Baykal: Secular And Democratic Constitution Should Be Supported In Iraq

MADRID - Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said on Sunday that a secular and democratic constitution based on preferences of people should be supported in Iraq.
Baykal, who attended the Council meeting of Socialist International (SI) in Spanish capital Madrid, told reporters that all the participants had stated that a democratic and stable structure had not yet been formed in Iraq after the war.
Asking everybody to support a secular and democratic constitution based on preferences of people in Iraq, Baykal stressed the need to hold a general election in Iraq as soon as possible to end the problematic period.
Meanwhile, CHP deputy leader Onur Oymen held a long meeting with Barham Saleh, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Oymen told A.A correspondent that he had seen that PUK had received Baykal's messages about secularism and democracy in Iraq and quoted Saleh as saying that Turkey had principal importance for them.
The resolution adopted at the end of the meeting on Iraq included the expression that SI would support formation of ''a federal state'' in Iraq.
Baykal and Oymen are expected to return to Turkey on Monday.
(BRC-AÖ) 09.02.2004