Politics
‘New, civilian constitution would mark historic first for Türkiye’
Recently, officials have argued that Türkiye’s coup-era Constitution has become outdated and have called for a new, civilian charter, while experts stressed the need for a constitution that fully addresses the needs of the Turkish people, safeguards their rights and freedom, and ensures that state institutions serve the public.
“Debates over a new or civilian constitution continue to remain on the agenda in Türkiye, though the work is progressing slowly due to its complex nature. There is no doubt that the process will be challenging. If completed and a new constitution is drafted and adopted, it would mark a first for the country. All previous constitutions of the Republic of Türkiye were prepared during extraordinary periods, and some, including the one currently in force, were drafted following military coups,” Yasin Şamlı, a lawyer and the president of the Istanbul No. 2 Bar Association, told Daily Sabah.
The government has been pushing to overhaul the Constitution for over a decade now, which was adopted in 1982 following a military coup that led to the detention of hundreds of thousands of people along with mass trials, torture and executions, which still represents a dark period in Turkish political history.
“Constitutions drafted during extraordinary periods or under military rule are widely regarded as lacking legitimacy,” Şamlı said, emphasizing that democratic systems require that state authority be exercised on behalf of the people and rooted in popular will.
He asserted that coup-era constitutions are illegitimate in several respects: first, because the initiative to draft a new charter does not stem from the electorate but from those who seize power; second, because such texts are prepared without broad consultation across all segments of society; and third, because referendums held under conditions of political pressure make it unclear whether voters are endorsing the constitution itself or simply seeking an end to military rule. Fourth, these constitutions lack legitimacy in substance, as their content is not grounded in the will of the people.
Over the years, Erdoğan and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials have repeatedly called for a new civilian constitution to replace it, describing the current one as “outdated.”
The AK Party has long campaigned for a new constitution, including a declaration announced during its 2023 election campaign. The “New Constitution for the New Century of Türkiye” declaration, which refers to the second century of the Republic of Türkiye, underlined the need for a new constitution. “Establishing a constitutional order based on human dignity for the prevalence of developments in the field of rights and freedoms is necessary,” the 2023 declaration said.
The declaration also said the constitution would preserve democratic gains acquired during the AK Party’s governance and would ensure a high-standard democracy, guarantees for freedoms and the supremacy of law.
Arguing that both the 1961 and 1982 Constitutions lack legitimacy, Şanlı emphasized, “Türkiye has effectively been governed for at least 66 years under constitutions not grounded in popular will.”
“It does not befit our nation for a coup-era constitution, one that suppresses the will of the people and restricts the rights and freedoms it is meant to protect, to remain in force,” he added.
Earlier this week, Deputy Parliament Speaker and former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that although Parliament made radical changes and reforms to the 1982 Constitution, this did not remove the existence of the Constitution, and on the contrary, those changes only fueled the need for a wholly new constitution. He underlined that developments in Türkiye and the world, and political shifts, took this need to the next level. “History forces us to draft a new constitution,” he stressed.
According to Şamlı, the political will driving the drafting of a new constitution in Türkiye would be decisive, but public ownership of the process would be even more critical. Citizens should demand a constitution that guarantees their rights and freedoms and ensures state institutions serve the public, while actively monitoring their legislative passage.
He continued, “If such a collective will is demonstrated, it would mark the first time in the country’s history that a constitution is shaped by the people through their elected representatives rather than by military intervention, giving the process historic importance.”
The 11-member AK Party Constitutional Commission, chaired by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, has held around 20 meetings so far as part of efforts to lay the groundwork for a new civilian constitution. The commission last convened on Dec. 29.
The commission plans to engage in broad consultations with lawmakers, academics, civil society representatives and other segments of society. Existing constitutional studies, accumulated experience and previously expressed ideas will be taken into account, and contributions from experts in various fields may be sought when needed.
