Civil momentum gathers for a new constitution

All around Turkey, civil initiatives are debating how the new constitution should be made. Previously, constitutional debates focused more on the content, now the interest builds up around how “ordinary citizens” might participate in drafting it. 

“Today, Turkey is condemned for a new, democratic constitution”; these do not seem very buoyant words for initiating the call to create a framework of consensus in the process of drafting a new constitution. Nevertheless, the members of the commission set up by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) opened the press conference reiterating the call for the new constitution made last Thursday in İstanbul with this very sentence. They were trying to emphasize the urgency and necessity of adopting a new constitution after the upcoming general elections in mid-June.     

The TESEV has assembled a committee of experts to work from January-April, drafting a report on essential principles of a constitution regarding issues like civil-military relations, decentralisation, ethnic and religious identity, freedom of conscience, local governance, and separation of powers. But, the TESEV’s goal is to open to debate, and one must consider how to ensure that a participatory constitution is created.

In fact, the general debates in civil society have changed from focusing on the proposed content of a new constitution, as they did a few years ago. Conversely, the central debate is increasingly geared towards guaranteeing that civil society organizations, civil activists, and even ordinary citizens are involved in the drafting process.

Great interest at grassroots

Civil society activist Ayhan Bilgen, who is touring Turkey to organise debates on the new constitution, points out that he is observing an enormous amount of grassroots interest, from individuals and organizations, in being addressed as parties to the constitution drafting process. Bilgen states that in İstanbul alone, almost 60 civil platforms have been assembled to be included in the drafting of the new constitution.

 Ergun Özbudun, one of the foremost experts on constitutional law in Turkey and a member of the TESEV’s commission, reasons that increased participation from civil society and a more representative parliament will yield more legitimacy as far as the new constitution is concerned.

“Threshold bars representation”

At another meeting this weekend, organized by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) predominantly supported by Kurdish voters, concerns were voiced over the 10 percent threshold that bars the path of maximalisation of political representation. The conference, under the slogan, “We are drafting everybody’s constitution with everybody”, brought together a group of left-wing intellectuals, “fringe” politicians like the Greens of Turkey and powerful figures of the left, including the syndicates. The participants were convinced that the 10 percent election threshold should be lowered before the general elections in order to enhance the parliament’s ability to be truly representative. There is, however, almost no possibility that the threshold will be lowered before the upcoming elections. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again stated last Tuesday that a lower threshold is “undesirable”, as it would lead to political instability through coalitions.

The BDP conference aimed to emphasize that a “people’s constitution” can only be created in collaboration with the people, and organised a campaign platform in order to advocate this idea. The same idea is supported by TESEV and other large or small platforms in organisational schemes mushrooming around Turkey.

This time around, they say, if Turkey finally gets rid of its coup d’etat constitution, it will be through the people’s will. For the time being, it’s still unknown whether Turkey can really embark upon a constitutional transformation process instead of just drafting a new constitution.