Will red lines be overcome in the charter?

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The head of the commission, Çiçek, exerts huge efforts for a ‘conciliation constitution’ of the four parties. AA photo

The Parliamentary Constitution Conciliation Commission started writing the text on May 1. During the nearly four and a half months that have passed, the chapter that was dealt with, “Fundamental Rights and Freedoms,” has not been finished yet. Since four political parties, namely the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Republican People’s Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), have initialized reservations for each article for different reasons, only 36 articles have been discussed in the 40-article chapter. And the commission was able to write completely only two articles. There was consensus only on human dignity and features of fundamental rights. The initial projection of the commission had been to complete the constitution in five chapters.
The number of subsections under articles that have been agreed to has only reached the 20s. The articles agreed upon are written in green, the others that have reservations are in red. The red ones, in a sense, are the red lines of the parties. This picture bothers both the head of the commission, Speaker of Parliament Cemil Çiçek and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who insistently demands that the writing of the text is finished by the new year. Both Çiçek and Erdoğan have expressed their disapproval of the slow pace of the commission’s work in the last few weeks. Çiçek intervened in the commission the other week and increased the number of inscription subcommissions from one to two. However, because of the essential disagreements among the parties, the work of the commission again did not reach the desired level.

The commission aims to complete the chapter on “Fundamental Rights and Freedoms” this week even if it would be with “red lines” and with reservations. Forty articles will be written with the red lines of the four parties, in other words, with reservations and in parenthesis. And then the commission will go back to the beginning and deal with every article again one by one. The meaning of this is only too obvious. The commission will need to discuss almost the entire chapter again. What will happen if the red lines are not overcome? A method that has emerged as an alternative is to write all the chapters together with “reservations,” in other words with the red lines of the parties. After that, to write the preamble and the first three inalterable articles, decide on general principles and continue.
It is not yet clear what method the commission will adopt in further stages but the picture that has emerged is not at all hopeful for the future. Some members of the commission including those from the ruling party demonstrate stances that confirm this observation. A commission member was as hopeless as to say, “It would be a huge success if the commission continues until the new year.” One member from CHP said, “The prime minister understood that it would not be with us, so he is now inclined to write the constitution with the MHP.” Before that, a member from the AKP had said, “If this commission does not reconcile, other commissions can be formed.”

The future of the Constitution Conciliation Commission is slowly shaping. The head of the commission, Çiçek, who is still exerting huge efforts for a “conciliation constitution” of the four parties, has harder work today than yesterday. Despite all the sacrifices from its members, the commission may disperse in a most undesired manner after the new year. The ruling party, the AKP, may roll up its sleeves for a new constitution with another partner. The message Prime Minister Erdoğan frequently expressed recently that a twosome or threesome conciliation may be sought, and the “reserved stage” the commission has reached strengthens this possibility… Can the AKP and the MHP make a joint constitution? That is not easy either but they have a better chance than the option with four parties.