Green Party in Turkey

Turkish Greens to establish a new political party

The Greens of Turkey, who have struggled to establish their movement in Turkey since the 1980s, will seek to become a political party at the end of this month, with a platform based upon environmental principles and direct democracy.

This will be the second effort of the Greens to set up a political party; the first came in 1988 and was successful, but the party was closed down in 1994 by the Constitutional Court due to irregularities in the party budget.

In an interview with Today’s Zaman, Greens spokesman Ümit Tahin said the organizational structure of the party will be different from others. “We will of course fulfill the requirements of the Law on Political Parties, but we will have our own rules, such as a 50 percent quota of women members and rotation of party officials. We will not have a leader, but rather one man and one woman spokesperson,” Tahin noted.

The Greens of Turkey, even before becoming a political party, were accepted as an observer in the European Green Parties Council in 2005.

The Greens of Turkey have the same platform as many other global Greens -- ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, decentralization, community-based economics, feminism, respect for diversity, global responsibility and future focus.

In their party program, detailed on their Web site, the Greens of Turkey claim that wars were started in order to control water and oil resources in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia, while Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq were occupied and Turkey is in the middle of all these problems; thus, they say, international politics based on regional cooperation, peace and friendship is necessary. The Greens of Turkey have pledged to cooperate with the Greens of the world to overcome these problems and not to act on the basis of nationalism.

According to the Greens, Turkey is suffering from human rights violations, military coups and social injustice, all stemming from an authoritarian approach to governing.

The Greens note that their movement began based on civil society organizations but that in recent years the concept of civil society organizations has been abused. The Greens say they will derive their power from real civil society organizations that are working for democracy.

The Greens define the existing Constitution as a product of the 1980 military coup and demand that a new, shorter constitution be created that focuses on basic rights. According to the Greens all types of interference in democratic politics should be banned. They note that the new constitution should emphasize that the freedoms of citizens should not be restricted in the interest of the state. They would also like to see restrictions on and civil monitoring of military expenditures along with the abolishment of the National Security Council (MGK). The Greens also want Turkey to withdraw from NATO, the Americans to be prevented from using İncirlik Air Base and the complete demilitarization of Cyprus. When it comes to the EU the Greens are in favor of continuing with the country’s accession negotiations but pledge to work for an EU based on Green principles.

Regarding the Kurdish question the Greens propose that Turkey must confront the mistakes of the past and recognize the Kurdish identity.

The Greens will discuss the details of the party’s bylaws on June 21 during a meeting in İstanbul.
11.06.2008
News
AYŞE KARABAT

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=144502


Yeşıller (Greens of Turkey) website: http://www.yesiller.org/