Turkish Parliament approves motion on Syria, Iraq amidst opposition fury at interim gov’t

Deputies speak during a tense moment in Parliament during Thursday’s oath-taking ceremony for the election Cabinet. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Mevlüt Karabulut)

September 03, 2015, Thursday/ 18:23:15/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ANKARA

The Turkish Parliament, which convened in an extraordinary session on Thursday, approved a motion authorizing the government to send troops abroad and allow foreign troops on Turkish territory.

The motion, which is in response to the ongoing crisis in Syria and the regional threat of the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), authorizes the government to send troops to Iraq and Syria to counter the ISIL threat.
All the parties apart from the HDP voted in favor of the motion authorizing the government to send troops abroad and to allow foreign troops on Turkish territory.

Parliament convened in an extraordinary session on Thursday for the oath-taking of the independent members of the caretaker Cabinet who are not deputies and to vote on the motion.

Independent figures who have been appointed to the Cabinet of the interim governmenthave taken their oaths in Parliament amid strong protests by the opposition, which argued that eight of the 11 independent deputies should not be sworn in because they do not meet the constitutional requirement of impartiality.

After several of the independent figures, whom the opposition claims are closely linked to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), had completed their oaths, deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) left the session in protest.

When loud protests began in order to drown out the voice of an oath-taking minister, acting Parliament Speaker Koray Aydın, who headed the session, announced a short break in the session.

The opposition has claimed that the eight of the 11 independent ministers in the interim Cabinet are not really independent. CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Özgür Özel said on the floor of Parliament ahead of the vote that many of the independent ministers are actually closely linked to the AK Party.

He gave the example of new Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül, who also served as minister of defense in previous Cabinets of the AK Party, which lost single-handed power in the June 7 general election.

Kutbettin Arzu -- another of the independent figures appointed by acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who is also chairman of the AK Party -- also previously served as an AK Party deputy.

Tension increased in Parliament when the oath-taking ceremony began. When new Justice Minister Kenan İpek was on the floor to take his oath, CHP Samsun deputy Hayati Tekin shouted, “What kind of justice is this?” In reaction to Tekin's remark, AK Party deputy and Youth and Sports Minister Akif Çağatay Kılıç allegedly opened his jacket to show a gun he was carrying.

In the first vote held to decide whether the independent ministers should be allowed to take their oath, 556 ballots were cast even though Parliament is composed of only 550 deputies. Before the independent ministers started to take their oaths, the CHP had demanded that a vote should be held on the issue.
In this first vote, all three opposition parties voted against the 11 independent members of the government from being allowed take their oaths, saying that they cannot be considered impartial figures.
After the AK Party objected, the score of the voting was not announced by acting Speaker Aydın and the session was adjourned for a short time.

Opposition parties then claimed that Aydın, the head of the session, had the authority to decide whether to put the issue to a vote, while the AK Party argued that Aydın had no such authority.

In the voting conducted following the adjournment, it turned out that the number of AK Party deputies in the session was more than that of the opposition, which revealed the opposition's failure to properly join forces against the AK Party.
The final voting resulted in AK Party's favor, and the oath-taking ceremony began with about four hours of delay.
Koray rejected the CHP's objection, saying that the independent ministers must take an oath as per Article 112 of the Constitution.

The power-sharing government headed by Davutoğlu will be in place until the upcoming early election.
CHP deputy Engin Altay argued, in a statement to Reuters following the first voting, that the interim government cannot be said to be formed as per articles 112 and 114 of the Constitution.
He added, “The president needs to send another Cabinet list.”

Oktay Vural, parliamentary group of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said the result of the voting would not have any effect on the legal front, but would prevent the independent ministers from taking part in the sessions of Parliament.
“This [first] voting demonstrates that an election [interim] government has not been formed in line with the Constitution,” the Hürriyet daily's news portal quoted Vural as saying.

When AK Party leader Davutoğlu failed to forge a coalition government following a general election in June, a caretaker government was formed to serve until the early election on Nov. 1.

Two of the opposition parties refused to be part of the interim power-sharing government headed by Davutoğlu whom they accuse of not having sincerely sought to forge a coalition.

The opposition has also accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of having worked against the formation of a coalition and having pushed instead for an early election.

According to the Constitution, all parties in Parliament should be represented in an interim government in proportion to the number of deputies each party has.

The main opposition CHP and the MHP refused to be part of the interim government, while the HDP accepted Davutoğlu's offer.
The CHP would normally be represented by five ministers in the Cabinet, while the MHP and the HDP, having the same number of deputies, would each be entitled to three ministerial posts.

In the interim Cabinet approved by President Erdoğan there is a total of 11 deputies, eight of whom were selected by Davutoğlu himself when the CHP and the MHP refused to be part of the government.

A MHP deputy accepted, in violation of its party's decision of not taking part in the Cabinet, Davutoğlu's offer to serve as a minister in the Cabinet.

A HDP deputy offered a ministerial post in the Cabinet by Davutoğlu refused, despite his party's decision, to be part of the government, accusing the AK Party of conducting a war against Kurds.

The AK Party government also sent a motion to Parliament in October 2014 requesting authorization to send troops to foreign countries, citing the displacement of millions of Syrians and the risk of an even greater influx of refugees as justification. Later the same month, the motion on Syria was merged with a similar motion on Iraq. The combined motion is due to expire in October.

The new motion will replace the one accepted last year.

Keywords: Turkey , interim government , Parliament , HDP , CHP , AK Party