On 27 April 2016, The Independent released a news story about Turkey’s parliament speaker Ismail Kahraman’s comments on the issue of secularism in the new constitution.

The story mentioned that “Speaker Ismail Kahraman, who is drafting the new charter, also said the new constitution should drop references to secularism, while lamenting the fact Allah is not mentioned in the constitution.”

However, Ismail Kahraman is not officially entitled to draft the constitution. Any person, political party or institution can draft a new charter for the time being since the official process of penning the new constitution has not begun yet.

Moreover, Ismail Kahraman is not in the draft commision of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) because he occupies the objective position of parliament speaker.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remarked that the parliament speaker expressed his own opinion when he said Turkey needs a religious constitution. Erdogan said:

"My views are known on this ... The reality is that the state should have an equal distance from all religious faiths ... This is laicism."

Also, the ruling AK Party’s Istanbul deputy Mustafa Sentop said: “We haven’t discussed the removal of secularism from the constitution.”