Haber Türk: “Constitutional reform package with many surprises,” read the headline of the daily’s main story yesterday, reporting that a constitutional reform package spearheaded by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is ready. Interior Minister Beşir Atalay said the package includes many surprises. The package foresees changes to the structure of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), affirmative action for women and children, bans on keeping records on people according to their beliefs, ideology or ethnicity and opens the decisions of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) to judicial review. The daily said the most surprising articles of the package are not yet certain. Opposition parties will be presented three options regarding the closure of political parties. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, who criticized the reform package, said: “It aims to destroy the state of law. We will fight against it.”Yeni Asya: “The EU wants democracy in Turkey,” the daily said in the headline of its top story yesterday, quoting remarks from Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Çavuşoğlu told the daily that the European Union was closely following the trial of Ergenekon, a shadowy crime network that has alleged links within the state and is suspected of plotting to topple the government, as well as investigations into military plots. “The EU wants Turkey to become completely transparent, democratic and civilian. The existence of military plots, coups and conspiracy theories and attempts to overthrow the government are unacceptable for Turkey. So, the EU lends support to Turkey’s cleansing efforts,” Çavuşoğlu said.
Radikal: The leaders of the CHP, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) did not openly react to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who threatened to deport around 100,000 irregular Armenian workers from Turkey in the wake of the approval of resolutions that recognize the killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as “genocide,” the daily reported in its main story yesterday. It said Erdoğan’s statement was only condemned by Yerevan.
