Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0377/03770.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 33KB | 531 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03770}
$Pretitle{280}
$Title{Turkey
Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jo Ann Browning Seeley}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{constitution
assembly
national
political
president
council
members
state
government
parties}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     Turkey
Book:        Turkey, A Country Study
Author:      Jo Ann Browning Seeley
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics

     Turkey's political system combines a commitment to democracy with a
strong tradition of respect for authority. The reform movement of Mustafa
Kemal, known as Kemal Ataturk, conferred on Turkey a system of representative,
parliamentary government. The 1982 Constitution provides for a unicameral
legislature elected by secret ballot every five years. Suffrage is free and
universal. Executive power is exercised by the president, prime minister, and
Council of Ministers. The president has extensive powers and may use them to
ensure adherence to the Constitution and to maintain a stable and effective
government. Competitive political parties underlie this constitutional system,
and participation in national elections has traditionally been high.

     Most Turks are committed to participatory democracy, but they have shown
themselves willing to accept limits on their personal and political rights and
liberties in the interest of maintaining order and stability. Turkey has a
tradition of coalescence and cooperation between military and civilian
leaders. Since the beginning of the republic, the army has been in the
forefront of revolutionary change, but it has also intervened on three
occasions--in 1960, 1971, and 1980--when the stability of the country was
threatened. These military interventions have not aimed at overthrowing
democratic government but at returning the country to the principles of
Ataturk as perceived by senior military officers. Nevertheless, the methods
used were decidedly undemocratic by Western standards. After each
intervention, the military leaders returned Turkey to civilian rule, although
they remained a powerful influence.

     The third and most far-reaching military intervention occurred on
September 12, 1980, when political and communal violence and chaos had
propelled Turkey to the brink of civil war. The government, paralyzed by party
strife and political polarization, had ceased to function. As state authority
eroded, terrorism mounted, claiming over 5,000 lives between 1977 and the
September coup.

     The military leaders were successful in restoring law and order to the
strife-torn country, and their intervention was welcomed by the beleaguered
populace. However, the measures taken to contain the political violence and
anarchy involved restrictions and extensive violations of human rights, and
the resulting international criticism led to a period of diplomatic isolation
for Turkey. After the return to civilian government in 1983, some restrictions
were lifted and civil liberties were partially restored. The government was
responsive to pressures both within and outside the country to broaden the
scope of individual freedom and civil rights and took measures to return to a
democratic system of government. Stability returned, and as of mid-1987 there
had been no significant recurrence of the internal terrorism that had plagued
the country before the coup, although a Kurdish insurgency continued to
disrupt the southeastern provinces.

     In addition to restoring order, the generals oversaw the formation of a
new Constitution, approved by referendum in 1982, that significantly
strengthens the executive branch of the government and provides the potential
for a more orderly legislative process. At the same time, individual and
associational rights and liberties are considerably more circumscribed than
under the previous constitution. The military leaders of the 1980-83 period
sought to avoid the political fragmentation and polarization that had brought
the previous government to a standstill and endeavored to make a complete
break with the ineffective system of political parties that had preceded the
coup. They dissolved the existing parties and banned party leaders from
participation in the political process for a period of ten years.

     Nevertheless, there was marked continuity in political traditions and
leaders. In 1987 the ruling Motherland Party, under the leadership of Prime
Minister Turgut Ozal, faced serious competition from the True Path Party, a
successor to the outlawed Justice Party. The center-right Motherland Party was
also threatened by fragmentation from within, as fundamentalist and extreme
nationalist factions vied for power. The party had been formed out of
politically diverse elements and depended to a large extent on Ozal's
political acumen and leadership abilities.

     Turkey's foreign policy continued to be based on flexibility and
pragmatism. Although oriented to the West and firmly committed to the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, Turkey demonstrated increasing independence and
sought to expand its foreign ties as well as its role in the Middle East.
Long-simmering disputes between Turkey and Greece over the status of Cyprus
and their conflicting claims in the Aegean Sea area occasionally brought the
two allies to the verge of armed hostilities.

     Among other issues facing Turkey in 1987 were inflation, unemployment,
Kurdish unrest, and a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. In dealing with
these problems, Turkey was challenged to integrate its traditional respect for
authority with its commitment to stable democracy.

The Constitutional System

     The Constitution of 1982 is the keystone of the political reconstruction
that followed the military takeover of September 1980. The National Security
Council (NSC--see Glossary), composed of the five highest ranking generals in
the Turkish armed forces and under the presidency of General Kenan Evren,
established a Consultative Assembly in June 1981 to draft a new constitution
(see Political Developments, September 1980-April 1987, this ch.) This
assembly consisted of 160 members, 40 of whom were appointed directly by the
NSC and the remainder selected from a list of 10,000 names compiled with the
aid of provincial governors. The fifteen-member constitutional committee of
the Consultative Assembly produced its draft in July 1982, and this draft was
subsequently amended by the Consultative Assembly and the NSC. The
Constitution was submitted to a public referendum on November 7 and approved
by 91.4 percent of the voters, constituting 91.3 percent of the registered
electorate. A factor in this high turnout was Provisional Article 16 of the
Constitution, which stated that registered electors who failed to vote would
lose their electoral rights for five years.

     The framers of the 1982 Constitution sought to prevent a recurrence of
the political violence and governmental paralysis that had characterized the
years preceding the military coup (see Crisis in Turkish Democracy, 1970-82,
ch. 1). Whereas the constitution of 1961 had been designed to avoid the
excesses of the earlier concentration of power in the executive branch, the
1982 Constitution strengthens presidential authority in order to prevent the
political instability that had undermined the previous regime. Under the 1961
constitution, an elaborate system of checks and balances had limited the
authority of the government. The powers of the president were curtailed, and
individual rights and liberties were given greater emphasis. The 1982
Constitution expands the role of the president and circumscribes the exercise
of individual and associational rights that might threaten national unity and
security.

     The 1982 Constitution also limits the role and influence of political
parties, which are governed by more detailed and restrictive regulations than
under the previous constitution. In the 1970s, the political parties were
unable to organize viabl