Bahceli: Early Elections Will Not Be Beneficial To Turkey

GEBZE (A.A) - 18.05.2002 - State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli said on Tuesday that early elections would not be beneficial to Turkey.
Responding to questions of reporters about election date, Bahceli said that early elections was held in the past but that it had negative results.
Reminding the reporters that the normal election date was April 18, 2004, Bahceli said, ''the election date is set by the Constitution. What is the need of setting a date other than this? If you think of holding early elections, then how will this economic crisis be overcome and how can Turkey's socio-economic problems be solved? We should think of all these. If there is an election expectation, particularly bureaucracy and all other issues will be suspended.''
Responding a question about decrease in election threshold and amendment to Political Parties Act, Bahceli said, ''it is not true to confuse people with random expressions on this issue. The leader of a political party visited all other political parties to get their support to a change in the Political Parties Act. Now we think that representatives of the political parties at the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission can reach a consensus on what kind of an amendment is needed. Such an amendment is also foreseen in the 57th government's programme. Every attitude which may postpone overcoming of economic crisis in Turkey should be given up and Turkey should not waste time.''
Asked about the attitude of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) towards the abolition of death sentence, Bahceli said, ''if the political parties at the parliament lift the death sentence by taking a joint action, we will respect to the will of the parliament. This will not affect the government. The Democratic Left Party (DSP) has launched an initiative in the parliament. We will see the result.''
Objecting to the comments that the bad course of economic figures stemmed from political uncertainty, Bahceli said, ''Turkey is undergoing a process of overcoming the economic crisis that has been continuing for three years. There is not any political uncertainty. The Prime Minister is in the office. The government continues its works. The parliament also continues its works efficiently. That is, the parliament is functioning, the government is working and the Prime Minister is in the office. Can there be a political uncertainty in such an environment? There should not be.''
When a reporter reminded him that State Minister Kemal Dervis ''complained about lack of coordination'', Bahceli said, ''if some people want to show a reason, many reasons can be counted. But, their validity is discussed.''
BAHCELI: IT IS DIFFICULT TO CLAIM THAT EU ADMINISTRATION IS QUITE AWARE OF TURKEY'S EFFORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNION SO FAR
Bahceli said that it was difficult to claim that the European Union (EU) administration was quite aware of Turkey's efforts and contributions to the Union so far.
Speaking at a panel discussion on ''Vision 2023-Technological Foresight'', Bahceli noted that Turkey was almost leaving behind the negative days it had been experiencing for some time.
Bahceli stated that Turkey was undergoing a turning point in which intensive discussions on its future was being made.
One of the paths in front of Turkey was EU accession, Bahceli pointed out.
Bahceli said, ''we want to take part in this union but this participation should be in compliance with the magnitude, history and potential of our country. However, it is hard to claim that EU administration is quite aware of Turkey's efforts and contributions to the Union so far.''
That the role and efficiency of Turkey in the union was more important than that of the other candidate countries could not be perceived, Bahceli noted.
''Besides, it is seen that EU membership is not taken up in detail and daily political remarks are made instead of realistic assessments also in Turkey. And this causes ordinary attitudes like making injustices, ignoring national sensitivities and despising the steps that the government took. So it is impossible for us to accept these wrong and deficient approaches and consider them a sound point of view that takes Turkey closer to the EU,'' he said.
Noting that important progress had been recorded in process of reaching European standards, Bahceli said, ''we should develop our national posture and determination and add a new momentum to the economic and social development process in order to gain a distinguished and influential place not only in Europe but also in the world.''
Bahceli said that three big reform processes that would bring Turkey to the information era of the 21st century had been initiated, and this would bring Turkey to informative and technological integration with Europe.
Pointing out that Turkey participated in ''e-Europe Initiative'' which will turn Turkey an information society together with the European countries as of the middle 2001, Bahceli said, ''a decision had been taken to participate in EU 6th Science and Technology Framework Program aiming to improve science and techology system together with Europe, and its preparations continue rapidly. It is possible to evaluate participation of this program as an important opportunity to develop Turkey's competition power and its reaching to economic targets. Because science and techology can be improved with wide cooperation networks. A project, named, 'Vision-2023 Science and Tehnology Strategies' has been started as a means to carry Turkey to the level of contemporary civilizations which Great Founder Ataturk indicated, and to reveal how we will make use of science and technology.''
Bahceli said, ''we have 20 years in front of us to evaluate well. The end of this 20 years, which will be the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Republic, will be a very meaningful evaluation period. As the nation and state, we should be in a position to say that we caught the level of contemporariness.''