After crushing opposition, Erdogan set to rewrite constitution to stay in power

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As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushes for a new constitution, here's a look at his excuse and the actual reason behind the Turkish leader's decades-long endeavour read more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a protest rally in Istanbul on May 18, 2018, against the recent killings of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza-Israel border and the US embassy move to Jerusalem. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP)
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he has appointed a team of legal experts who will commence working on the country's new constitution. The proclamation from the Turkish leader, who is known for using electoral malpractices to stay in power, immediately raised concerns about whether he is planning to constitutionally extend his term in office.
While Erdogan's term is scheduled to end in 2028, he has already started employing tactics of curbing the voices of dissent. In March, the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu , was detained by Turkish authorities, prompting widespread protests in the country.
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Erdogan has been leading Turkey for over a decade now, notoriously moulding laws in his favour. He was elected as the country's president in 2014 and was the prime minister for a decade before that. 'As of yesterday, I have assigned 10 legal experts to begin their work, and with this effort, we will proceed with the preparations for the new constitution,' Erdogan told his ruling party's local administrators in a speech on Tuesday.
His plans
It is pertinent to note that under the current Constitution of Turkey, Erdogan cannot run again unless he calls for an early election or the legal framework is changed. Hence, critics are arguing that the Turkish leader is pushing for the new constitution to establish a path for his re-election.
Interestingly, Erdogan's ruling party and its nationalist allies lack the votes they need to introduce a new constitution. In light of this, some analysts pointed out how the Turkish government is making efforts to end the decades-long conflict with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. They argued that it could be the government's strategy to gain the support of a pro-Kurdish party in parliament for the new charter.
Amid all these accusations, Erdogan denied that he was trying to change the constitution to stay in power. 'We want the new constitution not for ourselves, but for our country. I have no interest in being re-elected or running for office again,' he told reporters on Thursday. However, his actions say otherwise.
Last January, he was asked by a singer if he was up for running for another term, and he said, 'I am, if you are.' The next day, his party's spokesman confirmed the issue was on their agenda: 'What is important is that our nation wants it.' However, despite the claims of the Turkish government, the nation thinks otherwise. Erdogan is currently trailing in the opinion polls behind the opposition mayor of Istanbul, who was arrested in March and remains in jail. So what is Erdoğan's side of the story?
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His excuse
Erdogan said that he wanted to introduce a new constitution in the country because he wanted to purge Turkey's governing charter of what he described as the oppressive imprint of the 1980 military coup. While speaking at the ceremony, marking the anniversary of the coup, Erdogan said that the current Constitution, drafted under military rule, fails to reflect the democratic will of the people.
'We must free ourselves from this Constitution, which still bears the stamp of a coup-era mindset,' the Turkish leader averred. 'It is time for a new text shaped by the nation's will, not by the authoritarian grip of putschists," he added.
Erdogan has been an ardent critic of the 1982 constitution, which was introduced by the junta, following the September 12, 1980 coup. He often referred to it as the barrier to democratic progress. His effort to bring changes to the constitution has often been stalled due to political deadlock.
The urgency
While Erdogan has been preaching a democratic constitution, he has grown increasingly authoritarian over the years. The Turkish leader has been using all sorts of means to curb the voices of dissent. Experts believe that one of the reasons there is urgency in the Turkish government to change the constitution is its poor performance in the opinion polls.
As mentioned before, Erdogan is trailing behind Imamoglu, who is still in jail. Days after his arrest, the Republican People's Party (CHP), one of the key opposition groups of Erdogan, appointed him as the candidate for the next presidential election, scheduled to take place in 2028. This is not the first time Erdogan has obstructed Imamoglu.
In 2022, the Istanbul mayor was sentenced to jail and was banned from politics for insulting the Election Council of Turkey. While he appealed against the ban, it is still pending. This year, he was arrested on charges of corruption and was accused of aiding the PKK. The protests that followed also indicated how popular Imamoglu is in the country.
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Imamoglu is not the only opponent Erdogan has unleashed his wrath upon. This month, Turkey arrested 65 soldiers and police officers over suspected connections to the late preacher Fethullah Gulen, who was accused of orchestrating the failed coup attempt back in 2016. The Turkish authorities have also been strict regarding how the international media cover news in the country, jailing a Swedish journalist. Overall, with no successor in sight and the opposition jailed or killed, critics argue that Erdogan is most likely trying to stay in power longer than the constitution allows him to.
With inputs from agencies.