Justice Minister Tunç lists the articles they removed from the Constitution, announces new goals

Stating that they have been working to strengthen Turkey's democracy and that they have faced all kinds of obstacles while trying to do so, Tunç noted that they have implemented important structural reforms to ensure that the tutelary mentality in the Constitution cannot be activated again. 

Touching upon the treacherous coup attempt of July 15, Tunç continued as follows:

“We have worked to strengthen Turkey's democracy. Look, for 22 years, while our country has grown 3-4 times in the economy, taken steps toward global projects, and tried to carry out actions aimed at increasing the welfare of our nation, we have faced all kinds of obstacles.

They started the Gezi protests during a period when Turkey's inflation had fallen to 5 percent, interest rates had fallen to 5 percent, we were talking about global projects, the world's largest airports, bridges, nuclear power plants, declaring our independence in energy, trying to reach localization rates of up to 80 percent in the defense industry, and closing the IMF book, declaring to the world that we are no longer dependent on anyone in the economy. By setting the streets on fire, they tried to change the government with a street coup, so to speak. 

They did not succeed. Afterwards, they thought they could succeed with the December 17-25 police-judiciary coup. They did not succeed there either. They tried to incite terrorism. They dug trenches, they were not successful. They thought they could strike the final blow on the dark night of July 15 and hand over Turkey's administration to some global powers, but they were met with the glorious resistance of our nation and the determined stance of our President. Our nation succeeded in turning that dark night into light by staging a coup against the coup plotters. 

Now, of course, in the process that followed, we carried out an administrative reform. By transitioning to the Presidential Government System, we took a step toward a stability system that strengthens our Republic, strengthens our democracy, and where the people directly determine the executive branch. We left behind the parliamentary system, which was an era of unstable governments and coalitions, and transitioned to the Presidential Government System. It was an important administrative reform in our Constitution.

Apart from this, we implemented regulations in our Constitution that expand fundamental rights and freedoms, increase legal remedies, and provide positive discrimination for women's rights, children's rights, and what we call disadvantaged groups, such as the disabled, martyrs, and veterans. We tried to eliminate the articles in our Constitution that carried a tutelary and coup-plotting spirit and to cleanse our Constitution of this tutelary spirit. We did these with the support of our nation. We implemented important structural reforms so that there would never be another coup in this country and so that the tutelary mentality could never be activated again.”

“ALL OF THESE HAVE BEEN CLEANSED FROM OUR CONSTITUTION"

Stating that they have brought the structures of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ), the National Security Council (MGK), the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), and the Constitutional Court into compliance with the principle of a democratic state of law, Yılmaz Tunç said, “From the structure of the Supreme Military Council to the structure of the National Security Council, from the structure of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors to the structure of the Constitutional Court, we have brought all of these into compliance with the principle of a democratic state of law.

We abolished the State Security Courts. We abolished the specially authorized courts. We abolished the military courts. From the Military Court of Cassation to the Supreme Military Administrative Court, all of these have been cleansed from our Constitution. 

There was an article in our Constitution stating that coup plotters could not be tried; we removed it. There was an article in our Constitution stating that martial law could be declared when necessary; we removed it. We reduced the tutelary spirit of our Constitution, but of course, all these changes, along with the changes made in previous periods, ensured the reduction of the tutelary spirit in the Constitution. We cannot say it has completely disappeared in terms of the spirit permeating those articles. 

So now, our goal ahead, at the beginning of the Turkey vision, is to provide our country and our nation with a new constitution that is democratic, civilian, participatory, and prioritizes fundamental rights and freedoms. Hopefully, this consensus will be reached in our parliament, and we will continue our path in the Turkey vision with a constitution that guarantees fundamental rights, freedoms, and human rights,” he concluded.