Diyar Güldoğan
January 08, 2016•Update: January 08, 2016
ANKARA
Turkish parliament speaker has called for establishing a committee to change the 34-year-old constitution written under the last military regime.
Ismail Kahraman's remarks came during a press conference on Friday after broad consensus among political parties to work together to change country’s constitution.
"I will send letters to the heads of AK Party, Republican People’s Party, Nationalist Movement Party and Peoples' Democratic Party," said Kahraman.
The new conciliation committee would have three deputies from each party, similar to its predecessor, Kahraman said.
He said he believes “wholeheartedly that consensus will be reached" in drafting a new constitution.
In 2013, Turkey’s parliamentary parties formed a committee to rework the constitution introduced in 1982 following a military coup two years earlier. The committee could only agree on 60 articles before it was disbanded.
Kahraman said it wasn’t clear whether the new committee would build on the former’s experience or start from scratch, while adding that he considered the old committee to be a failure.
The speaker added that Turkey was clearly having difficulties with the existing system. "One way or another, this system should be revised,” he said.
The ruling AK Party aims to replace the current parliamentary system with a presidential model under a new constitution. However, opposition parties have repeatedly said they support the parliamentary system.
