Speaking at the program organized by Culture, Arts and Publishing Comittee of Turkish Grand National Assembly, Prof. Berktay emphasized that democracy needs certain institutions and most important of them all is the democracy culture itself. Prof. Berktay said: "The modenity agenda that we defined as reforms in Tanzimat era at 19th century or reforms of unionism or the transformations during the Repuclic, got ahead of democracy itself. The principle of contemporary civilization gradually radicalized first in the unionism period and secondly in the Kemalist Republic. Imposing modernity intensively upon the society from top to bottom, in a speed that can not be normally accepted, do not go hand in hand with democracy smoothly and moderately. This was not a problem experienced only in Turkey. Iran, Russia, China and Japan has gone through the same." Prof. Berktay said he believed Turkish democracy has a problem of tonning. He said, " I do not consider defending the rights of other political parties in Turkey, is not an established value neither in government nor in the opposition ranks for decades. In democracies, politicians and the constituents should be able to speak in a low tone."
The program titled "Parliament Speaks" is moderated by Former Turkish Pariamentary Speaker Köksal Toptan and Professor İlber Ortaylı and author Avni Özgürel were the other speakers. The program will be organized under the auspices of the Turkish Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman, every month with different topics and different guest speakers.
