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NGOs thank Erdoğan for promoting democracy
In the message, the SDP said Erdoğan was a “star of democracy” like former prime ministers Adnan Menderes and Turgut Özal.
Featuring photos of Menderes, Özal and Erdoğan, the message read: “They have become the mind, heart and conscience of this nation. They believed in the ‘sovereignty lies with the nation’ principle. They treated the will of the nation with great respect. They only worked for their homeland and nation. With them, democracy was reborn and the nation’s will dominated. They are men of the nation, stars of democracy.”
The government’s long-awaited constitutional reform package, which has been approved by Parliament and is ready to be submitted to a referendum, has attracted considerable support from civil society. The government’s attempt to change the existing Constitution, which was drafted during a period of martial law after the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d’état, has been met with enthusiasm by members of the SDP.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman, SDP President Ayhan Ogan said the SDP wanted to thank all the deputies who supported the government’s constitutional amendment package.
Explaining that the SDP has held conferences to inform public about the constitutional reforms since February, Ogan said the platform will from now on work on encouraging the approval of the package in the public referendum.
The second round of voting on the government’s constitutional amendment package was completed last Thursday with a final vote on the entire package, in which it received 336 votes. The AK Party will now focus on a public referendum on the package, expected to be held in July, while the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said it will appeal the package at the Constitutional Court.
Erdoğan asked the deputies of his party to inform the public about the content of the package and asked for their support in the run-up to the referendum. The SDP pledged to help the AK Party by explaining the content of the reform package to the public and encouraging support for it.
The platform will hold the first of its conferences to gather support for the package in the referendum in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri on May 15. This will be followed by conferences in Malatya and İstanbul. There will be conferences in other provinces as well.
Ogan said the SDP thinks the passage of the reform package in Parliament and the AK Party’s determination to push for the amendments, which aim to raise the judicial and democratic standards in the country, is a very significant development in Turkey’s democratization.
“We congratulate each and every deputy in Parliament who supported these amendments. This package will clear the way for Turkey both in economic and political terms. We hope this package will come before the public as soon as possible and be approved. Since it is unlikely that there will be a new constitution in Turkey without the approval of these reforms, we think the approval of these reforms is very important,” Ogan said.
He said the SDP’s goal was to contribute to Turkey’s democratization. “When we first established this platform, there was no reform package. It came onto Turkey’s agenda later. We ask the public to support the reforms,” he added.
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