Turkish Parliament's charter panel officially dissolved

ANKARA

A parliamentary panel tasked to draft the country’s first civilian Constitution was officially dissolved Dec. 25 after nearly two years of futile work. 

The dissolution of the Parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Committee came as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members failed to attend three consecutive meetings of the panel, breaching the internal regulations. 

The AKP had announced that they would no longer attend the meetings after Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek declared that the panel had failed to produce the blueprint within the given timeline and that therefore there was no need for the continuation of its works. 

The Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) criticized the speaker and recalled that he had no such authority. Oppositional members of the panel attended the scheduled meetings of the panel after Çiçek and the AKP left the table, announcing Dec. 25 that the commission had been dissolved because of the ruling party’s absence at three meetings. 

The panel was established after the 2011 elections with the task of completing the writing process by the end of 2012. But although its mandate was extended twice, it could only agree on 60 articles out of nearly proposed 150 articles.