Turkey to consider constitutional changes in March

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's government is preparing a package of constitutional amendments to go to parliament within 10 days, a minister said on Saturday, a move expected to increase tension with the secularist judiciary.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government lacks the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needs to change the constitution, so will then hold a referendum to gain public backing which will undercut any Constitutional Court challenge, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said.

Erdogan's AK Party, which has roots in a banned Islamist movement, wants to make it harder to outlaw political parties and reform the way judges and prosecutors are appointed.

"We object to the current structure of the judiciary because it over-extends its powers and creates laws by overstepping the authority of the parliament," Ergin told reporters on Saturday.

The secularist establishment, whose legal challenges against the AK Party have been spearheaded by the Constitutional Court, suspects the government wants to Islamicise the state by stealth and pack the courts with sympathetic judges and prosecutors.

The head of the Constitutional Court has urged Erdogan to seek consensus rather than force through constitutional changes to ease tensions generated by the detentions of a prosecutor and several military officers in the so-called Ergenekon investigation into an alleged coup conspiracy.

The arrests have wobbled financial markets worried about political stability in the $650 billion (428 billion pound) economy.

The government's proposed package consists of "urgent and limited" amendments of 10 to 15 articles including rules to curb the role of the Constitutional Court, Ergin said.