HDP to submit own constitutional draft

ANKARA

The opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will release its own constitutional draft in the following days as the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) constitutional offer was prepared without the full consent of HDP lawmakers, the party’s group deputy chair, Ahmet Yıldırım, has said. 

“We will present our own constitution in a day or two. Our constitution will address today’s need of international political balances, social and individual liberties, and will not make it exclusive,” Yıldırım said at a press conference in parliament on Jan. 2. 

“The constitutional charter was passed in the parliamentary committee with a fait accompli. This constitution was prepared by a restricted group and does not represent Turkey’s social structure and political environment. In addition, not all AKP lawmakers feel satisfied with this,” Yıldırım said.

Yıldırım also criticized the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for not opposing the government’s exclusion of the HDP from the constitutional talks, adding that the CHP had also been excluded from the crucial process. 

“The CHP has said ‘our doors are open to the constitutional draft,’ but nobody has knocked on their door yet. If the CHP had said ‘we will not contribute to the constitutional amendment unless the parliament’s third largest party is present’, the CHP and us, along with other political groups, would now have been expressing our points,” he said.

‘Government should resign’

Commenting on the armed terror attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub on Jan. 1, Yıldırım said the real target of the attack was peace in society and not the ruling power. He called on the government to resign for failing to assure the safety of its citizens.

“In any country in the world, attacks cannot happen unless the infrastructure for terrorists has been prepared. There have been conditions that provided the grounds for such massacres. We believe that the Interior Minister and the government are not able to rule the country, thus, they should resign,” Yıldırım said.