TURKEY/FLE: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan makes no mention of generals quitting in his address to nation but reiterates plans to replace post-coup charter

Record ID: 217438

  • Title: TURKEY/FLE: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan makes no mention of generals quitting in his address to nation but reiterates plans to replace post-coup charter
  • Date: 31st July 2011
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GENERAL NECDET OZEL ATTENDING A MEETING OF SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAADNJU1E6RT1PTLJ1N2RYGBR0P
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday (July 30) to press ahead with plans for a new constitution to boost democracy, making no mention of the country's top military commanders quitting in what was a pre-recorded speech.
    The armed forces commander General Isik Kosaner stepped down on Friday evening along with the army, navy and air force chiefs in protest at the jailing of 250 officers on charges of conspiring against Erdogan's government.
    Erdogan's office has issued a statement expressing appreciation for the commanders' service but he has not spoken directly on the matter and Saturday's televised speech focused on his new government's plans for the economy and constitution.
    "With a new constitution we should clearly show that we are aiming further improve democracy, uphold the rule of law. I believe that we will write the best constitution for Turkey at the end of this period," Erdogan said in an 'address to the nation' which did not divert from the pre-written script.
    It was not clear when the recording was made.
    Erdogan's ruling AK Party, in power since 2002, won a third successive parliamentary election on June 12 with 50 percent of the vote, giving it a strong mandate to press ahead with its constitutional plans.
    "Turkey cannot continue on its path with a constitution prepared in the extraordinary conditions of a period when democracy was shelved," he said, alluding to the time after a 1980 coup when the current charter was prepared.
    While there is broad acceptance across political parties on the need for a new constitution, Erdogan's opponents fear he may use the opportunity to strengthen his own position.
    It is an open secret that Erdogan is interested in switching to a more presidential form of government, raising speculation that Erdogan intends to become president once his third and final term as prime minister is over.
    There are also concerns among secular Turks that the AK Party, for all its talk of democracy and pluralism, will seek to shape a constitution around its own socially conservative values.
    Though it sprang from a banned Islamist party, the AK eschews the Islamist label and during its decade in office there has been little in the way of legislation to suggest it was following a religious agenda, other than efforts to allow women wearing the Muslim headscarf attend universities and work in government offices.
    The AK did, however, come out on top in a series of confrontations with the military and judiciary, the twin bastions of secularism in Turkey.
    Erdogan did not refer to the resignations by the military top brass and only touched on the armed forces issue in underlying the government's determination to fight terrorism.
    "I want it to be known that terrorism targets Turkey's growth, progress, development and most importantly brotherhood," he said.
    For the last 27 years, Turkey's armed forces have been engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in which more than 40,000 people have died.
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