Reverse psychology can be a
wonderful thing. Just at Turkey's prime minister again cast doubt on his
country ever having a new, cross-party constitution, the commission charged
with writing that document appears to have accelerated its work.
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| Ahmet Türk |
It was on Sunday that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters
following him on his trip in the United States that he was "losing
hope" over the constitution-writing process. He continued:
"If there is no solution, we will follow our Plan C and use
our own [draft constitution] template. We have 326 MPs and, as you know, it
will be a secret ballot, so perhaps a few brave souls will emerge despite their
own party's pressure. If we can get the numbers, we will take it to a
referendum."
The said parliamentary commission
is made up of twelve MPs, three each from the governing AK Party and opposition
Republican People's (CHP), Nationalist Movement (MHP) and Peace and Democracy
(BDP) parties, and chaired by the speaker, AK Party MP Cemil Çiçek.
The prime minister’s Plan C refers to oft-repeated AK Party
threats to team up with the pro-Kurdish BDP and other opposition rebels to
reach the magic 367 number, a two-thirds seat majority, which would allow the
government to change the constitution unilaterally.
And that might just happen,
because the commission’s progress has been torturously slow: members have
agreed on just thirty articles in the year to April (the 1982 Constitution the
commission hopes to replace, by way of comparison, has 177 articles, and that's
before you count as many as twenty 'temporary' addendums).
Things picked up pace a little this past month, with a further ten
articles agreed in the 'Basic rights and freedoms' category and CHP member
Atilla Kart expressing hope that they could add a further fifteen by the end of
the month.
But that is still not fast enough and time is running out. The
commission's working mandate has already been extended repeatedly, most
recently to 30 June, and Mr Erdoğan is not alone in his frustration at its
pedestrian efforts.
The most challenging issue is not time - the mandate can easily be
extended beyond the end of June - but content. The commission has proved
utterly inept at agreeing constitutional language for some of Turkey's most
contentious issues, be it as religious rights (specifically, how much they
extend to non-Muslims) or the right to an education in a mother tongue (and
whether Kurdish counts as one).
But it's not all bad. Two Kurdish MPs, Ahmet Türk and Nazmi Gür, signalled today during their own
visit to the United States that the debate over the definition of 'Turk' might
be shorter than expected.
Turkey's ethnic minorities have long demanded explicit
constitutional protection of their identities and many have objected to the use
of 'Turk' as an umbrella term that encompasses all ethnicities in the country.
Some have gone so far as to call from its removal from the constitution
entirely.
Nationalists - particularly those in the MHP - have demanded the
opposite, that everyone in the country be considered a Turk, plain and simple.
It’s an approach that is abhorrent to many Kurds.
But not all Kurds: Messrs Türk and Gür said they had no objections
to the use of 'Turk' in the constitution. In fact, they went further.
"We have no demand for terms like Turk, Kurd, Laz or
Circassian to be written in the constitution," Mr Türk said. "[Our
opponents] repeatedly say that Turkishness will be lost, but we have no objection
to Turkishness being worked into every page. We just want different cultures
and identities to be protected, to not be renounced, to have their rights
recognised.
"We have no issue with Turkishness or the Turkish people.
After all, this is the Republic of Turkey's constitution. If you feel the need
for it, write a section outlining the rights of the Turkish people; just don't
reject diversity."
This raises expectations that a solution
could found along the lines of Turkey’s 1924 constitution, as
espoused by President Abdullah Gül.
But solving the ‘Turk’ problem
will simply make way for others, most notably Mr Erdoğan's long-cherished
hopes of an executive presidency.
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