YES TO THE EU PROCESS

Writing his periodical article for Yeni Safak Newspaper dated 20 July 2010, Minister for EU Affairs and the Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis referred to the 12 September Referendum and the Constitutional Amendment Package.

In his article Egemen Bagis wrote the following:

12 September is historically important for Turkey.12 September military coup had been a black spot in the history of Turkey. But, 12 September 2010 will be the beginning of a new process in which all these bitter memories will be replaced by a great enthusiasm, a process in which a festival of democracy will be gone through and a process in which the lost years of Turkey will be compensated.

We should accept the fact that 12 September military coup took away many things from this country. Everyone paid a price because of that military coup. But today, the leaderships of CHP, MHP and even BDP which do not pay any price, are now disrespecting their political bases. The citizens who died as a result of right and left conflict are not at peace.

Particularly the prominent leaders of the extreme right speak out these and they claim that the senior executives of MHP are cheating the extreme right. It is my belief that the same feeling also exists in the political bases of CHP and BDP. I don't think that our citizens, who paid the price for 12 September military coup, will say no to the accounting for of their injuries.

THE HIGH LEVEL OFFICIALS OF MHP AND BDP ARE COMBINING THEIR INTERESTS

It is strange that MHP and BDP are in solidarity recently regarding both the reform steps and the national concerns such as terrorism. The most significant example of disrespect that the high level officials of MHP showed to their political base has been the ‘vuvuzela' incident. Nobody has the right to create the atmosphere of a circus in the TGNA in which the will of the nation is represented. The political base of MHP does not deserve this impertinence.

The injured parties of the military coup are now avoiding confrontation: Those who were hosted in Diyarbakir Military Prison and Mamak Signal and Language School are now evading when we suggest them to erase the traces of 12 September junta together.

Whenever Turkey wanted to make progress, the Constitution of the military coup pulled us back just like a magnet. From now on, with the amendments, the Constitution will attain the quality to elevate Turkey and help Turkey progress.

THE PACKAGE IS PART OF EU ACCESSION PROCESS

We submit to the approval of our nation an amendment package that is equal to all alignment packages prepared during the EU membership process. Therefore, we have exceeded an important threshold in the EU accession process. As a matter of fact, the items in the package are those which are required by EU alignment process.

Each segment is represented in this package. Each item in this package possesses the quality that will improve our democratic standards. Each constituent in this package has the quality that will facilitate the social life of our citizens.

While the spirit of the Constitution of the military coup still exists, it is hard to attain a democracy in EU standards. On 12 September the coup mentality will no more exist.

The constitutional package may consist of 26 items. But, when we examine the content of this document, we see that the spirit of the Constitution of 1982 has been greatly changed. Therefore, we can assume that this is a mini Constitution. The following are some titles from this mini package:

MINI CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM

The Constitutional Court and the new composition of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, on which many discussions were held, are becoming compatible with their counterparts in the EU members states: Just like Professor Ergun Ozbudun indicated, among the western democracies, there is no any other country except Turkey which separated the selection of the judges of the constitutional court completely from the will of the TGNA. For instance, in Germany, Poland and in Hungary, all members of the Constitutional Court are chosen by the Parliament. In Turkey, objection to the selection of only some members of the Constitutional Court by the TGNA does not comply with the democratic approach. In terms of the composition of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, in most democratic countries, it is observed that the legislative and executive bodies select members to these kinds of Boards.

I wonder how those who continuously repeat the word ‘democracy' will say ‘no' to these: Recourse to judicial remedies against military coups.

Civilianization: The cases of offences of the military personnel related to state security and constitutional order and its functioning will be heard in the courts of justice.

Tutelage of the judiciary will be terminated: It is being emphasized that, the administrative activities and operations of the judicial competence will not be used as expediency in any circumstance. The independence, impartiality and the democratic legitimacy of the judiciary will increase. The composition of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors will be diversified just as in other modern countries.

I wonder how those who continuously repeat the words ‘Rule of Law' and ‘Human Rights' will say ‘no' to these: Constitutional protection against blacklisting. It is being prohibited to process personal data related to persons' membership to associations, foundations or unions, their health conditions or personal lives and all kinds of convictions. These kinds of personal data will not be given to the third persons and will not be made public.

A citizen's freedom to leave the country: A citizen's freedom to leave the country will be restricted only by a court decision.

Ombudsman institution will be established.

THE STATE IS BECOMING ‘SOCIAL'

New Rights to the Civil Servants: Recourse to judicial remedies will be available for disciplinary penalties applied to the civil servants. With the exception of promotional procedures of the Supreme Military Council and retirements due to lack of staff positions, appeal will be possible to all kinds of discharge decisions and the decisions of Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors related to dismissals.

Individual application to the Constitutional Court: Every individual, in cases where there is an infringement of his fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and infringement of Constitutional rights and freedoms within the scope of European Convention on Human Rights and on the condition that the legal remedies are exhausted, may apply to the Constitutional Court.

I wonder how those who continuously repeat the word ‘Social State' will say ‘no' to these:

THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYEES ARE INCREASING

Positive Discrimination: From now on, the arrangements that will be made to the benefit of women will not be evaluated as contrary to the principle of equality. All kinds of change that will be made for "groups that need to be protected with extra care" particularly the disabled, will take place within this scope.

The Principle of Equality: This expression will be added to the Constitution: "Measures that will be taken for the children, the elderly, the handicapped, the widowers and the orphans of the martyr, the disabled and the veterans are not considered as contrary to the principle of equality."

Protection of the Family: The obligations of the state regarding the protection of the children will be increased.

Right to Establish Unions: An individual will be able to be a member to more than one trade union at the same time and in the same branch of activity.

Right for Collective Agreements: Civil servants and other public officials will have the right to conclude collective agreements.

Right for Strikes and Lock-outs: The union will not be responsible for the physical damage that occurs during the strikes. The prohibitions related to political strikes and lock-outs, secondary strikes, strikes and lock-outs, sit-down strikes, slowdown strikes, work-to-rule and prohibitions related to other types of strikes will be abolished.