Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and main opposition CHP have agreed to resume efforts at reforming Turkey's constitution, state-owned Anadolu Agency reported. A similar cross-party initiative fell apart in 2013, and analysts say major issues separating the two parties still apply.
AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking a stronger presidential system, which his critics say is aimed at consolidating his own power in the government and favors his authoritarian style.
"Let's draft such a constitution that will not be bound by the current conjuncture," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said late Wednesday in a live television broadcast.
His remarks came after a meeting with CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in which they agreed to work together to propose changes to the constitution.
"I sincerely told him [Kilicdaroglu]: Let's not personalize it, so that it will not be based on single people like Mr. President, you, me or others. Because we will most probably not be alive 30 or 40 years from now," he said.
“We can evaluate this offer together. So if you have objections let's hear them. Let’s talk about this offer. If you have a model let’s talk about it too. But such things like ‘presidential system leads to dictatorship, presidential system will divide country with a federal structure’ are not true," he said.
With 317 seats in parliament, the AKP still needs another 13 for a majority great enough to make any changes to a referendum.
But it is possible that reforms will not get that far.
In 2011 when the first cross-party reform initiative was taken, “red lines” appeared almost immediately, fundamental disagreements on issues like the definition of citizenship, or the protection of religious freedoms. It did manage to propose 60 reforms before collapsing, however those disagreements remain unresolved.
