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What r u talking about?? Can you explain the background of this conversation? Is there a new constitution in the making in TR?
Yes.
There is a new constitution in the making.
The background of all these are :
-The last election, almost all parties promised to make a new constitution (as everybody agrees that the current one is from the army coup era- though many articles have changed)
-The last election results were AKP:%49.9, CHP %25.9 MHP %12.9, BDP %7
- 4 parties set up a committee (anayasa uzlasma komisyonu), constitution settlement committee in November 2011. (each party gave 3 MPs into this committee)
-Though not that fast and successful, the committee is still working on it.
-The PM gave a deadline for completion of the new constitution and the time will expire soon.
-If this committee can not agree on this new constitution, which seems a quite likely scenario, ruling party will put his ideas into new const. and if it can find the enough vote, it will take the country for a referendum. And possibly the ruling party will push this constitution through this path and will suceed.
- There is a catch here, because Erdogan who is running his 3rd term and in his last term, does want to stay in politics. He can go and become the president. But presidency is not that powerful in Turkey by the constitution. Erdogan wants to switch to USA style presidency in the constitution and the become the first president with full powers!! The current president´s time ends in 2014. And the new president will be elected directly by the people (previously, the presidents have been elected in the parliament)
- So this year is very important for Turkey. As far as Erdogan is concerned, he wants a new constitution with powerful presidential system. In order to get the support, he is sidelining himself with the Kurds. Since the new year he started to negotiate with Apo (the terrorist leader of PKK) directly. He says that he wants to finish Kurdish problem. Apo, as his counter part, says that he does not want Kurds to split Turkey but live in peace in a democratic country. Part of this- or all of these wishes - requires a constitution which will let everybody feel included and bind themselves as citizens to the state. Not to a national state, more correctly to a state where everybody considered as Turks by the constitution. Because 15-20 millions don´t think themselves as Turks.
-Basically, I think the agreement about the citizenship in the new constitution will be like the first constitution of Turkey (in 1921 the definition of citizenship was slightly different). I think they are planning "a loose definition of citizenship" in which no ethnicity will be mentioned. (Personally I can not see anything wrong with that.)
Of course from the cry, you would think that ´people wont be able to call themselves Turks anymore or it will be banned´!!!! It is just that they are planning to remove the article which says ´anybody which is bound to the state of Turkey is a Turk´.
ps..There is one thing for sure : The politics in Turkey is not boring and very dynamic 
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