Parliament speaker asked to resign after PM allegedly scolds him

The opposition has asked Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin to resign after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan allegedly scolded him during a fierce debate Tuesday in Parliament over the Kurdish initiative.

Şahin denied the claims in a written statement Wednesday.

Deputies from the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, said Erdoğan scolded his former justice minister by saying: “Make them pull down these banners. Is this how you rule Parliament?”

CHP deputies had raised banners reading, “My leader, we will make your Republic live forever,” to protest the scheduling of a discussion about the government’s Kurdish initiative on the 71st anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.

Denying the claims in a written statement Wednesday, Şahin called on the Parliamentary General Administration Board to discuss the banner incident in a meeting next Monday.

Nurettin Canikli, the parliamentary group deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, also denied the claims. “I did not hear such a dialogue,” he said.

“Some MPs have expressed their feelings about the meaning of the Nov. 10 session. We should see such events in the nature of democracy,” CHP leader Deniz Baykal said. “The prime minister is not the commander of Parliament. He has no authority to rule over Parliament by giving instructions to the parliament speaker.”

“The prime minister should be aware of his limits,” Baykal added. “He has changed the parliament speaker, but it is clear that he is still unhappy with how Parliament works. It is not our business to make the prime minister happy. He is not the king of the country.”

The CHP’s parliamentary group deputy chairman, Hakkı Süha Okay, said the prime minister had publicly insulted the parliament speaker. “Under the existing conditions, the Parliament is unable to carry out its functions,” Okay said. “The parliament speaker should immediately resign to protect his honor.”

The MHP’s parliamentary group deputy chairman, Mehmet Şandır, voiced a similar opinion, though he admitted he did not witness the incident. “If the prime minister made reproving remarks against the parliament speaker, we call on him to apologize,” Şandır said. “If the parliament speaker kept his silence against such insulting behavior, he should resign from his position.”

Oktay Vural, the deputy head of MHP’s parliamentary group, also criticized Erdoğan. “Is the parliament speaker a civil servant working for you? How dare you scold the parliament speaker?” Vural said. “If you have any objection, your parliamentary group should voice it. Does he feel that he is the king of the country?”

Initiative rocks budget-commission session

The government’s Kurdish initiative also triggered debate Wednesday during a meeting of the Planning and Budget Commission.

As Interior Minister Beşir Atalay was delivering an address regarding his ministry’s 2010 budget, some MHP deputies shouted, “You are ordering police to beat the relatives of fallen soldiers.”

“We only prevent them from coming to Parliament. Nobody has beaten them. You don’t understand,” Atalay said.

MHP deputy Erkan Akçay responded: “Why not? Are we stupid? What did you say that we didn’t catch? You have failed to tell us.”

DTP looks forward to initiative sessions in Parliament

According to Selahattin Demirtaş, the deputy head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, the Kurdish issue is Turkey’s biggest problem. “All aspects of this issue should be discussed in Parliament,” he said. “We want the investigation proposals to be brought onto the agenda as well.”