GAZIANTEP PARLIAMENTARIANS EXPLAIN

UNCLAS ADANA 0073 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE AND DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL TU ADANA SUBJECT: GAZIANTEP PARLIAMENTARIANS EXPLAIN THE FAILED RESOLUTION ¶1. (SBU) In a March 12 phone call with Consul, Gaziantep newspaper publisher Aykut Tuzcu (please protect) a reliable and trustworthy contact, relayed the explanation offered to him by three Gaziantep parliamentarians for the failure of the Turkish parliament to approve the proposed resolution to allow sending of Turkish troops and receiving of American troops in its March 1 vote. ¶2. "We voted against the resolution," they said, "even though we supported it." Why? The parliamentarians said that no one in the Turkish parliament had focused on or truly understood the technicality of needing an absolute majority, i.e. a majority of all votes cast (for, against, abstentions). Thus, some parliamentarians, including themselves, reckoned that they had a vote to "waste." ¶3. Why, though, vote against something that you support? "Because," they said, "we wanted to send a signal to the country and the world that Turkey is a democracy, and that it can't be `bought' by the United States." ¶4. The embarassing pandemonium that followed the vote - in which all networks inaccurately reported at first that the resolution had passed - was a consequence of the fact that not only parliamentarians, but also the press, are hazy on Turkish parliamentary procedure, and lends credence to this explanation. HOLTZ