Turkey needs new constitution with civil liberties: CHP

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

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The spokesperson of Turkey’s main opposition party has said Turkey needs a new constitution bearing civil liberties, unlike the current one, which was made after the country’s 1980 military coup.

“It is crystal clear that Turkey needs a new constitution that will erase the traumas of Turkey’s military coup on Sept. 12, 1980,” Republican People’s Party spokesperson Haluk Koç said during a press conference after his party’s Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting in Ankara on Nov. 10.

“Our desire is a new constitution defined by taking into account elements of democracy, freedom and civil liberties,” Koç added.

The 1980 military coup prompted a wide-ranging crackdown that left deep marks on Turkish society. Fifty people were executed, an estimated half a million were detained, many were tortured, hundreds died in prison and many more disappeared during the three years of military rule.

Remarking on the debate over whether a new constitution would equip President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with enhanced powers within a presidential system, Koç said any debate on a presidential system of super powers should not be part of the new constitution.