05 October 2010
Democratic, civil constitution platform needed to write a new Constitution
Peace and Democracy co-president Selahattin Demirtas called for creation of a 'democratic, civil constitution platform' to make a new constitution.
Speaking on his party's group meeting at Turkish parliament Demirtas said the results of the constitutional referendum showed strong public support for making of a new constitution. "Turkey is now discussing a new constitution thanks to the success of referendum boycott campaign. This is our common gain" he told BDP parliamentary group.
Demirtas called for creation of a 'democratic, civil constitution platform' to make a new constitution and said NGO's, civil institutions, political groups must be represented in this platform.
"This is the only way to make the new constitution 'people's constitution'" he said.
Demirtas said BDP won't accept any other methods in making a new constitution.
Speaking about education in mother language Demirtas said education in mother language is a key demand of Kurdish people in making of the new constitution. "Education in mother language in Turkey won't divide this country. We will try to convince people about this in our campaign for general elections" he said.
Demirtas harshly criticized Turkish Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan's "No one should expect education in mother language from us" remarks and said "no one expects anything from AKP."
Demirtas also spoke about human rights violations in Turkish prisons saying that the prison conditions is a reflection of people's conscience. He said that the Turkish prisons are overcrowded and thousands are sent to prisons on false or unproven convictions. Demirtas said the government has to release terminally ill prisoners on compassionate grounds immediately.
He also called the government to lower the 10 percent election threshold saying that one in a third of Turkey's population is not represented in the parliament because of the threshold.
ANF / ANKARA
ANF NEWS AGENCY
