AKP to submit own draft charter if opposition does not return to table

ANKARA

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A senior Justice and Development Party (AKP) official has vowed the ruling party will submit their own draft charter to parliament if the three oppositional parties refuse to return to the inter-party panel tasked with rewriting the constitution.

“If they will not return to the table upon the call of the parliament speaker, then we will submit our own proposals to parliament and to the public opinion,” AKP Secretary-General Abdülhamit Gül, a member of the panel, told the Anadolu Agency on Feb. 22. 

The panel was dissolved by Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman in its third meeting due to a split over the presidential system. The AKP insists the new constitution should be written in a way to endorse the presidential system while the oppositional parties favor the continuation of the parliamentary system. 

Recalling that they have a draft of proposals for the new charter in line with necessary democratic norms, Gül said: “The decision will be given by our 550 lawmakers in parliament and by the people. We have never been in a manner to impose anything on the people. We’ll submit our proposals to parliament. We have a drafted constitution that we believe will receive support from all parties and lawmakers.” 

Blaming the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for the dissolution of the panel, Gül argued that the main opposition party’s objective has never been making a new constitution but rather sabotaging the process of writing the new charter. 

“The CHP is trying to introduce our proposal of a change in the system as the change of the regime. But our mission is not to change the regime but to improve the achievements of the republic and to move them forward,” Gül said. 

“The CHP got scared. If they would be sincere, they would join the works in an unconditional way upon the call of our parliament speaker,” he added.