ISTANBUL — Leaders of six Turkish opposition parties convened this past weekend in Ankara to chart a path back from the executive presidential system, which they say concentrates too much power in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the detriment of parliament, the courts and other democratic institutions.

The opposition argues that the presidential system — ushered in by a 2017 referendum and formally installed when Erdogan won the following year’s election — is at least partially to blame for many of Turkey’s current problems.

Saturday’s meeting saw the heads of four parties that form the Nation Alliance — the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Iyi Party, the Saadet Party and the Democrat Party — joined by the founders of two parties that split from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkey’s third largest parliamentary party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was not present. Although it has cooperated with the opposition alliance — most clearly during local elections in 2019 — the HDP, which is rooted in the Kurdish movement, has not entered into a formal coalition with other parties.