The Failure of Popular Constitution Making in Turkey: Regressing Towards Constitutional Autocracy

摘要

Less than two years before the Gezi Park protests, and five years before a coup attempt, four political parties representing 95% of the electorate in the Turkish Parliament, with a democratic mandate from the 2011 parliamentary elections for extensive constitutional reform, agreed to set up an ad hoc parliamentary committee with equal representation-the Constitution Reconciliation Committee (Anayasa Uzlasma Komisyonu)-to draft a new constitution for Turkey. The goal appeared to be noble-to make the first civil constitution since the abandonment of the last one by the 1960 coup d'etat and once and for all do away with the legacy of military intervention in Turkish constitution-making. After almost two years' hard work of gathering ideas and suggestions from the civil society and private individuals, and of debating and drafting the whole range of constitutional provisions, the exercise failed miserably with political parties blaming one another for sabotaging the project.