Moreover, Ferhat Küçük, a lawyer and a Ph.D. holder in constitutional law, emphasized that with the exception of the 1921 Constitution, previous constitution provisions significantly curtailed individual fundamental rights and freedoms, as those were heavily shaped by the ruling regimes of their time.
“Including the system of government, the model of judicial independence, the framework for limiting fundamental rights, the relationship between local administrations and the central government, and the definition of citizenship and identity became particularly problematic due to the legacy of military rule,” he asserted.
In this regard, Küçük said, drafting a civilian constitution would inevitably open the way for far-reaching reforms in these five areas.
Most recently, the AK Party’s deputy chair in charge of political and legal affairs and the party’s Constitutional Commission member, Hayati Yazıcı, stated that the commission is evaluating what provisions should be included in a new constitution, which current articles may no longer be necessary, and how fundamental rights and freedoms should be framed. Once the work is completed, the commission will submit an executive summary to Erdoğan, who also serves as AK Party’s chairperson, before moving to a broader consultation phase.
He remarked that drafting a constitution is the right of the nation. “The constitution is made by the people, but up to now the people have never been able to exercise this right,” he said, referring to the 1961 and 1982 Constitutions.
New Welfare Party (YRP) Deputy Chair Doğan Bekin resigned from his post on Wednesday, at a news conference where he revealed a row with Suat Kılıç, another deputy chair of the opposition party.
Rumors were circulating about the possible resignation of Bekin and a switch to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for a while, but the politician revealed at the news conference in Ankara that he would remain in the party. Media outlets had earlier revealed that Bekin was not on good terms with Kılıç, a former minister who joined the YRP from the AK Party, for a while, and their differences of opinion further worsened in recent days. Bekin was quoted as saying that Kılıç opposed the terror-free Türkiye initiative and urged him to vote against a bill to facilitate the process involving the disarmament of the terrorist group PKK.
The YRP supported the AK Party in the 2023 presidential elections and is chaired by Fatih Erbakan, son of the late prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, political mentor of the AK Party Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Bekin said Erbakan asked him to leave the post of deputy chair and member of the Central Executive Committee of the party. He said he spent his early years within the National View (the political movement led by Necmettin Erbakan) and had major disagreements with Suat Kılıç over the latter’s books where he does not have “good things to say about Necmettin Erbakan.” He said he asked Kılıç to apologize for what he wrote about Erbakan, but he refused.
When asked whether he would resign from the party, Bekin replied: “I will not act on my own regarding resignation. There are 117,500 voters who cast their ballots for me. There is a moral responsibility toward them. There are responsibilities placed on me by the local party organizations. We have colleagues, we have friends. I will under no circumstances take action without first consulting these brothers and sisters of ours who voted for us, worked for us, poured their hearts out day and night, and came to work in the campaign squares day and night doing local door-to-door outreach even while unable to take a bite of bread home. I will follow the process and act accordingly.”
Yakup Öner, an engineer who used to work at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), exposed, as part of the widespread corruption case, how the municipal officials rigged tenders involving Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, an opposition favorite.
Öner, who was released earlier after he agreed to collaborate with authorities, testified on Wednesday at the hearing on what prosecutors call the “Imamoğlu criminal organization” at a courthouse in Istanbul.
He told the court that during his tenure at the municipality, he found out that municipal officials were in talks with certain companies before tender processes and sought payment of “7% to 10% of the tender price” to award tenders.
“I found out that cash or similar payments had been requested from some companies doing business with the municipality during the election period,” he said. Some witnesses and defendants in the case have claimed that Imamoğlu and his associates collected cash through bribes to fund Imamoğlu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) and his future campaign in presidential elections.
At the hearing, defendant Öner also described an annual salary of $100,000 (TL 4.9 million) that Ekrem Imamoğlu allegedly gave him unofficially in a bag, apparently as hush money.
