Sunday, July 29, 2007

Hand in hand: Hope and crisis

As the regime heads towards a crisis, politics has tied its hopes to the early election as if it were their savior. Yet the ballot box does not possess the power to eliminate a crisis caused by military guardianship. It is obviously not realistic to expect much from an election where roles attributed to political parties on how they cope with crises will be the voting criteria instead of party programs and social projects.
In spite of it all, is there still hope?
According to some reports in daily newspapers, various democratic powers, parties and NGO’s are getting together in some cities, working for a common goal: taking part in the elections with independent candidates. The time is limited, the goal is challenging.
According to a survey by Dr. Hakan Güneş of Istanbul University, a good strategy could result in up to 37 independent candidates being elected members of parliament. Most of these MP’s will obviously be candidates of the DTP, from cities where there is a dense Kurdish population.
This may be an important opportunity for representatives of social democrats, libertarians, socialists, and suppressed minorities coming together in the parliament under the leadership of the Kurdish movement, which for years has been deterred from representation in the parliament by means of numerous obstacles.
We may project that a group of thirty to forty parliamentarians may play an important role in the parliament, creating a center of attraction directing significant criticism to the existing system. It is our heartfelt wish that this opportunity should not be wasted; that with a genuine consensus on the right names and taking into account the post-election period, with a wise strategy, what seems to be a big challenge at this moment comes true.
Translated by Çağlayan Erendağ
June 1, 2007

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