In a speech he delivered at a ceremony to mark the resumption of parliamentary activity on Wednesday, Gül emphasized the risks created by the US-centered global economic crisis and called on Turkey’s bickering politicians to stop quarrelling about petty points and concentrate on higher targets for the country.

“The cost of futile conflicts in the past has borne heavy costs on our country,” Gül warned politicians, adding, “I hope that the opening day coinciding with a bayram day would contribute to the creation of a political climate based on tolerance, cooperation and mutual respect.” Gül said in his speech that commitment to democracy is the key to solving all of Turkey’s fundamental problems. He also emphasized the importance of European Union reforms and called on the government to step up its efforts in that regard.

The president said adopting a new and more democratic constitution for Turkey, an issue that has been on the country’s agenda for the past 20 years, was crucial for democracy. The new constitution should “strengthen our national unity and social solidarity,” he said. “It shouldn’t be excluding others, but including all. It should take under guarantee fundamental rights and freedoms. It should strongly affirm the understanding of democratic, secular and social state of law.”

DTP and Bahçeli against ethnic conflict

Also last night, Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan hosted a reception to mark the start of the new legislative year. President Gül, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, ministers, ambassadors and bureaucrats participated in the reception. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was represented by deputy group leaders Kemal Anadol and Hakkı Suha Okay, while the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was represented at the level of its deputies due to the health problems of DTP parliamentary group leader Ahmet Türk. Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ and force commanders did not attend any of the events to mark the beginning of the new legislative year, including the reception, to protest the presence of the pro-Kurdish DTP.

DTP Muş deputies Sırrı Sakık and Nuri Yaman and MHP leader Bahçeli chatted for some time at the reception. Incidents between Turkish and Kurdish ethnic groups in Altınova, Balıkesir, that broke on Wednesday was the heart of the conversation. Sakık asked Bahçeli for his party’s support to block efforts to create an ethnic conflict between Turks and Kurds in the Balıkesir area. Bahçeli said they were closely monitoring the issue and do their best.

Erdoğan rejects live broadcast proposal

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Erdoğan, in response to a question from the press, said he refused to appear on a live show with CHP leader Deniz Baykal on television for a televised duel with his rival politician. “I am not in an effort to show off. We will not keep these things high on our agenda, but things we get done,” he said and called on Baykal and other politicians to post their asset statements on the Internet to increase transparency.

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