Table of Six 5 January Declaration–Full text

Date:08Jan2023

As the presidents of six political parties, we came together on January 5, 2023, as we entered the 100th Anniversary of our Republic, hosted by the Future Party. We wish 2023 and the second century of our Republic to bring  happiness, justice and prosperity to our country and nation.

With the first meeting of this year, we have completed the first year of the cooperative  process that we started as The Table of Six (ToS). In this context, we started our meeting with a general evaluation of the past year. Being aware of the historical responsibility we have assumed, we once again emphasize our determination to continue our cooperation in line with the principles and targets that we announced to the public at our first summit on February 12, 2022.

This cooperation process, in which all the main political streams in Turkey’s  two centuries of modernization, 150 years of Parliamentary tradition, 100 years of Republic and 75 years of democracy (experience) are represented, is a first in our political history. Based on this accumulated experience, our main goal is, on the one hand, to eliminate the damage caused by the Presidential Government System in the state and public life, on the other hand, to initiate a new era that will honor our Republic with a real and perfect democratic order.

In this context, we have evaluated the progress we have made, milestones we have achieved and the challenges we have faced  last year in a very sincere and constructive manner. First of all, we would like to express with pleasure that this cooperation process is leading a psychological transformation in the political climate of our country. We created a new political climate by bringing together different thoughts and approaches to governance around a table against the government’s effort to maintain its dominance through demonization  and polarization of those who think differently from itself.

Thanks to the new political climate we have created, we managed to  put forward reference texts that will guide the campaign and the post-electoral period ahead. The texts for the Transition to Strengthened Parliamentary System,  Basic Principles and Objectives (of ToS), Election Security, Institutional Reform and the Strengthened Parliamentary System Constitutional Amendment Proposal, produced as a result of long labors, have been examples of success in our cooperation, as well as  building a common ground for future governance and to demonstrate our democratic maturity.

While this government, which wants to maintain the authoritarian croniyst order, pursues political engineering through the restriction of democratic freedoms, polarization, politicization of the judiciary and its media monopoly, we have endeavored to build a new political architecture based on consensus, common sense, political courtesy and inclusive democracy, and we have come a long way in this regard.

Citizens of Turkey,

In this meeting,  we have concluded two more important milestones of our cooperation process. We also agreed on the next steps and work schedule.

We have resolved to present the Transition Process Roadmap (The text explaining how Turkey will governed by the new president, her cabinet and the Grand Assembly)  and Common Policies Text (the coalition protocol), which we have brought to the completion stage, to the public at a joint press conference  on January 30th.

With these two texts, the architecture undergirding our political cooperation will be completed to a great extent.

To recall past documents ToS had issued:

• The basic principles guiding our cooperation are covered in the Basic Principles and Objectives text,
• The political framework of the Strengthened Parliamentary System is covered in the Memorandum of Understanding,
• Election Security policy as insurance for free and fair elections had been issued,
• Strengthened Parliamentary System Constitutional Amendment Proposal and its legal underpinnings had been shared with the public,
• The Institutional Reform objectives of ToS had been declared with the Institutional Reform declaration,

We will now define (coalition) government mechanisms with our Road Map (to be unveiled open January 30), and the  common policies to be pursued after the elections in every field with the Common Policies Text.

Citizens of Turkey,

We are aware that the realization of our vision, which we have thus outlined in a one-year long intensive effort under difficult  conditions, depends on two necessary conditions: That our Joint Candidate is elected President and  that of obtaining the necessary majority in the Grand National Assembly for the constitutional reform.

In order to achieve these objectives,

• The commission created to ensure election security shall work continuously and focus on measures to ensure the protection of each vote in every district of the nation,
• We decided to formally study alternatives that can be deployed in parliamentary elections in order to obtain a constitutional majority in the Grand Assembly,
• We have started the process of selecting a joint presidential candidate.

In this meeting, we have initiated consultations between the Chairpersons of ToS regarding the determination of the joint presidential candidate.

We will act in a culture of consensus to select the presidential candidate and in formulating a structure to maximize seats in  parliamentary elections, and promise to  start a new era in both the  conduct of the executive and the responsibilities of the legislature after the elections.

In order to complete these objectives in a short time, we decided to hold meetings between leaders more frequently. In this context, our next meeting will be held on January 26, hosted by the IYIP.

