PM: Parties agree small constitutional changes needed

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s prime minister said Monday that a number of small-scale constitutional changes are coming through the consensus of the parties whose leaders met with the president earlier in the day.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara after the third Cabinet meeting since the July 15 coup attempt, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the parties have agreed on the need for necessary changes to the Constitution to ease deadlocks in the system.

Earlier the leaders of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace.

“We will work together to prepare the infrastructure for this [system],” Yildirim said.

On bigger changes to come, he added, “We have decided to continue the unfinished process to make a new constitution.”

Yildirim announced that the Supreme Military Council (YAS), customarily held at the end of August, will be held this Thursday instead, and for the first time the venue will be the Prime Ministry.

The premier also announced that the Cabinet had decided that Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge will be renamed the July 15 Martyrs’ Bridge.

He said that two monuments will be erected in Istanbul and Ankara in honor of the martyrs of the attempted coup.

Yildirim added that the Gendarmerie, Coast Guard Commands will be fully tied to the Interior Ministry.

ALATURKA AİLESİ ÜYELERİ NE DİYOR?