Turkey's reform package garners praise and criticism

Turkey's recently unveiled reform package was met by mixed reactions from political parties and societies, while analysts say it's an important step but insufficient to address domestic woes. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the long- anticipated reform package on Monday to facilitate a settlement process aiming to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency. The package grants broader rights to organize and hold rallies, lifts restrictions on political parties, lowers the election threshold, lifts bans on wearing headscarves in public institutions, and expands rights to use the Kurdish language in education, among others. Mehmet Kamis, a Turkish analyst and a columnist at Zaman daily, said that the announced package would not meet all the demands of the Turkish people, "but it will be a step forward for more advanced democratic demands." Ahmet Turan Alkan, an expert on politics, hailed these proposals as an improvement despite the belated move for the government in pursuing reforms. "(But) in the final analysis, these are very cautious proposals, " he added, expecting bolder initiatives. The Turkish opposition parties flatly criticized the government package, saying that this is not a reform initiative but rather an election campaign bid for the ruling Justice and Development Party. "There is no surprising item in the package," Gursel Tekin, the deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican Peoples' Party lamented, contending it "let them down." For her part, pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party's co-chair Gulten Kisanak said on Monday that the package will not address the settlement process aimed at ending the conflict with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). The BDP is regarded as the mouthpiece and political wing of the PKK, which is listed as terrorist organization by Turkey and some other countries. The reform package has no "capability of solving the problems," nor tackling the stalemate in the settlement process, Kisanak said. Claiming "thousands of political prisoners" were still in jails, she called the reform as a "elections package" instead of a democratization package.The government has been holding talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan since October 2012 to disarm the PKK. Meanwhile, some groups including millions of Alevis and non- Muslim minorities, said the proposals did not go far enough to address their major demands. Cafer Solgun, an Alevi intellectual, said the package clearly disappointed Alevis. Alevis were expecting that the government would grant legal status for Alevi places of worship, which was not materialized by the reform package. Turkey's non-Muslim communities also had a lukewarm reception for the package. While hailing the introduction of harsh punishments for crimes committed against the members of an ethnic or religious minorities, they regretted that the government did not go far enough in recognizing minorities' rights.