President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated the government's plans for a new constitution in Turkey.
"We maintain our will to save our nation from the current Constitution, which is the product of a coup," Erdoğan said at a ceremony in the capital Ankara marking the 154th anniversary of the country's top administrative court.
Erdoğan has been pushing for a new constitution to be drafted under civilian rule to replace the current one introduced after a military coup in 1980.
At the event, he underscored his government's multiple attempts in parliament to introduce a new constitution, drafted with a democratic approach and written in plain language.
"With this aim, we even led the formation of a parliamentary committee with an equal number of members from all parties," he said, adding that this was thwarted because of the "irreconcilable and obstructive attitude" of the opposition parties.
However, he vowed to pass "a civilian, libertarian, and inclusive constitution" when the opportunity arises.
Underlining that changing the Constitution and other laws is not a bad thing, Erdoğan stressed that the quality of the enforcer "is as vital as the accuracy of the laws."
"Rule of law is a sine qua non of democracy," the president stressed. "As a politician who suffered from many unlawful imputations, harassment, and penalties, I have been striving to strengthen the rule of law in Turkey since the day I took office."
"Through the reforms we made, we have consolidated the rule of law across a wide area from the Constitution to laws, from administrative practices to international conventions," he added.
Since 1982, the current Constitution, drafted following a military coup, has seen several amendments. The bloody 1980 coup, which led to the detention of hundreds of thousands of people along with mass trials, torture and executions, still represents a dark period in Turkish political history.
Erdoğan wants Turkey to have a civilian-drafted constitution by 2023, coinciding with the centenary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.
