I don’t know if one should read anything into it, but the amendments are being voted on in Parliament on the third anniversary of the April 27 e-memorandum. As you may remember, on that day three years ago an ultimatum-like statement was posted on the website of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) warning against then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül’s candidacy for president. It claimed that sending someone like Gül to the presidential palace would create chaos and anarchy. The famous e-memorandum intimated the possibility of intervention by the military generals if Gül was elected. The Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition party, openly supported the e-memorandum. So did other antidemocratic forces in the media, business community and the judiciary.In response to the statement, the AK Party government called for early elections and received around 47 percent of the popular vote in the July 22, 2007 elections. Gül was elected president and since then the country has seen neither chaos nor anarchy.
But we have seen a lot of reason for the need to change the judicial system in Turkey. Ever since the current Constitution was written in 1982, a vast majority has opposed it. The reason is that it was drafted by the very army generals who carried out the 1980 military coup and written in such a way as to ensure military tutelage in the guise of a democratic system. Since 1982, tens of reports have been written to make a case for the need for a new constitution. Tens of amendments have been made in the current Constitution over the last 30 years. The current Turkish Constitution looks like a patched bag with many holes.
The 30-article amendment package seeks to remedy this already ailing and increasingly dysfunctional Constitution. If passed, the proposed amendments will make the judicial system more effective, increase the number of seats in the Constitutional Court, make the closure of political parties more difficult and contingent on the permission of Parliament, allow military court decisions to be appealed and introduce other key changes. Given the current voting pattern, it looks like the amendment will be taken to a referendum over the summer. Then it will be up to the people to decide whether they accept this package or not.
The only weapon the opposition has at this point is to take the package to the Constitutional Court. But this is ironic, because the main opposition party will take the amendment package to the highest institution of the judicial system that is being proposed to be reformed. It will be like saying to Parliament that it has no right to make constitutional changes and that the judiciary is above them. If Turkey is a country ruled by representative democracy, such a skewed hierarchy cannot be allowed to stop the reform process.
The CHP rejects the package on the grounds that it will alter the very nature of the political and legal system in Turkey. That’s precisely why Turkey needs these amendments. If we are not going to touch any of the key issues, what is the point in proposing constitutional reforms? If the AK Party government is to be criticized for anything, it should be for not pushing enough with the proposed changes. This package will serve Turkey only if it prepares the ground for a completely new, civilian and democratic constitution, a constitution that will allow Turkey to be a fully democratic, transparent and prosperous country.
