Turkiye's Erdogan appoints legal team to draft new constitution, sparking fears of extended rule
Erdogan, who has led Turkiye as president since 2014 and was prime minister for more than a decade before that, has advocated for a new constitution arguing that the current one, which was drafted following a military coup in 1980, is outdated and retains elements of military influence even though it was amended several times.
'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. 'For 23 years, we have repeatedly demonstrated our sincere intention to crown our democracy with a new civilian and libertarian constitution.'
Under the current constitution, Erdogan cannot run again unless early elections are called or the legal framework is changed. Critics see the push for a new constitution as a possible path for re-election, allowing legal changes that would bypass the constitutional term limits.
Erdogan, who has grown increasingly authoritarian over the years, has denied seeking a new constitution in order to remain in power, saying last week 'we want the new constitution not for ourselves, but our country.'
Erdogan's ruling party and its nationalist allies lack the votes needed to usher in a new constitution. Some analysts believe the government's recent effort to end the decades-long conflict with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is part of strategy to gain the support of a pro-Kurdish party in parliament for the new charter.
The effort to introduce a new constitution comes months after Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular mayor of Istanbul and a key Erdogan rival, was arrested and jailed on corruption charges.
His arrest has been widely viewed as politically motivated although the government insists Turkiye's judiciary is independent and free of political influence. It triggered widespread demonstrations calling for his release and an end to Turkiye's democratic backsliding under Erdogan.
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CTV News
6 hours ago
- CTV News
Decades after a PM got pied, the threat landscape in Canadian politics has changed
OTTAWA — When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien got hit in the face with a pie 25 years ago, the only thing hurt was his pride. A quarter-century later, Canada's security landscape has changed radically. Threats of violence against politicians have become far more common. What seemed like a harmless prank then looks more like a warning now. 'There is this view that you're a politician, it's all fair game,' said Catherine McKenna — who was herself the target of multiple threats of violence while she served as a federal minister. 'We need people to go into politics and not feel threatened. It's literally about the health of our democracy because if you want people to go into politics, you can't expect that they're going to put up with this and their families are going to put up with it.' Documents released by the Privy Council Office show that the volume of threats made against the prime minister and cabinet ministers has exploded in recent years. A chart shows that there 40 threats against the prime minister and his cabinet were recorded in 2021. That number rose to 91 in 2022, 236 in 2023 and 311 in 2024. The PCO document reports that 11 threats specifically targeting then-prime minister Justin Trudeau were recorded in 2021. The following year saw 25 threats against the PM reported. In 2024, Trudeau was the target of 212 threats, the document shows. Between 2021 and 2024, the Privy Council document shows that Trudeau was the subject of 90 threats of death. The document says the 2024 statistics cover the period between January 1 and July 17. While McKenna said most of the threats against her emerged online, she was famously singled out for very public abuse during her 2015 to 2021 cabinet career — once while walking with her children outside a movie theatre. 'It's just happening all the time and at all levels,' she said. 'I can't talk to a politician without them giving me a story about what has happened, and often women, especially racialized, Indigenous members of the LGBTQ2+ community. 'You just don't know … probably 99 per cent of (threats) are nothing. It just only takes one person … I don't think you can fool around with this.' The P.E.I. pie incident happened on Aug. 16, 2000, while Chrétien was visiting an agricultural exhibition in Charlottetown. As the prime minister entered the building and began shaking hands with people, a man in the crowd went up to him and pushed what appeared to be a cream-topped pie into his face. As a shocked-looking Chrétien peeled off the pie plate and wiped his face, the man — who had attempted to flee — was stopped by police. While the RCMP acknowledged that the incident shouldn't have happened, it wasn't the first such security breach during Chrétien's time as prime minister. In 1996, Chrétien grabbed a protester by the chin and neck and pushed him aside during a National Flag of Canada Day event — the incident that later became known as the 'Shawinigan Handshake.' A year before, Chrétien's wife Aline came face-to-face with an intruder who had managed to break into the prime minister's official residence in Ottawa armed with a knife. Michele Paradis, the RCMP assistant commissioner in charge of protective policing, said police have to strike a 'difficult balance' between keeping officials safe and allowing them access to the public. 