Turkish politics owes the nation a civilian, libertarian and inclusive constitution, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a new book, as his party prepares to launch a workshop to discuss a road map to a new constitution.
In the introduction to “2023 Constitution Symposium to Replace 1982,” a book released jointly by the Presidency's Directorate of Communications and the Presidential Council of Law Policies, Erdoğan outlines the need to make a new constitution that “suits the spirit of the times and one that doesn’t restrains the people but brings them dynamism.”
Erdoğan’s government has been pushing to overhaul Tükiye’s Constitution for over a decade now, which was enforced in 1982 following a military coup that led to the detention of hundreds of thousands of people along with mass trials, torture and executions, which still represents a dark period in Turkish political history.
Lamenting “frequent interceptions by coup plotters” to Türkiye’s democracy, Erdoğan described the 1961 and 1982 Constitutions as being “forced onto the people by putschists to institutionalize their antidemocratic rule established at gunpoint.”
The current Constitution has undergone nearly 20 amendments over the years to keep up with global and regional geopolitical conjectures. The most notable changes were introduced via referendums in 2010 by enabling the trialing of the 1980 coup plotters in civil courts and in 2017 by replacing the parliamentary system with an executive presidency.
“While our Constitution has been changed over time, our country is still governed by a Constitution carrying the traces of a putschist mentality between the lines,” Erdoğan said. “That it’s a document which lost its spirit and meaning is accepted by all societal groups.”
Erdoğan assured his government was still committed to meeting “this urgent need for Türkiye” and said it was “high time preparing our country for the future and making a new constitution by utilizing the experiences of our century-old republic.”
“This new constitution will be an exceptional milestone for the future of our people,” he said.
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) attempted an overhaul in 2007 when it employed a commission to produce a draft, but it was shelved upon heated criticism from the opposition.
Since then, the party has been working on “stronger” material. Its proposed changes focused on freedom, the right to security, the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech and the rights of women and the disabled. The enhancement of these rights and liberties has seen setbacks in the bureaucracy that have prevented them from being appropriately implemented.
Earlier this week, an AK Party deputy chair revealed the party would hold a workshop in October to discuss the matter and methods for crafting it.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş also held meetings with the heads and delegations of most political parties, including the AK Party and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), to test the ground for a new constitution.
Talks are expected about the content of the new constitution after the start of the new legislative year on Oct. 1. Consensus among parties so far has generally been welcoming of a new constitution rather than making more amendments, except for the CHP, which has said it was still “far from the table.”
The main opposition has been consistently reluctant and, at times, outright hostile to the attempts to create a new constitution. Their reasons are mostly political and they oppose a constitution to be “imposed” upon them by the government, despite Erdoğan’s repeated remarks that they want to consult with other parties before starting the work.
At least 400 lawmakers must ratify a new constitution draft in Parliament. Anything over 360 votes would allow a referendum, allowing the people to decide.
The AK Party retained 268 seats in the 2023 parliamentary elections, far higher than the CHP, which won 169 seats. The AK Party, however, is part of the People’s Alliance, which also includes its closest ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and together, they have 323 seats.
