What's Being Done On . . . Human Rights and Democracy in Turkey ?

Introduction List of Turkish NGOs Working on Human Rights and Democracy Links to Online Publications ARI MOVEMENT FLYING BROOM TUMIKOM Fourth Assembly Web Site: "Advancing Democracy: Justice, Pluralism, and Participation," Istanbul, Turkey, April 2-5,2006 World Movement Participants Database - Search for more information about groups using advocacy to achieve democratic reform.

 TUMIKOM

The Turkish Parliamentary Monitoring Committee (TUMIKOM), a volunteer-based organization with 30 provincial branches, or Mikoms, was established in 1996 in Mugla, a southwestern province on the Aegean coast, as Turkey’s first parliamentary watchdog group. TUMIKOM organizes monitoring efforts based on principles such as volunteerism, impartiality, accountability, transparency, the rule of law, and democracy. TUMIKOM serves as an umbrella organization dedicated to nonpartisan monitoring of the legislative activities of members of parliament.

Interview

We would like to thank Mustafa Durna, General Coordinator of TUMIKOM, for answering the following interview questions.

1. How was TUMIKOM formed and what is it’s overall mission and organizational structure?

The first Mikom ( or branch) was established in 1996 as an initiative in a small city in Anatolia to monitor the members of Parliament. Soon after, the organization became incredibly influential and similar initiatives started to form in many other cities around Turkey. These initiatives operated independently from one another. Although we all shared the same purpose, there was not a unified idea or coordination in the formation of initiatives. Initially, the Istanbul Mikom encountered difficulties trying to monitor our deputies mainly because we did not have standing rules or guiding principles on how to report and monitor on the work of parliamentarians. Mikoms all over Turkey were encountering the same problems, so we realized that we should become organized and unified. We then met other Mikoms in a summit that we had at the national level. We discussed unifying our ideas and creating a philosophy for organization. Under leadership from Istanbul, we organized a trip around Turkey to talk to people and find out how we collectively wanted to organize the multiple organizations. Together, we developed the aims of our mission and vision about what we can and cannot do. These rules were mostly accepted by all. However, the process of analyzing and agreeing upon the aims and rules lasted for about a year and a half. It wasn't’t until June of 2003 that we all agreed to act as one body and TUMIKOM was established. For the first time, we had a centralized structure and a secretariat, which consists of five people. Beginning in 2003, we were working as a voter movement, and on February 25, 2005, we became a legalized association.

Our Mission is:

• To encourage ethical and legal attitudes among elected representatives;
• To encourage voters to become involved in the process of following up with the activities of the deputies and to provide better communication between the elected and their constituents;
• To develop and maintain organizational capacity in order to be in touch with members, media and the voters, to increase the number of cities where TUMIKOM is organized; and to improve upon the skills of the organization mission; and
• To share our experiences in Turkey with other voter movements fighting for democracy, as well as to contribute to the creation of a voter movement in the world.

2. You publish reports on activities of all Members of Parliament. What are the key objectives of these reports?

 As a voter movement our main objective is to keep voters informed about legislative activities and MPs' participation rates; to keep the common social memory alive and refreshed, to track progress on the promises made by the deputies as well as contribute to the awareness and assessment of electors. Our goal is to disseminate impartial, objective information about the activities of Parliament, and to let voters know the highlights of members' actions during the legislative year. TUMIKOM has helped prove that not only the work of individual parliamentarians can be examined, but the Parliament as an entity itself as well.

3. What kinds of methods and tactics do you use to follow up with the deputies? How do you evaluate the parliamentarians and what criteria do you use?

 We have a protocol in following up with the deputies. Our reporting system is based on documents called "state archives." These documents are published by the president of Parliament and cannot be refused or objected to by the deputies because the documents are considered permanent archives of the State. These archives serve as the bases for our reports and are accessible on the Parliament’s web page. TUMIKOM gathers the data from the archives, analyzes and evaluates it, and converts it into graphics and statistical charts for the final report. To define the categories, we rely on the particular terminology of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. We evaluate our reports under four main titles and 87 categories. The four titles include proposals, offer/question/demand/decision/explanation, speeches and responses, and participation rates in the General Council and Committee meetings.

