Grand National Assembly of Turkey

Grand National Assembly of Turkey Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker of Parliament	Cemil Çiçek Since July 5, 2011
Prime Minister of Turkey	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, AKP Since March 14, 2003 July 27, 2007 Jun 12, 2011
Leader of the Main Opposition of Turkey	Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, CHP Since Jun 12, 2011
Structure
Seats	550
Political groups	AKP (326)      CHP (135)      MHP (51)      BDP (29)      Independents (7)      Vacant (2)
Elections
Last election	12 June 2011
Meeting place
Interior view of the Turkish Parliament (TBMM) in Ankara
Website
http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/english/english.htm

Turkey
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Turkey
Constitution Constitution (history) Secularism
Legislature Grand National Assembly Speaker Cemil Çiçek Leader of the Main Opposition Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
Executive President (List) Abdullah Gül Prime Minister (List) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Cabinet 61st cabinet Ministries National Security Council
Judiciary Constitutional Court Council of State Court of Cassation Court of Accounts
Elections Supreme Electoral Council Political parties Presidential elections (last, 2007) General elections (last, 2011) Municipal elections (last, 2009)
Foreign relations Membership of international organizations European Union accession Customs Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic missions Turkish diplomats
See also Economy History Armed Forces Turkey Portal
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM, Turkish: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi), usually referred to simply as the Meclis ("parliament"), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence. The parliament was fundamental in the efforts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues to found a new state out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the World War I.

History

Turkey has had a history of Parliamentary government before the establishment of the current national Parliament:

Parliamentary practice before the Republican era

Ottoman Empire

Opening of the Ottoman Parliament, 1876.

Turkey had two Parliamentary governments during the Ottoman period. The First Constitutional Era lasted for only a brief period, elections being held only twice. After the first elections there were a number of criticisms of the government due to the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 by the representatives, and the assembly was dissolved and an election called on 28 June 1877. The second assembly was also dissolved by the Sultan on 14 February 1878.

The Second Constitutional Era is considered to have begun on 23 July 1908. The constitution that was written for the first parliament included control of the sultan on the public and was removed during 1909, 1912, 1914 and 1916, in a session known as the "declaration of freedom". Most of the modern parliamentary rights that were not granted in the first constitution were granted, such as the abolition of the right of the Sultan to deport citizens that were claimed to have committed harmful activities, the establishment of a free press, a ban on censorship. Freedom to hold meetings and establish political parties was recognized, and the government was held responsible to the assembly, not to the sultan.

Establishment of the National Parliament

After World War I, the victorious Allied Powers sought the dismemberment of the Ottoman state through the Treaty of Sèvres.^[1] The political existence of the Turkish nation was to be completely eliminated under these plans, except for a small region. Nationalist Turkish sentiment rose in the Anatolian peninsula, engendering the establishment of the Turkish national movement. The political developments during this period have made a lasting impact which continues to affect the character of the Turkish nation. During the Turkish war of independence, Mustafa Kemal put forth the notion that there would be only one way for the liberation of the Turkish people in the aftermath of World War I, namely, through the creation of an independent, sovereign Turkish state. The Sultanate was abolished by the newly founded parliament in 1922, paving the way for the formal proclamation of the republic that was to come on 29 October 1923.

President Atatürk and his colleagues leaving the building of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (today the Museum of the Republic) after a meeting for the seventh anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey (1930).

Transition to Ankara

Mustafa Kemal, in a speech he made on 19 March 1920 announced that "an Assembly would be gathered in Ankara that would possess extraordinary powers, how the members who would participate in the assembly would be elected and the need to realise elections at the latest within fifteen days". He also stated that the members of the dispersed Chamber of Deputies could also participate in the assembly in Ankara, to increase the representative power of the parliament. The Turkish Grand National Assembly, established on national sovereignty, held its inaugural session on 23 April 1920.

Republican era

1923–1945

Eighteen female deputies joined the Turkish Parliament with the 1935 general elections, at a time when women in a significant number of European countries had no voting rights. In 1993 Tansu Çiller became the first female Prime Minister of Turkey.

