‘Failure on charter unthinkable’

Emre Baylan ANTALYA / Doğan News Agency

Turkey cannot afford to fail in drafting a new constitution, Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek has said.

“In the event that we fail, then we are bound to this constitution for 30 years,” Çiçek said yesterday at the seventh Constitution Citizen Meetings organized by the Constitution Platform, which represents 13 professional associations and nongovernmental organizations, in the southern province of Antalya.

Çiçek, the keynote speaker of the event, said he was not there to speak but to take the views of the citizens.

Past constitutions were written by a group and were only later put before the public for their approval or rejection, he said, adding that this was not democratic.

One of the participants protested Çiçek, shouting, “No to the separatist constitution. Are you going to ask the people about the remaining 5 percent of the constitution when the other 95 percent is pre-determined?”

As the protest was continuing, Çiçek said: “Look how hard it is to make democracy survive. One person may be trying to weaken a good meeting with irregular, haphazard interventions. The question that comes then is to the one who is accusing others as to whether they are acting on behalf of others.”
The protester was surrounded by security staff but was not removed.