Ecevit: Turkey Faces With A Serious State Problem

ANKARA - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who also acts as the leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), said on Monday that Turkey came face to face with a serious state problem after Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power, and noted that, ''the government that will be founded by this party, which came to power alone, can not represent the ruling in real sense.''
Ecevit received journalists to bid farewell.
Speaking at the meeting, Ecevit defended that Turkey faced with a serious state problem after AK Party came to ruling, claiming that the government that would be founded by this party which came to power alone could not represent the ruling in real sense.
Ecevit said a person, who was not a parliamentarian, would determine the prime minister and the ministers, stressing that Council of Ministers would be administered by a person who is not a prime minister in real sense.
Ecevit said, ''I mean Turkey will be in a position that is administered by a shadow prime minister and government. This will lead serious problems within and outside the country.''
Ecevit said, ''it was stated that AK Party would decrease affairs of prime ministry to the level of coordination. This development and intentions mean a rooted and conflicted change in regime. However, a different situation will appear if a prime minister that will be determined by a party leader who is not a parliamentarian, can reveal his own personality against the leader of his party. Then, there will be crisis within the ruling.''
Ecevit said, ''leader of AK Party, who is inefficient with respect to constitutional means, take important foreign policy steps on his own. This is totally something causing concern.''
ECEVIT: ON MY PERSONAL VIEW, AK PARTY'S BEING IN POWER CAN CAUSE SEVERAL DRAWBACKS FOR SECULAR AND DEMOCRATIC REGIME
Noting that external leading of the government by the leader of the political party in the power would cause serious problems, Ecevit said he did not suppose that a healthy government functioning could be achieved with such a governing method.
Question: Do you expect a social tension due to election results and the process after the elections?
Ecevit: Several tensions may erupt after formation of the government. The prime minister will be de facto prime minister because the real prime minister will be Mr. Tayyip Erdogan. It is clear that this is required by the laws. Several problems may occur during those stages. But at this stage, there may not be a problem.
Question: What should be done to overcome those, what is your proposal? Ecevit: I have not caused this problem. So, it is not my responsibility to propose solution. However, there is something in question that is related to law. According to this, administrating of leader of ruling party apart from the government would lead to serious problems. Of course, a solution can be found to this with a constitutional amendment. But this may also cause other problems. In fact, a visible problem erupted from now on. It should be focused on seriously. I mean, I don't think that operation of a healthy government can not take place with this administration method.
Question: Who caused this problem?
Ecevit: There are some conflicts and problems between Mr. Erdogan and law. Although those are known, Erdogan was actively brought to leadership that would carry out the prime ministry. May be a normal order could have been set up if Erdogan was not brought to leadership beforehand. He could have come to that position after a constitutional amendment. But now that there is a conflicted situation. This will lead to some difficulties. We are not responsible for this. The ruling party should primarily show the solution of this.
Question: AK Party is trying to make an amendment in Article 109 of the Constitution to make Erdogan prime minister. Do you think that Article 109 should be changed, can this have drawbacks?
Ecevit: I don't want to enter those details at the time being. I mean I reveal the problem. This problem is disregarded at the moment. However, it should be seen and discussed from now on. A solution can be found. It is not possible to administer the country for a long time with a prime minister outside the government.
Question: Will of people was revealed at the elections. The people casted votes for AK Party knowing this. How do you evaluate this?
Ecevit: Of course, the will of the people appeared like this. I don't have the right to say anything. May be those details were not discussed in front of public beforehand. I mean this was not brought onto the agenda of Turkey. According to my idea, AK Party's being at the ruling in this or that way may create some drawbacks for secular and democratic regime. I openly stated this at the beginning. However, most of the public disregarded this. I hope there will not be some negative results with this respect. I hope that this party, I mean the ruling party, will take into consideration that faithfulness to secular democratic regime with sensitivity was a condition for a healthy state order in Turkey. As I said, I made my warnings in this respect but they were not considered. However, those issues will be discussed as the incidents develop.
ECEVIT: AFTER I QUIT AS DSP LEADER, I WILL BE PLEASED TO GIVE EVERY SERVICE TO DSP
Question: What is your plan about the future? What do you want to do?
Ecevit: As I announced before the elections that I decided to quit as the DSP leader. I easily took this decision because the party's structure has become much stronger after resignations and the recent fluctuations. Now, I can willingly hand over leadership. I have many friends who can successfully fulfil this mission. The new leader will be determined by party members at the convention. It is still not clear when this will happen but I hope that it would be concluded as soon as possible. I will continue to be a DSP member. I will be pleased to give every kind of service to the DSP. So I won't give up active politics completely.
Question: Are you planning to take a vacation?
Ecevit: The current situation is not favorable for us to take a vacation. We are happy with our house. When we walk in the garden, we feel like we are on holiday.
Question: You were a journalist. Are you planning to work as a columnist of a newspaper in coming days?
Ecevit: No, I don't have such a plan.
Question: Are you planning to visit Cyprus? Will you attend ceremonies on November 15 to mark anniversary of foundation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)?
