Türkiye’s ruling party seeks to change the constitution

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, the attempt to amend and change the Turkish constitution, once It has already attracted the attention of the media and political and legal circles of this country.

But the evidence shows that this time, the ruling party, namely the Justice and Development Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to change some One of the most important articles of the Turkish constitution, it faces great challenges. The efforts of several political parties in Turkey to change the constitution approved during the military rule have not yet come to fruition, and some nationalist parties are very sensitive about changing the definition of Turkish citizenship.

Erdogan’s opposition parties have repeatedly They have demanded to change the Turkish constitution and adapt it to the principles and norms of the European Union. They believe that a large part of Turkey’s political and structural problems go back to the text of the constitution. The same text which, according to prominent Turkish jurists, is written so harshly and decisively that the military spirit rules over it and it is miles away from the civil constitution.

Why is it necessary to change the Turkish constitution?
The contemporary history of Turkey can be called the history of coups. Because in addition to the two big coups of 1960 during the Adnan Menderes era and the 1980 coup during the Demirel era, several other military movements have also been carried out, all of which have targeted the institution of politics, parliament, and the constitution.

Numan Kurtolmoş proposed three strategies for preparing the political environment and the Turkish parliament for the purpose of amending the constitution and is currently meeting and consulting with the leaders The main parties are Turkey.

The first method is to proceed with the process of amending the law based on the draft prepared by the Justice and Development Party. But the problem is that this party did not inform anyone and cut and sew everything behind closed doors and wants to expose everyone to the action. The second method is that each of the main parties present in the parliament, prepare an independent draft and then go to long meetings to discuss the reforms in the next phase. But this method also has a big drawback, which is that it takes a long time to compile new proposals.

The third method suggested by the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament is to try to establish a joint constitutional commission.

Mahmatgon from Turkish lawyers believe that the main problem of Turkey is the lack of stability in management, falling into the middle income black hole and the impossibility of moving Turkey in the direction of simultaneous political and economic development.

He says: “One hundred years of The establishment of the Republic of Turkey has passed, but this country is still unable to guarantee sustainable healthy growth and increase prosperity. Because chronic basic problems such as the lack of independence of the judiciary, non-adherence to the separation of powers, lack of rule of law, disruption of representative justice, instability in the government and critical economy and inflation have remained in force. Turkey has not progressed in many issues, including democracy, and in the economic field, it is caught in the middle income trap. The main reason for these problems is the administrative impasse of the country”. According to many Turkish jurists, the change of the Turkish political system from a parliamentary to a presidential system led Turkey’s democratization process to a deviant path and the government’s decisions led to its downfall. became economic and prevented the sustainable increase of well-being.

Instability in the government’s decisions disturbed social justice and it became impossible to solve problems such as education, innovation, production of added value, competitiveness and problems of this kind. Since the Turkish constitution failed to establish a check-balance system, the government interfered in all spheres, and as a result, in addition to the public sphere and democracy, the economy suffered heavy losses. In such a way that the inefficiency of the economic system, increasing inflation, lack of added value and foreign dependence in the field of energy have caused a foreign trade deficit, the need for foreign financing and the economy’s dependence on foreign countries, and in parallel with all these problems, the government has repeatedly shown that It is wasteful and wasteful and there is no specific legal mechanism to control the government.

What should change?
Turkish lawyers and politicians believe that in the new constitution, the foundation for the formation of a transparent, accountable and completely independent judiciary should be provided and it can perform its duties effectively.

In addition to this being a necessary requirement for the separation of powers, it is a basic condition for stability in the government and economy, which Turkey desperately needs. An independent judiciary is a judicial branch that is independent from the legislative and executive branches, has sufficient funds to perform its duties, has strong guarantees and can also perform its duties freely.

Like all Public institutions and organs, all judicial organs and organs must be transparent and accountable. Providing quality services and full accountability is the most basic condition of the judiciary to gain and maintain independence. The radical solution of the judicial problem requires changing the provisions of the constitution regarding the judiciary.

By solving the structural problem of the judiciary, the problems of the rule of law will automatically be solved by removing the requirement of the administrative authorities to allow the judiciary to handle the crimes of government officials. judicial and will be solved by reorganizing legal immunity. The independence of the judiciary paves the way for improving the investment climate, sustainable growth and increasing prosperity. Image/1403/02/17/1403021716025126829968384.jpg”/>
Another important area is the attempt to lower the 7% quorum in order to allow small parties into parliament. In the current constitution, any party that does not receive at least 7% of the total votes cannot participate in the election as a list. Because of this, small parties will be practically crushed and the possibility of participation will be available only to old and rich parties.

Turkish lawyers say that there is no need to rewrite the law and it is enough to amend some important principles. From their point of view, it is enough to amend the constitution that solves the current problems of the people with the consensus of the civil society.

Another important issue in the Turkish constitution is changing the definition of citizenship rights. In the current text, it is explicitly emphasized that “anyone recognized as a citizen of Turkey is a Turk”. Kurds, Arabs, Armenians and other non-Turkish ethnic groups in Turkey object to this article and want to change it. However, in response to this question, Kurtolmus, the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, said: “There is no possibility of changing this article.” Because Turkey’s current political situation is not suitable for such a thing.”

Military or civil constitution? /> One of the important aspects of Turkish political parties’ criticisms about the constitution is that the spirit of militarism still dominates the law and there is no mention of civil foundations. To “civilize” the constitution, the opinion of universities and other scientific institutions should be taken into account. The Civil Constitution is a law in which the public actively participates and demands are negotiated and agreed through civil methods and nothing is imposed. Murad Yetkin, one of the famous Turkish analysts, believes that Erdogan and His party is managing a news and intellectual game and has nothing to do with the constitution. He says: “All these games have two goals. The first goal is to divert people’s minds from the economic crisis. The second goal is to try to change the current constitution, so that Erdogan can run for the fourth time in 2028!”

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