The third and current Grand National Assembly of Turkey building in Ankara was designed by Clemens Holzmeister in 1938.

The first trial of multi-party politics, at the republican era, was made in 1924 by the establishment of the Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası which was closed after several months. Following a 6 year one-party rule, after the foundation of the Serbest Fırka (Liberal Party) by Ali Fethi Okyar, in 1930, some violent disorders took place, especially in the eastern parts of the country. The Liberal Party was dissolved on 17 November 1930 and no further attempt at a multiparty democracy was made until 1945.

1945-present

The Multi-Party period in Turkey resumed by the founding of the National Development Party (Milli Kalkınma Partisi), by Nuri Demirağ, in 1945. The Democratic Party was established the following year, and won the general elections of 1950; one of its leaders, Celal Bayar, becoming President of the Republic and another, Adnan Menderes, Prime Minister.

1945–1980

Under the constitution of 1961, the Grand National Assembly was a bicameral parliament with over 600 members, the upper house being the Senate.

1980-present

Following the 12 September militar coup (1980–82) the Turkish parliament again became unicameral under the current constitution approved in a national referendum in 1982. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_National_Assembly_of_Turkey

Parliamentary procedures

Prerogatives of the parliament

Relations with the government

Composition

During a speech of U.S. President Barack Obama on 6 April 2009.

There are 550 members of parliament (deputies) who are elected for a four-year term by the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system, from 85 electoral districts which represent the 81 administrative provinces of Turkey (Istanbul is divided into three electoral districts whereas Ankara and İzmir are divided into two each because of their large populations). To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, a party must win at least 10% of the national vote to qualify for representation in the parliament. As a result of this threshold, only two parties won seats in the legislature after the 2002 elections and three in 2007. The 2002 elections saw every party represented in the previous parliament ejected from the chamber.^[2] This rather high threshold has been internationally criticised, but a complaint with the European Court for Human Rights was turned down. Independent candidates may also run^[3] and can be elected without needing a threshold.^[4]

Since the 2002 general elections, an absolute majority of the seats have been held by members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which leads a single-party government.^[5] In 2002, the Republican People's Party (CHP) was the only other party that succeeded in being represented in Parliament. At the 2007 general elections, three parties managed to clear the 10% threshold — AK Party, CHP, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Furthermore, Kurdish politicians from the Democratic Society Party (DTP) circumvented the threshold by contesting the election as independents; 24 of them were elected, enabling them to constitute their own faction in the Assembly.

Speaker of the parliament

The chair of the Speaker of the Parliament.

The current Speaker of the parliament is Cemil Çiçek from the AK Party, who was elected on 4 July 2011 for the first two years of the legislature. He is the 25th Speaker of the parliament of Turkey succeeding his party colleague Mehmet Ali Şahin.

Members (since 1999)

• List of members of the parliament of Turkey, 1999–2002
• List of members of the parliament of Turkey, 2002–2007
• List of members of the parliament of Turkey, 2007–2011
• List of members of the parliament of Turkey, 2011–present

Parliamentary groups

Parties who have at least 20 deputies may form a parliamentary group. Currently there are three parliamentary groups at the GNAT: The majority AKP, main opposition CHP, and the other opposition parties MHP and BDP.

Committees

Specialized committees

1. Constitution committee (26 members)
2. Justice committee (24 members)
3. National Defense committee (24 members)
4. Internal affairs committee (24 members)
5. Foreign affairs committee (24 members)
6. National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports committee (24 members)
7. Development, reconstruction, transportation and tourism committee (24 members)
8. Environment committee (24 members)
9. Health, family, employment, social works committee (24 members)
10. Agriculture, forestry, rural works committee (24 members)
11. Industry, Commerce, Energy, Natural Resources, Information and Technology Committee (24 members)
12. Committee for checking GNAT Accounts (15 members)
13. Application committee (13 members)
14. Planning and Budget committee (39 members)
15. Public enterprises committee (35 members)
16. Committee on inspection of Human rights (23 members)
17. European Union Harmonization Committee (21 members) (not available in Parliamentary Procedures)

Parliamentary Research Committees

These committees are one of auditing tools of the Parliament. The research can begin upon the demand of the Government, political party groups or min 20 MPs. The duty is assigned to a committee whose number of members, duration of work and location of work is determined by the proposal of the Parliamentary Speaker and the approval of the General Assembly.

