TEHRAN - On Tuesday, June 9, Tehran times sat with Turkish Ambassador Riza Hakan Tekin to discuss the general parliamentary election in Turkey that took place just two days prior to the interview.

The following is the text of the interview:

Q: What were the reasons that the AKP failed to win the majority in the parliamentary elections?

A: This is the will of the people. As in all democracies, people give their votes based on their evaluation. The AKP has been in power for 13 years without any coalition partner but now if they want to be part of the government they would need a coalition partner; if not the other parties might form a coalition. We don’t know yet. It is too early to tell. I cannot speculate on the reasons why the election resulted in this way. In all countries, the party in power after certain time can lose. People can have a natural way of trying to see a new choice. It is the choice of the people and we have to respect that. Our president [Erdogan], made a written announcement in which he said the will of people is above anything and we have to respect that. He called all the parties to make a healthy and realistic assessment of the result of the election and we have to move forward that way. So we will see how things will evolve.
Q: Some analysts say the involvement of the president in favor of the ruling party was one of the reasons that the AKP failed to get the majority. What is your view?
A: There are lots of different views. We cannot scientifically give particular reasons for their failure. As an ambassador I cannot speculate on this issue. It is hard to tell what the real reason behind it is. There are many factors for it.
Q: Don’t you think that one of the reasons for such an election result was the government’s foreign policy toward the conflicts in Syria and Iraq?
A: The government policy has been pursued in line with the power they got from the Turkish people. We know that there have been different views on the foreign policy among different groups and political parties which is normal in any democratic government. But we cannot be sure if that has been a factor. But generally the public has been supportive of the government policies as of today. Of course, I am not saying it is 100 percent shared by the public. Some people believe there should be different policies, but when you look at the other parties like the Republican People’s Party or the Nationalist Movement Party, People’s Democratic Party, throughout the campaign period or even before the election campaigns, they always criticized foreign and domestic policies of the government as well as in other fields like in economy, etc. So this has been a factor. But I cannot say this has been a real factor. It is too early to speak about that.
Q: Some argue that the rights of Turkish monitories have not been respected as promised or expected and that it affected the election results. Please explain.
A: I don’t think so. You can criticize the government in many areas, but on that issue I think it wouldn’t be fair to claim that minorities’ rights weren’t respected. To the contrary, during this government extensive steps have been taken to further rights of minorities, particularly in terms of our Armenian citizens, and also our Jewish and Greek citizens. They (minorities) had some problems regarding the real estates, some organizations confiscated their estates during previous governments, but in this government all those steps were rectified so the properties were given back to them. Also the visibility of their social life, a lot of steps have been taken in that regard. In fact many minorities have supported the government. The government has been the most liberal in terms of expanding the minorities’ rights in Turkey since the republic was established. So I don’t think it is fair a fair criticism. In addition to that, we are happy that in the new parliament in Turkey we have more minorities present. In Turkey we don’t have any quotas; if the minorities get the vote they get elected. In this election, for the first time, we have for instance three Armenian MPs, one from the ruling party, one from the Republican People’s Party and one from the People’s Democratic Party and we have one Assyrian candidate elected again, two Yazidis. These are all new developments for our parliament. We didn’t have that much minority representation before. Of course, we don’t count women as minority but also women’s representation has also increased even though it is not ideal; the ideal should be 50/50, but now women have won 18 percent of seats in the parliament which was about 13 percent before. That is also a nice progress in terms of women’s representation.
Q: Some say when Ahmet Davutoglu took over as prime minister the religious and ethnic minorities were somehow sidelined. Do you agree with such a claim?
A: Just to the contrary. Right when he became the prime minister, for the first time in the history of the republic, he took someone from Armenian community Etyen Mahçupyan as his chief advisor. This was for the first time in the history of republic that someone from minorities took such high position at the government. That is not true. Also our prime minister in many of his remarks has emphasized the importance of integrating the minorities into the society; that we should not see them as someone else but someone from us. A lot of measures have been taken, for instance, towards the Roma population, the gypsies. We also have a gypsy MP for the first time in parliament. He (Davutoglu) has also lots of opening to Armenian, Christian population. So it would not be fair to criticize him on this issue.
