Democratic initiative
Interior Minister Beşir Atalay stated the primary goals of the initiative as improving the democratic standards and to end terrorism in Turkey.
[1] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hold several meetings with prominent figures of the Turkish society at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came together with renowned names of Turkish pop, folk and classical music to ask for their support for the democratic initiative.
Rojin, a singer of Kurdish origin, came to the meeting with dossiers in her hand, asking for justice for the minors facing long-term jail sentences for throwing stones at the police in the southeastern provinces.
“Deep down in my heart I believe that you will shoulder the process and lend your support, contribute and make an effort to solving Turkey's painful problems,” he said.
Yavuz Seçkin, one of the attendants, said he has been working in the industry for 15 years and that Erdoğan was the first prime minister to ask about their views on a matter troubling the country.
According to the prime minister, the goal of the meetings is to discuss the country's chronic problems and reach broad agreement on ways to solve them.
In his opening address, Erdoğan stressed that the project has not lost any speed, but noting that the government and society cannot successfully solve the nation's issues without the constructive input and participation of others.
You can't resolve issues that were developed over hundreds of years in a single night.”[6] In the subsequent Q&A session, he was asked why he kept addressing them exclusively as mothers, overlooking the fact that they are fully-fledged economic, political and juridical persons.
During the meeting, the prime minister touched upon a large number of hot issues, including the referendum, expectations for a new constitution, approaching parliamentary elections and compulsory military service.
This “football diplomacy” and new dialogue resulted in the signing of protocols between Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers in Switzerland to improve relations between the two countries.
[9] The Armenian Constitutional Court decided that the protocols “cannot be interpreted or applied in the legislative process and application practice of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the interstate relations in a way that would contradict the provisions of the preamble to the RA Constitution and the requirements of Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.” Turkey said that Armenian court's ruling on the protocols is not acceptable.
On September 19, 2010, a religious ceremony was held at the historical Armenian church after permission of the Turkish government for the first time in 95 years.
The museum located on Akdamar Island in Lake Van in Turkey was opened to worshippers allowing to worship once a year for a single day.
On August 25, 2009, the General Staff reiterated the military's commitment in preserving Turkey's “unitary” structure and said the Kurdish move cannot be accepted as a compromise process with the PKK.
The democratic initiative aimed to protect and extend the human rights and freedoms of every citizen, regardless of ethnicity, religion and political or social choices, Atalay said.
“These developments will align our domestic policies with the European Convention on Human Rights,” Atalay said, disclosing six medium-term goals as part of the democratic initiative.
On the same day, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on parliamentary deputies to support the democratic initiative in respect to pluralist structure of the first Turkish Parliament, which commanded the country's independence war in the early 1920s.
We cannot sacrifice the basic principles that were based on pluralism, freedom and democracy 89 years ago," Erdoğan said in his long-speech he delivered at the special session.
However, the CHP and the MHP wouldn't be supportive to the project to admit PKK members to benefit from Article 221 of the Turkish Penal Code, popularly known as the Active Repentance Law.
The court's decision stated that it closed the party because of DTP members' involvement in activities that "supported the armed attacks" of the PKK.
On 13 November the government approved regulations to allow privately owned television and radio stations to broadcast in languages other than Turkish.
In general, Alevis follow a belief system that incorporates aspects of both Shia and Sunni Islam and draws on the traditions of other religions found in Anatolia as well.
[27] In December 2009, state-owned TRT broadcast documentaries and religious and cultural programs about Alevism during the first 12 days of Muharram, a month held sacred by Alevis and other Muslims.
Noting that certain layers of society have been neglected, despised and subjected to unjust treatment as a result of social trauma in the past, Erdoğan said the workshops were the first time the problems of Alevis had been listened to by the state.
Authorities took measures during the year to implement a 2007 Ministry of Interior circular to governors requesting action to prevent violence against non-Muslims.
Erdoğan said in his decree that despite efforts exerted in recent years for democratization and for improvement in issues regarding the Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities in Turkey, problems have not been solved entirely due to setbacks in the implementation process.
On August 15, 2010, Orthodox Christians from Georgia, Greece, Russia, Turkey and the United States gathered in Trabzon for a historic mass at the iconic Sümela Monastery.
On December 27, 2009, more than thousand members of the Caferi community gathered for the 1370th anniversary of the events in which Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hüseyin bin Ali and 72 others became a martyr in Karbala.
[33] On October 9, 2010, the Presidency of Religious Affairs prepared two separate "ilmihal" (an Islamic version of a catechism) for the Caferi and Shafi`i communities in Turkey.
