PodcastErdoğan must talk to Kılıçdaroğlu for new constitution
Murat Yetkin writes: What Erdoğan should do is obvious. If he can put aside his aim of having control on every state affair, the first thing he should do would be to talk to the main opposition CHP's leader Kılıçdaroğlu and let the Parliament do its job freely. If they can’t agree, they can at least say “we tried, it didn’t work” in the face of history.
Duvar English
Prominent journalist Murat Yetkin, in his last piece, analyzed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent statement on Sept. 1 that his government is planning to come up with a draft for a new constitution in the first months of 2022. Yetkin reminded that today's parliamentary arithmetic does not allow Erdoğan to amend the constitution without going to the opposition if he really wants a change.
400 votes are required for a new Constitution, or amendments to the Constitution, to be approved by the 600-member Turkish Parliament, and at least 360 votes are needed to go to a referendum. The People's Alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) currently has has 336 seats. 24 more seats are needed, even to submit the draft to the public vote.
"Even if all right-wing parties, which have one or two deputies in the parliament, somehow vote for the AKP-MHP alliance, this gap cannot be closed," wrote Yetkin.
"What Erdoğan should do is obvious. If he can put aside his aim of having control on every state affair, the first thing he should do would be to talk to the main opposition CHP's leader Kılıçdaroğlu and let the Parliament do its job freely," he said.
Yetkin's piece in full can be reached here.