June 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to introduce a new “civilian” constitution after his recent victory in the second round of presidential elections, winning a third term over opposition unity candidate Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. .
“We will work together to achieve a new civil constitution for Turkey,” he said. “We want to continue our journey in the second century of the Republic under the guidance of a civil, liberal and broad Constitution that is accepted by all sectors”, she explained.
Thus, he has maintained that “the nation has rejected the proposals to return to the old system by showing its will in the elections on May 14 –the date of the parliamentary elections and the first round of the presidential elections– and on May 28 — when the second round was held–“.
“Discussions about the parliamentary system have been closed forever,” he stressed, according to the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia. Turkey adopted a presidential system in 2017 after a constitutional referendum that reinforced Erdogan’s powers and opened the door to the controversial third term that he recently won at the polls.
Turkey’s current constitution was promulgated in 1982 by the military junta established after the 1980 coup, led by Kenan Evren, then chief of the Turkish Army General Staff.
After the approval of the Constitution, the junta called elections for 1983 in which the political leaders of the pre-coup stage were prohibited from participating. Despite Turgut Ozal’s victory at the polls, Evren remained President of Turkey until 1989.
According to information collected by the Turkish newspaper ‘Daily Sabah’, the proposed changes to the Magna Carta cover issues related to freedoms, security, the right to a fair trial and the rights of women and people with disabilities, although for the moment no formal draft has been released.