We would like to emphasize that our common position is clear in the context of the early election debate that has come to the fore recently: We will not support any early elections that will be held under  the amended electoral system, which was put into effect as a political engineering effort last year. We are ready to support an early election, which will be held under the old rules (in effect in the 2018 elections), that is, before April 6th.

Citizens of Turkey,

In our meeting, we also discussed leading political and economic issues on the agenda.

The ban on politics for  the Istanbul Mayor, Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, was the last and striking example of the politicization of the judiciary. We once again demonstrated our objection to  the politicization of the judiciary with the solidarity we displayed in Saraçhane rally held by Imamoglu on December 14.

The ban is one of the saddest examples of Mr. Erdogan wishing to inflict the same pain of his unjust suffering  in the past-referring to the brief prison sentence he received in response to a poem he recited and the pursuant ban from politics, lifted in 2003 by AKP-CHP joint vote-on his political rivals.

We will resolutely maintain our solidarity against similar political engineering efforts that aim to interfere with the judiciary in order to alter the election process.

We discussed the headscarf issue, which has been on the agenda in recent months, in a very sincere manner. We are in full agreement to provide a legal guarantee that will prevent the recurrence of such bans, which was the product of the putschist mentality of September 12 (1980 coup)  junta and the  mentality of February 28 (post-modern coup of 1997), that ruined lives of millions of women, from ever being brought up again.

However, we are also fundamentally opposed to the mentality that sees this issue related to human rights and freedom of conscience and a symbol such as the headscarf as a “pass to be converted into a goal”. This definition, which is an insult to women who have suffered due to the headscarf ban, clearly reveals that Mr. Erdogan sees this issue as election material. If the government is sincere, it should support the proposals from the opposition on new regulations without prejudice.

At our meeting, we also discussed the latest developments in the economy. The government, which severed all ties with reason, science and rationality and  also ignored the independence of the Central Bank, made our country feel the shame of having the 7th highest inflation rate in the world and the 1st in Europe. Turkstat’ s inflation calculations have no relation to real life and independent calculations of experts.

Taking the data of TURKSTAT as a basis for wage and salary increases is a serious injustice committed against the affected masses. It is sad, to say the least, that the government sees the new minimum wage, which will drop below the hunger threshold at the end of this month, as a source of pride before  the pay is in the pockets of the workers.

Realizing that it will lose the elections, the government shows its indifference to the budget procedures by committing to expenditures not included in the 2023 budget That is, the government presents the EYT regulation (granting pensions to those who have paid up their contributions to the Social Security Administration, but can’t draw pensions on grounds of being younger than the minimum retirement age), which is the right of the employees, and the salary increases, which generate no real income gain in the face of the decline in purchasing power, as good news. This situation is the most concrete example of the arbitrariness in public administration that emerged with the Presidential Government System.

In our meeting, we also comprehensively discussed the deterioration in public order, which became more evident with the murder of Sinan Ateş, the former Chairman of the Ülkü Ocakları (a nationalist NGO), in the middle of the street in broad daylight in Ankara last week. First of all, we offer our condolences to Sinan Ateş’s family and loved ones. What makes this brutality even worse is that the relevant authorities, especially the President, the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of the MHP, fell into a deep silence after the murder. It is not possible to talk about public order and rule of law in a country where gangs attacking anyone who does not think like them, relying  on the audacity that the perpetrators of attacks against politicians, academics and journalists have previously been freed without any punishment.

We will vigilantly pursue those who committed these crimes and the forces behind them  to make sure that they receive the punishment they deserve. No one will be able to take our country back to the darkness of the seventies, when young people from all walks of life were sacrificed (in political clashes), leading up to  the coup of  12 September (1980) and to the unsolved murders of the nineties.

We are determined to fight together until the principles of liberal public order and the rule of law, which are the most important motives that bring us together, prevail in our country. In this context, we will intensify our efforts to protect fair and free election conditions against scenarios of creating chaos in order to maintain the authoritarian order.

Citizens of the Nation, who are following these developments with concern,

Never despair.

We, who view politics not as a profit and power sharing endeavor, but as a public service based on  fundamental rights and justice, are determined to disperse these dark clouds.

We will not allow anyone to tarnish the 100th Anniversary of our Republic with corruption, prohibitions, oppression and poverty.

The 100th anniversary of our Republic will be the year of a new beginning towards the universal achievement  of social peace, human rights and freedoms, justice, democratic rule of law, clean politics and a welfare society.

Translation by Google Translate and Atilla Yesilada.

Link to original Turkish text is here.