Constitutional Court violates Constitution again but not prevents a possible Constitutional change…

Article 148 of the Turkish Constitution, which establishes the functions and powers of the Constitutional Court, states: ?The Constitutional Court shall examine the constitutionality, in respect of both form and substance, of laws, decrees having the force of law, and the Turkish Parliament?s Rules of Procedure.

After deliberations which lasted almost 10 hours, Turkey?s Constitutional Court on Wednesday signed, sealed and delivered another historic decision which, although in part disputable, shines with its caution to not cause severe damage for the fragile democracy.

Turkey?s Constitutional Court, which has sparked heated debates due to its controversial rulings in the past, has added one more such ruling to its record, annulling key amendments in a government-sponsored reform package that aims to raise the judicial and democratic standards in the country.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court annuls key parts of government-backed constitutional reforms.

Turkey to vote on post-military constitution

The senior court struck down parts of a government package to restructure the Constitution but rejected the opposition?s attempt to discard the changes altogether.

The Constitutional Court annulled Wednesday parts of government-sponsored constitutional changes, and angered all sides in the debate.

Erdogan Risking Losses in Polls as Kurdish War Spurs Nationalist Backlash
Bloomberg
Increased PKK violence may result in Erdogan losing votes to the Nationalists, said Adil Gur, head of the Istanbul-based A&G Arastirma polling company.

Turkish Ruling Cools Political Showdown
Wall Street Journal
By MARC CHAMPION ISTANBUL?An imminent showdown over Turkey’s political future appears to have cooled for the summer after its top court decided not to veto

Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government geared up Thursday for a September referendum on reforms to curb the judiciary’s powers, after a top court scrapped only a fraction of the disputed package.

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s highest court has given the go-ahead for a September referendum on a series of government-backed constitutional reforms by rejecting an opposition request that the measures be cancelled.

The Turkish Constitutional Court is reviewing a petition submitted to it by the main opposition party concerning the constitutional amendment process. The fact that the court accepted the petition in the first place is already a blow to the face of the court?s credibility. The court has not been given the mandate to review constitutional amendments according to their essence. It has only the authority and duty to inspect the formal aspects of the process: whether the bill was read in Parliament according to the letter of the Constitution, whether the opposition was given due time to raise its concerns, whether the vote was done under fully secret and free conditions and so on.

Since the beginning of the Ergenekon investigation there has been an intensive discussion over the case.

In the first piece of this series I started to introduce the outcomes of the two-day workshops that the Human Rights Agenda Association and the Young Civilians held on the Ergenekon case in İstanbul on April 10-11 of this year.

There are some who criticize the government?s Kurdish initiative and find it to be wrong.

The biggest story in yesterday?s Turkish newspapers seemed to be the ?format? of the visit Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Republican People?s Party?s (CHP) new leader, paid to army trenches in the southeastern corner of the country. Did he stand up tall, or kneel down? Did he look determined to finish off the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) or not? How was he treated by the commanders and soldiers?

What is needed for the solution of the Kurdish problem? Turkey?s counterterrorism laws should be quickly amended. Local administrative reform should be accelerated.

I think the new leader of the Republican People?s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is thinking along the same lines as the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration about the headscarf and Kurdish problems.