 |
Turkey to consider constitutional changes in March
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan's government lacks the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needs to change the constitution, so will then hold a referendum to gain public backing which will undercut any Constitutional Court challenge, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said.
Erdoğan's AK Party wants to make it harder to outlaw political parties and reform the way judges and prosecutors are appointed.
"We object to the current structure of the judiciary because it over-extends its powers and creates laws by overstepping the authority of the parliament," Ergin told reporters on Saturday.
The head of the Constitutional Court has urged Erdoğan to seek consensus rather than force through constitutional changes to ease tensions generated by the detentions of a prosecutor and several military officers in the Ergenekon investigation into an alleged coup conspiracy.
The arrests have wobbled financial markets worried about political stability in the $650 billion economy.
The government's proposed package consists of "urgent and limited" amendments of 10 to 15 articles including rules to curb the role of the Constitutional Court, Ergin said.
PARTY BANS
Ergin said the changes include tighter rules on political party bans, but he would not specify if they would help the ruling AK Party avert a new closure case.
There is speculation in the media and among some investors that prosecutors could open another case to outlaw the business-friendly, pro-EU AK Party, which narrowly escaped a ban in 2008 on charges it undermined Turkey's secular constitution.
Banning parties "is obviously a problem in Turkey, which has closed some 25 parties," Ergin said. "That's why we have the new regulations to make party closures more difficult."
Turkish democracy has also been tested by repeated interventions from the military.
The army ousted three governments in coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured a fourth, the Refah-Yol government (a coalition of the Welfare Party [RP] and the True Path Party [DYP]) to resign in 1997. Erdoğan was the outspoken mayor of İstanbul for the RP at the time.
"Turkey needs to consolidate democracy to be less susceptible to military coups," Ergin said.
The Justice Ministry will examine charges of wrongdoing in the Ergenekon investigation and trial, but criticism of the case has come mainly from those named in the indictments or from those with close ties to suspects, Ergin said.
Nearly 200 people, including academics, journalists and army officers, are on trial for allegedly conspiring to topple the government. Opponents have called it a political witch hunt.
The overhaul of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, which appoints court officers, is among the most contentious issues in the row with the judiciary, Ergin said.
Five judges from two courts dominate the board, and the government wants to expand it to 21 members, with a third of them appointed by parliament.
Reforming the board is required to meet EU membership rules, Ergin said. Brussels has called on Turkey to make the judges' council more representative and independent.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
