Motive behind debate over internal rules

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The opposition wing openly argues that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not move up to Çankaya with existing powers and that he will impose a ‘semi or full presidential system’ for Turkey within the new constitution writing process. AFP photo

Will Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan move up to the presidential palace in 2014? If he wants to, will he do it with existing powers, or will he suggest a change in the system as “presidential system” or “semi-presidential system”?

In the depths of the corridors of Parliament, this is the question that occupies minds, and an answer is being sought. There are more than two years before the presidential election, but in the 2020 vision of politics, starting with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition parties, the answer to many future calculations lies in the answer to this question.

In the AKP corridors, many say “Prime Minister Erdoğan likes ‘firsts.’ He will be the first president to be elected by popular vote and ascend to Çankaya.”

It is believed in the corridors of the opposition that the path to that process has been paved by stones laid out in 2012. These “road stones” are as such: “Restricting President Abdullah Gül’s presidential term with seven years; the fact that writing of the new constitution coincides with that period; starting debates on internal (parliamentary) regulations; the fact that strong emphasis is being loaded on the defective aspects of the system.”

The opposition wing openly argues that Erdoğan will not move up to Çankaya with existing powers and that he will impose a “semi or full presidential system” for Turkey within the new constitution writing process. In the corridors of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), similar views are frequently brought up. Moreover, with further interpretation, there are some who attribute the recent fight over internal regulations to this.
MHP deputy group head Mehmet Şandır openly said, “What was it the AKP wanted to do and these internal regulations stopped them from doing? The country has been run by this set of internal regulations for the past 10 years. Based on what probability are they imposing this? Despite all our efforts, the AKP does not compromise.” Şandır believes the government does not have a good will in this fight. He interprets the row over internal rules has started and despite all objections is being enforced as “preparatory work for the infrastructure of a presidential system.”

Şandır addressed the AKP as follows: “Have you decided on discrediting this Parliament or formulating that the work done in Parliament is unnecessary? Do you have any intention such as to prove that the parliamentary democratic system is no good, that society believes and accepts there is a need to move on to a new system, for example a presidential system? ”

MHP deputy Şandır’s concerns are shared by the opposition as well as some members of the Constitution Conciliation Commission. The commission will move on to writing context for the new constitution May 1. The expectation that there will be a “last minute attack” is high among the opposition members of the commission. One member asked this question: “If the AKP is sincere in making a new constitution, why does it not simultaneously form a commission for internal rules, but instead consistently impose those partial amendments that silence the opposition?”

In Parliament, both the government and the opposition, to a large extent, anticipate that Erdoğan will move up to Çankaya. But they cannot yet figure out in which system and with which powers.