Rights
An executive presidency since the 2017 referendum
The 1982 Constitution, adopted after the 1980 coup, was amended by referendum in April 2017 to abolish the office of Prime Minister and create an executive presidency. The changes took effect with the 2018 elections. The Constitutional Court hears individual applications alleging violations of fundamental rights.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National. Turkey is a unitary state; provinces are administrative rather than legislative units.
Governing law
- Constitution of the Republic of Turkey 1982, as amended, most significantly in 2010 and 2017
- Law No. 6216 on the Establishment and Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court2011
In practice
The 2017 amendments concentrated executive authority in a directly elected President who appoints ministers and vice-presidents without parliamentary confirmation and can issue presidential decrees in areas not reserved to statute. The Constitutional Court retains the power to annul legislation and, since 2012, to hear individual applications after ordinary remedies are exhausted — a mechanism that generates a very large caseload and interacts directly with the European Court of Human Rights, since Turkey is a Council of Europe member. Article 90 gives ratified international human rights treaties precedence over conflicting domestic statutes, which is a significant interpretive tool.