Fighting erupts in Turkish parliament as Erdogan pushes for presidential dictatorship
By
Halil Celik and Alex Lantier
21 January 2017
Fist-fights erupted in the Turkish parliament yesterday as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) moved to impose a series of constitutional amendments aimed at turning the country into a presidential dictatorship under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Two deputies, one of the AKP and another of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), were hospitalized with injuries after the fighting, which erupted after another deputy, independent Aylin Nazliaka, handcuffed herself to the speakers’ microphone. Nazliaka said her action was a protest at the handcuffing of the parliament by the broad powers the proposed constitutional reforms would grant to the president.
The parliament nonetheless continued voting on the measures, approving yesterday Article 12 of the 18-point constitutional amendment package. This article, approved with only 12 votes over the necessary 330-vote threshold, grants the president the authority to impose a state of emergency.
More broadly, the amendments in the bill extend the president’s power over the legislative and judiciary branches. They enable the president to issue decrees, appoint ministers and top state officials—including the majority of the higher judicial bodies—and to dissolve parliament, while making it considerably harder to try or dismiss the president.
To impose the bill, Erdogan and the AKP are working closely with the fascistic Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). During the debates, AKP lawmakers consistently attacked the members of the two opposition parties, the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the HDP.
The MHP’s legalistic denials of charges that it is working…