The indictment stated that Öner had been part of the criminal organization led by Imamoğlu from its establishment. It alleged that Öner conveyed to Imamoğlu the details of his meetings with prominent businesspeople concerning structures located within the Bosporus scenic zone where new construction is either strictly regulated or prohibited based on zoning plans. The indictment also stated that, in line with Imamoğlu’s instructions, municipal officials requested “charitable donations, construction of nurseries, schools and libraries” as bribes in exchange for issuing otherwise unattainable permits.
Öner said Imamoğlu had requested the construction of a nursery worth $700,000 in exchange for a strengthening permit for a villa and had also asked a company to waive a TL 10 million receivable from the municipality in exchange for a strengthening permit.
Regarding the allegation that a $10 million bribe was demanded to refrain from taking action over zoning violations involving a building owned by a prominent company, Öner said, “The structure related to (the nightclub) Reina dates back to before 1950 and is therefore legally considered to have an occupancy permit. Accordingly, under the regulations, it is possible to issue a strengthening permit for structures with occupancy permits. The relevant company’s request was for this purpose. Ekrem Imamoğlu conveyed this matter to me. He told me about the company’s requests and said, ‘Let’s ask them to waive $10 million of the total amount they are owed by the rail systems,” he said,” referring to the municipality’s debt to the said company, which also undertook a rail project for the municipality.
In another instance, Öner said Imamoğlu told him to ask a construction company to build a dormitory and hand it to the municipality in exchange for a building permit.
Asked about the annual $100,000 salary that Imamoğlu allegedly gave him unofficially, Öner said: “I was an employee working outside the institution when I had my own company. Naturally, you establish a certain standard of living for yourself. When you are told to maintain that standard while working at the institution, you cannot change it. Therefore, I made such a request. He was kind enough not to turn me down, but this was an annual $100,000 regardless of the nature or quality of the work I was doing.”
When the prosecutor asked whether the money came from municipal funds or was paid by Imamoğlu himself, the defendant replied, “I received it from him.”
When asked whether the money was handed over in cash, the defendant said, “Yes, I received it in cash. I would receive it from him in the environment where he was.”
The prosecutor then asked, “Did Mr. Ekrem carry the money around by taking it out of his pocket?”
The defendant replied, “No, not in his pocket. I received it in a bag.”
“None of the businesspeople willingly or gladly accepted the high amounts of payments during any of the meetings. They somehow made it clear that they were not making the payments willingly. They felt that their future relationships and business dealings depended on these payments. Therefore, they felt they had to make them,” he said.
The number of mayors elected under the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) banner who have since joined Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has risen to 44.
The latest switches include the mayors of Çerkezköy, Çiğli, Elmalı, Şenkaya and Marmara, continuing a series of defections from the CHP since the 2024 local elections.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented party badges to the nine mayors during the party’s Expanded Provincial Chairs Meeting in Ankara on Tuesday and wished them success in their work.
The CHP won 420 municipalities across Türkiye in the 2024 elections. With 44 mayors having since resigned from the party and joined the AK Party, the figure represents roughly one in every 10 mayors elected on the CHP ticket, according to the figures.
The defections have fueled further debate within the opposition over the CHP’s candidate selection process and its handling of local administrations under Chair Özgür Özel.
CHP spokesperson Müslim Sarı criticized the party leadership over the latest developments, questioning how the mayors who later left the party had initially been selected as candidates.
“We asked the officials of the period before, and today we are asking again: Who nominated these people? Who recommended them? On the basis of what assessments did they become the CHP’s mayoral candidates? Aren’t you considering engaging in self-criticism?” Sarı said.
Several prominent municipal officials have been among those who switched to the AK Party over the past 2.5 years, including Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, Afyonkarahisar Mayor Burcu Köksal, Keçiören Mayor Mesut Özarslan, Beykoz Deputy Mayor Özlem Vural Gürzel and Tuzla Mayor Eren Ali Bingöl.
Çerçioğlu, mayor of Aydın province in western Türkiye, was the most high-profile name from the CHP to join the AK Party in recent years.
