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1. The Basic Principles and the Choice of Government System in the New Constitution

Author:
Levent Köker
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
“The Basic Principles and the Choice of Government System in the New Constitution,” authored by Levent Köker, is the fourth monitoring report published by TESEV under the umbrella of its constitution monitoring project, Turkey Constitution Watch (turkeyconstitutionwatch.org). The report offers a comparative analysis of the presidential and parliamentary system proposals that are discussed in the Constitutional Reconciliation Commission. It also deals with the basic principles (such as rights and freedoms, independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and local autonomy) that should form the basis of system discussions in Turkey.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, Constitution, Civil Rights, Justice, and Judiciary
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

2. A Key to "Democratic Opening": Rethinking Citizenship, Ethnicity and Turkish Nation-State

Author:
Levent Köker
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This article focuses on the ongoing process of transition in Turkey from a “homogeneous national identity”, which produced a notion of “equality as sameness”, to a “multiculturalist democracy” that requires a new constitutional system that has a conception of “equality in difference”. The organization of this paper is as follows: First a brief evaluation of the Kemalist foundations of the Republic will be provided to establish how the official ideology in Turkey conceives of state-society relations. An evaluation of the persistence of this official ideology under the multiparty political system is provided in the second part. The final part of the paper concentrates on the rising public presence of the Kurdish problem, which is forcing Turkish politics to change its constitutional identity, most notably aided by the process of change driven by EU reforms. The article concludes with a call for the inevitability of a radical change in Turkish constitutional identity to include a public recognition of multiculturalism through an acceptance of linguistic and other cultural rights, but leaves open the question of how this change will be realized.
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey