Erdoğan vows to restart new charter efforts

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced his commitment to reinvigorate efforts for a new constitution, with the official reopening of the parliament scheduled for Oct. 1.

"We need to submit to the appreciation of the nation a text that 85 million people will embrace and cherish," Erdoğan stated during his address at the inauguration of the new judicial year held at the Supreme Court Presidency in the capital Ankara on Sept. 1.

In a call for national unity and participation, Erdoğan invited political parties, high courts, universities and every individual in the nation to contribute to the constitutional reform process.

"With the opening of the parliament, we will restart our initiatives to bring Turkish democracy to a new constitution," Erdogan declared. "Our promise will be a first-class constitution, complementary to first-class democracy, economy and freedoms. The 'Century of Türkiye' will be strengthened with such a constitution."

In a separate address, Erdoğan made an appeal to all 85 million citizens to "put aside their differences and unite" while marking the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.

"On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of our republic, we want to realize a big embrace with 85 million people. Even if we do not think alike on every issue, we should be able to look in the same direction," Erdoğan declared in his address at a graduation ceremony of the National Defense University in Istanbul's Tuzla district on Aug. 31.

The president took the opportunity to commemorate the anniversary of the Great Offensive, a major counterattack launched by Turkish armies in 1922, and paid tribute to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the then commander-in-chief who led to the "victory, which is an example of the...