Turkey’s parliament takes first step in favour of a presidentialist constitution
A second vote is scheduled for this week, to be followed by a referendum for final approval. The ruling party obtained the required three fifths needed thanks to the support of a far-right party. Kurdish MPs boycotted the vote. In recent days, MPs clashed in parliament.
Ankara (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Turkey's parliament has given preliminary approval to a new constitution which will increase the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A second round of voting is scheduled for later this week. If the proposal is approved, a referendum will follow to sanction the new charter.
Critics, including human rights groups and international organisations, claim it amounts to a power grab by Mr Erdogan. Conversely, the latter claims the changed system will be like that of France and the United States.
The new constitution will allow the president to appoint and dismiss ministers. It abolished the post of prime minister, but there will be at least one vice president.
The bill's final articles were passed late on Sunday, with the governing AK Party (AKP) gaining the three-fifths majority it needed.
To secure it, the AKP relied on the support of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, the fourth largest in the legislature.
However, the debates over the constitution changes were heated. Last week, a fight broke out in parliament after the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) clashed with members of the Republican's People Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP), the biggest opposition party, which opposes the changes.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) boycotted the vote altogether. Several of its MPs have been jailed on charges of supporting Kurdish militants, considered terrorists by the government.
Turkey has been in a state of emergency since a failed coup in July 2016. Thousands of intellectuals, dissidents, government officials, members of the armed forces, journalists, and ordinary citizens have been detained.
The status was extended after a series of attacks on the country, including a mass shooting in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve.
Mr Erdogan, 62, came to power in 2002, a year after the AKP's formation. He spent 11 years as Turkey's prime minister before becoming, in 2014, the country's first directly-elected president – a supposedly ceremonial role that he has used to extend his power through the ongoing constitutional reform.
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