With local elections out of the way, Türkiye is seeing increased dialogue around overhauling its coup-era Constitution as Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş prepares to kick off talks with all political parties.
Kurtulmuş is expected to pay a visit to the main opposition first and meet the parliamentary group of the Republican People's Party (CHP) this Tuesday to discuss the odds of a new set of bylaws and a constitution, local media reported Monday.
The speaker previously said Parliament would prepare a new set of bylaws after the elections to increase internal democratic standards and bolster judicial quality, which would yield results “significantly easier than the constitutional process.”
The issue of a new constitution is also a top item for the much-anticipated one-on-one between CHP leader Özgür Özel and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan scheduled for later this week.
The debate over the Constitution has been lengthy and for more than a decade, Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) championed the struggle to gain the support of other political parties to draft a new constitution.
The opposition has been 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.
The current Constitution 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.
The document 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.
In 2007, Erdoğan’s AK Party attempted an overhaul when it employed a commission to produce a draft, which was shelved upon heated criticism from the opposition. Since then, the party has been working on “stronger” material. Its proposed changes focus 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.
Insider sources said the president will be bringing up the matter at his meeting with Özel while the CHP leader is expected to broach economic problems, foreign policy and the “judicial crisis,” the turmoil that rocked Parliament in January when an imprisoned opposition lawmaker was stripped of his parliamentary status, who was convicted of attempting to overthrow the government in 2013.
Last week, Erdoğan said he could raise to Özel an offer to “bring Türkiye an innovative and libertarian constitution,” something he often argues Türkiye “desperately needs to shed the coup mentality” looming over Turkish democracy.
“The maintenance of the executive presidency system and the continuation of the 50%+1 rule is a necessity of the gains of people’s democracy struggle,” Erdoğan’s chief adviser and presidential judicial policies council deputy chief Mehmet Uçum said Sunday on X.
The 50%+1 rule means a presidential candidate must secure over 50% of valid votes to win the election, which was enforced after the shift to the presidential system and led politics to forging alliances.
However, ahead of last year’s general elections, Erdoğan had floated the idea of making a constitutional amendment to change the requirement.
As for what the constitutional overhaul entails, Uçum said the first three articles of the current document are “indispensable” for the AK Party. The top three articles of the Constitution lay out that Türkiye is a republic; a democratic, laic and social state governed by the rule of law, respecting human rights and loyal to the nationalism of founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; and an indivisible entity with its language being Turkish.
Regarding the main principles of the new constitution, Uçum made suggestions for a constitution that is "civil," "libertarian," "inclusive" in the definition of citizenship, "protective" of natural resources as well as "the material and spiritual existence of individuals," and "allows for social policies."
Kurtulmuş recently said parties, despite differing opinions, could reach a consensus on more articles for a new constitution as they have in the past for a draft that included 64 articles.
AK Party officials too will be making visits to opposition parties for a possible joint road map to a new constitution in the coming weeks.
Party officials have said the plan has been prepared in accordance with the observations and reports of international human rights groups. They seek cooperation from all political parties, expert academics, universities and the general public to give the document its final shape.
According to insiders, the ruling party is aiming to pen a constitution with 90-100 articles, as opposed to the 177 articles and 16 temporary items in the current document.
“But if the opposition refuses to support our draft, we will take our proposal to the public,” an AK Party official said last year.
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 May 14 parliamentary polls, far higher than its closest rival 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.
