Turkey ruling party denies 'semi-presidential' proposal

A lawmaker from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Friday denied media reports that the government considered revising its proposal for a full-fledged presidential system and instead opt for a form of a semi-presidency in ongoing talks to draft a new constitution. "There is no such thing as revising the presidential system we have proposed or substituting another system for it," Ahmet Iyimaya, AK Party lawmaker and head of parliament's justice committee, told reporters. A report that appeared in a Turkish daily claimed the AK Party would back down on its presidential system offer due to strong opposition in favor of "a French-style presidential system" in which the daily said an elected president could be the chairman of a political party and the president appointed the prime minister who would function as an aide to the president.