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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied that he is trying to change the constitution so that he can stay when his term of office ends in three years.
Erdogan has led Turkey for 22 years, first as Prime Minister from 2003 and then as his elected president since 2014. But he can no longer run unless the rules are changed whether he is calling early elections.
“We want the new constitution not for ourselves, but for our country. I have no interest in being chosen again or going to the office again,” he told reporters on Thursday.
And yet the recent comments and actions of Erdogan have increased speculation that he wants to remain president after his term of office in 2028.
Last January he was asked by a singer if he was ready for a different term and he said, “I am, if you are.” The next day, his party’s spokesperson confirmed that the issue was on their agenda: “What is important is that our nation wants it.”
Although many Turks would like Erdogan to continue as president, he follows in the opinion polls behind the opposition mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, who was arrested in March and stays in prison.
The arrest of imamoglu on alleged accusations of corruption, which he denies, is generally considered politically motivated by his supporters and has fueled some of the greatest protests that Turkey has seen in more than ten years.
Polls suggest that support for the mayor has risen since he was held in prison in Silivri, west of Istanbul.
Authorities have succeeded in blocking his social media in X in Turkey and they have continued to focus on his city administration, so that at least 18 employees in recent days are retained on suspicion of corruption, including the Public Relations Chief Taner Cetin of the municipality.
Although the detention of Imamoglu in prison is internationally criticized, President Erdogan has largely escaped censorship, in which Western allies regard him as an important NATO fellow fellow fellow.
In his comments to reporters on Wednesday, Erdogan said that the Constitution of Turkey did not reflect the opinion of citizens, because it was mainly written in the aftermath of a military coup in 1980, although it was changed.
“Is it possible in such a rapidly changing world to get somewhere with a constitution written under the conditions of a coup?” he asked.
The current constitution allows only two five -year presidential conditions. Erdogan is already at the age of third, but he claimed that his first term took place before Turkey moved from parliamentary rule to the presidential rule.
That change required a constitutional referendum in 2017 that Erdogan gave radical powers, but still allows only two presidential terms.
To obtain another referendum, he needs the support of 360 MPs in parliament of 600 seats, but can currently only trust 321. With 400 votes he could immediately change the constitution.
His recent step to put an end to more than four decades of conflict with the Kurdish militant PKK has been interpreted by some as an attempt to attract Kurdish support for a new constitution.
Erdogan said on Wednesday that by putting down his arms, the PKK would enable the Pro-Kurdish dem party by going into politics “in a much stronger way”.
The DEM party has 56 MPs and with their support Erdogan would have a much greater chance in parliament to change the Constitution.
The deputy chairman of the opposition CHP party of Ekrem Imamoglu, Ali Mahir Basarir, said that Erdogan had no chance to run again because of a constitution he had designed himself. Erdogan could also call early elections, but he doesn’t allow it either, Basarir said.
