Parliament and Prime Ministry Closed their Doors

Doors were closed to the press in yesterday's (20 October) session of the Turkish Parliament on "fighting terrorism".

The meeting on Thursday afternoon was a reaction to the PKK attacks in Hakkari the previous day. 24 soldiers were killed and 18 injured in the attacks. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) faction announced that in accordance with the requests of the other factions it had been decided to hold a closed session.

The closed session at the Parliamentary General Assembly was going to address the issue of "terrorism", it was said. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and the vice chairs of the AKP faction evaluated the agenda of the meeting in a preliminary meeting.

"Everybody should speak openly"

The Turkish news channel NTV published the statement of AKP Faction Deputy Chair Mustafa Elitaş issued after the meeting: "He session will be closed in order to be able to talk openly and clearly about everything". The minutes of closed sessions cannot be published for the duration of ten years.

"The Advisory Committee is going to convene before the meeting to define the durations of speech", Elitaş said. Minister of the Interior İdris Naim Şahin was going to speak on behalf of the government.

"Avoiding propaganda"

On 19 October, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited media executives and general publication directors to a meeting on the topic of "terrorism". The press representatives met the Prime Minister on Thursday morning (20 October) at the Prime Minister's residence.

Erdoğan said he was going to prompt the media on their duty in the fight against terrorism and that he was going to ask them to "refrain from terrorist propaganda". The meeting was also attended by Deputy PMs Bülent Arınç and Beşir Atalay and AKP Deputy Chairs Hüseyin Çelik and Ömer Çelik. (AS/VK)