Turkey won't abandon secular constitution

Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, should have a constitution based on Islam rather than a secular constitution, the speaker of the Turkish parliament has said in a speech. Secularism has been the cornerstone of modern Turkey for decades.

“We are a Muslim country and so we should have a religious constitution,” said Turkish Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman on Monday.

The speaker’s position was opposed by the head of the parliament’s constitutional commission and fellow AKP member Mustafa Sentop, who said there were no plans to remove the concept of secularism from the future draft.