Erdoğan once again signals preparation of new constitution

Duvar English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sept. 1 once again signaled that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) will prepare a new constitution. 

Speaking at the Judicial Year Opening Ceremony at the Presidency of the Court of Cassation, Erdoğan said “With the opening of the Parliament (in October), we will restart our initiatives to bring Turkish democracy to a new constitution.”

“We have had a dream since 2011. This dream is to save Turkey from the constitution (prepared by the coup regime) and bring it to a constitution worthy of the Century of Turkey. Our promise is that it will be a first-class constitution that complements first-class democracy, economy and freedoms. The Century of Turkey will be strengthened with such a constitution. We now need to submit a text to the nation's discretion, which will be embraced by all 85 million people. I invite political parties, high courts, universities, state institutions, bar associations and every member of our nation to contribute to the process,” Erdoğan said. 

The 1982 Constitution, prepared by the military regime, was amended 19 times. Three referendums for the constitutional amendments were held in 2007, 2010, 2017 under the ruling AKP, paving the way for the centralized hyper-presidential regime of today. 

Before the 1982 Constitution, the Republic of Turkey had had three different constitutions, prepared in 1921, 1924 and 1961.