AKP seeks help to reform charter
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Reuters
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 10, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - The Justice and Development Party will seek to restart its attempts to amend the Constitution now that the local elections are over. However, it will likely have to tone down its plans following a drop in the percentage of votes it won in the elections
The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, will start talks with the opposition to amend the Constitution now that local elections in the European Union candidate state are over, the head of a parliamentary commission said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said he planned to renew efforts to make changes to the 1982 military-inspired charter -- a key step toward EU membership -- after the March 29 elections, in which the Islamist-rooted AKP saw its support slide.
Burhan Kuzu, an AKP deputy who heads a commission in Parliament that is charged with revising the Constitution, told Reuters in an interview that he hoped to open negotiations with deputies from the Kurdish, secularist and nationalist parties. "We wish to reach an agreement with all sides," Kuzu said late Monday.
Earlier plan more ambitious
Erdoğan's earlier and more ambitious plans to draft a new constitution were shelved after the AKP narrowly escaped a 2007 legal attempt initiated by the secularist opposition to ban it for Islamic activities, in a case that plunged the country into political instability and hurt financial markets.
The results of last month's local polls, the worst for the AKP since it won power in 2002, might also force Erdoğan to tread more carefully on reforms and avoid sparking possible new instability at a time when the country is heading into recession. Kuzu said the planned amendments included changing a law to make it more difficult to close a political party based on ideological grounds, restructuring the Constitutional Court and creating an ombudsman -- steps long demanded by Brussels.
The charter, drafted after a 1980 coup, has been blamed for slowing the country's drive for modernization and hurting economic development. It curbs some political rights, such as freedom of expression and religious freedom, and allows the military to exert influence over elected governments.
Turkey started EU entry talks in late 2005, but progress has been slow. U.S. President Barack Obama, in a visit to Turkey this week, reiterated Washington's support for EU membership, but urged Ankara to speed up reforms.
The AKP does not have enough seats in Parliament to amend the Constitution, meaning it will need the support of at least the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.
The secularist Republican People's Party, or CHP, which saw its support in last month's local polls increase, has resisted government plans to reform the Constitution, arguing a party it accuses of having an Islamist agenda has no business in changing a charter that guarantees the country's secular principles.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said he planned to renew efforts to make changes to the 1982 military-inspired charter -- a key step toward EU membership -- after the March 29 elections, in which the Islamist-rooted AKP saw its support slide.
Burhan Kuzu, an AKP deputy who heads a commission in Parliament that is charged with revising the Constitution, told Reuters in an interview that he hoped to open negotiations with deputies from the Kurdish, secularist and nationalist parties. "We wish to reach an agreement with all sides," Kuzu said late Monday.
Earlier plan more ambitious
Erdoğan's earlier and more ambitious plans to draft a new constitution were shelved after the AKP narrowly escaped a 2007 legal attempt initiated by the secularist opposition to ban it for Islamic activities, in a case that plunged the country into political instability and hurt financial markets.
The results of last month's local polls, the worst for the AKP since it won power in 2002, might also force Erdoğan to tread more carefully on reforms and avoid sparking possible new instability at a time when the country is heading into recession. Kuzu said the planned amendments included changing a law to make it more difficult to close a political party based on ideological grounds, restructuring the Constitutional Court and creating an ombudsman -- steps long demanded by Brussels.
The charter, drafted after a 1980 coup, has been blamed for slowing the country's drive for modernization and hurting economic development. It curbs some political rights, such as freedom of expression and religious freedom, and allows the military to exert influence over elected governments.
Turkey started EU entry talks in late 2005, but progress has been slow. U.S. President Barack Obama, in a visit to Turkey this week, reiterated Washington's support for EU membership, but urged Ankara to speed up reforms.
The AKP does not have enough seats in Parliament to amend the Constitution, meaning it will need the support of at least the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.
The secularist Republican People's Party, or CHP, which saw its support in last month's local polls increase, has resisted government plans to reform the Constitution, arguing a party it accuses of having an Islamist agenda has no business in changing a charter that guarantees the country's secular principles.