Ecevit: No. I won't visit the TRNC during the ceremonies. The Turkish state will be represented there. However, I will be pleased to visit Cyprus in the future.
Question: Will you be in Ankara after you retire or are you planning to live outside Ankara?
Ecevit: There are many things that I can do in my house in Ankara. I have a large archive. I want to carry out several works on basis of those archives.
Question: So far, many books have been written about you. Will you write a book about you and politics?
Ecevit: I don't think of writing a book about myself. However, I give every assistance if there are persons who want to write such a book.
Question: Have you ever regretted a development or a thing that occurred during your government?
Ecevit: I have not thought about it, but it might have happened.
Question: Will your wife Rahsan Ecevit also leave active politics?
Ecevit: She has a very important mission now. She is the deputy leader responsible for organization. She knows well about our party and members. So she will continue her mission during congresses.
Question: We wonder whether or not your coalition partners had the position like 'what did we do and where did we do wrong?' during your meetings with them prior to the last Council of Ministers meeting last week.
Ecevit: I did not discuss anything with Mr. Devlet Bahceli and Mr. Mesut Yilmaz before last week's Council of Ministers meeting. We came together for five minutes and later, we attended the Council of Ministers meeting.
Question: Do the three partners have offense among each other?
Ecevit: I have not been offended by them. I don't know whether they have been offended.
Question: Mrs. Rahsan Ecevit had some concerns about the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) during process of formation of the government. How much your concerns have been removed after a 3.5 years of partnership?
Ecevit: There was not any problem either with MHP or ANAP.
Question: Your coalition partners announced after election results that they would quit. What do you think about it?
Ecevit: I cannot make comment on this issue.
ECEVIT: I FELT UNEASY OVER THE STATEMENTS OF ERDOGAN, WHO WILL NOT BE PRIME MINISTER FORMALLY, THAT HE WOULD GO TO GREECE AND CYPRUS
Question: What can be the serious problems, which you mentioned in AK Party ruling, can be in the short term?
Ecevit: Of course we may meet very serious problems in foreign relations. In fact, we already had. Importance of foreign relations increased very much recently. They were accelerated again particularly in the recent months. To this end, I felt concern when Erdogan, who could not be prime minister formally, and who, as far as I know has not been interested in foreign problems closely earlier, made a statement immediately after the elections saying that he would go to Greece and Cyprus. Of course, any citizen may go to TRNC at any time and any stage, and this will be pleasing, this is something different. However, he made a statement saying that he would first go to Greece and later to Cyprus, but that when reactions came from public, he had stated that he would visit Greece afterwards, and later he made another statement saying he would give priority to some other countries. I felt strange over this with respect to timing. Because those are related to national problems on which a party would undertake on its own. This could have been determined after the foundation and operation of the government. He had to talk with the Foreign Minister before making statements about foreign relations. This does not mean that he would accept every idea of the foreign minister, but Foreign Ministry has an important experience and knowledge in this respect. National Security Council (NSC) is an extremely important institution with respect to internal and external problems. Of course, he had to make a detailed meeting with the President. His statements that he would visit those countries, and his stepping back afterwards, show that it is not right to show yourself without preparation.''
Question: What can be the serious problems inside?
Ecevit: Secular democratic regime should be protected carefully. This is the leading issue of continuation and strengthening of our state in the line determined by Ataturk. Steps that will or will not be taken will particularly interest relations with the EU and foreign world. For example, the EU officials, speaking before the meeting, said they would wait for the government that would be set up before giving a decision regarded with Turkey's full membership. This shows the vital importance of secularism and democracy with respect to foreign relations as well as foreign relations.''
On the other hand, the 57th government made important reforms to get rid of the heavy economical problems by risking to pay significant prices during its term and that is accepted both by Turkey and by other countries. Unfortunately, the early elections was brought into agenda at the moment when we started to reflect those reforms to public and take the positive results.
The careful implementation of steps which we had taken in economic field will be one of the duties we will expect from the new government. The decrease in inflation and increase in production during an election atmosphere is an important situation and that opportunity should not be missed. We will expect the protection of the progress in export, tourism, automotive and textile industry from the new government.
Question : CHP leader Deniz Baykal emphasizes a subject in accordance with secularism which says the situation of President reached an important point. Do you have the same idea?
Ecevit: The responsibilities of President are very important, and President is very sensitive about secularism. Thus, it is a positive thing that Sezer had the mission of presidency.
Question : Do you say that ''Fortunately, we appointed Ahmet Necdet Sezer to presidency.''?
Ecevit: President is fulfilling his mission very successfully and carefully so I support his mission instead of dealing with what happened in the past.
Question: You said that your government made great progress in its term. Why the three partners of government did not pass the threshold?
Ecevit: We accept that our people had great difficulty in 3.5 years period. Its reasons are clear. We should sacrifice ourselves to refresh the economy both for ourselves and for public. We made progress about this subject and took results. I believe that if Turkey had elections on April 2004, instead of early elections with continuation of the harmony between the coalition partners, the citizens would have made very different evaluations.
Question: Do you say that you sacrifice yourselves for the future of Turkey and for the development of society?
Ecevit: Yes.