Şişli Municipality EU Center implemented the fourth of EU Conversations.
Many social democrats from Turkey and Europe participated in the round table meeting with the subject of "Social Democracy in Tukey and it’s reflections in Europe".
The opening speech of the meeting was made by Mr Mustafa Sarıgül and many German Social Democrat Party Parliament Members were attended as well as CHP Parliament Members Professor Dr. Mehmet Tomanbay, Hasan Aydın, Muharrem Toprak, İsmail Değerli. Among the other attendants of the round table, there were The President of Social Democracy Association Erol Tuncer, Columnist of Radikal Newspaper Tarhan Erdem, SODEV President Aydın Cıngı, Uludağ University Member Professor Dr. Ali Yaşar Sarıbay, DİSK General President Süleyman Çelebi, ESTIMA General manager Tonguç Çoban, Former Central Bank Deputy General manager Ali Osman Işık as well as several representives of non-governmental establishments, universities, other municipalities and from the business world.
The opening speech of the meeting was done by Şişli Mayor Mustafa Sarıgül and the session president was European Parliament Former Parliament Member Ozan Ceyhun. The meeting was implemented as two sessions and Hessen State Parliament SPD Group President Jürgen Walter, State Parliament Member and former Minister of Interior Politics Spokesman Gerhard Bökel, CHP Parliament Member Professor Dr. Mehmet Tomanbay, State Parliament Member and Europe Politics Spokesman Christel Hoffmann, State Parliament Member and former Minister of National Education Hartmurt Holzapfel and DİSK General President Süleyman Çelebi stated their stand point of view as the panelists of the meeting.
Mr Mustafa Sarıgül made referencings to CHP and stated that CHP was not the alternative for the government although the social state was needed the most and stated that the party directors do not have the right to celebrate the 83rd celebration of the party. Sarıgül said : "The love and the concern of our citizens to us after the election is a new alternative. It is the Messenger of new political wind."
"CHP could not be in power for 60 years and CHP must not make calculations for electoral barrage"
Sarıgül said : "Let’s leave the possibility to become an alternative for the governance, we are observing CHP as being exemplary because of their calculations on popular votes for the barrage and the way they celebrate the 83rd year of CHP and the way they are decking everywhere with flags". Sarigül stated that CHP could not respond to the expectations of the public and further said : "In the last elections, there was a crushing defeat in 73 provinces out of 83 and this was not seen in the history before. While this was happening they were not bashful and were sitting in their places and were praising about being a party of 83 years while on the contrary they could not even show candidates for 725 boroughs out of 850 and 1020 city sites out of 2294 and consequently, they do not have the right to celebrate the 83rd year." and critisized CHP General President Deniz Baykal and his team.
Sarıgül said that it would have been much better if they evaluated the recent situation instead of speaking out of fashion speeches during CHP's 83rd anniversary and CHP must be questioned for the reason not becoming in power for 60 almost years with the exception of few coalition partnerships.
Sarıgül stated that the political winds of the world are very important and up to a level, they effect the politics of the country and yet we can not leave the country’s politics to the winds of the world. If we left Şişli to the political winds in Turkey, we would never be able to get 70% vote rate. "The love and the concern of our citizens to us after the election is a new alternative. It is the Messenger of new political wind."
"There is no order in CHP !."
In his address Sarıgül stated that in accordance with the changes in economical and social conditions, these kind of situations can happen to the political parties. Sarıgül said : "The important thing is that the party should keep the democratic channels open to obtain new and fresh blood. Unfortunatelly, the directors of CHP has chosen the way to close these channels instead of keeping them open.’’
"It is a virtue to leave the chair on the right time"
Sarıgül showed former Germany Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder and the Prime Minister Tony Blair as the samples and pointed out that when the politics are obstructed, it is virtue to leave the chair. Sarigül also pointed out that the political efficiency could only be obtained by the support of the public. "In this situation, unless the power allows, you can not even hinder offical letters or anything like it".
