AKP insists on 7-year presidential term

ANKARA

Hüseyin çelik, deputy leader of the Justice and Development Party, speaks at a press conference after a party meeting chaired by PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. AA photo

A senior ruling party insisted the tenure of President Abdullah Gül was seven years and described a possible reduction in his term of office as “deposition.”

“We, as the Ak Parti [Justice and Development Party (AKP)], are of the opinion that our president was elected for seven years. Though we respect the opposition’s views that his mandate is five years, we will make a legislative act in the first half of January to end the debate about it,” Hüseyin Çelik, AKP deputy leader, told reporters after a party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Çelik said a legal change was enough to correct the picture and there was no need for a constitutional amendment, an idea the opposition strongly opposed.

Parliament could not shorten the presidents’ term of office, Çelik said. “Let’s pretend that our Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been elected as the president in 2014. And the next Parliament amended the Constitution and reduced the president’s tenure to three years. Then, will our prime minister make a three-year presidency term?”