ANKARA - - 27.07.2004 - The Central Executive Board of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) decided to call the Turkish parliament to convene in an extraordinary session in August and to present a censure motion against Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim, regarding the train derailment in Pamukova.
CHP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman Haluk Koc said on Tuesday that the CHP petition calling for an extraordinary session and censure motion might be submitted to the Parliament Speaker's Office tomorrow (Wednesday).
The CHP Central Executive Board convened today under chairmanship of party leader Deniz Baykal.
Speaking to reporters while the meeting was continuing, CHP deputy leader Esref Erdem said they had expected Transportation Minister Yildirim to resign after the train crash but he had not resigned so far and furthermore he had ''challenged''.
Arguing that the minister and those who were responsible should immediately resign for the sake of a reliable investigation, Erdem said: ''our party's central executive board has decided to call the parliament to convene in an extraordinary session in August to investigate the incident. We will present a censure motion against the Transportation Minister. Launching this project before preparing the necessary infrastructure is a crime.''
''After we submit our petition, the Parliament Speaker must call the MPs to convene within one week at the latest. I hope that also AK Party deputies respond in a positive manner to our call ,'' he said.
Replying to a question, Erdem said that this would be their first ever censure motion against a minister of the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) government.
A non-stop train derailed near Pamukova town of northwestern province of Sakarya on July 22, killing 38 people and injuring 80 others.
(MS-ULG) 27.07.2004