‘A new constitution that ignores the Kurdish question will not be a solution’

Head of the Ankara Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) Fatin Kanat said that a new constitution that does not offer a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem will bring no solution to Turkey’s problems in the long term.

Fatin Kanat emphasized that the current constitutional debates in the country do not promote democracy.

Interviewed by ANF, Kanat stated that the AKP-MHP’s discourse on a new constitution is manipulative and aims at changing the agenda.

“It is necessary to say that the current state of the country is going through a serious crisis in almost every aspect. We have plunged to record lows in terms of civil rights. Neither the constitution, the existing laws nor international conventions are complied with. It is obvious that the constitutional debates do not arise from a need for democracy under this atmosphere where there is a power to appoint public officials with a single signature and where every opposition is violently suppressed under one-man rule. It is clear that the reason is not to give away extraordinary powers.”

Kanat also evaluated the proposals from the opposition and the HDP’s declaration concerning the new constitution: “Actually, we may say that there are long-standing problems that could not be solved, and realistic solutions are not offered. The Kurdish problem, which is the country’s most important and serious problem, has been ignored during the constitutional debates. The 1921 Constitution which discriminated the Christian minority still offered some administrative features that we might call democratic in terms of regional autonomy and had a more inclusive content. However, it was amended in a monist and racist constitution in 1924 after the Kemalist regime consolidated its power. Since that day, problems have remained unanswered. The problem is more than a new constitution. The country needs a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem, peace, freedom and democracy. It should be said that even if a new constitution is introduced without such an environment, the country’s problems will remain as they are in the long run.”