ANKARA - Italian lawyer Ezio Menzione described the framework bill as a positive step, highlighting Abdullah Öcalan’s role in bringing the process to this stage and stressing the need for a broader political and social framework.

 

Italian lawyer Ezio Menzione assessed the “Strengthening Solidarity and Social Integration” bill currently under consideration by Parliament’s Justice Committee. While describing the bill as a positive step, Menzione warned that excluding Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan from its scope could create problems for the future of the process.

 

‘THE TRANSITION TO THE POLITICS’

 

Menzione said the submission of the bill to Parliament marked the beginning of the transition to the political stage. Pointing to shortcomings in the bill, Menzione said: “The most criticizable point is the exclusion of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan from the benefits the bill states. The line which excludes him seems written just for the purpose: those condemned with life sentences before June 1st 2005 are excluded: that’s a photo of Öcalan. If we think to the initiative that Öcalan has taken to let the Peace Process having its beginning, seems impossible to exclude him from the benefits and let him lay in jail. It’s a mistake that risks to sink the whole process.”

 

PARLIAMENT’S ROLE COULD BE WEAKENED BY THE EXECUTIVE’S POWERS

 

Menzione said the provisions on sentence enforcement in the bill could work well enough, provided there is the political will to implement them. Menzione stated: “The problem is that the decisions about letting the prisoners free or not is totally in the hands of the executive power. There are two poles in this story: the National Security Council and the Board who will decide, where practically all the Ministers are gathered, under the presidency of the Secretariat Genaral of the Presidency. Decisions are taken and there is a risk that this Board will obey only to the President’s desiderata. The Security Council has to verify and determine whether the arms are really dismissed or not: is it an evaluation which comes before they introduce the mechanism which lets people free or the two ones will proceed parallel together? We don’t know yet. The discussion in the Commission and in the General Assembly will clarify these two important points as well as minor ones. Otherwise the Parliament will not have any role. Which is not so democratic.”

 

‘THE KURDISH ISSUE GOES BEYOND SECURITY AND DISARMAMENT’

 

Pointing to the need for the current process to continue, Menzione said: “The Kurdish issue is much bigger that the problem of security, dismissing arms and having opponent prisoners free. It must involve two peoples: Turks and Kurds. But this bill does not deal with such problems. That’s a further step that we hope will come up soon.”

 

MA / Deniz Karabudak