On the second day of the Muslim holiday Qurban Bayram, or Eid al-Adha, on Saturday, parties across Türkiye’s wide political spectrum continued a longstanding tradition: exchanging Eid greetings. Leaders and senior figures of parties, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to opposition parties, great and small, visited each other's headquarters.
Unlike heated debates at Parliament or election campaigns, the atmosphere was warm as politicians traded jokes and wishes for wellness instead of pointed barbs.
The meetings started with casual talk, but politics eventually made its way to the conversation, just as Eid get-togethers in most Turkish households. Hot topics such as efforts for a new constitution and progress in the terror-free Türkiye initiative that involves an expected end to the campaign of violence by the PKK terrorist group were informally discussed during the meetings.
As it did in Ramadan Bayram, or Eid al-Fitr, earlier this year, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) abstained from Eid visits. The CHP has, however, taken the unprecedented step of visiting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and hosting him at its headquarters in a softening climate in politics following the 2024 municipal elections. However, after the arrest of its Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, in March, the party decided to skip Eid visits, particularly to the AK Party, reasoning that Eid was not an occasion of joy for them due to the arrest of the metropolis's mayor and other mayors of the party.
The AK Party hosted representatives of nine political parties at its headquarters in the capital, Ankara. Deputy Chair Belgin Uygur was the main host for the party during visits, while the party’s chair, President Erdoğan, chose to spend Eid with his family in one of his rare vacations. Erdoğan was in Marmaris, a popular vacation resort in the southwest, a first in years for the leader who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while vacationing there at the time of an attempted coup in 2016.
The AK Party’s first guest on Saturday was a delegation from government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). AK Party and MHP officials underlined the spirit of solidarity and unity on occasions like Eid, while the conversation eventually drifted into grave matters and how to resolve them.
Uygur highlighted the fact that this was the fourth Eid al-Adha where they are praying again for the liberation of the people of Gaza from attacks by Israel and subsequent genocide. “God willing, this will be the last Eid before they find liberation. People there have a righteous resistance, conduct a strong struggle. But they are deprived of their most basic human rights under constant bombing. Attacks target humanitarian aid delivery nowadays. Under the leadership of President Erdoğan, we always exhibited a clear and decisive stance against this cruelty. We are praying that the international community will not remain quiet in the face of attacks and Gaza will be free again,” she said.
Uygur also spoke about the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli last year.
“We made remarkable progress in the goal of terror-free Türkiye thanks to the president’s call for a unified home front and subsequent historic call by Mr. Bahçeli (for a terror-free Türkiye). When the initiative made tangible progress after (the PKK terrorist group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, called them to lay down arms in February), we already had significant democratic gains to move this process forward. Democracy will be strengthened further in the next stage of the initiative,” she said. Speaking of democracy, Uygur moved on to renew the AK Party’s call for support to draft a new constitution.
“We hope to leave behind the coup-era Constitution and move toward a new constitution shaped by the contributions of the entire society and all political parties. Whatever our names may be, our name is ultimately brotherhood, and our surname is Türkiye,” she said, using the AK Party’s slogan for Eid greetings.
“All 86 million of us, with all our differences and all our colors, will continue walking together, united and strong, on the path to a strong and great Türkiye. We will continue to discuss, debate, evaluate and resolve our issues more effectively within the realm of politics,” she added.
The AK Party is set to convene a first meeting of its 11-person commission tasked with discussing a constitutional overhaul in the coming weeks.
The commission, chaired by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, includes AK Party Deputy Chairs Efkan Ala and Mustafa Elitaş, as well as Hayati Yazıcı, Ali Ihsan Yavuz, party spokesperson Ömer Çelik and other deputy chairs. The first meeting, set to be held at the Presidential Complex, is expected to tackle the commission’s method of operation.
In meetings, the commission will develop comprehensive strategies for a new constitution.
AK Party's chair, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, could also chair some of the meetings scheduled for the following months, party insiders have said.
Lawmakers, academics, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives of various social groups will be in constant contact and utilize ongoing studies and accumulating knowledge, according to the vice president, who spoke to reporters after a recent Cabinet meeting.
“The commission will contribute to the process politically and legally,” he added.
The AK Party has long campaigned for a constitution, including a declaration announced during its 2023 election campaign. The “New Constitution for the New Century of Türkiye” declaration, which refers to the second century of the Republic of Türkiye, underlined the need for a new constitution.
“Establishing a constitutional order based on human dignity for the prevalence of developments in the field of rights and freedoms is necessary,” the 2023 declaration said.
The declaration also said the constitution would preserve democratic gains acquired during the AK Party’s governance and would ensure a high-standard democracy, guarantees for freedoms and the supremacy of law.
