Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek said Türkiye still suffers from a shortfall in democratic governance, and that passing a government-backed constitutional amendment package in a September 2010 referendum would mark meaningful progress.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency, Çiçek warned that a rejection would make future constitutional change harder to accomplish. He also pushed back on any link between the referendum and early elections, saying the general vote would proceed on schedule on 12 July 2011.
The ballot was set for 12 September 2010, the 30th anniversary of a military coup that ultimately produced the existing constitution. Çiçek noted that the ruling Justice and Development Party had commissioned scholars to draft a fully new constitution in 2007, a proposal that opposition parties rejected on the grounds it was tailored to the party's own interests.
The amendment package would lift the protection from prosecution that covered members of the National Security Council formed after the 1980 coup, remove the ban on general strikes, allow citizens to belong to more than one union, and give civil servants the right to collective bargaining. Senior parliamentary and military officials would also become subject to trial before the High Tribunal for conduct tied to their official duties.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in August 2010, in its own words.