Suspicious agreements with Turkey and Qatar raise criticism against El Ghannouchi
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Roshan Amiri
- . April 30, 2020
- . Update: April 30, 2020 1:44 pm
Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rashid Ghannouchi and the first parliamentary bloc, Ennahdha, have come under widespread criticism for insisting on discussing two suspicious trade agreements with Turkey and Qatar.
The draft law is a first agreement between the Tunisian government and Qatar Fund for Development that allows the opening of an office for the fund in Tunisia, while the second agreement with Turkey is to encourage and protect mutual investment between the Tunisian Republic and the Republic of Turkey.
The popular rejection and a number of representatives of the opposition to the two agreements postponed them after it was decided to discuss them on Wednesday, at a time when charges were directed against Ennahdha and Ghannouchi demonstrated the country’s interests in the service of regional alliances.
The head of the Free Constitutional Party bloc, Abeer Moussa, described in a press conference the two agreements as suspicious and colonial, and that the Renaissance movement and its president are throwing Tunisia in the game of axes, noting that allowing the opening of a fund for Qatar in Tunisia will have serious repercussions for the independence of the country’s decision because it will allow the fund to obtain great authority.
Mousse also confirmed that the agreement with Turkey, would mortgage the Tunisian decision and national sovereignty in the hands of the Turks. Abeer Mousse also criticized Ghannouchi’s policy of exploiting the Corona crisis to pass some suspicious laws in Parliament, but in return she welcomed the decision to postpone, indicating that she would formally ask the government of the traps to withdraw the texts of the draft agreements with Turkey and Qatar and not just postpone them.
The talk of the two agreements comes in conjunction with the Tunisian Ministry of Defense denial of the rumors that circulated this week about Turkey using an air base in southern Tunisia to carry out strikes against Libya, saying it would not allow any foreign forces to use its territory for any military operations.
In turn, MP of the Tunisian Long live Tunisia Mabrouk Korshid criticized the agreements with Qatar and Turkey, saying in a video posted on his official Facebook page that “Turkey has a colonial settlement project and its agreement violates the principles of Tunisian sovereignty.”
Korshid explained the seriousness of the agreement with Turkey, saying that it allows Turkish institutions and persons of Turkish nationality to own real estate and agricultural lands in Tunisia, noting that its danger lies in that it is more important than domestic laws, especially the law relating to the prevention of property for foreigners.
“The seriousness and harm of the agreement as it strikes the Tunisian judiciary over the Turkish investor and the judiciary has no right to guardianship over it at any point,” Korshid added.
In turn, the head of the National Bloc Hatem al-Maliki said in an intervention in parliament on Tuesday in the presence of the ministers of local affairs and trade and the minister of state to the prime minister in charge of public office, governance and anti-corruption in parliament that the agreement with Turkey will make the country dependent on Turkey.
“Ghannouchi deals as if he was the president of the republic and the presidency of the parliament was like a sultanate and its office is in Istanbul,” he said, noting that the speaker of parliament has now excluded all votes against his wishes.He also criticized the Tunisian General Labor Union, which is the largest labor organization in the country, “exploiting the circumstance to pass projects and foreign agreements hostile to Tunisia’s interests and mortgaging the future of generations in favor of foreign alignments and alliances.”
The Federation said in a statement published on Tuesday that “any step in this direction will be faced with popular rejection and civil confrontation, and the Federation will not delay the struggle necessary to bring it down.”
The well-known lawyer, Imad bin Halima, called in a video posted on his official Facebook page, on citizens to go out to demonstrate in the event Ghannouchi insists on offering the two agreements.
He pointed out that the Speaker of Parliament exploits the Corona file and the curfew to pass suspicious agreements, adding, “The country’s interest requires us to break the curfew because we are in an exceptional circumstance that requires us to defend national interests and sovereignty from Turkish and Qatari domination.”