4. How do you think TUMIKOM can become more influential?

Parliament speaks on behalf of the people and represents their will. Therefore, we are against any movement that may block the representation of this will. We are a voter movement (a watchdog organization), and our purpose is protecting people’s votes and interests. We are striving to enhance our democratic political life, and to work in accordance with political and judicial rules.

Our priority is to make certain that people’s interests and concerns are addressed by the Parliament. To achieve improvements in the democratic process in Turkey, we need to reform our political party law, and election system, including the 10 percent threshold (this threshold requires political parties to gather at least 10 percent of the vote in order to be represented in the Parliament). The success of these reforms will bring Turkey closer to its goal of becoming a fully democratic nation. Our democracy will have global impact and its characteristics will contribute to the advancement of democracy around the world.

5. How does the organization maintain its objectivity and non-partisanship?

TUMIKOM consists of members that have one common goal: to promote democracy and to be volunteers for the cause. We believe that common ethics and rules bind our members. We have members who vote for different political parties and we consider this diversity as an ingredient of democratic richness. TUMIKOM’s distinctive structure, its stance on not excluding any political parties, as well as maintaining the same relations with all parties, upholds our objectivity and impartiality.

6. What are the general accomplishments thus far and is the general public and media more aware of the activities of politicians because of them?

 Since TUMIKOM is a voter movement, we took a constructive position and have published two national reports in our history of two years. These reports are about the legislative activities of the deputies of Parliament. We act as a pressure group and insist that the official records be brought to the voters’ attention daily via the Internet. We have also pressured the Parliament to establish a computer-based system to provide information about the non-attendance of deputies at Permanent Commissions and General Council Meetings, and to disseminate the results to electors via the Internet. As a result of this pressure, there is now such a computer-based system and attendance of deputies is now published electronically. After publishing our National Report, TUMIKOM (and I personally) have been confronted by various reactions and disputes from the deputies. There were statements made by numerous parties in response to our report, and propaganda claims about our report, but there are also organizations, such as the Turkish Association of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSIAD), who want the report to be examined academically. We also had other NGOs, such as the Ka-Der women’s NGO, that use the report as statistical support for their work. CNN TURK, a national TV channel, interpreted the report as the “hidden agenda” of Ankara. Because of all the attention our report has received, however, Turkish society is now more aware of TUMIKOM and its workings. Our report is accessible through our website, www.tumikom.org.

7. What do you see as the role of the Parliament in the democratization process in Turkey? How do you think TUMIKOM contributes to that process?

As in any other democratic country, Parliament is the most important institution for the democratization process in Turkey. Turkey has made significant efforts to improve its democracy, the best example of which is its determination to be a part of the European Union. Turkey began to pass laws to harmonize with the general law system of the EU, and as a result Turkey has been able to schedule a negotiation date. But TUMİKOM believes that Turkish democracy cannot improve only by passing laws. The social and legal mechanisms have not yet improved enough to protect Parliament. The most important and primary role of Parliament is to make legislative changes that prevent the interruption of democratic life. Turkey is still being ruled by the Constitution of September 12, 1980. We believe that this Constitution is the greatest handicap to democratization for the society.

TUMIKOM’s monitoring of Parliament will help force the deputies to do their duties, and TUMIKOM’s projects will encourage society to play an active role in democratic life. Also, the information in TUMIKOM’s national reports will serve as an objective resource for evaluating deputies, and will contribute to the debate on how to improve democracy in Turkey.

Our determination is bearing fruit. TUMİKOM received an invitation from the Democracy Committee of the Turkish Assembly to attend its convention entitled, “Relations between Deputies and Voters, the Working of Parliament Commissions and the Function of Parliament Personnel.” The conference addressed the challenges facing the Turkish Parliament and the democratization process. The president of the Committee emphasized the importance of TUMIKOM's work and its contribution to the democratization process.

TUMIKOM will continue its struggle to improve and empower democracy both within Turkey and around the world.