Motion crisis in the Turkish Parliament: Even Kurtulmuş reacts

In the TBMM Planning and Budget Committee, the fact that ministers either provide no response to parliamentary questions or offer evasive answers has become a subject of criticism.

According to a report by Cumhuriyet, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş reacted to this situation, stating that they request responses from the executive branch twice a year and will do so again at the end of the year. Kurtulmuş said, "Answers must be both satisfactory and provided on time."

CHP Istanbul MP Engin Altay, addressing Kurtulmuş, stated, "The fact that only 4,000 out of 34,026 written parliamentary questions were answered within the deadline is a point where you should be asking the executive branch, 'What are you doing?'"

Similar concerns were also voiced by the AKP and MHP wings. AKP Uşak MP İsmail Güneş stated that he has yet to receive a response to a parliamentary question he submitted a year ago regarding the Uşak Municipality, while MHP Deputy Chairman Mustafa Kalaycı said, "It is observed that the rule requiring written parliamentary questions to be answered within fifteen days is not being complied with." However, Kalaycı added that more questions have been answered compared to previous years.

CHP Malatya MP Veli Ağbaba expressed that he has not received satisfactory answers to his questions directed at the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and President Erdoğan. Ağbaba said, "I asked Ali Erbaş for information regarding the administrators, and they told me, 'You can get it from the Presidency's website.'"

KURTULMUŞ: ANSWERS MUST BE BOTH SATISFACTORY AND PROVIDED ON TIME

Responding to the criticisms, Parliament Speaker Kurtulmuş stated that they last made a request to the executive branch regarding parliamentary questions on June 24, adding, "We clearly expressed that we want answers to be provided on time." Noting that they had made this request three times before, Kurtulmuş said, "So this was our 4th time. Now, we will do this once more at the end of this year. We do this twice every year. We also think this is important, and we are following up on it. As a result of this follow-up, the rate of answered questions has risen to 69 percent. It is not enough; all of them must be answered. Answers must be both satisfactory and provided on time."

News Source: 12punto