ANKARA - The parliament will discuss on Saturday the prime ministry motion on sending Turkish Armed Forces abroad and the deployment of foreign armed forces in Turkey.
The parliament will convene at 14.00 local time under the leadership of Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc. The motion will be discussed in closed session.
Article 70 of the Parliament's By-Law explains the method of holding the closed session. The parliament can hold a closed session upon the written request of the Prime Minister or a minister, or a political party or 20 deputies.
When the motion requesting a closed session is submitted, everybody except the persons who can be in such a closed session, leave the parliamentary hall. When the hall is evacuated, the reason of motion for a closed session is read out by the prime minister on behalf of the government, or a minister, or the spokesman of a political party, or a deputy. The parliament gives its decision by deputies' raising their hands to vote.
Ministers and President can take part in closed sessions as listeners.
No statement can be issued about the discussions held in the parliament in closed sessions. These discussions are kept as ''state secret.'' The records of the closed session can be published after ten years following the date of the closed session.
The government will withdraw the motion if it does not want to discuss it in the parliament. In this case, the government will either send a new motion to the parliament or give up this idea.
ERDOGAN: PRESENTATION OF MOTION TO PARLIAMENT IN FACT MEANS END OF HESITATIONS AMONG HIGH-LEVEL OFFICIALS
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that presentation of the motion on deployment of foreign troops in Turkey and dispatch of Turkish soldiers abroad to parliament in fact meant end of hesitations among high-level officials.
Replying to questions of reporters how Turkey's attitude towards Iraq issue would affect the results of by-election in southeastern Siirt province, Erdogan said that every incident would have a minor or major effect.
Erdogan noted that he thought that people should be given information in detail about the Iraq issue and believed that results of the issue would be negative, not positive. What was important was to minimize the loss, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan said that it would be wrong to consider the issue only economically and that the issue had also political and military dimensions.
Concerned state institutions were sensitive about the issue and helped shape up the final decision, Erdogan pointed out.
Asked if there was a hesitation among the high-level officials about the decision to be taken regarding Iraq, Erdogan said, ''presentation of the motion to parliament in fact meant end of hesitations among high-level officials. That is, hesitations were overcome so that the motion was sent to parliament. As AK Party, we wanted to operate democratic process fully in such an important decision. We listen to views of our deputies after our ministers give information. I chair the sessions while the prime minister is beside me. We will continue our consultations tomorrow. We will take our final step in the parliament general assembly in the direction of the decision we make in our tomorrow's meeting.''
(ÖS-BRC-AÖ) 28.02.2003