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Turkey's Kurdish DTP party boosts Gul's
presidential hopes
17.8.2007 |
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August
17, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition
party signalled Thursday that it would not boycott a
parliamentary vote next week to elect a new
president, boosting the hopes of ruling
party candidate Abdullah Gul.
"We should never hamper the functioning of the
democratic system," said Ahmet Turk, head of the
Democratic Society Party (DTP), after Gul, currently
the foreign minister, visited the party in a bid to
drum up support.
"The fact that Mr. Gul's wife wears the (Islamic)
headscarf is not important for us. What matters are
his own qualities...
We hope Mr. Gul will follow policies that would
embrace all 72 million people of this country."
The DTP has not yet decided whether it will support
Gul when parliament convenes for the first round of
voting Monday, Turk said.
But even if they withhold support, the attendance of
opposition parties is crucial for the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AKP) to secure Gul's eventual
victory.
When he first stood for president in April, the
opposition boycotted the vote, robbing parliament of
the quorum required to hold the election and
sparking a political crisis.
In the first two rounds of voting, a candidate
requires a two-thirds majority, or 367 votes, to be
elected.
With 340 votes in the 550-member house, the AKP can
be sure of electing Gul on the third ballot when an
absolute majority of 276 is required.
The early general elections on July 22, prompted by
the presidential crisis, changed the balance in
parliament as two new major opposition forces, among
them the DTP, won seats.
The other one, the right-wing Nationalist Action
Party (MHP), has also promised to participate in the
presidential vote.
The MHP and the DTP have 70 and 20 deputies
respectively, which, combined with AKP's 340 seats,
well exceeds the required quorum of 367.
The main opposition Republican People's Party says
it will again boycott the vote, arguing that Gul's
Islamist past means he is not truly committed to the
secular system.
Gul vehemently denies the charges and has taken
legal action against some of his critics.
AFP
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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