Bosses oppose system change in new charter

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek talks at a press conference in this file photo. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The Turkish Confederation of Employers’ Unions (TİSK) voiced opposition to a presidential system for Turkey and stressed the principle of secularism as it presented its views yesterday on what the country’s new charter should entail, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.
TİSK Chairman Bülent Pirler presented his organization’s views at the related sub-panel of Parliament Constitution Conciliation Commission, which is tasked with drafting a new constitution for Turkey, in the first of a series of planned meetings to take input from civic groups.
Pirler argued the first three articles of the current charter should remain untouched, sources said. “The model of a social state based on the rule of law and the secular and democratic republic must remain as the principal foundation of the new constitution,” Pirler said.
“The parliamentarian system should be preserved against the alternative of a presidential system on the basis of the principle of the separation of powers,” he reportedly said. The presentation called for business-friendly reforms that would ensure state support to boost the global competitiveness of the economy and would end the public sector’s involvement in the free market as a manufacturer.