Rejuvenating democracy and responsibility

For a week now we have been in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, one of Africa's charming countries, for the General Assembly meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The IPU is the oldest international formation among the world's parliaments, founded in 1889 and working in parallel with the United Nations. The parliaments of more than 130 countries are members of this union. The General Assembly meets twice a year, once in one of the member countries and once in Geneva, where the Union is headquartered. Its main themes are improving the level of democracy in the world, ensuring that parliaments work actively and productively, sustainable development, and the advancement of human rights. In line with these main themes, a sub-theme is chosen each year and focused upon. In this way a field of shared responsibility and sensitivity is created in all the world's democracies around certain issues.

This year the main theme discussed at the Lusaka meeting was titled Rejuvenating Democracy and Giving Youth a Voice. Representatives of countries set out their own countries' visions and current situations on this subject and had the opportunity to convey, from their own perspectives, their messages on the situation in the world around it. In parallel with the General Assembly meetings, closed sessions and meetings are also held on problem areas or countries, in line with reports coming from parliaments. In particular, if there are problems concerning the rights of parliamentarians, they are put on the table.

Representatives of many countries took the floor on the rejuvenation of democracy and listening to the voice of young people. We too had the opportunity to set out our own position on this subject.

In Turkey there is a population of over 20 million counted in the youth category, and while they form Turkey's dynamism, they also constitute the most important test field of successful politics, which requires very good planning. It is very clear that a young population whose needs, orientations and course are not fully understood and whose requirements are not met runs the risk of becoming a source of many social problems rather than an advantage.

Undoubtedly, to fulfill our responsibility toward future generations we must make more effort than we do today.

Many countries and societies in the world take pride in their young population and their democracy. And they should. But their quality can only be measured by the magic word we call "participation." Without participatory democracy, a young population is condemned to remain a weak element of society.

Within the framework of the exercise of democratic rights, the lowering of the voting age to 18, the lowering in 2006 of the age of eligibility to be elected as a member of parliament from 30 to 25, and the placing on the agenda, as a vision, of lowering it to 18, have opened up an important area for the political participation of youth. Compared with previous periods, the average age of our parliament is falling day by day. For example, the average age of parliamentarians, which was 51 in 2011, is now down to around 45.

Obstacles to democratic political participation can largely lead people toward less democratic fields of political participation. The entire human resource of the terror we suffer from today is youth. Unfortunately, in all of the attacks in Ankara, Paris, Istanbul and Brussels, the suicide bombers or attackers were all young, and the great majority of those killed in the attacks were also young people. Although the participation of youth in the legitimate and democratic political sphere holds an important place under the heading of rejuvenating democracy, another keyword must also determine these policies. That is responsibility. Responsibility is a value that the young person must shoulder and that current political decision-makers must feel even more heavily toward young people. We have a responsibility to hand over to young people a safer world that will allow them to build their own futures better. We have a responsibility to protect them against the ideological poisonings that poison the world of young people and turn them into recklessly daring criminals against their own peers or humanity in general.

IMPRESSIONS FROM ZAMBIA

Zambia, where the meeting we attended took place together with the IPU member parliamentarians (İlksen Ceritoğlu Kurt, Çorum; Ebubekir Gizligider, Nevşehir; Aytuğ Atıcı, Mersin; Hasan Sert, İstanbul; Şahap Kavcıoğlu; Bayburt) and the Parliament's Secretary General İrfan Neziroğlu, is a charming, relatively peaceful and secure country in southern Africa bordering a total of 7 countries. It is one of the African countries where we opened a new embassy in 2011. It has extremely fertile land and copper mines.

Zambia is one of the rare countries in its region where government has changed through democratic elections and no public-order problems were experienced during the handover of government. It has no problems with its neighbors. It is among the pioneers of the anti-colonialist movements in Africa. The ANC, banned in the Republic of South Africa during the apartheid era, continued its activities in Lusaka; Zambia supported in every respect those who struggled against the racist regimes of Rhodesia and Namibia. Those fleeing the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars took refuge in Zambia.

The generally safe investment climate in Zambia and the absence of political instability in the country allow Western-origin international civil society organizations, especially those providing development aid, to operate with ease.

Western countries provide economic and social development aid to Zambia in areas such as public health, good governance and combating domestic violence, within the framework of an informal structure called "Cooperating Partners." In this context, a large number of development experts work in the Western countries' embassies based in Lusaka.

With Turkey's embassy, also opened in 2011, a trade volume reaching 35 million dollars has been developed, but although the potential is certainly far greater than this, not even a ministerial-level visit to this country has yet taken place. Both with the ambassador and with the businessmen we met here, we got the impression that there is a rich potential lying idle from Turkey's standpoint, which requires special attention to be developed.

Agriculture, tourism, education, health and infrastructure/housing sectors have been identified as priority areas of cooperation with our country.