"We are in the public squares not for the chair, but for the struggle of democracy and for the governance of CHP"
Sarıgül stated that the love and the concern of our citizens to us after the election is a new alternative and it is the Messenger of new political wind.
Sarıgül said : "Out of this country’s 70 million population, 60% is under the age of thirty and the political area of this country can not be this narrow. Our struggle is not for the chair but it is the struggle of democracy and it is for the governance of CHP alone. The politics in Turkey must democratized. In this respect, we will keep on raising our heads till the end against the undemocratic order in the party.’’
For this concern, Mayor Sarıgül indicated the drafts for the ‘’Political Parties Law’’ and ‘’Election Law’’ which they prepared and also thanked to CHP Ankara Parliament Member Professor Dr. Mehmet Tomanbay for the preparation of the same.
"The Left must meet with the community"
DİSK President Süleyman Çelebi stated that Turkey is not having a change to live democracy with the real meaning and for this reason the people are under the pressure of unemployment and poverty and he also highlighted the problems of education and health areas. Çelebi stated that a social democrat power is possible in Turkey. Çelebi said : "In Turkey, the left must meet with the people and must face the public with the solutions proposals instead of slogans. We can only be help for the people by being close to them and not by frightening them. The social democrats in Turkey must be hand in hand and must be combined to place the Left in power. This must be done instead of weeping." Çelebi indicated that in Turkey there is not a real social governance in Turkey and it will not be possible for the social democrats to come into power with this attitude which is closed and out of age approached.
Çelebi said : ''In the west, general presidents are changed by the members while in here the members are changed by the general presidents’’ and also stated that in Turkey it would be correct to discuss about the left and the social democracy instead of CHP.
Çelebi finally stated that in order to implement social democrat power ‘’the field must be entered’’ and said that as DISK they are on the field and they are calling all social democrats to make participation in this process.
Walter, "CHP is our Party’’
Germany Hessen State Parliament Social Democrat Part (SPD) Group President Jürgen Walter also wished that CHP could be in power on it’s 85th anniversary.
Walter named CHP as ''Our Party'' and stated that it was not hard to democratize CHP and this could be achieved by being hand in hand and as being the social democrats in Hessen, they would do their best to achieve this. During his speech Walter also mentioned about the EUR subject and stated that UE will have a gain together with Turkey and said : ''As the party, we definetly want Turkey to be a member of EU’’. Walter critisized Turkey report of European Parliament and stated that the ones who prepared that could not see the developments in Turkey.
CHP Ankara Parliament Member Mehmet Tomanbay stated that he is living the sorrow of CHP's big enthusiastic celebration of the anniversary. Tomambay indicated that in Turkey there is the hegemony of the leaders and the future of Turkey should not be between the lips of two leaders and with this referring he implied Deniz Baykal and Tayyip Erdoğan.
In his evaluation, Tahran Erdem stated that there was no party democracy in Turkey and both CHP and AKP has leader democracies. CHP İstanbul Parliament Member Hasan Aydın defended that CHP has lost it’s democratic qualifications.
Social Democracy Association President Erol Tuncer stated that in Turkey the government has lost power and in despite of this fact the oppositions parties did not gain any additional power.
The third of Şişli Municipality EU Center EU Conversations was implemented in Ritz Carlton Hotel on 26 May 2006 Friday.
“European Union Energy Policy and Turkey ” subjected conference had two panels and in the first part the subjects were : Is there a general energy policy of European Union in the light of the relative directives in EU ? What must be done to have it in future ? What are the national energy policies of the EU member countries, would could be the utilities to form the Union Policy ? and the relative replies were given to such subject. The speakers of the first part were : European Parliament German Social Democrat Group President Bernhard Rapkay and AB expert Burcu Dağürküden from Brussels. Rapkay provided satisfying acknowledgements on the political dimension of the energy policy with his Parliamentarian characteristic. And, Burcu Dağürküden analyzed in technical level the steps taken by EU in order to configure the general energy policy of EU. Both of the speakers pointed out the meanings of these steps and what kind of policies should be configured for future periods. The question and answer part was very active and the attendants forwarded many questions to the speakers coming from Brussels about the general EU policies and the utilization of Turkey from EU programs and also the standpoint of Turkey during EU negotiation process.
