The Coming Political Crisis in Turkey
Cengiz Çandar foresees a political crisis in this year as Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's ruling AKP party pushes a draft constitution that would dramatically expand his powers.
The first day of 2013 is offering clues as to what will keep Turkey busy this year. The priority appears to be the work on a new constitution. Most likely Turkey won’t be able to introduce a new constitution and the ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] will try to impose a constitutional draft that provides for an empowered president, fulfilling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aspirations for the 2014 elections. Other parties will resist and Turkey will thus move into 2013 with symptoms of a political crisis.
The first clue to how 2013 will start came from a statement on the last day of 2012, when the Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Cicek announced that he will be meeting with the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Jan. 2.
Dec. 31 was the last day for the Constitutional Preparatory Commission, made up of three representatives from each of four political parties represented in the parliament. This Commission was established before the 2011 elections to draft a new constitution. Although the Commission worked hard and well, primarily thanks to the efforts of Speaker Cicek, after one and a half years of work there is not much to show.
The Constitutional Preparatory Commission at the outset adopted the principle requiring that all constitutional articles must be approved by consensus of four parties. They were move forward after agreeing on an article, setting aside articles lacking consensus to be dealt with later.
