ANKARA (A.A) - 09.08.2002 - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Friday that it was certain that deputies who resigned from Democratic Left Party (DSP) had been disappointed.
Following DSP meeting, Ecevit told reporters that deputies who left DSP started to have relationship with rightist parties and that DSP was regarding this as strange.
Ecevit said that negative results of the decision to hold early elections had already started to be seen.
Circles that wanted early elections were regretful, Ecevit noted.
Ecevit went on saying, ''they have seen that this was a big mistake. Before early elections process, an intensive campaign was carried out against DSP. This campaign still continues. These campaigns led some of our friends to resign from our party by being affected by the atmosphere that Ecevit and DSP are no longer useful. But, I should clearly and definitely state that our party is very strong and still in power.''
''What we should do from now on is to explain the initiatives we have made so far. We have to explain them in the following two and a half months. It is certain that deputies who resigned from DSP have been disappointed. Because, DSP is a party that attributes great importance to ideology. They have forgotten about ideology. New Turkey Party (YTP) Secretary General has started to say that they are not leftist. They started to have relationship with rightist parties. We regard these as strange,'' Ecevit said.
Ecevit said that his party was facing big plots and an evidence to this was the statements of Motherland Party (ANAP) Isparta deputy Erkan Mumcu which were broadcast yesterday in a number of tv channel. Mumcu had said ''I believe that in the last three months, there are some plots against Turkish democracy and interest groups are forming a new politics for themselves.'' Ecevit said, ''the statements of this valuable politician are very true.''
After reading out his statements, Ecevit answered reporters' questions:
Question: You'll meet with Dervis today. There are all these rumors about Dervis's resignation. Would you comment on this please?
Ecevit: I don't know his intention. But he asked for an appointment and I accepted it.
Question: What would you do if Dervis resigns?
Ecevit: Without knowing his intentions, I cannot say anything about this.
Question: Dervis had some contacts with the new political formation and some ministers like State Minister Fikret Unlu.
Ecevit: We know he is close to Fikret Unlu because his daughter had worked with Dervis until yesterday. The other minister is Tayyibe Gulek and she had a meeting with Dervis about some problems of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with Treasury. As you know she is in charge of Cyprus.
Question: Newspapers are writing about different scenarios for elections. They are writing about forming a government under Ciller's prime ministry with the Motherland Party and the new political formation. Is there still a possibility of the elections being postponed?
Ecevit: I don't know is there is a possibility or now but people started regretting asking for elections. Some business circles, media groups and of course some political parties are now realizing that they made a mistake. But I think it is too late now.
Question: Is Ms. Ecevit will be a candidate in the elections?
Ecevit: She didn't tell me about such an intention.
Question: When are you going to start election tours?
Ecevit: I haven't decided yet. There are Hacibektas ceremonies on Aug. 16 and 17, I'll go there.