In the second session of the conference, the details of the Energy heading of Turkey within EU membership process was abstracted and the general energy policy of Turkey was discussed. The speakers of this part were all experts in their own fields. İTÜ Energy Unstitute Energy Planning and Management Main Science Branch President Professor Dr. Sermin Onaygil, made an evaluation on Turkey’s and EU’s energy strategies and then pointed out the efficiency of the energy and stated the points in order to have progress in the issue. From European Commission Turkey Delegation, Burçin Pamuksuz, highlighted the required steps and the progress achieved by Turkey for the energy issue during EU negotiations process. Alarko Energy Group Coordinator Tarhan Günay brought another dimension to the discussions of his introduction of business world and energy and implemented a presentation about the valid energy policies in the business world.
“European Union Energy Policy and Turkey ” subjected conference which was organized by Şişli Municipality EU Center was participated by the attendants from various municipalities, universities, STKs, politics, business world and from the press and it created a discussion ambient which were not familiar with specially on the level of municipalities.
Şişli Municipality EU Center implemented the second of EU weekend Conversations.
The panel with the subject “İslam, Peace and Tolerance in multi cultured Europe” had the chance to catch to discuss deeply a subject which is taking the top place in the world agenda with the attendance of participants from the municipality world, universities, STKs and from the press.
On 18th of March Saturday the opening speech of the panel was made by Mustafa Sarıgül and the panel was held at Taxim conference salon of European Union Information Center. Sweden’s Istanbul Consul General Ambassador Ingmar Karlsson was the speaker and European Parliament former Parliament Member Ozan Ceyhun was the moderator.
Ambassador Karlsson is in İstanbul since 2001 as consul general and he has 11 books.
- Islam and Europe: Separation of belief – Unity of Living (Turkish)
- Religion, terror and tolerance (Turkish)
- Religion and Politics in the Middle East “God is with us”
- The legend in the struggle of Palestina
- The country in the center : Germany and the New Europe
- Little Europe : a guide for the ones who don’t have country
- Europe and it’s people: Is it European nation or the nations of Europe?
- Step child of Europe : minorities without a homeland
- Hadj and the crescent, religious minorities in the Middle East and Sweden
- Europe of Regions Şişli Municipality EU Center implemented the first of EU weekend Conversations on 3-4 February 2006.
Starting it’s September 2005 activities, Şişli Municipality EU Center implemented it’s first EU weekend conversations on 3-4 February 2006.
The panel was implemented on 3rd of February at Şişli Municipality Conference Salon and the opening speech was made by Mustafa Sarıgül. The speakers of the panel were : European Parliament Europe Delegations Unit Responsible Dr. Thomas Grunert and Trainee on work in European Parliament External Politics General Directorate Ayfer Erdem. The discussion subjects were “The establishments European Union, The Place of Local Administrations in the EU, EU Youth and Women Politics and Existing Fund Possibilities’’. Beside the top level participants from Şişli Municipality and other municipalities, the panel gathered students and academics from the universities, Local Agenda 21 Women and Youth Assembly Members, non-governmental organizations’ representatives and a dynamic opinion exchange was created on the subject of what are waiting for the EU-Turkey relationships in future.
On the second day of EU Weekend Conversations, 4th of February Saturday, one of the most important issues of Turkey, earthquake and natural disaster management was discussed with the participations of expert from Turkey and Germany. The opening speech was made by Mustafa Sarıgül and Professor Dr. Kemal Kirişçi took place as the moderator. In the panel, German Social Democrat Party (SPD) federal Parliament Member Gerold Reichenbach, European Parliament former Parliament Member Ozan Ceyhun, Kandilli Meteorological Station and Earthquake Researches Center Deputy Director Professor Dr. Niyazi Türkelli made speeches for “Natural Disaster Management in EU, Earthquake Policies, EU and Environmental Risk Management Perspectives and the Existing Funds”.
