"Turkey's Public Debate Issues Obsolete" Says PM

At the parliamentary group meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for free discussion of issues. He also dismissed criticism of the plan to move the Central Bank from Ankara to Istanbul and condemned Israel's missile attack on Gaza.

Same issues debated for years

Without clear reference to a particular issue, Erdogan said, “Let no one in this country consider democracy and the law to be their prerogative, let no one deny democracy to others, let no one consider themselves above the national volition.”

The Prime Minister said that half of Turkey’s population was younger than 28, and that this population had grown up in an atmosphere where the same issues and the same arguments had been debated for years:

“Most of our topics of discussion related to the way we see the world are older than the fall of the Berlin Wall…Most of our issues, which we discuss in an introverted manner, are remnants of 12 September (the military coup of 1980)…and this although half of today’s population never experienced 12 September.”

"Democratic discussion and negotiation"

“We do not have the luxury of wasting our energy with meaningless tension. Our democracy and our understanding of the rule of law have attained the necessary maturity to allow the discussion and evaluation of all kinds of problems and to offer solutions. Whatever problems are making society uncomfortable, they need to be discussed and negotiated democratically, freely and legally without leading to tensions. The basic duty of politics is to fulfill the demands and expectations of society.”

Erdogan called Turkey “a republic which does not discriminate between its citizens. Let no one try to prove the opposite. All our steps are being watched by the rest of the world, and the world is presented with an image of us which we do not deserve. A Turkey where people deprive each other of their civil rights and where democracy is not trusted cannot get ahead in the escalating competition.”

Dismisses fears on move of Central Bank 

Referring to the recent debate on moving the Central Bank from Ankara to Istanbul, he said: “They create an impression  as if Istanbul were not within the national borders.”

He criticised the opposition Republican People’s Party for trying to turn the debate into a regime issue: “If changing the regime of the Turkish Republic were as simple as moving a brick, one would have to think. But it is very powerful.”

“The public banks will also move their administrative centres to Istanbul. We have considered it advisable to move the Central Bank, too. The administrative centres of the Banks are in Istanbul, the stock exchange is there, the international companies showing activity in the finance sector are there, and all the international representatives of that sector are there. What could be more natural than the Central Bank, the public banks the Capital Markets Board (SPK) and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) being there?

Condemnation of Gaza attack 

Touching on the subject of Israel’s missile attack on the Gaza, Erdogan said it was incomprehensible that “around two million innocent people are being punished with the excuse of missile attacks.” (NZ/TK/AG)