Turkey's MHP agrees to talk on constitution

ANKARA

Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Monday agreed to help draft a new constitution to replace the 34-year-old charter produced under the last military regime.

“We suggest that the work on changing the constitution should go on as if it never had stopped,” MHP Deputy Chairman Oktay Ozturk said. “We should go on discussing the 61st article.”

In 2013, Turkey’s parliamentary parties formed a commission to rework the constitution introduced in 1982 following a military coup two years earlier. The commission could only agree on 60 articles before it was disbanded.

Ozturk’s comments followed a meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and MHP Chairman Devlet Bahceli, who heads the smallest of Turkey’s four parliamentary parties, for talks on a new constitution.

Omer Celik, deputy chairman of Davutoglu’s Justice and Development (AK) Party, said a constitutional commission had been agreed with the MHP. He told journalists that all four parliamentary parties would have equal representation on the commission.

Last week, Davutoglu enlisted the support of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), in creating a new constitution.

Talks with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were cancelled last month following remarks from HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas on autonomy for the southeast’s Kurdish-majority provinces amid continuing violence.

Celik did not explain how the HDP would be represented on the commission given its absence from talks.

“They excluded themselves from the process,” he said. “We had asked the HDP for an appointment as a matter of respect to its voters. We cancelled the appointment due to the disrespectful attitudes of HDP leaders to the prime minister and the AK Party.”

The AK Party aims to replace the current parliamentary system with a presidential model under a new constitution. However, opposition parties have repeatedly said they support the parliamentary system.

“If there are certain failing parts in the parliamentary system, they should be handled and the system should be strengthened,” Ozturk said, stressing Turkey’s 93-year history under a parliamentary system.

Davutoglu is expected to brief Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman, who will decide how the commission will operate, in the coming days.