'Because, really, if MPs, ministers of the Crown are not going out to meet with their constituents, that has an impact on our very democracy,' she said. 'My role is to make sure that our members and our principals are equipped with not only the physical tools to stop that, but also the mental acuity to be able to say something is not right,' Paradis said, adding that Mounties were quick to bring down someone who got too close to Trudeau at a parade in Montreal in 2019. Paradis said the threat landscape has calmed down somewhat since the recent change of government. If an official is threatened online, she said, Mounties will pay the person levying the threat a visit to determine whether they have the capacity to act on it, or if there is a mental health issue at play. Paradis said the RCMP works with government officials, the House of Commons, constituency offices and security officers for various ministers to complete risk assessments. 'I think we've got a better sense of the picture of what's going on,' Paradis said. There have been several recent efforts to boost security measures for elected officials. In 2024, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme asked the government to consider drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials. Around the same time, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino called for the creation of 'protective zones' around political constituency offices to shield members of Parliament and their staff. McKenna said she'd like to see an independent protective service created specifically to protect the prime minister and other federal officials. She said she'd like to see the government pass online harms legislation and hold social media companies accountable for the threats posted on their platforms. McKenna said politicians also need to stop launching personal attacks on each other in order to generate social media clips. 'The problem is when they get personal, then it's easy for people to basically dehumanize people,' she said. 'It means that it's OK to say terrible things about people and ... it's OK to go up to them and shout at them in the street and threaten them.' When asked if more security measures are needed, Paradis said she and most police officers 'work within what we have now' and adapt when things change. Rob Huebert, a professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary and director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, said the 'near assassination' of U.S. President Donald Trump last year demonstrates that, even today, a determined assassin can still get close to a politician. 'On so many of these events, you can try to have metal detectors, you can try to have pre-screening, but it's impossible to ever try to achieve 100 per cent security … the threat of an assault on a political leader is one of those constants,' he said. 'The threat is always there.' Huebert cited the example of the so-called 'Toronto 18' terrorism plot, exposed in 2006, which was to involve a series of public attacks to convince the federal government to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. He said the fact that there have been no successful attacks on Canadian government officials could be the result of improved security — or it could be because no one else has tried. Chris Mathers, a retired RCMP officer and president of a consulting and investigative firm, said the 2000 pie incident shows how Chrétien 'didn't stay in the box' — meaning he often strayed from the protective perimeter provided by his security detail. Trudeau, he said, 'always stayed in the box,' perhaps because, as the son of a prime minister, he grew up aware of threats against politicians. 'If you stay in the box, there's a lot less chance that you're going to be confronted by somebody with a pie or a knife or a gun or a bomb,' Mathers said. Mathers said 'the world is changing' and that people are now 'a lot more aggressive and will do and say things that they wouldn't in the past.' 'The problem is that we've started to degrade into a very permissive society and inappropriate behaviours are almost considered to be courageous in some areas,' he said. 'So yes, security around public figures has increased, just as a result of the changing social environment.' With files from Jim Bronskill This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025. Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
Trump meets like-minded Putin, while the West watches
For most of the past 80 years, there was something called 'the West': a group of democratic, relatively open countries that traded with each other, built networks and believed similar things about what the world should be. The like-minded. That's gone. The U.S., the West's main backer, has effectively dissolved the association. In Alaska on Friday, there will be a meeting of the new 'like-minded' pair: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two will discuss the fate of Ukraine, which neither of them really see as a country with agency of its own. Before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Putin wrote an essay on the 'historical unity' of Russians and Ukrainians that argued Ukraine's borders are illegitimate concoctions and that it can only have 'sovereignty' in partnership with