Q: Among the three main opposition parties - CHP, HDP, and MHP - which one is more likely to be a partner for the AKP for forming a coalition government?
A: It is impossible to tell at this point. Maybe those three parties form a coalition among themselves sidelining AKP. That is also a possibility. Or it could also be a minority government. That is also a possibility. Either an AKP minority government or a CHP together with some other party form a minority government. That is a possibility. But right now it is impossible to guess. When you hear the leaders of parties making statements like CHP says they won’t enter a coalition with AKP; MHP said the same thing. HDP made the same remarks on that line. Politics is the art of possible. So you can hear some strong statements from leaders but next day you face the reality. All leaders also say that you should not leave a country without a government. So, eventually there could be a compromise. And it should be, like in the all democracies not only one party majority government is an option. In Turkey in the past we had coalition governments for many years. It is also part of the democracy when no party has the single power they have to cooperate. We will see. Right now there are strong statements but after a while the positions of these parties can be moderated and then there could be more opportunities for cooperation to form a government. That is what I sincerely hope because that is what we need in Turkey; regardless of this party or that party we should have a compromise among parties.
Q: What was more conspicuous in the June 7 election was the victory of the pro-Kurdish party HDP. Some say that the government’s inaction toward the occupation of Kobani by Daesh was one of the main reasons that the Kurds rushed to the polling stations to win more seats in the parliament. Do you agree with that? This can be viewed in the light of sympathy toward the people of Kobani by the Turkish Kurds.
A: I don’t think so. First a bit of correction. You said HDP is a pro-Kurdish party but I think HDP has transformed itself, especially with these elections. The rules are from them. But a lot of people, not necessarily Kurdish people [and those who don’t not] necessarily sympathize with the Kurdish groups voted for them [AKP] in this election. Since they have created a much bigger platform in this election they got 13 percent of the votes. There has always been a pro-Kurdish party before HDP in Turkey but their votes never passed 5 or 6 percent. They were always around that. But this time they got 13 percent. That is because they appealed to the wider [population] and didn’t pursue a narrow agenda for the Kurdish rights only; they pursued and expanded their agenda more on dealing with all the issues including the environment, fundamental freedoms and rights…. So that attracted a lot of non-Kurdish votes for them and that is why they got 13 percent; otherwise I don’t think it would be easy for them to get this amount of vote if they had continued their own policy. So one is that.
The second thing, I don’t think it had played a big factor in Kobani. First of all you said government’s inaction in Kobani. I think that is also not right. In fact, thanks to the Turkish government’s action that Kobani was saved. If you look at the events, we let, especially Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga, cross our border to Kobani and they played an important and fundamental role in terms of repelling Daesh from Kobani. No one can say otherwise. And also it was Turkey and no other country that in the first day of the Kobani conflict opened up borders and 200,000 Kobani Kurds came to Turkey and most of them are still in Turkey. So we opened the refuge to Kobani Kurds. And also we sent a lot of humanitarian aid to Kobani both from Turkey, and also we let other people send humanitarian aid to Kobani from Turkish territory. So when you look at all these things, I don’t think it would be fair to characterize the Turkish government as not active or inaction in Kobani.
Of course, HDP leaders criticize the government on how it dealt with the crisis but that was not a big factor in the increase of votes in the election. There were more factors that affected the results.
Q: The AKP government promised to take some steps to resolve the Kurdish issue, but the end result was not what was expected. Don’t you think that was also a reason that the HDP emerged as an important party?
