Turkey Prepares for Electoral Fraud

• 02.11.2015, 14:54
•  Region,  World

"The right to resist is a universal right. It means resisting against cruelty and oppression. It has place in our faith, too. The surrender against oppression is not included in our book [the Quran]," the leader of main opposition party, Republican People’s Party (CHP), expressed his negative position  on the security draft bill presented by the Turkish government, Hurriyet reports.

The security bill which is now a topic of hot discussion between Turkish ruling and opposition parties was submitted twice to the Parliament of Turkey but for two times its debate was delayed because of the resistance of the remaining  three opposition parties. The security bill, which presupposes expanded authority for the police to behave autonomously and take action without direct orders, was also criticized by the commissioner of the Council of Europe (CoE) (Turkey is a member of this organization). On the occasion the CoE’s Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks made a statement on Monday, in which he particularly noted:

"Excessive police force comprised the majority of human rights violations in the November 2013 Turkey report.  The CoE had been critical of both the excessive use of force and the lack of any proper investigation of the officers responsible for it. However, instead of addressing these issues the Turkish government is greatly expanding the authority of the police without establishing any independent control mechanism," - “BGN News” reports.

However, in spite of mass criticism addressed against the security bill both from within and outside the country, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu remains irresistible  on his position on the bill, instead trying to find the cause of each problem outside Turkey:

"Why is this? Because April 24 is looming. The lobbies in Washington are moving. The Armenian lobby is moving, the Jewish lobby has already been moving. They will stay mobilized for as long as the Palestine issue is there. We will keep saying ‘We will continue to stand against any kind of lobbying groups as long as Palestine is under occupation," - noted Davutoğlu, reports Hurriyet.

On the eve of 24^th General Elections in Turkey that are to be held on June 7, 2015 such kind of behavior of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is more than predictable. The existing problems within Turkey make the ruling party fear that they will not be able to succeed in the upcoming elections. The only way left for ruling party to succeed is to turn to electoral frauds. This, of course, can result in strong protests in Turkey; the fact that explains preemptive measures undertaken by the ruling party; the one of which is the security bill. While the technique employed by AKP for distracting the attention of its public by pointing to the Jewish and Armenian lobbying perceived by Turkey as external threats, is a popular tool used in politics.