Turkey's Erdogan urges his AK Party to forge ahead with new constitution

[August 14, 2014]  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish president-elect Tayyip Erdogan urged his ruling AK Party on Thursday to work for a stronger parliamentary majority next year to enable them to re-write the constitution, signaling no let-up in his drive to create an executive presidency.

"I said before that the presidential elections would be the starting gun for the 2015 (general) elections," Erdogan told a meeting of AK Party provincial leaders in a speech broadcast on Turkish television.

"Our target should be to acquire at least a majority to establish the new constitution. I don't believe that you will compromise on this," he said.

(Reporting Gulsen Solaker and Ece Toksabay, editing by John Stonestreet; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

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