The Turkish parliament speaker said Friday that he hoped all political parties, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) would participate in a commission tasked with drafting a new constitution, Reuters reported.
Erdogan's ruling AK Party has made creating a new constitution the focus of its agenda since winning back a parliamentary majority in November elections. The two other main opposition parties, secularist CHP and nationalist MHP, have agreed to work together on the commission.
Turkey's curernt constitution was drafted after a 1980 military coup, but attempts to replace it with a new civilian constitution have so far failed. Erdogan wants a constitution which consolidates power in the hands of the president rather than the prime minister, something his critics say only serves an authoritarian agenda.
