ANKARA
The Turkish Parliament will debate the constitutional amendment on party closures starting on Friday.
The ruling Justice and Development Party on Tuesday submitted a bill in the parliament which makes it harder to shut down a political party.
The new bill came days after Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, said that certain groups and individuals were aiming to close down his party.
Kilicdaroglu said he knew the identities of the people behind the alleged move.
However, government officials strongly rejected his claims. "No one could attempt such a thing, closing a political party," Interior Minister Efkan Ala said during a TV interview on March 5.
On Friday, the ruling AK Party parliamentary group figure Ahmet Aydin said that the AK Party was against such closures.
"I believe that no political party in Turkey should be shut down, in new Turkey," he added.
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Tuesday parties to support this bill to fully revoke closing down a political party.
"If the four parties convene, or even only with the main opposition party, this issue will drop off the nation's agenda," said Erdogan in Ankara.
