Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will not present opposition parties with a fully drafted constitutional text as part of its ongoing efforts to prepare a new charter, a senior party official, Hayati Yazıcı, said, emphasizing that the process must be carried out collectively in Parliament.
As the AK Party’s deputy chair in charge of political and legal affairs and the party’s Constitutional Commission member, Yazıcı stated that the commission has been working for an extended period and has held more than 20 meetings so far.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Yazıcı said the commission is not drafting a complete constitution but instead conducting comparative studies on Turkish and international constitutional models. He said discussions have covered what a constitution should include, as well as how executive, legislative and judicial powers are structured.
“We are not writing a constitutional text,” Yazıcı said. “Although we have previously prepared drafts, since it is not possible to make a constitution on our own and it must be carried out in Parliament with the participation of other parties, we are not adopting an approach that says, ‘Here is the text, come and support it.’”
Instead, he said the commission is evaluating what provisions should be included in a new constitution, which current articles may no longer be necessary, and how fundamental rights and freedoms should be framed. Once the work is completed, the commission will submit an executive summary to Erdoğan, who also serves as AK Party's chairperson, before moving to a broader consultation phase.
Yazıcı stressed that drafting a constitution is the right of the nation. “The constitution is made by the people, but up to now the people have never been able to exercise this right,” he said, referring to the 1961 and 1982 Constitutions, which were adopted following military coups.
He noted that the current Constitution has been amended 19 times, 12 of those during the AK Party’s time in power. The most significant change, he said, was in 2017, when voters approved a shift to a presidential system of governance.
Recalling previous attempts to draft a new constitution, Yazıcı said nearly all political parties have pledged in their election manifestos to support such efforts. He pointed to parliamentary work launched in 2011, during which parties reached consensus on 59 articles before talks stalled.
“Let us come together and enable this nation to draft a constitution that fully represents it,” he said, adding that Türkiye should enter the second century of the republic with a new charter reflecting national sovereignty.
Asked whether the process would begin during the current legislative term, Yazıcı said he hopes so. “Türkiye needs such a constitution,” he said. “We are making this effort, and we hope it succeeds.”
He reiterated that the party has no intention of presenting a fully itemized draft to other parties but may share a road map outlining its principles for constitutional reform.
The government has been pushing to overhaul the Constitution for over a decade now, which was adopted 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.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials have repeatedly called for a new civilian constitution to replace it, describing the current one as "outdated.” The AK Party has included a declaration on a new constitution in 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.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Bekir Bozdağ and former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ also said earlier this week that although Parliament made radical changes and reforms to the 1982 Constitution, it did not remove the existence of the Constitution, and on the contrary, those changes only fueled the need for a wholly new constitution. He underlined that developments in Türkiye and the world, and political shifts, took this need to the next level. “History forces us to draft a new constitution,” he underlined.
