New charter possible soon if consensus reached: Erdoğan

Turkey may embrace its first civilian constitution until the end of this legislative year should a consensus between all political parties agree on the draft, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, calling on the opposition alliance to work and prepare their own version of the charter.
"If we can harmonize our draft with the drafts of other parties, we can finalize this [new constitution] in parliament by the end of this year. To do this, other parties must first make their constitutional proposals public," Erdoğan told his Justice and Development Party (AKP) group on Oct 6. Turkey's legislative year has just begun and is planned to end on July 1, 2022.
Erdoğan's first speech to his parliamentary group meeting after the launch of the legislative year has focused on the domestic politics and the government-led alliance's preparations for the new constitution.
The AKP and its main ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), are genuine in their efforts to pass the country's brand new civilian constitution, Erdoğan said, informing that they are about to conclude their in-house drafting of the blueprint.
"We expect that other political parties in parliament share their own work with the public as soon as possible," he said.
In case the government and the opposition fail to compromise over the new constitution, they will be voted by the people in the 2023 elections accordingly, Erdoğan stated, adding they will fully respect the decision given by the people in the polls. "Undoubtedly, the main determinant here is how different views on the administrative system of our country can be brought together," he stated.
Recalling that the Turkish people voted in favor of the executive-presidential system in 2017 and that it came into force in mid-2018,...