Landmine bill clears political opposition

Parliament voted 255-91 in favor of the bill, with 83 ruling party deputies absent during the vote. The new law enables foreign companies to bid to de-mine Turkey's border with Syria in return for the rights to the land for up to 44 years.But opponents of the bill have vowed to keep fighting. "This law is openly in breach of the constitution. It will immediately be taken to the Constitutional Court for its annulment," Hakkı Süha Okay, the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, deputy parliamentary group leader told reporters yesterday.

"It’s a law of treason. There are those who have ears but cannot hear, those who have eyes but cannot see," said Nur Serter, CHP’s Istanbul deputy.�

The law will enter into force upon President Abdullah Gül’s approval.

"I hope President G?l will return this law to Parliament and prove that he has not turned the presidency into a simple public notary," Deniz Baykal, the leader of the CHP told reporters yesterday. As a party to the international Ottawa Convention, Turkey is required to clear all landmines on its borders by 2014. The country's borders with Greece, Bulgaria and Georgia are already clear of mines and Turkey has been looking for the best option to do the same on the Syrian border since 2002. The new law will see the removal of the more than half a million mines laid in the 1950s along the 510-kilometer Syrian border by 2014.

As a result of the opposition parties' strong resistance to the draft law allowing foreign companies to bid for the contract in return for owning the land for the next 44 years, the government had to modify the draft law and introduced two new options for the de-mining process.

The revised law gives first option to clear the mines to the Defense Ministry, who could cooperate with NATOÕs procurement agency, NAMSA. If NAMSA will not undertake the task then the Finance Ministry can open a tender. The last option is introducing the build-operate-transfer model for the clearance of the mines in return for leasing the region to the local or foreign contractor for 44 years.

"The general characteristic of the law is its permanency. The law cannot be designed just for a specific business. ItÕs far away from being global law," Okay said. Due to the oppositionÕs strategy to delay the approval of the law, the last session took around 15 hours until early yesterday. The last session, which was chaired by Parliament Speaker K?ksal Toptan, was also monitored by representatives from the Chief of Staff for the first time.

"We are neither selling nor leasing our soil. I donÕt feel regret," Finance Minister Mehmet Şimßek said. "We did everything to ease concerns by introducing new alternatives."

Israeli dimension

During the session, the opposition argued that the government was aiming to give the job to Israeli companies, as they were the only international firms interested in winning the tender. "The law does not mention foreign companies. These claims are not true. You did the same during the legislation of the Law of Foundations. Which parts of the country were sold to foreigners?Ó Bekir BozdaÛ, the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, parliamentary group leader said in reply. Meanwhile Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy, whose visit to a CHP deputy Wednesday raised controversy, said, ÒNeither the Israel Embassy nor the Israeli government has anything to do with this bill. We have not and certainly will not intervene,Ó the Anatolia news agency reported him as saying yesterday.

Eighty-three AKP deputies were absent during the session including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÛan and 18 ministers. Some important figures of the party were also absent when the vote was held. Among them were K?rßat T?zmen, Sami G?l?, Kemal Unakİtan, Murat BaßesgioÛlu, Sait YazİcİoÛlu, Vahit Erdem, Yaßar Eryİlmaz Ali G?ner, Şaban Dißli. The party group will report those who were absent to ErdoÛan.