New Draft Constitution Should Not Be Ak Party's Alone But Whole Turkish People, Firat

NEW YORK - Justice and Development (AK) Party deputy chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat said Monday the new draft Constitution should not be AK Party's alone but the whole Turkish people.
"We are open to all suggestions as long as they are democratic and they support freedoms," Firat stressed.
An international conference titled "Turkey's New Draft Constitution" began at New York's Columbia University on Monday.
Firat, Prof. Dr. Ergun Ozbudun and AK Party deputy from Mardin Cuneyt Yuksel were the speakers at the first session of the conference.
Referring to the Constitution of 1982 in Turkey, Firat indicated that 1982's Constitution was anti-democratic and anti-freedom. "The writers of the 1982 Constitution used bad Turkish and vocabulary that is not comprehensible," Firat noted. As AK Party, we will keep our promise to the Turkish people and make amendments on the current Constitution, Firat underlined.
Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Ergun Ozbudun remarked that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose him to lead a committee of five scholars to prepare a draft Constitution. "The draft Constitution we prepared has not been publicized as AK Party's draft Constitution yet. Turkey is going through discussions on its new draft Constitution," Ozbudun noted.
"There are circles who claim that an Islamic state will be founded in Turkey and that there is a threat of separationists in Turkey. All such claims are nonsense. Such rumors arose due to the fact that certain circles are fearing loss of power due to the new draft Constitution," Ozbudun told.
Ozbudun stressed that the new draft Constitution includes the main pillars of secularism.
"The new Constitution will be more comprehensive. The definition of 'Turkishness' is defined in a more comprehensive manner," Ozbudun also said.
Meanwhile, Cuneyt Yuksel indicated that the new Constitution should be accepted with the most possible consensus.
"None of the Turkish Constitutions so far has been prepared by the parliament. If our draft Constitution gets approved by the government, this would be Turkey's first civilian Constitution," Yuksel said.
"The new Constitution must be based on human rights and democracy," Yuksel also told.