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Mass support from NGOs for reform package snowballs
In Ankara, Ankara Civilian Society Platform (ASTP), an umbrella organization including 124 NGOs, held a news conference at the press center of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality where they announced their support for the reforms.
ASTP head Mustafa Kır underlined that a “yes” vote that will be cast in the referendum will not be one cast for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, adding that the choice was between going ahead with a civilian Constitution or a coup-era Constitution. “We will vote ‘yes in the referendum because there are many reasons to do so for our country and future and because we cannot find any reason to vote against the package,” Kır said.
In Diyarbakır, 40 NGOs that gathered together announced their backing of the reforms in order for the closure of acid wells [where the bodies of people killed in unsolved murders were dumped] and so that unsolved murders are not committed again.
Reading a statement on behalf of the NGOs, head of Diyarbakır branch of Bayındır-Memur-Sen Ali Sabaz said Turkey’s current Constitution, which was written by the generals of the 1980 coup, is insufficient in the wake of the social change that is taking place in Turkey and includes articles that restrict freedoms.
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He said they will vote in favor of the amendments for a Turkey which is more free and livable as well as for they will end the tutelage of the junta Constitution over politics and public will.
Another mass support for the reforms came from Jurists Union Association in Trabzon yesterday whose members tour provinces to endorse the reform package. On their 36th stop in Trabzon, the members of the association informed locals about the content of the reforms by distributing leaflets.
Head of the association, Sinan Kılıçkaya who distributed leaflets to the disabled people he encountered in the city center, said the reforms will bring positive discrimination for the disabled.
He also noted that people who will vote in favor of the amendments will pave the way before democratic and independent change in the country.
The 26-article reform package that will be presented to a referendum on Sept. 12 has been hailed by pro-democratic circles as well as the European Union on the grounds that the reforms will bring Turkey’s judiciary and democracy to the level of contemporary democracies.
Fermani Altun, head of the World Ehl-i Beyt Foundation, an Alevi association, who held a news conference at the Eresin Topkapı Hotel yesterday, called on everyone to vote “yes” for the amendments without caring about any political ideology.
He also voiced his wish for the complete overhaul of the current 1982 Constitution. “We see the amendments that will be voted on Sept. 12 as a retouch on the current Constitution and thin they are for the benefit of the nation. So we will vote ‘yes’ in the referendum,” he said.
 Many civil society organizations and professional groups believe the planned changes to the Constitution will play a role in reshaping Turkey’s future for the better. |
Yet another support for the reforms came from Universal Jurists’ Platform whose 400 lawyer members gathered in front of the Ankara courthouse yesterday to voice their support for the constitutional amendments.
Head of the platform Hasan Hüseyin Tanrıverdi noted that the reforms will restore the nation’s usurped sovereignty so every jurist with a conscience would vote yes for the reforms as they will reshape the nation’s future.
Turkish Foundation for Volunteer Organizations (TGTV), one of the prominent organizers of anti-coup rallies joined other NGOs yesterday to announce their support for the reforms. TGTV head Necati Ceylan called on everyone to vote yes for the reforms in order to “cleanse the sin of the ‘yes’ for the 1980 Constitution with another ‘yes’ to be voted on this Sept. 12.” “We will vote yes for the reforms in order to change the law of the superior to the superiority of law,” he said.
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