Çerçioğlu said she took the matter to CHP Chair Özgür Özel, and he listened to her concerns but did not respond. She claimed that she faced a barrage of insults on social media after speaking to Özel, and for months CHP headquarters did not respond to her.
She further said Özel himself openly defamed her, claiming she took bribes from a businessperson, noting that both the prosecutor’s office in Aydın and the Court of Accounts, which was inspecting municipalities, ruled for non-prosecution for her in that case.
The mayors who left the CHP cited a range of reasons for their decisions, including dissatisfaction with the party leadership, alleged pressure, a lack of attention to the demands of local administrations and concerns over the party’s institutional functioning.
Moreover, six municipal council members also from the CHP in Istanbul’s Ataşehir district joined the AK Party on Wednesday, a day after nine district mayors switched to the party.
Oğuz Sarul, Sinan Emrah Yıldırım, Fatih Evliyaoğlu, Abdullah Aslan, Cengiz Kayayurt and Mehmet Alver joined the AK Party during a local party meeting in Ataşehir, according to a statement from the AK Party’s Istanbul branch.
Sarul also serves as a member of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Council.
The switches changed the balance in the Ataşehir Municipal Council to 19 members for the CHP, 16 for the AK Party and two for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
AK Party Istanbul Chair Abdullah Özdemir welcomed the six members, saying the party was open to people from different political backgrounds who wanted to contribute to local government.
Özdemir said the new members would contribute to a service-oriented period in local politics and that the party would continue working to address problems facing Istanbul residents.
Most recently, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş resigned from the CHP in an announcement last week, saying, “I am resigning my membership in the Republican People’s Party and will continue my political path as an independent.”
In a statement on social media, Yavaş said his decision to leave the CHP was not made out of anger or resentment but after careful consideration.
He noted that political and legal disputes that began on March 19 and later included debate over the possible annulment of CHP party congresses had brought Turkish politics to a difficult point.
Amid a war of words with Türkiye over the Aegean Sea, Greece conducted a military exercise that may further fuel tensions. The “Alexandros” exercise included scenarios such as landing troops on small islets, seizing uninhabited rocky outcrops and conducting nighttime operations.
Türkiye and Greece have occasionally taken steps that could translate into a greater conflict in the future, but they have generally favored maintaining good relations, especially amid a climate of rapprochement under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Mitsotakis, however, appears to be reversing his earlier, warmer rhetoric. He asserted Greece’s “inalienable right” to extend its territorial waters in the Aegean earlier this month, days after his country signed a historic defense deal with Türkiye’s longtime adversary, Israel. Experts say this newfound confidence could upset the relative calm.
The Alexandros exercise came against this backdrop. At least 70 fighter jets were mobilized, while special forces and ground units in different parts of Greece were also placed on alert as part of the scenario.
According to Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper, the “Alexandros” exercise tested the response speed, coordination and readiness levels of the Greek Armed Forces’ air, land and naval units. The exercise scenarios envisaged units being ready for deployment within just five minutes. The Greek Armed Forces also carried out nighttime operations to seize small islets during the exercise. Ground units in the Evros region near the Turkish border and on the islands were also placed on full alert. The aerial display during the Greek military exercise also drew attention. The stated aim of the exercise was to test the Greek Armed Forces’ ability to respond rapidly in the event of a sudden and coordinated crisis.
The exercise’s focus on small islets and rocky outcrops brought the long-running Aegean disputes between Ankara and Athens back into the spotlight.
Türkiye argues that the demilitarized status of some islands in the Eastern Aegean, as established by international treaties, is being violated. Greece rejects Türkiye’s assessment on the issue.
