Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.19
By Jamilya Jafarova - Trend:
Turkey will not be able to modify or completely change the constitution before the parliamentary election to be held in June 2015, the analyst of the British Royal Institute Chatham House on Turkey, Fadi Hakura told Trend.
He said Turkish Parliament established the committee that included MPs from both the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition Republican People's Party to revise the constitution but no consensus was reached between the MPs from the ruling and opposition parties.
The expert said that the ruling justice and development party does not have a sufficient majority in the parliament to pass a new constitution subject to a referendum. "They don't have a sufficient number of MPs in parliament to pass a new constitution," he said.
"So president Erdogan is hoping that a ruling party will have a sufficient number of MPs after the next general election scheduled for June 7, 2015 to pass the new constitution which then he could submit a referendum," Hakura said. "And if the ruling party does not achieve the required number of MPs, which is a minimum of 60 percent of parliament, that is 330 MPs minimum, then it will be impossible to put the question of the adoption of a new constitution on a referendum without the support of the opposition."
Earlier, the chairman of the Grand National Assembly (parliament) of Turkey Cemil Cicek said that a new Constitution is a necessity for Turkey.
He said that there are many problems in Turkey associated with the country's Constitution.
The current Constitution does not meet modern requirements of Turkey, Cicek said.
Earlier, Turkey's Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag said that Turkey needs a democratic constitution. Bozdag said that despite the changes in over 100 paragraphs of Turkey's current constitution, the government was not able to make it more democratic.
Earlier it was reported that following the Turkish presidential election held Aug. 14, the former foreign minister and current prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu said a new constitution is needed for Turkey's democratization.
Davutoglu said the new government's aim would be preparing a democratic constitution.
Edited by CN
