Kürkcü: Election Board decision nothing less than a coup

The decision by the Supreme Election Board is one of the barricades the Block will have to face
 

Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block Mersin MP Ertu?rul Kürkçü has accepted to assess the Supreme Election Board decision to strip off Hatip Dicle of his mandate and the consequences of this action.
“The stripping off Hatip Dicle of his mandate – said Kürkçü – and the election of another MP instead should be considered as a coup by an institution which should have had in a whole reached a conclusion taking into account law, politics, conscience, morality and history. This decision can’t be counted as an ordinary legal process. The Supreme Court’s decision of approval and the conclusion made by the Supreme Election Board is one of the barricades intended to be constituted against the MPs of the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block. To this extent, jurists will of course implement the required procedures but I know that the public conscience will not accept this decision and in respect to this, all Block MPs will show their stand especially in Dicle’s election district Diyarbak?r. I may not be able to say a certain thing concerning the attitude to be displayed but I know that we will adopt a protest attitude”.
What are the differences between 2007 and today with respect to the fact that defending fair demands has become an offense because of the changes in laws?

“Between 2007-2011, the AKP consolidated a one-party regime and now it is making plans about how to take whom from other parties and to include them in their own group. Especially as of 2009, the proceeding against social opposition, what we call criminalization, has been the basic manner for one-party regime. In the past, judges generally would stay out of this framework but now, with the inclusion of the judiciary into the process, there has been created a whole system which consists of the government, ministry of internal affairs, security directorate, anti-terror department, special authority prosecutors and special authority heavy criminal courts. We are currently in a process of a new implementation which enables police to be in a higher position than the judiciary while the judiciary accrediting the views of police. In terms of social opposition, many platforms became non operational or they have to pay high prices to be operational. Considering the blockage of communication channels; bans on internet, the ghostlike police control on internet sites and many other restrictions, the opposition has no other reasonable way but to take to the streets. We should note here that using streets under these conditions is also restricted more and more and even an ordinary press release has become an activity that requires a great effort. However, I see a strong struggle power in people and strong breakthroughs are made everywhere against these constraints. This is what will be reflected to the parliament through our group. I am of the opinion that social struggles will increasingly gain acceleration in the coming period”.

To which extend did intellectuals support the Block in this elections?

“I think there is a much more widespread intellectual support. The liberals’ support has perhaps declined but I can say that the support from intellectuals, especially from a new generation of intellectuals, has grown to a great extent. It is possibly correct to say that activists and intellectuals played a role of main opposition party to the Block. However, those determined to build politics under AKP’s hegemony and to take advantage of this situation has not modified the relation they had with us in 2007, in this elections. This can be seen as a loss but when considered as a whole, I can say that I see it as a process when everything falls into place”.

What will be the decision mechanism of the Block as to the Election Board’s decision?

“The parliamentary group is the essential decision-making mechanism. On the other hand, in accordance with its principles, the Democratic Society Congress count the MPs as their natural members. The DTK is a solidarity mechanism addressing to a broader social spectrum, not only to the Kurdish people and the representatives of the Kurdish liberation movement. It is an umbrella organization which doesn’t make decisions and implement these decisions by itself.
In my opinion, the Block components need to have one more umbrella organization. Before the elections, we were on course to build a constitution we called Labor, Democracy and Freedom Front but within the election process, this project made no headway as we paid attention to build an electoral alliance. But, hence forwards, we need to make sense of the point where we stayed and we need to draw a new line. The Peace and Democracy Party proposes an umbrella party which I also agree with as it could be a reasonable and efficient move to change of the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block into a political organization. In this regard, I would like to draw attention to a single issue; the umbrella party has been a contradictory issue since 2009 among some groups which are now consisted in the Block. The Socialist Democracy Party, Socialist Party, we [Socialist Labor Movement] and Peace and Democracy Party, within the framework of a labor-oriented program, continued our efforts under the name Movement of Unity for Democracy. These efforts also reached a saturation point with the beginning of a Front attempt. An assessment should be made about all these points as we will need to have reached a framework before we present them to the parliament. I, personally see the Block’s election manifesto and the local election descriptions linked to it as very substantial documents”.

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