President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sparked widespread debate in Turkey after his sudden call for the need for a new constitution with the opposition slamming the announcement as a sign of his political failures.
Erdogan said on Monday his ruling AK Party and its nationalist allies may start work on drafting a new constitution, less than four years after overhauling the previous constitution to grant his office sweeping powers.
Turks had voted in favor of the constitutional changes in 2017, leading the country to switch from a parliamentary democracy to an executive presidential system despite strong backlash from opposition parties and critics.
“Perhaps, the time has come for Turkey to once again discuss a new constitution,” Erdogan said following a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
“If we reach an understanding with our alliance partner, we may mobilize for a new constitution in the coming period,” he said, adding that efforts should be transparent and shared with the public.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli was quick to express his support for the call for a new constitution.
In a statement on Tuesday, the MHP said Turkey “clearly needed a new constitution and the party’s goals and vision support this view.”
Bahceli had last week suggested constitutional changes to ban the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) for separatism, a move the HDP condemned as an attempt to silence six million votes.
Bahceli has long been a fierce critic of the HDP and, like Erdogan, accuses it of links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters, who have fought a 36-year-old insurgency in southeast Turkey. The HDP denies this.
Erdogan made his proposal amid a dip in his popularity and rise in strong opposition candidates.
The opposition has recently been strongly pushing for holding early elections and a return to a parliamentary democracy after the presidential system battered the economy.
The Republican People's Party (CHP), the country’s largest opposition party, said Erdogan’s call for a new constitution is a sign that he has run out of political options.
“The ruling system has become bankrupt two and a half years after the adoption of the presidential system. The nation and state have become bankrupt with it,” said CHP Vice Chair Muharrem Erkek.
“We will fix the broken system,” he vowed, while also pledging to defeat Erdogan in the next elections.
“Whether the elections are held early or as scheduled, we will propose a return to the strengthened parliamentary system, and therefore, a new constitution” that overrules the 2017 changes, he added.
