jurisprudence and sociology.

The chief state prosecutor further points out that the call for a decentralization of Turkey by strengthening regional autonomous administrations, lessening the powers of the state apparatus and promoting production and self organization amounts to a partition of Turkey into regions

All these claims are nothing more than a clear sign that the attitude of the chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeal is to avoid any solutions for Turkey and, in contrast, wants only to create new problems. Our party considers that the chief state prosecutor’s actions are anti-democratic and incompatible with universal democratic rights as well as local legislation and that they will not stand up before the constitutional court. We are therefore certain that our party will not be closed down and, in spite of the closure proceedings, we will continue to carry out our organizational activities.

Turkey’s leaders demonstrate primitive, coarse and humiliating behavior while the EU membership process continues...

The main problems in contemporary Turkey are democratization in line with EU standards, restructuring of the administration and resolution of the Kurdish question. An analysis of the opinions represented by state and governmental officials, as well as that discussed in TV and the press, shows that all problems stagnate at the point where they become associated with the Kurdish problem. It is obvious to all that the new regulations brought in by Turkey in the areas of rights and freedom – except for Kurdish issues – are not adequate and that therefore no fundamental progress can be made towards a resolution. To be frank, as long as there is no democratic opening up in respect of the Kurdish question, then any restructuring or democratization will not be possible.

It is this fact which makes Turkey’s leaders fearful and so they appear clumsy and primitive in their opinions and actions. These come from a chauvinistic attitude acquired by years of policies of refusal and denial towards the Kurds. Even worse, they comment humiliatingly towards the Kurds and say things incompatible with rights and justice, such as Kurdish is not an academic language and 2 hours of TV broadcasting in Kurdish per day is adequate.

Our party was founded because of the conviction that Turkey’s problems, above all the Kurdish question, can not be solved with such an attitude or way of thinking. Our party is of the opinion that these problems, particularly the Kurdish question, can be easily resolved if one carefully looks at the political systems and administrations of the states within the EU, for which Turkey is a candidate.

Without a resolution of the Kurdish and Palestinian questions, peace in the region will not be possible...

The Kurdish and Palestinian problems are the two issues of nation and society which receive the most awareness, not only in our region but also throughout the whole world. The armed conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has again demonstrated that there can be no peace in our region until these conflicts have been resolved. Our party committee also dealt with the developments in Israel and Palestine during the meeting.

Our party committee agreed that the Israeli presence in Palestinian territory, in the name of the war against terrorism, was an unfair, unjustified and dangerous act. It declared that the problems would not be resolved through Israeli state terror nor organized Palestinian civil terror – on the contrary, the problems would only become more complex. It stated that it was necessary that both sides refrained from violence.

Our party’s committee pointed out that the Palestinian leadership was insensitive to the Kurdish question and that it was a counter-productive policy to cooperate so closely with the Iraqi leadership. It was also natural for a repressed people such as the Kurds, who campaign themselves for these rights, to hold the opinion that the Palestinian people should have the same rights on their territory as the Jewish people. It further declared that it would play a key role in the resolution of the conflict if the Palestinians and Arabs acknowledged the legitimate existence of the state of Israel. The party committee emphasized that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not be resolved by war but only by peaceful and democratic methods.

It also stated that there was a major contradiction between the sensitivity the Turkish leadership showed towards the Palestinian question and their views on the Kurdish question. The committee considered that a rapid withdrawal of the Israeli military from Palestinian territory and the commencement of peace talks would be an important democratic step towards the establishment of peace, justice and order in our region.

Ankara, 18.04.2002

Abdulmelik FIRAT
HAK-PAR President