Criticisms raining down on the court for encroaching on Parliament's authority have also sparked a debate on the redefinition of the duties and authorities of the court. Some said it was very urgent for Turkey to take steps to set the boundaries of the court's authority; otherwise, the court will be able to block Parliament from making any constitutional changes without the court's approval in the future. Sabah's Emre Aköz suggests that a court superior to the Constitutional Court should be established in Turkey to inspect the rulings of the Constitutional Court because he thinks the court paralyzed Parliament's power to change the Constitution. "Those who are unable to see the future in political issues may think the court is trying to protect secularism with its headscarf ruling. If only it had been limited to that. What the court has done is completely different. It eliminated Parliament's authority to change the Constitution," he explains. He says as societies change, constitutional changes become obligatory and the institution that changes the Constitution is Parliament. "Today we are in a situation where any constitutional amendments to which six out of 11 members of the Constitutional Court say "no" will not be enacted. The interesting part of the issue is that the court has no such authority," Aköz says, citing Article 148 of the Constitution, which states, "The Constitutional Court examines and monitors constitutional amendments on the basis of procedure." Aköz explains, "That is, it cannot examine the amendments on the basis of substance." He argues that the court committed an offense by exercising an authority not granted to it by the Constitution.
Another Sabah columnist, Nazlı Ilıcak, says the way to save Parliament from the clutches of the Constitutional Court is to change the structure of the court and that this must happen through an overall change to the Constitution. She says the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which narrowly escaped closure this summer, may not dare to take such a courageous step at the moment. However, she says perhaps it can act on the issue if it receives sufficient support from the public in next year's local elections. "But still, I am not very optimistic about this," she adds.
Milliyet's Taha Akyol also argues that the structure of the Constitutional Court should be changed and its members selected from a wide institutional spectrum: from the judiciary, the administration and universities. "If the composition of the judges in the court becomes more colorful, its democratic legitimacy will be strengthened," he writes. According to the current system in Turkey, the president selects judges for the Constitutional Court, and usually this means he chooses people who are close to his own ideology.
