This commission cannot write the constitution

The commission established to write the new constitution held its first meeting.

If you were to ask if this commission could write a news constitution, my answer would be: “I really don’t think so.”

The reason why I say this is that the issue which blocked the constitutional commission the last time and ended the work is still on the agenda and there is no change in the parties’ positions.

The prime minister announced once again that the ruling party will insist on the presidential system. I know the other parties’ positions; all of them are against this system.

The prime minister said the issue should not evolve around President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but the truth is that one-man rule with a constitution that neglects the separation of powers is hoped to be established.

There is also truth in the fact that the “Turkish-style” parliamentary system in force is not working.

The reasons are clear: The president has extreme powers. The executive has taken the legislative body prisoner. Not only can the legislative organ not inspect the executive, it has become its soldier, as the political activities of parliamentarians are limited to raising their hands.

The political parties’ law and the election law are both the product of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup. It is impossible to talk about the independence of the judiciary.

The “Turkish-style” presidential system being proposed to replace the “Turkish-style” parliamentary system is not designed to solve these problems.

The Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) proposal neither establishes a separation of powers nor positions the legislative body in such a way as it can inspect the activities of the executive. No one even talks about how the independence and unbiased nature of the judiciary will be safeguarded.

It is obvious what kind of outcome will come from this picture.

The commission will spend some time and then get dissolved, saying: “Nothing is coming out of it.”

The prime minister can continue to say “there will be no early election;” Turkey is headed towards early elections in an unavoidable way.

What matters are not the prime minister’s words but the intentions of the president, because all research reveals it is impossible for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to pass the electoral threshold, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is on the border of the electoral threshold and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is not advancing.

If there is no major change, the 400 parliamentarians needed to establish the one-man rule regime, which happens to be the dream of the president, is a given for the AKP.

You can bet that if not this autumn, then by next spring we will have elections one more time. 

Debates within the CHP

CHP deputy Aylin Nazlıaka claimed when she didn’t see a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in one of her colleagues’ offices in parliament, she warned that person and asked for a portrait to be hung there. She also claimed that while she was telling this to two other deputies, a third one overheard it and told it to some journalists.

The risk is akin to the debate on “the sex of angels” during the last days of Byzantium.

There is a search for that deputy. Nazlıaka said, “I won’t reveal the name.” Now the whole party has asked her to reveal the name. Disciplinary action is being taken against Nazlıaka.

Hell is breaking out in the country and this is the situation in the main opposition party.