A: This is a very complicated issue, Kurdish problem in Turkey, and we suffered a lot because of that. The big terrorism we had to face. More than 40,000 Turkish citizens were killed during this fight against terrorism. This is not an easy thing for any government to deal with, because there have been a lot of public, hard feelings from both sides, from our Kurdish citizens as well as our ethnically Turkish citizens. Despite all that, the current government took a very bold step by opening up this solution process and they even launched an indirect dialogue without Abdullah Ocalan who is a hated figure for many Turkish people because of all the terrorist experiences we’ve had. Imagine the people who have lost their sons or loved ones in this fight. So they see this guy as the prime figure responsible for all this terrorism. On the other hand, there are a lot of victims on the Kurdish side as well. Lots of innocent Kurds also has fallen victim to this terrorist group. So there are hard feelings on both sides. But I think our government made a very brave choice by getting engaged in this peace process. But this is a very complicated and ongoing process. It is not finished. That is why we cannot say it was not successful. That is why HDP got this amount of vote. Even few days before the election there were talks on it. All parties know this would not be simple solution. So it is a gradual process. If there is a win on both parties to go ahead, it will continue in the new government, whoever governs the country. I don’t think personally we can turn back the clock on this issue. A lot of progress has been made. Also Turkish society doesn’t want conflicts, killings and victims to come up again. We have to live together peacefully and respect each other’s rights. And it is a very good thing I think personally. In the HDP rallies in the elections we saw HDP supporters with Turkish flags, something you had not seen before that. In no HDP or previous Kurdish parties and events you could see a Turkish flag or a poster of Ataturk. But now you see it in the HDP rallies. This is a good and healthy sign that they identify themselves with the Turkish state, people. Also the thing I said earlier, it is gradually turning from a narrow-based party catering to only Kurdish needs and expectations to a wider-based party. That is helpful to the way peace process will evolve in the future.
Q: There are allegations of corruption in the government. Also a huge amount of money is spent for building the presidential palace. Some see these two issues as other reasons behind the result of the election.
A: There are many theories behind the election. In the previous election they had 49.9 percent and now they have 41 percent. So they lost 9 percent overall. Several factors may have played a role. But I am not in the position to call them the real factor. Everybody has their own decision to make. I cannot speculate.
Q: Iranians visiting Turkey say the government usually ignores the elite or educated class and mostly focuses on the masses.
A: I don’t think so. What is the elite class and how do you define it? There are lots of elite classes among AKP supporters in Turkey. The Turkish society is transforming. It is not the old society we once had. May be they say it because our president appeals more to the people on the street. He can communicate very well with them, with his rhetorical style and so on and so forth. And he is more people’s man. In previous years, some leaders were seen more academic and detached from people, but president Erdogan is not known for that and he speaks his heart out. He always says what he thinks. He is not a typical politician in that sense. And even internationally, he is also very candid, very frank. That is why sometimes he is being criticized for being too outspoken. That is something we have to respect. It is better for someone to speak his heart out rather than saying something which doesn’t reflect his mind. That is his style. Sometimes he criticizes foreign ministry. There is a stereotype that diplomats are elite people who don’t care for the mass people and are detached from society. Sometimes he says that he is not a “monshal”, an elite diplomat that doesn’t care much about people. But that is changing. We diplomats unlike the previous diplomats are mostly coming from average families unlike years back that they would come from close circles. It is a reflection of the change in Turkish society. The elites may play a bigger role in the earlier years of the republic but throughout the stages of Turkish modern history that has changed. And now, it is not easy to classify who is elite and who is not. And also among the elites there are those who are more conservative and more appealing to the ruling party. That has also changed. Society is always dynamic.
Q: Iranians are sensitive when it comes to declining number of votes in an election. So in our Iranian perspective we think something has changed in Turkey. Do you agree?
