Ball in gov’t side for full democratization, BDP deputy Önde

[Aslan]

There is no need to question the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) will for a pullout from Turkey and now the ball is in the government’s court for moves toward full democratization of the country, a leading member of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said yesterday, a day after PKK militants started to retreat into as part of the peace process.

“There isn’t any problem about sincerity of the will for withdrawal,” BDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder said. “Focusing on those [reforms] will be more useful. Because they will withdraw and they are withdrawing. I don’t have any concerns.”

“Considering that we are saying ‘full democratization,’ then all laws that are leftovers of the antidemocratic junta need to be combed out,” he added.

On the same day as the withdrawal started on May 8, a parliamentary investigation commission set to monitor the ongoing process was eventually formed. The commission, composed of 10 deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and one deputy from the BDP, held its first meeting late May 8. Both the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) refused to assign deputies as members to the commission.

When asked about his expectations from the commission, Önder said that it would depend on how the commission is utilized. Önder gave the work by Parliament’s Coups and Memorandums Inquiry Commission as an example and said that this commission paved the way for significant confrontation. “How you will contribute is more decisive than what function you attribute,” Önder said.

“Will this commission pave the way for an important confrontation?” Önder responded, “We say Inshallah. It has to be like that. I think CHP has to reconsider its position on this matter. Because right now, they are in a position where they cannot stand behind their own proposal.”

Elsewhere, the commission for monitoring the process, named the “Commission for Investigating Ways of Societal Peace and Assessment of the Resolution Process,” held its second meeting.

“’What is happening and who is withdrawing and how’; we will not be working on these, there will be a political and societal work,” said AKP’s Naci Bostancı, the commission chair.