'Century of Turkiye,' revolution to bring peace to world: Erdogan

By Trend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday announced the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) new vision document "Century of Türkiye" for the new century of the republic, underlining that it is the name of a revolution that will bring democracy, development, peace and welfare to every corner of the world, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

"At a time when the world is facing vital challenges, we want to make a strong start to the new century of our republic with the Century of Türkiye," he said addressing the crowd gathered in the capital Ankara.

As Türkiye prepares to enter the last year of the first century of the republic, they came together for the covenant of the Century of Türkiye, he stated.

"We will elevate the Century of Türkiye by making our country one of the 10 largest states in the world in all fields of politics, economy, technology, military and diplomacy," Erdogan said.

"We share with all humanity the message that the Century of Türkiye is the name of a revolution that will bring democracy, development, peace and welfare to every corner of the world."

Erdogan noted many challenges faced by the AK Party in the last 20 years and said that they have overcome all these challenges with the support of the Turkish people.

“We have eliminated the conditions that paved the way for the coups one by one," he said.

New constitution, amendments

“One of the first goals of our Century of Türkiye vision is to draw a new constitution that will be the product of the national will,” Erdogan also underlined.

He expressed determination to prepare this new constitution in a way that suits the Century of Türkiye and to implement it with the approval of our Parliament and nation, he added.

The president also said that the new constitution will increase the welfare of the Turkish people as well as guarantee the rule of law, pluralism, justice, equity and freedom.

Speaking on a constitutional change regarding the right to wear headscarves, Erdogan said that the amendment will be submitted to Parliament next week and thereby enable the issue to be eliminated from Türkiye’s agenda for good.

"By submitting it to Parliament next week, we will ensure that this issue, which is a natural right, is completely removed from the country's agenda.

“We have prepared a constitutional amendment that will protect the family from the threat of deviant movements, and guarantee the educational and working rights of our daughters and ladies with or without headscarves," he outlined.

Turkish women who wear the headscarf have long struggled under laws that prevented them from wearing headscarves at schools as students and in public institutions as professionals, despite the prevalence of headscarf-wearing women in the country. The issue of the headscarf ban held an important place in public and political debates in Türkiye throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

The headscarf ban in Türkiye was first implemented widely in the 1980s but became stricter after 1997 when the military forced the conservative government to resign in an incident later dubbed the Feb. 28 "postmodern coup."

Parliament lifted a ban on female students wearing the headscarf at university in 2008 in a move championed by Erdogan and which the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmakers, including its chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu, had sought unsuccessfully to block in the constitutional court.

In 2013, Türkiye lifted a ban on women wearing headscarves in state institutions under reforms that the government said were designed to bolster democracy.

Türkiye explored 540B cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the Black Sea, Erdogan also said adding: "We will share the joy of new good news in energy with our nation soon."