{"id":1433,"date":"2015-04-10T14:45:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T14:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2015-04-12T11:35:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T11:35:04","slug":"turkeys-minorities-join-race-for-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1433","title":{"rendered":"Turkey’s minorities join race for parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

By FEHIM TA\u015eTEKIN*
\nAl Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s political parties announced their ambitious candidate lists this week for the June 7 general elections, which will deliver a fateful verdict on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s ambitions to install a presidential system. In a remarkable development, the parties have opened up to minority groups, which have been largely sidelined from politics, excluding the early years of the modern republic. Members of the Greek, Armenian, Yazidi and Roma communities have been given favorable spots on the slates, raising the prospect of strong minority representation in the next parliament.<\/p>\n

\"Selahattin<\/a>
Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, addresses his party members as he starts his campaign for Turkey’s June 7 parliamentary elections, during a meeting in Ankara, April 10, 2015. (photo by REUTERS\/Umit Bektas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party<\/a> (HDP), on a quest to become a nationwide party appealing to voters beyond its traditional Kurdish base, has fielded three Armenian candidates \u2014 Garo (Karabet) Paylan, Murad Mihci and Filor Uluk Benli \u2014 in addition to two Yazidis, Ali Atalan and Feleknaz Uca, and the Syriac Erol Dora. The list of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) features Armenian journalist Markar Esayan.<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise came from the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), where an in-house struggle is underway between neo-nationalist and reformist wings. The party fielded ethnic Armenian lawyer Selina Ozuzun Dogan as its top candidate in Istanbul\u2019s 2nd District, a move that sparked controversy within the CHP, where the camp denying the Armenian genocide holds the upper hand. CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu reportedly had to make a choice between Dogan and Goksel Gulbey, head of the Association for Struggle Against False Armenian Claims, which has been at the forefront of genocide denial campaigns. Convinced that fielding both would be a contradiction, the CHP leader favored Dogan over Gulbey, who had applied to run in the eastern province of Igdir.<\/p>\n

Dogan was immediately questioned whether she would bring up the \u201cArmenian allegations\u201d in parliament. In remarks to Al Jazeera Turk, she said she disliked the question, stressing that Turkey\u2019s democratization<\/a> was her first priority. Some in the party called on Dogan to withdraw her candidacy<\/a>, while neo-nationalist circles slammed the CHP, saying that Ataturk\u2019s party had fielded a candidate promoting the Armenian allegations. The daily Aydinlik, for instance, ran a story headlined, \u201cThe CHP\u2019s centenary present<\/a> to the [Armenian] diaspora,\u201d evoking this year\u2019s 100th anniversary of the Armenian massacres. Referring to Dogan\u2019s husband, a well-known lawyer, the newspaper wrote that \u201cthe CHP fielded the wife of Erdal Dogan, who had branded the Turkish Republic a genocide perpetrator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erosion through the years<\/strong><\/p>\n

The election of these Armenian candidates would mark an Armenian comeback in parliament after a 51-year absence. The last Armenian to hold a parliamentary seat was Berc Sahak Turan, who served in the now defunct Republican Senate from 1961 to 1964.<\/p>\n

In total, only 24 representatives<\/a> of non-Muslim minorities have held parliamentary seats in Turkey\u2019s republican history. The first was Berc Keresteciyan, an Armenian who entered parliament in 1935 on Ataturk\u2019s non-Muslim contingent. Besides Keresteciyan, who was re-elected twice, two Greeks, two Jews and an Orthodox Turk served in parliament during the CHP\u2019s 27-year single-party rule, when no other party could contest the elections.<\/p>\n

In the 1946 polls, which marked the beginning of the multiparty system, Nikola Fakacelli and Vasil Konos, both from the Greek Orthodox community, became parliament members on the CHP ticket. From 1950 to 1960, when the Democrat Party ruled Turkey, four Jews, three Greeks and three Armenians served in the legislature. The Founding Assembly created after the military coup of May 27, 1960, included Erol Dilek, Kaludi Laskari and Hermine Agavni Kalustyan as representatives of, respectively, the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities. Kalustyan was also the republic\u2019s first non-Muslim minority woman to serve in parliament.<\/p>\n

After Armenian lawmaker Turan completed his term in 1964, non-Muslim minorities have remained without parliamentary representation for 31 years. In 1995, Cefi Kamhi, a Jew, broke the hiatus for four years. From 1999 to 2011, non-Muslims were absent again. In the outgoing parliament, the Syriac Erol Dora is the only non-Muslim minority representative.<\/p>\n

Vying for the Alevi vote<\/strong><\/p>\n

The election campaign has also produced surprises with respect to Muslim ethnic minorities. In an unprecedented move, the CHP fielded a Roma candidate, Ozcan Purcu, in the western province of Izmir, sparking excitement among one of Turkey\u2019s most ostracized communities. Running against Purcu will be the AKP\u2019s Cemal Bekle, who is also of Roma origin. The HDP, for its part, fielded a Roma candidate, Sedat Zimba, in the northwestern province of Edirne.<\/p>\n

A remarkable CHP-HDP competition is also underway for the vote of the Alevi community, which the AKP government has seriously alienated and ostracized since the outbreak of the Syrian war. Both parties\u2019 tickets feature prominent Alevis<\/a>. The HDP\u2019s list includes Turgut Oker, the head of the Confederation of European Alevi Unions; Ali Kenanoglu, chairman of the Hubyar Sultan Alevi Culture Association; and Muslum Dogan, head of the Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association. On the CHP ticket, meanwhile, Alevi figures such as Elif Dogan Turkmen, Necati Yilmaz, Ali Haydar Hakverdi, Tufan Kose and Veli Agbaba are in spots that more or less guarantee their election.<\/p>\n

The AKP, on the other hand, lacks any noticeable Alevi candidate, well aware it can no longer lure Alevi support after the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which saw a number of Alevi demonstrators killed. The Nationalist Action Party similarly lacks Alevi candidates.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s next parliament is likely to be more pluralist than its predecessors, with members of ethnic and religious minorities standing a strong chance of clinching seats. But a question as important as their representation is whether they will be able to work free of pressure, without suppressing their diverse identities.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s uniformist culture still dictates that \u201cyou can enter parliament as an Armenian, but you can\u2019t bring up the genocide allegations.\u201d The Alevis face a similar pressure<\/a>, as reflected in the touching farewell speech of Ibrahim Yigit, the Alevi religious figure who is completing a second term as an AKP lawmaker. \u201cI\u2019m leaving parliament, having failed to get the cemevis recognized,\u201d he said this week, referring to the Alevi houses of worship that are not officially acknowledged as such. \u201cAll Alevi openings [of the AKP] got snagged<\/a> at a certain point.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the point of parliamentary representation for ethnic and religious minority members if they fail to raise and resolve the problems of their communities? The country\u2019s near history has seen even the expulsion of elected Kurds from parliament. Turkey will make a real progress only when Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs, Yazidis and Roma have a free rostrum to raise their demands, without getting booed.<\/p>\n

\n

* Fehim Ta\u015ftekin is a columnist and chief editor of foreign news at the Turkish newspaper Radikal, based in Istanbul. He is the host of a fortnightly program called “Dogu Divan\u0131” on IMC TV. He is an analyst specializing in Turkish foreign policy and Caucasus, Middle East and EU affairs. He was founding editor of Agency Caucasus.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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