No obstacles to hold democratic elections, Ankara tells PACE

The remarks of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that elections cannot be held in Turkey under the present circumstances have faced strong criticism from Ankara as the Turkish government stressed that there is no obstacle in holding genuinely democratic elections.

A PACE Monitoring Committee recommended that the elections be postponed and claimed that genuinely democratic elections cannot be held in Turkey under the present circumstances, including the imposed state of emergency, and the legitimacy of elections will be at stake.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım Tuesday voiced criticism over PACE's remarks, saying that PACE "needs to mind its own business." The prime minister also pointed out that the elections are held in a democratic atmosphere in Turkey.

In its statement, PACE said the elections will be the final step for the shift to an executive presidential system, which will grant extensive powers to the president of the Republic while limiting "checks and balances," and that it "recommends that the Turkish authorities postpone the elections."

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik also commented on the issue via his official Twitter account late Tuesday, saying, "No one can talk against Turkey's capacity to hold democratic elections and the will of our people."

Çelik underlined that the Monitoring Committee needs to protect its respectability and said these remarks are efforts to steer the election results.

"No one else but only our people's will and the institutions representing it have the right to intervene in this process. Asking for postponement of elections is exceeding one's authority," the minister said.

In response to the claims, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy also released a statement yesterday, saying the political remarks by the Monitoring Committee "are in violation to the basic liberties, principles of democracy and neglect the decision of the Turkish Parliament which reflects the will of the Turkish people."

Aksoy said the understanding, which allowed Salih Muslum, the leader of the PKK terror organization's Syrian offshoot to deliver a speech under PACE's roof, has no right or authority to give Turkey democracy lessons.

The Turkish Parliament last Friday passed a bill calling for early elections on June 24. In June, the country will hold both parliamentary and presidential elections.

Touching on the ongoing state of emergency, Aksoy highlighted that "As we underlined previously for a number of times, the state of emergency, which was obliged by the legitimate fight against terrorism, is not an obstacle for holding genuinely democratic elections."

Turkey declared a state of emergency for the first time on July 20, 2016, following a deadly coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which killed 250 people and left 2,200 injured. On April 18, Parliament voted to extend the state of emergency imposed on July 20, 2016 by another three months for the seventh time.

Aksoy stressed that in various European countries elections were held during a state of emergency given the example of France's elections in 2017. "In many international reports of observation it was confirmed that the elections in Turkey have been democratic, free, fair and transparent," Aksoy added.