PM says definition of citizenship to include 'Turkish nation' in new constitution

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled out claims that the definition of citizenship in the new constitution will not have any reference to Turkishness, saying that all the people living in the country will be referred to as the "Turkish nation." "The notion of the Turkish nation does not define a race or ethnicity. In our proposal for the new constitution we say the 'Turkish nation,' but we are using this as a definition of citizenship," Erdogan said on Monday at his ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting. The definition of citizenship is one of the thornier issues being dealt with by the Parliamentary Reconciliation Commission, which was set up to draft Turkey's new constitution. The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) demands that the issue should be settled by a formula based on citizenship of the Turkish Republic, and that citizens of the country should not be described as "Turkish" in the charter. The BDP is against terms such as "Turkish nation" or "Turkish" appearing in the new charter. The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) strongly oppose the BDP's proposal. "Turkish nation" should remain in the Constitution so as to maintain the unity of the nation, they emphasize, also noting that a nation is not the same as an ethnic identity, considering that a nation is usually made up of various ethnic groups. At Monday's meeting, Erdogan also called on his party's youth and women branches to go into the field to promote the ongoing settlement process with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Erdogan wants these branches to knock on the people's doors -- canvassing just like during election campaigns -- and inform the public about the settlement process, which aims to resolve Turkey's long-standing Kurdish and terrorism problems. "The process is going better than we expected," Erdogan reportedly told his party's members at the meeting, which lasted for five-and-a-half hours. The prime minister also asked his party's members not to allow those who are disturbed by the process to sabotage it. "Use careful language. The public leg of this business is very important. We should explain this process correctly," he said. PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) officials have been engaged in negotiations since October of last year. The negotiations have come to be called the "peace process" or the "settlement process." In a historic letter in March that was read by BDP deputies at a Nevruz celebration, Ocalan ordered his organization's militants to pull out from Turkey as part of a new "era of peace" in which no guns or violence will be used to pursue the Kurdish cause.