WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PACKAGE BRING?

15/07/2010

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis periodically

writes articles for newspapers and this time his article was published at
the ‘Guest Writer’ column of the Vatan daily newspaper on July 15, 2010.
In his article, Bagis gave information about the Constitutional
Amendment Package.

In his article Bagis wrote:

Our nation will definitely evaluate the answer of the question: “Why does the ‘Constitutional Amendment
Package’ that will impair the 12 September military coup and the resulting constitution of the military
coup disturb some people?” and everybody will get the answer on September 12, 2010. Since the
beginning we state that each article in the Package means the opening of a new chapter in the EU
accession negotiations. Accordingly, the positive messages from the EU justify us.

EU authorities constantly state that the Constitutional Amendment Package includes modern law norms,
increase democratic standards, and improves individual rights and freedoms. Then, how will the articles
in the Package will function in practice and how will they affect our nation?

Content of the proposed constitutional amendments firstly focuses on getting rid of the complaints
resulting from the constitution of the military coup. Unfortunately, arguments relating to the amendment
of the constitution as a whole, mostly lead to the ignorance of this fact. However, when the
Constitutional Amendment Package consisting of 26 articles is considered, it can be seen that the anti-
democratic spirit and base of the military coup constitution have been changed substantially.

From the jurisdiction of military courts to the right of individual application, from the Ombudsman
Institution to positive discrimination, from the protection of personal data to the right of collective
agreement for civil servants, from granting to individuals the right to appeal against the rulings of the
judiciary to rendering the higher judicial bodies more democratic, many constituents have been included
in this package. To summarize:

• From now on, the difficulties that women go through will be compensated by positive discrimination.
• The state will take measures to protect children from all forms of abuse.
• Every citizen will have the right to ask for the protection of their own personal data.
• A citizen’s freedom to leave the country may be restricted only by a court decision based on criminal
investigation or prosecution.
• The workers will be able to be a member to more than one trade union.
• For the first time, the public servants will be granted the right of collective agreement and the retired
public servants will also benefit from this right.
• Disciplinary penalties applied to the civil servants and other public officials, will be carried out under
judicial supervision.
• Owing to the Ombudsman Institution, our citizens will no more have difficulties in the courts.
• Recourse to judicial remedies will be available against the decisions of the Supreme Military Council.
• Civilians will not be tried in the military courts except in case there is a state of war.
• The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors will function at the same
democratic level as their counterparts in the EU member states.
• With the opportunity of individual application, the citizens will seek their rights, in the Constitutional
Court in Ankara instead of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
• The repeal of provisional Article 15, which is against the national will, remains an area that needs to be
accounted for.

In 12 September 1980, we went through the most painful example of a coup which can be considered as
a disaster that will cost Turkey decades. But, 12 September 2010 will be the beginning of a new process
in which all these bitter memories will be replaced by a great enthusiasm, a festival of democracy will be
gone through and a process in which the lost years of Turkey will be compensated.