The government has been pushing to overhaul the Constitution for over a decade now, which was enforced in 1982 following a military coup that led to the detention of hundreds of thousands of people along with mass trials, torture and executions, which still represents a dark period in Turkish political history.
The AK Party has a comprehensive draft prepared by a scientific council during the pandemic, which it’s hoping to submit to Parliament. The MHP also announced a constitutional draft that includes over 100 articles from the past.
The Constitution’s first four articles, which state the essential tenets of the Turkish republic, have been subject to debate for years. CHP has repeatedly accused the AK Party of aiming to change the articles, which the ruling party flatly rejects.
The current 1982 Constitution's first three articles regulate the basic principles of the country, namely: that the country is a republic; that it is a democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law; that its language is Turkish, its capital is Ankara and that the first three articles cannot be altered.
Last summer, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş oversaw talks between political parties on a constitutional overhaul and met representatives of all parties at Parliament to discuss a new constitution. He has said the general consensus was “positive” but that the CHP “still remains far from the table.”
The CHP is inclined to reject a constitutional overhaul, with its leader, Özgür Özel, claiming such a change has raised “other kinds of negotiations” without elaborating.
At least 400 lawmakers must ratify a new constitution draft in Parliament. Anything over 360 votes would allow a referendum, allowing the people to decide.
Speaking during the visit, MHP Deputy Chair Sadir Durmaz said that as a partner of the People’s Alliance it formed with the AK Party, they were committed to Türkiye’s stance against Israel in the face of attacks targeting Palestinians.
Durmaz also spoke about terror-free Türkiye and said they were hoping to get rid of the terrorism problem, “One of the biggest obstacles on the path to Türkiye’s growth and efforts to develop the country.”
“Support by Mr. President and the state to the initiative after our leader’s call and largely good intentions of relevant sides to the issue instill us with hope. It has been 40 years since the terrorism began, and we all suffered from it. Particularly, people in the region suffered,” he said, referring to southeastern and eastern Türkiye where the PKK launched its first attacks and terrorized the population since the 1980s.
“People born at the beginning of the terrorism campaign are now in their 40s and their children, our children, grandchildren should not suffer from the same fate. We have to be together in pursuing our goal of making Türkiye a strong, leading country in the region and in the world by saving it from these problems,” he said.
On the constitution, Durmaz said they had to work together to get rid of the constitution that still bears the marks of the coup era. “Opposition parties always complain about the Constitution, and we hope they will exhibit sincere support for a new one,” he said.
Another guest of the AK Party was the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has been the strongest critic of the party over counterterrorism efforts against the PKK. The DEM Party is closely associated with the terrorist group, and several members of another party, which was its spiritual predecessor, were convicted of PKK propaganda. The DEM Party’s spokesperson for its Language and Culture Committee, Cemile Turhallı Balsak, led the party’s delegation during a visit to the AK Party. Extending Eid greetings in Turkish and Kurdish, Balsak said Eids have been an important element of social tolerance, brotherhood and peace.
“The society always knows how to resolve its problems through discussing them. As long as we stay together and remain determined, we can overcome them. We are going through an important process,” she said, referring to the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
“It is very valuable for people of Türkiye, and it is crucial to support it in a transparent manner. Anatolia has always had seeds of peace, and the goal should be growing them. We have a historic responsibility, and we attach importance that the process is discussed at Parliament,” she said. For her part, Uygur said that although their views differ, they were all brothers and sisters and they would debate their problems in the parliament and would move forward.
The MHP and the DEM Party, which were worlds away from each other in terms of politics, visited each other's headquarters on Saturday in a sign of changing times in Türkiye. The two parties had already come together after the terror-free Türkiye initiative was launched by Bahçeli after he shook hands with DEM Party lawmakers in a surprising sight at Parliament last October.
Bahçeli has been a fierce critic of the DEM Party and its predecessors. At one point, he called for their closure for their support of the PKK. However, he revised his stand when he called for Öcalan to attend a parliamentary group meeting of the DEM Party to make his call to the PKK to dissolve itself. This “normalization” between the two parties was evident in Eid meetings with MHP officials pledging that the process would accelerate after Parliament takes new steps following the PKK’s May declaration of dissolving itself. The DEM Party delegation highlighted the birth of “a new climate of peace.” Sadir Durmaz further broke the ice during a visit to DEM Party’s offices.
“I hope you don’t mind if I prefer weak tea,” Durmaz said as he offered a glass of tea, amid the laughter of DEM Party officials. "Dem," although an acronym for the party, is also used in Turkish to describe the well-steeped tea.
