Kerestecioğlu: The situation in Turkey offers a dark future for everyone but those who hold the power


Our İstanbul MP Ms. Filiz Kerestecioğlu delivered a speech at Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's the situation in Turkey in light of the attempted coup d’Etat session.

Thank you president, 

Dear Colleagues,

I am one of the 55 MPs of our political party whose immunities were lifted through a provisional Constitutional amendment before the coup. The case launched against me is on a ridiculous charge of “violating the law on assembly” for participating in a press statement which is organized by women against war! However, the crackdown in Turkey come to an even more uncontrollable point with the attempted coup.

The attempted military coup in Turkey on July 15th had drastic short-term and far-reaching long-term consequences. The day after the coup attempt, four main political parties condemned it with a joint statement that was presented in the Parliament. Since the coup was foiled as a result of everyone standing against it, and declaring that coups would kill all hopes for democracy in Turkey; we would expect our government to understand the value of democracy, and take action against all the violations of democratic rights in Turkey. However to this day, the attempted coup has been used as a tool to silent the opposition.

The degree of purges that the government and Erdoğan are carrying out, reaches beyond the suspected party perpetrating the coup. In the education sector alone, some 30 thousands teachers have lost their jobs. Several government employees who attended a one day strike for peace in Kurdish towns have been dismissed or suspended. 41 academics were banned from public service for signing just a peace petition, via a cabinet decree. 

Elected local governors were replaced by trustees. Many female local municipal representatives lost their positions. These shifts mean that there will be inadequate attention given to women’s issues.

In the aftermath of the attempted coup, Turkey’s freedom of press has reached a crisis. Even “Smurfs” and “Sponge Bob Square Pants” dubbed in Kurdish could not escape the crackdown in Turkey. Zarok TV, the country’s first and only Kurdish-language channel for children was shut down for supporting “separatist and subversive” activities in Turkey. The offices for 23 newspapers, televisions and radio stations were shut down last week. We witnessed a similar scene as the coup’s soldiers raided the CNN channel on the night of the coup. Police raided TV channels and forced journalists to go off the air in exactly the same fashion as the coup soldiers.

Today, the attempted coup is no more than an excuse for the authoritarian rule of Erdoğan and his cabinet. Now the violent truth is that they offloaded the blame of the coup to ordinary people, since the political links of the coup are still obscure. After all these violations, we still do not know who planned and perpetrated the coup.

Torture reemerged as a public issue. Rights to fair investigations and trials have been violated. Just as our warnings on the Gülen Movement were not taken in a serious manner, our warnings on democracy are now also ignored. The situation in Turkey offers a dark future for everyone but those who hold the power.

Today, in order to brighten the future of the people of Turkey the solidarity of all progressives from all round world plays a crucial role.


Filiz Kerestecioğlu, Member of Parliament, Turkey

October 12, 2016