Turkey: New constitution & difficult mission for ruling party

In 2012, Turkey suffered from many political issues, “Kurdish opening” to be in the first row. This certainly had to do with many armed raids by the pro-Kurdish terror organization and caused deaths of many soldiers and regular citizens.

The reason put forward by the pro-Kurdish front was to get democratic rights such as “the rights to use Kurdish as native language at schools and a more powerful and authorized regional administration” as well as removal of “the wording, Turk” from the constitution – to be replaced by citizen of the Republic of Turkey etc.

This was the picture painted by the pro-Kurdish front consisting of Kurdish politicians, writers, journalists and some opinion leaders in the country, in favor of a radical “Kurdish opening” – as they call it.

Looking at the other side of the medallion however the picture was much different. It could easily be grasped that much of these demands and efforts were aimed at building the path to an independent Kurdish State to be established in the south eastern territory of Turkey to cover provinces such as Diyarbakır, Mardin and more…

The government headed by Erdoğan – in spite of the power they have been exercising for about ten years – was incapable of putting into life a kind of package desired by the pro-Kurdish front – known to represent much less than half the Kurdish population in the country.

The reason was that Erdoğan government knew such a radical action to please said front would cost them the power and the current constitution would not allow said opening. They found out that one of the main steps on the way to reaching a consensus and peace eventually, would be making solid amendments to the constitution and in more precise words re-writing it.

Thus, the situation as it looks today is a charter panel formed by reps from all 4 parties in the parliament has been working on the re-writing of the constitution and considerable progress has been made so far.

In fact, Mr. Cemil CICEK, the spokesman of the parliament has emphasized on several occasions that the constitution-making process should be finalized “within a reasonable” time although he has not pronounced a certain deadline. The opposition leaders also agree that a time limit should not be imposed on the charter panel.

The commission which was originally scheduled to finalize its work by Dec. 31, 2012, held their first meeting in 2013. The reason the process deviated from originally planned schedule was because the committee had to cope with fierce debates and pointed disagreements over fundamental parts of the constitution.

Yet another issue was the insistence of the ruling AK Party on its presidential system proposal which received strong objection from the opposition and brought about a deadlock.

As a result of Çiçek’s visits to leaders, all four parties have reportedly agreed that the commission would continue its work by putting the AKP’s presidential system proposal in parentheses. In cases of disagreement, related articles are written with red lines from the four parties, in other words, with reservations and parentheses.

The picture as it looks today is follows;

Ak Parti and its indisputable “CHIEF” Mr. Erdoğan are in a position to feel the time pressure substantially.

The reason is that if AK Party cannot get over with the Kurdish issue until the end of 2013 (and half way through actually) it would be in situation to jeopardize another eventual victory at the first presidential and municipal elections. Because, it is very clear that more compromises to be granted to the pro-Kurdish front to bring a state of peace to the country, would be very likely to draw a negative approach from a majority of the population regardless of being AKP supporters or not. This could then open the way to an unexpected defeat in elections which are known to be of vital importance for Erdoğan on the way to the top of the state; that is serving as a PRESIDENT with super powers.

That is exactly why the PM has to see to it that the mission is accomplished soon enough to avoid a negative reflection to the forthcoming elections.

On the other hand however, when we look at the other side of the medallion, Erdoğan has to put an end to terrorism which the state has not been able to solve by means of arms so far and to do this he has to “in any case” negotiate with the organization.. This brings us to Ocalan, the jailed head of the terrorist organization…

This is not a very easy step for Erdoğan either as it has frequently been used by opposition to weaken PM’s image in the eyes of the public; A Prime Minister negotiating with the head of terrorists. Although, the PM has made a few mistakes (by even not telling the truth at times) in this regard so far, he has to talk to the leader on the island who has a strong influence on the terrorist organization.

To recap, 2013 is destined to be a crucial and decisive year for the PM and Ak Party (as well as Turkey certainly) and we should all be able to come up with answers at the end of the current year.

Probably the best wish for 2013 would be “God Protect Turkey” …

03.01.2012
Editor, BTT