Constituent coalition


Although it is overshadowed by the hot developments on the southern border, one of the vital agenda topics in Turkey is undoubtedly the coalition negotiations ongoing between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Republican People's Party (CHP). Turkey is a country that has experienced many coalitions in its history, despite its unsystematic and problematic parliamentary government model. It is another subject of debate whether the governmental structure that appeared in the peculiar conditions of the 1920 Parliament formed a coalition or not. However, two different political tendencies coalesced during this parliamentary term and together determined the rules of the game. By these rules, we of course refer to the Constitution and the constitutional order.The AK Party and the CHP are two center parties that are the wings of two different political traditions. It is possible to date the origin of the opposition back to the last years of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Liberty Party and its successor, the Freedom and Accord Party, which aimed to modernize and transform society and represent more liberal, decentralized and evolutionary progress against the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), became the representatives of these opposite positions. However, CUP did not allow other political movements and criminalized them. On the eve of the Republican period, these two political movements - with the first group in the center-left and the second in the center-right group - allied on the rules of the game, and the 1921 Constitution was penned.However, the first group, which evolved into the CHP in late 1922, pushed the other group out of the political sphere. It closed the Progressive Republican Party (TCF), which represented the other group in 1925, and did not allow the politicization of this tradition until 1950. The 10-year uninterrupted rule of the Democrat Party between 1950 and 1960, which can be partially considered as part of the second group, was thrown out by a military coup conducted by the CHP and the army and other state institutions sharing the CHP's ideology. Turkey was ruled according to the 1924 Constitution between 1924 and 1960, which only displayed the will of the CHP, and according to the 1961 Constitution between 1960 and 1980, which is the outcome of the May 27 military coup. And since 1982, the country has been ruled by the 1982 Constitution, which is the outcome of the Sept. 12 military coup. Both constitutions were either written with the direct participation of the first group - of which the current iteration is the CHP - or prepared based on this group's ideology and imposed on the public.As can be seen, the rules of the constitutional game in Turkey were determined by just one political tradition. The only exception to this is the 1921 Constitution, which emerged with the reconciliation of two different and opposite groups on the basis of democratic negotiations. These two different political traditions also coalesced after 1960. A great coalition was formed and ruled between 1961 and 1965. In 1973, a coalition between the CHP and the National Salvation Party (MSP) was built. But none of these coalitions had a constituent role. They coalesced not to determine the rules of the game but to play the game by the rules. Today, Turkey is confronted with much more profound, ontological problems. The need for social peace, a new constitutional order, a new public order and a new judicial system are the leading problems.Consequently, the possibility of a coalition, which will be discussed on the basis of a partnership of two different and opposite political movements, might find meaning with the reformation of the rules of the game collectively and on the grounds of well-founded legitimacy. The following days will show whether this will be realized or not.