Abbreviations: Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Justice and Development Party (AKP), Republican People’s Party (CHP), Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)
Source: Bülent Sarıoğlu, “Kahvede çoklu seks izletiyor,” (“They are showing orgies at coffeehouses,”) Hürriyet, 3 December 2013, http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/25264344.asp
The Constitutional Reconciliation Commission’s 25-month work has finally ended. The “colorful” bickerings of the Parliamentarians regarding education in native language, citizenship, the characteristics of the Republic, rights of sovereignty, general morality, honor, gay marriage, and FEMEN have been documented in the records. Some quotes from the records:
OLD MEN LIKE US
-Faruk Bal (MHP): Let’s put the framework of general morality in the preamble.
-Ahmet İyimaya (AKP): We cannot give up on this concept. We think it is mandatory. I will give you a contrary example: We were sitting in a coffeehouse in Anatolia and they were making all these people watch an orgy.
-Süheyl Batum (CHP): Let’s ban that.
-Bengi Yıldız (BDP): The example you give is not in practice.
-İyimaya: No, of course it is. What’s not there? I can widen the example. I mean, me, you, him, old men like us, they were doing this, is this correct in terms of public morality?
-Batum: They’re showing sex with animals but we are not saying, “let’s ban this as well.”
-İyimaya: OK, whatever, let’s not go to contrarian examples.
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO MARRY DOGS
-(On the Article on Family) Süheyl Batum (CHP): What will happen if we say, “everyone has the right to marriage?” Forget about women, just “everyone has the right to marry.”
-Faruk Bal (MHP): There was a story in 1988 in England’s newspaper The Sun that a man married his dog.
-Batum: Really.
-Özgür Sevgi Göral (Advisor): I think it’s a great suggestion, everyone has the right to marry.
THE IMAM’S DAUGHTER’S SKIRT
-Bengi Yıldız (BDP): The Imam talks about it in the region, “the girls are walking around in shorts, they do this, wear mini skirts.” Someone from the community tells him, “But sir, I saw your daughter the other day wearing a mini skirt.” He says, “But it suits her.” General morality is something like this.
-Mehmet Ali Şahin (AKP): Bengi, where did this happen?
-Yıldız: In Diyarbakır and Batman, they tell this a lot.
LIVING TOGETHER WITHOUT BEING MARRIED IS PROSTITUTION
-Oktay Öztürk (MHP): We are drafting a constitution for the Turkish nation, we are thinking within the context of our moral values.
-Rıza Türmen (CHP): Living with someone without being married, do you think that’s a moral behavior or immoral? I do not think that it is an immoral behavior.
-Öztürk: To you it is, but to me it is prostitution.
-Türmen: To you it is prostitution. That’s exactly what I am saying.
-Altan Tan (BDP): The same thing is viewed differently- one way in İzmir’s Karşıyaka district and another in Gümüşhane [in the Black Sea region].
-Mehmet Ali Şahin (AKP): A group of young ladies (FEMEN) from Ukraine or Russia came to Turkey and took off their tops to protest something. There were so many people interested, like let them take off their tops and we’ll see. They were immediately apprehended, their statements were taken, and then they were released. Friends, this was done because it was contrary to our understanding of general morality. Shouldn’t it be done? What, they should take off their tops and walk around like that?
HETEROSEXUALITY IS NOT MANDATORY
-Rıza Türmen (CHP): This issue is important, people’s sexual preferences should not be a cause for discrimination.
-Mehmet Ali Şahin (AKP): Men and men, women and women cannot marry. Let’s be clear about what we mean, brother.
-Türmen: People can have certain sexual orientations other than the gender they are born with. I mean, everyone does not have to be heterosexual.
-Şahin: One minute Mr. Türmen, so you are saying that they do not have to be a man or a woman?
WHAT IF MY DAUGHTER MARRIES A GIRL
-Süheyl Batum (CHP): The other day, Mr. Şahin remarked on how he understand this formula and said, “Uh oh! What if my daughter said she will marry a girl, I’ll be crushed.” We may all have such concerns or not, but what he understood from this article is this.
-Faruk Bal (AKP): Even the coup council [of 1980] had to discuss whether or not Bülent Ersoy [trans woman singer] could take the stage. Now, if we go back to the beginning and if we are drafting a constitution with a new spirit,if this spirit should include a general expression on preventing discrimination, and if we discuss these issues within a wide preamble, then practice will also go this way. I mean Kenan Evren [leader of the 1980 coup]… But I do not want this to leak to the press and become an issue of polemics.
-PRESIDENT: Let’s discuss this off the record.