Turkish Political and Legal System
From International Business Wiki
Constitution of Turkey
The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey was last ratified in 1982; this being the fourth time a new Constitution was approved. The first Constitution was written on April 23, 1920 and ratified in 1921; shortly after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. With the creation of the first Constitution it stated that it wanted to receive it sovereignty from the people and not from a Sultan. The Constitution of 1921 was a relatively short Constitution consisting of twenty three articles the first nine laying the guideline principles such as: Forming of the State, Sovereignty, and Legislative and Executive matters. But lacked to mention the role of the Sultan and the Judicial branch of government mostly because Turkey was awaiting the outcome of their Independence War.
Not long after the first Constitution was written, it was ratified again on April 20, 1924. A list of some 600 names was created of the previous high powered Ottoman Empire administration, in attempt to separate the Republic of Turkey from the Ottoman Empire. By pointing out powerful leaders who carried over from the Ottoman Empire they could try to relieve them from their positions, and become there own democracy. Only in 1923 did Turkey finally become its own independent republic, it then had a few issues with the Constitution of 1921 that had to be revised. The Constitution of 1924 was created to help turn Turkey into a modern Democratic Republic. It served its purpose for 38 years until the country needed to revise its Constitution for its growing needs.
Then on June 9, 1961 the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (1961) replaced the old Constitution from 1924, which was said to be favored by 62 percent of the country. The revision of the Constitution came after Turkey experienced a coup d’etat (coup) of 1960, which was when a group of military radicals tried to over throw the democratic government. Shortly after there botched take over many high ranking officials such as the President and Prime Minister were arrested and put on the stand for treason. After this turmoil came the revision of the Constitution of 1924. The main difference between the two Constitutions was that in 1961 they focused more on human rights than they did before.
After the Constitution of 1961 there was another coup d’etat in 1980, which would ultimately lead to the ratification of the Constitution in 1982. The coup d’etat of 1980 was for the military to take power in trying to stop the violence from the 1970’s and to try to create economic stability. So in June of 1981 a military junta was put together consisting of 160 people to draft a new constitution. On November 7, 1982 the new Constitution was favored by 92 percent of the people. The founding principles of the Constitution of 1982 are that Turkey is based on a secular and Democratic form of government. The first three Articles identify the principle foundations as the fourth says that they are not able to be changed. The new Constitution basically states that it “establishes the organization of the government of the Republic of Turkey and sets out the principles and rules of the state's conduct along with its responsibilities towards its citizens (Wikipedia.com).” The Constitution of 1982 is similar to the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution being that it focuses a lot on human rights. The Constitution of 1982 was again amended in 2004 and in 2007 and they are continuously looking to improve it.
