SDE's "Constitution Based on Human Dignity" proposal

Among the 110 countries in the world governed by democracy, Turkey's democratic development index places it 89th. Among the countries whose democracy is more developed than Turkey's are Bulgaria, which moved to democratic life well after Turkey, and many countries of the Cold War-era Eastern Bloc.

Although they moved to democracy long after Turkey, they covered a great distance in a very short time and overtook Turkey with their democracies. Moreover, although Turkey claims a career as the only country in the Islamic world governed by democracy, there are also Islamic countries whose democracies are at a more advanced level than Turkey's in these indices. For example, the democracies of Indonesia and Malaysia are at more advanced levels than Turkey's. Not so long ago, only 3-4 years back, we were being made to live nightmare scenarios that Turkey would become Malaysianized.

While thinking of Turkey as a model for the Islamic world, it is worth remembering that Turkey has in fact been extraordinarily slow in solving its democratization problems and developing itself. When one looks from Turkey and thinks of a road map to democratization for Egypt and the other Arab countries, it can even be said that Egypt will not be able to democratize for a longer time. Yet even Egypt, at the point it has reached today, can be considered more advantaged than Turkey in establishing a more democratic constitution. Because the old regime, identified with Mubarak's person, was in a way reset after Mubarak was toppled, and all segments of society have become ready to talk in order to make a constitution with no red lines whatsoever. That is, full democracy does not necessarily have to be cooked on an extremely low flame as Turkey has done. A flame this low can even rot democracy over time.

For Turkey to move to a more advanced stage in this democracy ranking, in the constitution-making process it must be rid of every kind of taboo and aim at making a fully democratic, non-tutelary constitution. That is why it must not be blocked by absurd articles such as "cannot even be proposed to be amended," imposed by some junta members who turned the weapons of the Constitution on their own peoples. Even if there were no problem at all with the content of those articles, there should be no such provision about any article.

Accompanied by these considerations, the Institute for Strategic Thinking (SDE) last Wednesday shared with the public a draft of a new Constitution for the new period. It is striking that there is no red line in the constitutional proposal, presented under the title "A fully democratic, non-tutelary constitution based on human dignity." The report, which emerged at the end of six months of workshops attended by about 150 jurists and thinkers in total, was written by Yusuf Şevki Hakyemez, Yusuf Tekin, Levent Korkut, Bekir Berat Özipek, Vahap Coşkun and Murat Yılmaz.

The SDE's constitution report starts from the need for the agenda of 12 June to be a new constitution. The Constitution will be made by the TBMM, but it is essential that in the end it be realized as a social contract worthy of its name.

The thematically prepared constitutional draft identifies the problematic areas that turn Turkey's current constitution into a forced contract and concentrates on those areas. Whereas all constitutions so far have put the state at the center, it proposes putting human dignity at the center. Accordingly, "the most important priority of the new constitution should be to take the human being as the basis against state power and to guarantee human rights. It should have emphases such as the individual, freedom, the will of the people and the rule of law, not ideological preferences that narrow democracy and human rights. The basic principle should be 'freedom is the rule, limitation is the exception.'"

The creation of a social, legal and political framework in which the individual can freely exercise his or her religious beliefs and practices without violating the rights of others is seen as a basic requirement of a life befitting human dignity. In this framework, it is proposed to guarantee the right to education in the mother tongue, to remove the compulsory nature of religious education based on one belief, and, in return, to remove every kind of obstacle to optional religious education. At the same time, it is proposed that employment or procurement of services without any distinction or restriction in people's religious belief, expression and practice be placed under constitutional guarantee.

While it is argued that institutions such as the MGK, YÖK, the Diyanet and the like should not appear in constitutions and that sanctity should not be attributed to any person or institution, the warning is also given that care should be taken that the text not establish any ethnic hierarchy. In this framework, the SDE's constitution report also has a proposal for the preamble of the constitution. The proposal is as follows:

"We, the people of Turkey;

We hold the belief that all human beings possess universal rights and freedoms. We accept that all individuals are equal without being subjected to any discrimination, and we regard all differences as a cultural richness. We share the ideal of universal peace and regard protecting the balance of nature as a human responsibility.

We wish to establish a democratic order that takes human rights, the rule of law, pluralism, freedom and equality as its basis and aims at everyone living in a manner befitting human dignity. We accept and affirm this constitution as a charter of our will to live together."

After such a constitution, would the Kurdish question, the question of secularism and other human rights problems that we have been living with in Turkey for a century remain?