Turkish opposition promises return to parliamentary democracy

ANKARA, Turkey — Leaders of six opposition parties in Turkey pledged on Monday to restore parliamentary democracy and abandon the executive presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced three years ago.

At a ceremony in Ankara, party leaders put their signatures to a 48-page statement confirming their determination to introduce a “strengthened parliamentary system” if they overthrow Erdogan in elections currently scheduled for June 2023.

Erdogan, who has been in office since 2003 – first as prime minister and as president since 2014 – ushered in a presidential system in 2018 that abolished the post of prime minister and concentrated most power in the hands of the president. President. The president’s office had been a largely ceremonial position until then.

The opposition has blamed Turkey’s woes, including an economic downturn and an erosion of rights and freedoms, on Erdogan’s system which they say amounts to “one-man rule”. The presidential system was narrowly approved in a referendum in 2017 and was installed after the 2018 elections.

The new system envisioned by the six opposition parties would revive the prime minister’s office and restore the president’s largely symbolic powers, party officials said at the ceremony. It provides for greater separation of powers, including an increased legislative and oversight role for parliament, and an independent judiciary. It also promises transparency and greater rights and freedoms, including women’s rights.

The statement was signed by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party; Meral Aksener of the nationalist Good Party; Temel Karamollaoglu of the conservative Felicity party; Gultekin Uysal of the Democratic Party; Ali Babacan of the Democracy and Progress Party; and Ahmet Davutoglu of the Future Party.

Davutoglu and Babacan were co-founders of Erdogan’s ruling party and held leadership positions before breaking away from the movement to criticize Erdogan’s policies.

Turkey’s second largest opposition party, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, was excluded from the statement. The government accuses the party of links with outlaw Kurdish activists and many of its members, including its former leaders, have been imprisoned. Erdogan has in the past accused the Republican People’s Party of siding with “terrorists”.