Parliament to start new constitution work after elections
PARLIAMENT will rush to start discussions with all present party groups on a brand-new constitution for Türkiye after this Sunday’s local elections, according to Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş.
“All political parties, whether they want a more detailed or shorter constitution, will be consulted,” Kurtulmuş told an iftar meal, a dinner to mark the breaking of the daily fast, with the heads of media organizations in Istanbul on Monday.
He said he would start visiting parties, whom he said must be prepared for a constitutional overhaul, a topic that gained pace after the elections in May 2023, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowing to “liberate Türkiye from a coup mentality.”
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.
“Beyond merely penning a document, it’s to rid Türkiye of that antidemocratic structure brought about by the 1982 coup,” Kurtulmuş argued.
“Türkiye needs a democratic, inclusive and civil constitution composed with its own initiative for its needs and we don’t need anyone, be it from the outside or inside, to supply a proposal for us,” he added.
OPPOSITION’S INPUT
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.
Kurtulmuş acknowledged that all 14 parties at Parliament may have differing yet significant opinions about the constitution but he said, “What really matters beyond individual opinions is that we can establish grounds for mature discussions.”
Stressing that all parties must contribute to the process without prejudice, he said: “I believe we could achieve results if everyone comes in with good intentions. But we must first of course reduce the tensions at Parliament and establish dialogue.”
Kurtulmuş was referring to the turmoil that rocked Parliament in January when it stripped an imprisoned opposition lawmaker of his parliamentary status, who was convicted of attempting to overthrow the government in 2013.
“We must set up a formal platform at Parliament where all of us can argue,” Kurtulmuş said, adding that this must be bolstered by the opinions of civil society, universities and the legal world.
Kurtulmuş believes parties can reach a consensus again on more articles for a new constitution as they have in the past for a draft that included 64 articles.
According to insiders, the AK 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.
Ruling party officials too will be making visits to opposition parties for a possible joint road map to a new constitution when Parliament resumes sessions on April 16 after Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid alFitr, the holiday marking the end of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.
Kurtulmuş also 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.”
PKK IN IRAQ
The Parliament speaker went on to discuss the recent dialogue between Türkiye and Iraq, which is mulling a formal decision to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization, a terror group that has led a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state that killed over 40,000 people since the 1980s.
The PKK holds a stronghold in the northern Iraqi region of Qandil, which is under the de-jure control of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where the terrorist group seeks to legitimize its presence through political parties and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Turkish airstrikes have been hitting terror targets in the region for years. Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says it is protecting its borders. The intention is to establish a 30-40 kilometer (18-25 mile) security corridor to secure its southern borders completely. Ankara battles the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, in the country’s northern regions.
After talks between Turkish and Iraqi officials earlier this month, Baghdad acknowledged the PKK as a security threat to both countries and said its presence in Iraq “represents a violation of the Iraqi Constitution.”
Kurtulmuş emphasized that “one thing Türkiye achieved since the beginning in both Iraq and Syria has been the effort it put into ensuring the territorial integrity of both countries.”
“Iraq can see this, as well,” he said, expressing hope of seeing progress on the joint fight against terrorism.
He also lamented a collapse in the Middle East that started with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, pointing out how Syria was made “ungovernable” and Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Lebanon were “torn apart.”
“Türkiye is currently at a crossroads,” Kurtulmuş said. “We either await our turn for a path drawn by neo-imperialists or we
work together and achieve the result that serves our shared interests.”
HYBRID WARS, GAZA
In that vein, Kurtulmuş continued by arguing that the U.S.-led Western command of the world order “ended” with Washington’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving a period potent for major conflicts everywhere.
“Türkiye must better utilize this period. It’s a country that has the potential to become a main actor in the new world balance,” he said.
He also claimed the terror attack by Daesh at a concert hall in Moscow last Friday, which killed at least 139 people, indicated global events were headed to a “whole new level.”
“After proxy wars and trade wars, the world is currently living through a period of new hybrid wars that major powers can spread wherever they wish,” Kurtulmuş noted. “Türkiye is one of those countries widely affected by this and knows very well
what proxy wars mean, thanks to groups like Daesh, the PKK and YPG.”
He warned that “if proxy wars aren’t terminated at once, a much larger, global war could break out in the coming term.”
Kurtulmuş said he found “big similarities” between Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip and “certain conditions” that emerged with the Russia-Ukraine war, namely how certain countries were being used as “proxies” in these conflicts.
As for Gaza, where more than 32,400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, during more than five months of indiscriminate Israeli bombardment, Kurtulmuş said a mechanism that can prevent Israel as it violates international law must be set up “urgently.”
“A peace force is one of the most important measures,” he said. “That’s what Türkiye means by being a guarantor nation.
“If a peace force consisting, preferably, of regional countries, including Türkiye, Israel could never act this freely.”