Speaking to a TV channel, Turkish Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin touched on the hot spots of the "solution process" in Turkey. “It has been 8 months since we have last heard of deaths stemming from terrorism in Turkey. This is a clear result of the peace process which has increased the importance of the process. The peace process may be running well or not, it may have stopped or slowed down or etc. All these can be tolerated and compensated, but there is no compensation for deaths,” said Ergin in response to a question concerning statements by Cemil Bayik, a leading figure in the PKK terrorist organization. Bayik had suggested that the PKK would stop the withdrawal process of its members from Turkey if the commissions recommended by Abdullah Ocalan are not established between September 1 and October 15.
Expressing that each party has to take the required steps before speaking about a road map concerning the process, Ergin said, “Nobody should ask the government to take this or that step before the steps which they are required to do. Everybody has to live up to the road map drawn nine months ago when the solution process started. When the process started, we had a schedule but now we see that the schedule has disappeared. We divided the process into phases and each phase has to be passed and the all required steps should be taken without any hesitancy.”
Upon a question emphasizing that the months of September and October are considered critical in the context of the peace process, Ergin responded that popular support of the process was increasing day by day; thus the increasing popular support of the process would become a great challenge to those trying to sabotage it. He noted that they are nonetheless aware of the fact that there are internal and external forces seeking to sabotage the process.
Stating that the government has been trying to bring Turkey to the condition envisaged by universal law, Ergin went on to say that there was still much to be done in terms of the psychology of the peace process.
- Democratization process
Concerning the democratization process, Ergin said that, besides the solution of the Kurdish issue there were many other segments of society needing more freedom. He expressed there are people who think they are discriminated against due to the attire they wear, as well as those who are prevented from expressing their identities and those who think they are "otherized." He emphasized that democratization process must refer to all such concerns.
Concerning regulations within the context of the Kurdish solution and democratization processes, Sadullah Ergin stressed the steps within the context of democratization process.
Ergin said that all parties in the Constitution Committee have compromised on 60 articles of the new constitution. The 4th Package of the Judiciary, significant for the democratization process and acceleration of the judiciary, has been legalized. There are regulations concerning hate crimes which are on the way. Furthermore, judicial consultancies have been established in New York, Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and the Hague to follow the rights of Turkish citizens there.
“Besides these we have established the Ombudsmanship institution; we legalized the right of individual application to the Constitutional court and we are at the final stage of the establishment of an anti-discrimination committee. We have included all the regulations Turkey needs in terms of democratization. All groups and segments of society such as Muslims, non-Muslims, Alawites, liberals, Kurds and etc, whoever within the 76 million people claiming that they are discriminated against will find the regulations for them in this package," he said.
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