The FINANCIAL -- The parliamentary
Reconciliation Commission, which is working on the draft of a new and
more democratic constitution for Turkey, has laid out the schedule for
the task at hand and wants to hear proposals from representatives of all
segments of society by the end of this year.
Civil society groups, unions and any other body that would like to express its views on what the new constitution should be like are expected to submit their proposals to Parliament by Dec. 31, 2011, which is the first phase in the commission's four-stage timeline for work on the constitution. The deadline for reviewing the proposals is April 30. The commission plans to come up with a final draft by the end of 2012. Other steps to be followed -- according to the timeline laid out by the commission -- include agreeing on the principles, drafting the text, sharing the text with the public, allowing time for enough public debate on the draft and a final review of the draft in light of the discussions to turn it into a final proposal.
Meanwhile, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in the first commission session on Monday signaled that it might walk out in protest of recent police raids of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its affiliated groups, in which dozens of BDP mayors and officials have been either detained or arrested.
The commission on Monday also agreed on a 15-point plan laying out the methods to be employed in drafting the new constitution. Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, speaking to the press after the three-and-a-half-hour commission meeting, emphasized the importance of reaching a draft text through consensus of all segments of society. He said they expected everyone to pitch in and share their contributions and opinions on the new constitution by the end of the year.
The commission has three subcommittees of four people each. One of these subcommittees is responsible for reviewing feedback from political parties, another public agencies and professional unions that have public agency status and the third contacts civil society organizations and de facto associations.
The parliament speaker said they'll give utmost importance to views expressed by the media during this process. He said he had plans to meet with the editors-in-chief of all newspapers in İstanbul to speak about the constitution.
Çiçek also said individuals could send in their views on the constitution, but noted they encouraged views from collective groups of people to avoid difficulties in sorting through the demands. He said about 1,000 opinions had been submitted to Parliament's website after the announcement. In response to a question on whether the commission would hear the opinions of individuals, Çiçek said: “This does not have to be done in person. Say you have thousands of people sending in their views as individuals. This is a difficult situation. Technology offers ways to unite these demands. There are professional unions and civil society groups that have branches in all 81 provinces. They can unify the demands.”
“We will be very happy if everyone contributes to this,” Çiçek said.
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