|
THE STRUCTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT
CONSTITUTION
In Turkey, the constitutional movements had initiated in the second
half of the nineteenth century and the first constitution was
accepted in the final periods of the ottoman Empire, in 1876 under
the name of Kanun-i Esasi (The Principle Law)
The 1921 Constitution was the second constitution founded and issued
during the years of Independence War and had contained obligatory
rules compelled by the war situation and conditions. Three
constitutions were issued in the Republic Period. The first
constitution of the Turkish Republic was accepted in 1924, the
second constitution was accepted in 1961and the third and still
valid constitution was accepted in 1982
As all of the contemporary democracies, The republic of Turkey had
adopted the principle of the separation of powers. In the preface of
the constitution, which is also a section of the constitution and
the foundations of the government is stated, the fact of separation
of powers is emphasized as a limited cooperation between the state
departments, the application of definite authorizations and services
and it is underlined that this principle do not mean any superiority
order among the state organs. In the first constitution of the
Turkish Republic, which was accepted and applied after 1924, the
principle of separation of powers was not included. In this
constitution, it is stated that the dominance belongs to the nation
without any condition, however the application of this dominance was
charged to the parliament. As a result, although the article stating
that the laws should not be contrary to the constitution is present
in the constitution, no supervision unit, in other words the
constitution judgement was not suggested in 1924 constitution.
However, after the transition to the multi partisan system in 1946
and the dominance of the power by the opposition at the democratic
elections in 1950, it was clearly observed that the problems were
still present and the necessity of the supervision of legislation
council has appeared. This opinion was primarily supported by the
intellectuals and later t5he political parties pledged their support
to this opinion and in 1961 Constitution, the principle of the
separation of powers was adopted for the first time and the
constitution judgement was anticipated and the Supreme Court of
Constitution had been inserted into the constitution. Therefore, the
verdict of the laws should not be contrary to the constitution had
gained validity.
According to the constitution, the dominance is unconditionally of
the nation. The nation applies this dominance under the
circumstances stated by the verdicts present in the constitution
directly by elections and indirectly by the authorized departments.
The legislation, execution and judgement units use the fact of
dominance. The legislation authority is granted to TBMM (Turkish
Great National Assembly) and could not be transferred by any means
to anyone. The execution authority and service is used and executed
by the President of the Turkish Republic and the Board of Ministers
in accordance with the constitution and laws. Independent courts use
the judgement authority.
The jurisprudent state principle had initiated and assisted the
adoptation of the principle of separation of powers. This principle
supplies the dominance of the law in the living of public and state.
The power present in the legislation and execution authorities are
limited and balanced in accordance with the principle of the
dominance of jurisprudence.
The legislation processes and the activities and processes of
execution are supervised by the judgement. Therefore, the medium of
democracy is obtained and preserved in the government management.
The constitution is ornamented with these regulatory laws.
The constitutional laws, which have the status of being obligatory
and superior, are the basic jurisprudent rules, which are obligatory
to the organs of legislation, execution and judgement,
administration and other relevant persons or organizations. In
addition, the hierarchy of the norms is adopted and the transverse
between the junior norms and senior norms was prevented. The
decisions of the Supreme Court of Constitution obliges the organs of
legislation, execution and judgement , administration and all
natural and legal persons and these decisions compose the legal
sources of the governmental processes.
The Modification of the constitution; There are unmodifiable
verdicts of the constitution, even some verdicts are unsuggestible
for modification. Verdicts concerning that Turkish Government is a
Republic, the basics which the government regime is dependent, the
unified structure of the government, the shape of the flag, the
Independence march is the Turkish National Anthem, that Turkish is
the national language and that the capital of Turkey is Ankara are
the verdicts of the constitution which are unmodifiable even
unsuggestible arrangements.
From the point of verdicts other than the above stated, the
qualified majority condition was suggested for the modification of
the constitution and a specialized method was developed. In order to
modify the constitution, the inscribed proposal signed by at least
one third of the TBMM members is necessary and the proposal should
be discussed twice at the General Assembly and the hidden election
with the precipitation of the whole members is necessary and the
required majority at this election is three to five of the numbers
of the members.
The President of the Turkish Republic has the right to return the
law modifications concerning the modifications in the constitution
back to the TBMM for the purpose of re-assembly and reconsideration
and the right to present this modification to the public vote.
|