Russia. Mr. Trump, in his pithy style, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February that he had 'no cards' to determine how the war should end. Analysis: Trump and Putin in Alaska is a study in contrasts Now, Mr. Trump sounds a little different. On Thursday, in the Oval Office, he insisted that the Alaska meeting will be followed by a more important meeting that includes Mr. Zelensky. But Mr. Trump has shown more interest in hearing Mr. Putin's view. It's no wonder that European leaders haven't put much trust in Mr. Trump's warning earlier this week that Mr. Putin would face 'severe consequences' if he blocks a ceasefire. That became clear when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pulled together a virtual meeting with Mr. Trump that included Mr. Zelensky and several European leaders in an attempt to steer Mr. Trump away from bargaining away Ukrainian territory or post-ceasefire security. Prime Minister Mark Carney took part in a second virtual meeting that day of other leaders of the so-called 'coalition of the willing' of Ukraine supporters with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance. The once like-minded West now has to try to squeeze a last-minute word into American ears in the hope Mr. Trump doesn't cough up concessions to a Russian President who invaded a European nation. The concerns go wider. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wanted to ensure Mr. Trump doesn't agree to a request from Mr. Putin to reduce NATO troops in Eastern Europe, and in particular, Poland. 'That's why it is so important that we build such a strong and united group of states, both in relation to Russia, but also in relation to other allies, like the United States,' Mr. Tusk told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters. That's a European leader worried that Mr. Trump will casually concede a weakening of the security of NATO allies that have felt vulnerable since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Opinion: A stronger Ukraine would be the only acceptable outcome of the Alaska summit Mr. Trump does have some valid complaints about the equity of NATO security and support for Ukraine, in that the U.S, has paid more for both than its allies. But it isn't just money. Mr. Trump wants to be able to claim he ended the war. But he has always been too willing to accept the Russian rationale for peace – and the idea that Russia should keep Ukrainian territory in exchange for a ceasefire. And the U.S. President has been peculiarly willing to treat with Mr. Putin, displaying admiration, treating the Russian leader rather than the leaders of his allies, as his equal. Mr. Trump has airily overlooked or excused Mr. Putin's war-making in his quest for a ceasefire. Even in June, after Mr. Trump had already expressed frustration with Mr. Putin's unwillingness to reach a ceasefire deal, the U.S. President showed up at the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., complaining that it was a mistake to kick Russia out of the then-G8 in 2014, after the country's annexation of Crimea. That rambling complaint included the notion that Mr. Putin's feelings has been hurt – the U.S. President claimed his Russian counterpart has been 'insulted' – but that Mr. Trump still had a special relationship with him. 'Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else,' Mr. Trump said at the time. Now Mr. Putin has an invitation. To a summit, on U.S. soil, and plans for a joint news conference. Let's hope that this time, Mr. Trump will really press Mr. Putin. European leaders, and Mr. Zelensky, will be hoping that he doesn't succumb to the Russian President's claims that parts of Ukraine was never really Ukrainian, anyway. Mr. Trump usually seems to see Mr. Putin as like-minded.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Turkish authorities detain Istanbul district mayor in sweeping crackdown on opposition
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities detained the mayor of a key Istanbul district along with some 40 other officials on Friday, intensifying a sweeping crackdown on the country's opposition. Inan Guney, mayor of Istanbul's Beyoglu district, was taken into custody as part of an investigation into alleged corruption, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Guney's bodyguard, his advisor and other aides were among those detained, the Birgun newspaper and other media reported. Beyoglu district is held by the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP. Municipalities controlled by the CHP have faced waves of arrests this year, beginning with the targeting of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoglu in March. A popular opposition figure, Imamoglu is widely regarded as the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-decade rule and is the CHP's candidate for a presidential election due in 2028. Critics argue the legal actions are politically motivated, aimed at undermining the CHP's growing influence. Erdogan's government insists the courts operate independently without political interference. Istanbul and a string of major cities fell to the CHP in 2019, with the opposition further extending its control in last year's municipal elections. Imamoglu's jailing led to the largest protests in Turkey for more than a decade, with demonstrators denouncing a democratic backsliding under Erdogan.
