President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday attended a symposium on the civilian Constitution on Democracy and Freedom Island on the anniversary of a 1960 coup whose victims were tried on the same island.
The Turkish leader has long championed a new constitution to replace the current one Türkiye inherited from the military junta behind the 1980 coup.
“As a government behind the greatest democratic victories in Turkish history, we will adhere to our constructive, compromising stance on this matter. I think the opposition will not insist on keeping this coup-era Constitution,” he said.
Following the municipal elections on March 31, Parliament, where Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has a majority, started the first round of talks between the parties for a new constitution. Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş visited the opposition parties and the AK Party for further talks. Erdoğan himself held talks with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel in an unprecedented meeting, signaling softening relations between the opposition and government.
“We cannot move forward with this current Constitution, whose framework was defined by putschists. This Constitution has problematic language that reflects the consensus only of the elites ruling Türkiye back then. It is a great shame for Turkish politics to mark the centenary of the republic with this Constitution. We cannot insist on this shame. Today’s democracy has the maturity and power to draft a new, civilian constitution,” Erdoğan said.
The debate over the Constitution has been lengthy and has lasted more than a decade. The opposition has been reluctant and, at times, outright hostile to attempts to create a new constitution. Their reasons are mostly political, and they oppose a constitution being “imposed” upon them by the government, despite Erdoğan’s repeated remarks that they want to consult with other parties before starting the work.
The current Constitution 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 document has undergone nearly 20 amendments over the years to keep up with global and regional geopolitical conjectures. The most notable changes were introduced via referendums in 2010 by enabling the trialing of the 1980 coup plotters in civil courts and in 2017 by replacing the parliamentary system with an executive presidency.
In 2007, the AK Party attempted an overhaul when it employed a commission to produce a draft, which was shelved upon heated criticism from the opposition. Since then, the party has been working on “stronger” material. Its proposed changes focus on freedom, the right to security, the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, and the rights of women and the disabled.
The enhancement of these rights and liberties has seen setbacks in the bureaucracy that have prevented them from being appropriately implemented.
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.
The AK Party retained 268 seats in the May 14 parliamentary polls, far higher than its closest rival, the CHP, which won 169 seats. The AK Party, however, is part of the People’s Alliance, which also includes its closest ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and together, they have 323 seats.
Erdoğan also remembered Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, one of his political idols, and his fellow ministers who were hanged by a military junta in the 1960 coup. “Let alone 64 years, we will not forget and forgive the putschists even centuries later,” he said in his speech.
“We remember those behind (the death sentences) that turned this very island into an island of shame,” he said.
Menderes, Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan and Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu were three of the 15 sentenced to death at the trials held in Yassıada, which was a no-go zone for decades. While the rest were pardoned, the death sentences of the three leading politicians were carried out on the nearby Imralı Island soon after the decisions were handed down by military tribunals. Yassıada, under its current name, recently opened to the public with new museums, complete with a reenactment of the controversial trials of coup victims.
Erdoğan said three statesmen hanged by military junta left their name in the hearts of the nation as “martyrs” and “heroes of the national will.”
The 1960 coup’s target was the Democrat Party (DP) of Menderes, who won the first elections held four years after Türkiye formally switched to a multiparty system.