About two weeks before Greece’s latest exercise, a military deployment by Türkiye had also received extensive coverage in the Greek media. Türkiye had moved units belonging to the 51st Commando Brigade to the Söke district of Aydın province as part of the regular course of a planned deployment. The deployment was closely followed in Greece because Söke is located opposite the island of Samos. Greek media outlets claimed that the units constituted a commando force of around 2,000 personnel, while some reports described the development as a “Turkish wall in the Aegean.” However, Türkiye’s Defense Ministry said the transfer of the units to Söke was part of a deployment change that had been planned and approved in June.
In a related development, Angelos Syrigos, a lawmaker from Greece’s ruling New Democracy party, acknowledged that Greece had twice backed down in 2024 from seabed surveys related to a Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection project near Crete after Turkish warships arrived in the area, despite Greece not having sought permission from Türkiye. Syrigos discussed the incidents that took place in July and November 2024 during an appearance on ERT News. Regarding Greece’s response after Türkiye sent five warships to the area in July 2024 and then sent warships again in November, albeit with lower intensity, Syrigos said, “We backed down on both occasions. We did not continue the seabed surveys.”
When the host asked, “Did we back down?” Syrigos replied, “Yes,” and claimed that Athens believed at the time that the issue could be resolved through dialogue and in accordance with international law provisions concerning the laying of undersea cables. Syrigos said cable-laying activities had previously been carried out in the same broad maritime area without serious problems, leading Greece to believe that the current project could proceed in a similar manner. However, he said, the same conditions did not materialize this time.
Syrigos claimed that Türkiye would not be asked for permission for the cable work, but that a French research vessel could notify the Turkish side this time. He argued that notifying Türkiye would not amount to seeking its permission.
Media outlets reported on Wednesday that Ruhtan Başkaya, a member of the municipal assembly in the southwestern Turkish town of Fethiye for the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was expelled from his party after he was caught with a minor in his hotel room in China.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the assembly member from the town in the southwestern province of Muğla had been detained in China for the past two months after visiting the country. The Fethiye branch of the party confirmed the reports, saying that Başkaya was in China for a training program paid for out of his own pocket, while media reports claimed that he was there with a delegation from the Fethiye Municipality between July 3 and July 16.
On Wednesday, the Yeni Asır newspaper reported that Başkaya met a girl at an entertainment venue in the country and took her to his hotel room. The girl, apparently a minor, alerted police over an unspecified complaint, and police raided the hotel room, taking Başkaya into custody. The CHP’s Muğla branch announced on Tuesday that the matter had been referred to the disciplinary board and that Başkaya had been expelled from the party with immediate effect.
The CHP is no stranger to sex scandals. Özkan Yalım, the party’s mayor in the western province of Uşak, who was arrested last March on corruption charges, was expelled from the party in May. Yalım was detained in a hotel room with his mistress in Ankara during the corruption raid.
A subsequent investigation also found that the disgraced mayor had hired his other girlfriends as “ghost employees” of the municipality. The party’s late chair, Deniz Baykal, stepped down in 2010 after a video of him having an extramarital affair with his former secretary emerged.
Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) referred five district mayors to its disciplinary board Wednesday and called for their expulsion, as the party moves against members accused of supporting rival political movements.
CHP spokesman Müslim Sarı announced the decision following a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Board (MYK), chaired by party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
The mayors facing disciplinary proceedings are Mesut Kösedağı of Istanbul’s Kadıköy district, Alper Yeğin of Sancaktepe, Mustafa Oktay Aksu of Sarıyer, Cem Kotan of Antalya’s Konyaaltı district and Osman Tarık Özçelik of Alanya.
Sarı said working for another political party while remaining a CHP member constituted a clear disciplinary offense.
“No one can remain within the Republican People’s Party while trying to provide logistical support to another party or contributing to it,” he said.
Sarı also criticized CHP mayors who have left the party to join the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), saying there could be “no explanation” for such moves.
The spokesperson said the party would continue monitoring its members, adding that the latest disciplinary referrals would not be the last.
Sarı also confirmed that Kılıçdaroğlu would attend events marking the opening of the new legislative year in Parliament, including the General Assembly session and evening reception.
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