ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Thursday denied having held meetings with the parliament’s speaker regarding the country’s constitution, amid controversy over amendments.
“As the DEM Party, we have neither had a new meeting with Speaker of the Parliament Mr [Numan] Kurtulmus regarding the constitution nor made any statements that could be considered a proposal or draft on the matter,” wrote DEM Party spokesperson Aysegul Dogan on X.
Dogan’s comments were in response to reports suggesting that delegations of the pro-Kurdish party have recently met with the Parliament Speaker Kurtulmus to discuss the largely debated proposal for a new constitution.
Despite denying the reports, Dogan said that her party continues to discuss the matter internally.
“DEM Party is continuing its constitutional coordination work internally; we are aware of the reasons behind some deliberately circulated reports outside of our relevant and authorized committees … these reports, which are not binding for our party, should not be taken into consideration,” she said.
DEM Party is accused of being the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara labels as a terrorist group. The Turkish public perceives it as a separatist party, and any attempt by the party to discuss the constitution is met with backlash from Turkish nationalists.
Following his win in last year’s presidential election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been openly critical of the constitution and said it is time for a new one.
The current Turkish constitution was written in 1982 following a military coup. Despite amendments made in 2017 that swapped the country’s parliamentary system for a presidential one, Erdogan remains unhappy with what he has labeled the “1982 coup constitution.”
Recent comments made by the leader of the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda Par) Zekeriya Yapicioglu about making changes to the first four articles of the Turkish constitution sparked political controversy.