Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is also the AK Party leader, convened a meeting with his ministers and party legal experts at the Prime Ministry yesterday. Among the participants were deputy prime ministers Cemil Çiçek and Bülent Arınç, State Minister Hayati Yazıcı, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, AK Party parliamentary group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdağ, parliamentary Justice Commission head Ahmet İyimaya and AK Party deputy from Adana Ömer Çelik.
The government wants to enact constitutional amendments to restructure the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and the Constitutional Court. Its aim is to ensure a more democratic selection and promotion process in the higher judiciary that would be open to parliamentary review.
The package is also expected to include other changes such as the establishment of an ombudsman system, introducing positive discrimination for women, making political party closures more difficult and narrowing the sphere of the military judiciary.
Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Ali Babacan underlined Turkey’s need for a new constitution, saying the existing document falls short of meeting Turkey’s needs. He complained about a lack of support from opposition parties to replace the Constitution.
“We are not sure whether all political parties will support the constitutional package. All of them say the existing Constitution needs to be changed. But when we propose changes to it, they all vanish. When we request a rendezvous to discuss the details of the package, they refuse. What does this mean? We are the single party that has public support from all Turkish cities. We are the single party to represent all of Turkey. If you will not discuss such issues with us, with whom will you discuss them?” the minister asked. Bozdağ told reporters that the ruling party would start discussing the content of the package with opposition parties as of next week.
