Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Feb 1, 2021 (AA Photo)
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Monday in a press conference that “it is time to discuss drafting a new [Turkish] constitution…If we reach an understanding with our alliance partner [allied parties in Parliament], we may mobilize for a new constitution in the coming period.” He provided no details about the proposal, but promised that “our reform packages will be revealed soon in full detail.”
Erdogan’s statement comes after extensive constitutional reforms were already adopted by the Turkish parliament and citizenry in 2017, converting Turkey’s parliamentary system into a executive presidential system, thereby giving the long-time leader the ability to appoint his own cabinet and exert direct control over government ministries as president, instead of having to work with opposition parties to form a government cabinet. Those constitutional reforms were related to a coup attempt against Erdogan’s ruling AK party in July, 2016 by a faction of the more-secular armed forces. The coup ultimately failed, and Erdogan has used it as a pretext ever since to justify additional crackdowns on political opponents, the media, and now for additional changes to the constitution.
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Erdogan aluded to the coup attempt in his comments on Monday, stating, “No matter how much we change, it is not possible to erase the signs of coup…that have been inserted into the spirit of the [current] constitution.” After criticizing the “uncompromising stance” of opposition parties in parliament, he suggested that “work on a constitution is not something that can be done under the shadow of groups linked to the terrorist organization with people whose mental and emotional ties to their country are broken.” Those “groups linked to a terrorist organization” include the HDP party, which is an umbrella organization for liberal democrats and minority groups which have been disenfranchised in Turkey over the course of the previous decade. The HDP currently holds about 10% of seats in Turkey’s National Assembly, and is considered the primary political representation of Turkey’s 14 million Kurdish citizens who are centered in the mountainous southeast. Although Kurds make up 18% of Turkey’s population, they are vastly underrepresented politically, after a concerted campaign by Erdogan’s government to tie the HDP to the Kurdish PKK militant group in order to dismiss and even jail parliamentary members and municipal mayors. The president’s latest comments suggest an intensification of the effort to marginalize the HDP and other political opponents ahead of the push for further constitutional reform.
We would implore the Maranatha global family to join us in prayer for the people of Turkey, Greater Kurdistan, and the greater Middle East in the coming season. We expect the Turkish government’s trajectory of repression at home, military intervention abroad, and aggressive rhetoric in the Mediterranean region to continue, with growing implications for political, ethnic and religious minorities inside Turkey, or inside the Turkish sphere of influence. Please continue to pray for FAI field teams at work in the region, as we continue to labor hard and provide a witness among the unreached, that each step forward by darkness would push Kurds, Arabs and Turks toward light.
Maranatha.
