Turkey's Hurriyet published an article by Semih Idiz devoted to the constitutional debate in Turkey.
"Domestic and international attention has turned to the Constitutional debate in Turkey. Hard as conciliation appears in some areas, the relevant committee in the Turkish Parliament is nevertheless making headway on key issues, most notably in the area of “human dignity” and the rights that protect it," the article reads.
"The revival of the “presidential debate” by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), with the highly apparent approval of Prime Minister Erdoğan, however, could end up throwing a spanner in the works. This effort of the AKP is already being interpreted as an attempt to secure Erdoğan’s future, where he can rule from a position vested with greater powers than are available to the President today," the author says.
"Switching to an executive presidency, they declare, would amount to a political adventure without it being certain that anything positive would emerge from it. There is also the “AKP’s hidden agenda” debate, which has also been revived with the presidency debate," Idiz says.
"The argument here is that Erdoğan has an Islamic agenda, and wants to elevate himself to an even stronger executive position from which he can implement this agenda with fewer encumbrances. In fact, he fueled this debate himself recently with certain utterances, one example being that he and his party wanted to see “the emergence of a religious generation,” the article reads
"If, however, the effort is indeed to work toward achieving the AKP’s “hidden agenda,” it is clear that what will be achieved in the end will not be stability in Turkey," the author concludes.
