Politics of Turkey

Turkey is a secular, republican state parliamentary democracy. Its current constitution was adopted on November 7, 1982 after a period of military rule, and enshrines the principle of secularism. Executive power rests in a President. Legislative power is invested in the 550-seat Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi), representing 81 provinces. To be represented in Parliament, a party must win at least 10% of the national vote in a national parliamentary election. Independent candidates may run, and to be elected, they must only win 10% of the vote in the province from which they are running. The Turkish military plays an informal political role, seeing itself as the guardian of the secular, unitary nature of the republic. Political parties deemed anti-secular or separatist by the judiciary can be banned at the will of the military.

Related Topics:
Turkey - Secular - Parliamentary democracy - Constitution - November 7 - 1982 - Legislative - Grand National Assembly of Turkey

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Turkey elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) has 550 members, elected for a five year term by mitigated proportional representation with a barrier of 10 %. The president is elected for a seven year term by the parliament.

Related Topics:
Head of state - President - Legislature - Grand National Assembly of Turkey - Proportional representation

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Turkey has a multi-party system, with several strong parties.

Related Topics:
Multi-party - Parties

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Since 1950, parliamentary politics has been dominated by conservative parties. Even the ruling AKP, although its core cadres root from the Islamist current, tends to identify itself with the "tradition" of DP. The leftist parties, most notable of which is CHP, with a rapidly shrinking electorate, draw much of their support from big cities, coastal regions, professional middle-class, and minority groups such as Alevis and Kurds.

Related Topics:
1950 - Conservative - AKP - Islamist - DP - Leftist - CHP - Electorate - Middle-class - Alevi - Kurds

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The current President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was elected by Parliament on May 16, 2000. The Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamic conservative AKP won a majority of parliamentry seats in the 2002 general elections. The Chairman of the Parliament is Bülent Arınç from the same party. The current President of the Constitutional Court is Mustafa Bumin. The Chief of Staff of the Turkish military is Hilmi Özkök.

Related Topics:
Ahmet Necdet Sezer - May 16 - 2000 - Recep Tayyip Erdogan - AKP - 2002 - Bülent Arınç - Mustafa Bumin - Hilmi Özkök

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:See for more informations on elections: Elections in Turkey.

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