The 2017 Constitutional Reform
The constitutional amendments adopted in the referendum of 16 April 2017 and entering into force after the elections of 24 June 2018 are the most consequential restructuring of the Turkish political system since the 1982 Constitution itself. They abolished the parliamentary system and replaced it with an executive presidential system; they restructured the judiciary and abolished the military courts; and they recalibrated the relationship between the President, the Cabinet, and the Grand National Assembly.
Procedural background
The package of amendments, Constitutional Amendment Law No. 6771, was adopted by the Grand National Assembly on 21 January 2017. It was submitted to a national referendum on 16 April 2017 and approved by a narrow majority. The amendments came into force after the first concurrent presidential and parliamentary elections held under the new framework, on 24 June 2018.
What changed: principal headlines
System of government
- The office of Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers requiring a vote of confidence were abolished.
- Executive authority is now vested solely in the President, who serves both as Head of State and as the sole holder of executive power.
- The President is supported by Vice Presidents and a Cabinet of Ministers, all appointed and dismissed without parliamentary approval.
- The President may issue Presidential Decrees on matters of executive power; statute prevails where decree and law overlap.
Parliament
- The number of seats in the TBMM was raised from 550 to 600.
- The parliamentary term was extended from four to five years and aligned with the presidential election.
- The minimum age to stand for election was reduced from 25 to 18.
- Parliamentary motions of censure of individual ministers were replaced by inquiries, written questions, and parliamentary investigations.
Judiciary
- The military court system was abolished; its jurisdiction was transferred to the civilian judicial and administrative courts.
- The size of the Constitutional Court was reduced from 17 to 15 members.
- The Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) was renamed the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) and reduced from 22 to 13 members.
States of emergency
- The previous distinction between “state of emergency” and “martial law” was simplified into a single state of emergency (OHAL), declared by the President and subject to Assembly approval and extension.
What did not change
- The 1982 Constitution itself remained in force, amended rather than replaced.
- The unitary character of the state, the principle of secularism, and the indivisible integrity of the territory and the nation (Constitution, Arts. 1–3) are unchanged and remain unamendable under Article 4.
- The right to vote, the principles of universal suffrage, and the supervision of elections by the YSK were preserved.
Subsequent amendments
The most significant statutory complement to the 2017 reform was Law No. 7393 of 31 March 2022, which lowered the parliamentary threshold from 10 % to 7 % and altered the rules on alliance vote distribution.