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Turkey is a secular, republican 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.
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.
The current President is Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was elected by Parliament to this role 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.
The results of the parliamentary elections of November 3, 2002 are as follows for the parties that passed the 10% national threshold:
Political principles of importance in Turkey
The Turkish Constitution and most main stream political parties are built on the following principles:
Other political ideas have also influenced Turkish politics and modern history. Of particular importance are:
These principles are the continuum around which various - and often rapidly changing - political parties and groups have campaigned (and sometimes fought).
See also
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