A: The changes are the reality of our life and political life. Nothing can stay frozen. In any democracy, some parties rule for a certain period of time and if the will of people realizes the way they need another option there will be changes. We have to see it as a healthy side of the society. Otherwise it would not be a democracy. We don’t expect that one who was elected at one point should be reelected all the time. Of course, if that is the people’s choice we respect that. But people’s choice can change. I don’t think we have to be concerned about that. The important thing is the reflection of people’s will to the governing of the country. If we don’t reflect on that then we have a problem. But if we reflect that will on the government, I don’t think there would be a problem. We have a culture of democracy in our country and we have been going to free and fair elections since 1946, so the governments at certain times have changed. And this party AKP has been the longest ruling party in Turkey in our democratic period, 13 years. Who knows? May be they continue to buy a coalition or buy a minority government. So yes, changes occur, but we don’t have to worry about these changes. In Turkey, elections reflect the will of people and we have to respect that.
In terms of Iran, we don’t have to worry because all parties in Turkey understand the value of our relationship with Iran. Iran is our neighboring country and very close country for us. We share a lot in common with Iran. Our border is probably the oldest internationally known borders (dating) to almost 400 years. And also culturally, religiously and historically we share a lot in common. Our relationship is beyond partisan and politics. Whoever comes to power in Turkey, I am sure will continue improving cooperation with Iran. It is our geography and history that dictates us to do it.
Q: Iranians think the taste of the Turkish society is changing toward pluralism; or let’s say a kind of polarization has happened under the Erdogan leadership. Isn’t it so?
A: Erdogan is not the leader of the AKP party. He is technically a neural president. Of course we don’t know how issues would evolve after the elections. If some parties feel that the result was not to their expectations, then they do some soul searching within their party. They can even go to congress to either refresh their confidence of the leadership or seek a new leadership. So we don’t still know whether this will happen with AKP or other parties. I think, to the contrary, the results show that if there is polarization in the Turkish society, it will further go down. Because now we have a more balanced parliament, because before it was one party, they could easily go on with what they wanted. But now we don’t have that situation in parliament. Whoever rules the government, they would need to compromise with the other parties. So this will certainly, to the contrary, lower the existing polarization in Turkey. They would need to work together and of course they would have to soften their approach towards each other because otherwise it wouldn’t work.
Q: The conflict in Syria is a burden on Turkey. 1.8 million Syrian refugees are in Turkey. We are thankful for that. But there is a complaint that most of the terrorists enter Syria from Turkish borders. We are expecting strict control of borders.
A: This is an issue that has been raised many times. First of all, our border with Syria is 911 kilometers. It is a very long border and not easy to control every segment of that border. I had given this example before, just like the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S., being the most powerful country in the world economically and militarily, cannot control that border because illegal immigrants pass through that border from Mexico to the United States. We are not as strong as the U.S. but we try to control our border because it is not to our interest if there is a terrorist group gaining ground just next to our border. Who would want that? We are totally against Daesh or other terrorist groups and we don’t want them to either cross our border or anywhere else to gain ground. But this is also an issue that needs international cooperation. Turkey is one of the leading countries in tourist destinations in the world. Only last year, 41.5 million foreigners visited Turkey, and you cannot check all of them to find out what the individuals are going to do. Of course, we need cooperation from our partner countries especially in the field of intelligence sharing that if there are suspicious people traveling we have to know that in advance so that we can check, control and monitor them and find out where they are going. But if we don’t have that, it will be very hard for us. We can just randomly catch these people. Because we have our borders check points and measures are taken there, but beyond that it is a big area and it has been a sector where people have been illegally smuggled into Syria and also from Turkey to Europe.
When we raise this issue with our European partners, because many of them come from Europe some Muslim citizens from France, Britain, Belgium and when we emphasize that we need to increase the intelligence sharing this started happening specially last year. So then we had more results. For instance, only last year we caught 1,000 people who were trying to illegally cross Syria. And then we repatriated them to the countries they had come from. Also thanks to the increase intelligence sharing we had list of about 10,000 foreign citizens on black list. So whenever they come to turkey they are sent back home. We are in much better position. I don’t think it is fair to criticize turkey to let these people in and join the terrorist groups. This is not to our interest and our government is taking every measure to stop that flow and I think we have made a big progress recently. This is not a matter of only one country responsibility but all international countries.