Referendum for Constitutional Amendment, which is Turkey’s foremost agenda recently, was discussed at Platform for Western Studies of Istanbul Aydın University.
İsmet Uçma, AK Party İstanbul Member of Parliament and Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Chief Advisor Onur Erim, were main speakers of the meeting, where significant people attended.
Platform for Western Studies, think-tank institution operating within İstanbul Aydın University Western Studies Application and Research Center, discussed Referendum for Constitutional Amendment which is Turkey’s foremost agenda recently during its new meeting. In the meeting, attended by İsmet Uçma, , AK Party İstanbul Member of Parliament and Onur Erim Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Chief Advisor as main speakers, different government systems applied in different countries of the world and their characteristics were discussed thoroughly under the title of “Referendum and Government Systems in the World”.
“Western Studies Platform’s Common Sense Community”
Dr. Mustafa Aydın, President of the Board of Trustees of İstanbul Aydın University, stated that topics discussed in Platform for Western Studies, participation of effective persons as well as results and reports obtained were significant values and he said, “Platform for Western Studies opens a discussion with authorities about the topic to discuss one or two topics in details every month and afterwards prepares detailed reports thereof. These reports are submitted to relevant authorities. And today, we bring a current issue into question. We will talk about the new government system, in other words Presidency government system. Mr. Onur Erim wrote a book about Presidency System. AK Party İstanbul Member of Parliament İsmet Uçma will be present here today and inform the participants here about the issue. This is a common sense community. Everyone will tell his own opinion and we will discuss about the new presidency system that is created by academics, artists, politicians, meaning by common sense, here in this common sense community.”
“We have the most powerful leader in the world”
AK Party İstanbul Member of Parliament İsmet Uçma drew the attention to the new system’s being most available government system for Turkish people, he said “ Turkish people should evaluate the necessity of the new government system for Turkey from this perspective: It is not possible to govern a community having such a complex ethnicity, different belief groups, and which belongs to a large variety of opinions and beliefs as it is in here by no other government system than presidential government. Turkish nation is not a colorless society like European nations. Presidential government is necessary and essential to be able to govern this variety in Turkish society. Another issue that our people should know is that the world is governed by powerful leaders now and we have the most powerful leader in the world. He should govern his country in harmony with his power and it was really necessary to make a regulation that equals to his fast and swiftness for him to serve, improve his country. Therefore, we want to make it real.”
“Unfortunately, this system was approached from a wrong perspective in Turkey”
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Chief Advisor Onur Erim who wrote a striking discussion about Presidential government system, said “My purpose was not to teach constitutional law by this book. I rather tried to give political illustrations. Unfortunately, this issue was discussed from a wrong perspective in Turkey at first. I think, we started to discuss the issues that should be debated later in the beginning. And unfortunately, it has been really started to be explained, discussed and questioned in details only for the last ten or fifteen days. It gets to the point now. So, I touched on introduction of the systems through the illustrations that appeals to our people, advantages and disadvantages of them.
“The worst thing in bureaucracy is the delay in procedures”
Prof. Dr. Erman Tuncer, İstanbul Aydın University Lecturer, expressed that loss of time in political decisions damages the country and he said, “It is the system debated. We have always complained about the bureaucratic restraints in Turkey. The governing party offered a model that resembles to presidential system in order to solve such procedures. However, the opposition party has doubts about the parliamentary system. Of course we should overcome this deadlock. The worst thing in bureaucracy is the delay in procedures and decision-making mechanism’s taking quite a lot time. However, it is not possible for a system to be completely well. It surely includes missing points and it needs time to recover these missing points. I believe that Turkish people will make the best choice.”
“People are directly consulted to reach a decision”
Dean of Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of İstanbul Aydın University Prof. Dr. Celal Nazım İrem expressed that referendum is a method which simplifies complex problems and said, “Referendum is a process of decision making used in democratic systems. It is a system creating different results in different ways for different issues in different countries. It is a means that significant constitutional amendments are directly consulted to public and decided, simplifies complex problems to provide common legitimacy.