Parliamentary Investigation committees

These committees are established if any investigation demand re the PM and ministers occur and approved by the General Assembly through hidden voting.

International Committees

1. Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation of Security Co-operation in Europe (8 members)
2. Parliamentary Assembly of NATO (12 members)
3. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (14 members)
4. Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly for Security and Defense (12 members)
5. Turkey – European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee (14 members)
6. Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Conference (5 members)
7. Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (9 members)
8. Union of Asian Parliaments for Peace (3 members)
9. Parliamentary Assembly of Europe and Mediterranean (6 members)
10. Inter-parliamentary Union

An MP can attend more than one committee if s/he is not a member of Application Committee or Planning and Budgeting Committee. Members of those committees can not participate in any other committees. On the other hand s/he does not have to work for a committee either. Number of members of each committee is determined by the proposal of the Advisory Council and the approval of the General Assembly.

Sub committees are established according to the issue that the committee receives. Only Public Enterprises (PEs) Committee has constant sub committees that are specifically responsible for a group of PEs.

Committee meetings are open to the MPs, the Ministers’ Board members and the Government representatives. The MPs and the Ministers’ Board members can talk in the committees but can not make amendments proposals or vote. Every MP can read the reports of the committees. NGOs can attend the committee meetings upon the invitation of the committee therefore volunteer individual or public participation is not available. Media, but not the visual media, can attend the meetings. The media representatives are usually the parliamentary staff of the media institutions. The committees can prevent the attendance of the media with a joint decision.

Voting procedures

Current composition

 Summary of the 12 June 2011 Turkish Grand National Assembly election results

Party				Results
Abb.		Name	Leader	Votes	%	pp swing	MPs	MP swing
	AK Parti	Justice and Development Party	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	21,399,082	49.83	3.25	327	14
	CHP	Republican People's Party	Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu	11,155,972	25.98	5.10	135	23
	MHP	Nationalist Movement Party	Devlet Bahçeli	5,585,513	13.01	1.30	53	18
	–	Independent*	–	2,819,917	6.57	1.33	35	8
	SP	Felicity Party	Mustafa Kamalak	543,454	1.27	1.07	0	0
	HAS Parti	People's Voice Party	Numan Kurtulmuş	329,723	0.77	¶	0	¶
	BBP	Great Union Party	Yalçın Topçu	323,251	0.75	¶	0	¶
	DP	Democratic Party	Namık Kemal Zeybek	279,480	0.65	4.77	0	0
	HEPAR	Rights and Equality Party	Osman Pamukoğlu	124,415	0.29	¶	0	¶
	DSP	Democratic Left Party	Masum Türker	108,089	0.25	¶	0	¶
	DYP	True Path Party	Çetin Özaçıkgöz	64,607	0.15	¶	0	¶
	TKP	Communist Party of Turkey	Erkan Baş	64,006	0.15	0.08	0	0
	MP	Nation Party	Aykut Edibali	60,716	0.14	¶	0	¶
	MMP	Nationalist and Conservative Party	Ahmet Reyiz Yılmaz	36,188	0.08	¶	0	¶
	EMEP	Labour Party	Selma Gürkan	32,128	0.07	0.00	0	0
	LDP	Liberal Democratic Party	Cem Toker	15,222	0.04	0.06	0	0
Total				42,941,763	100.0	0	550	0
Invalid / Blank				973,185	1.84	–	–	–
Turnout				43,914,948	83.16	–	–	–
Source: "Election Results of June 12, 2011". Supreme Electoral Board. 12 June 2011. *The BDP nominated 61 candidates as independents of which 35 members were elected.

^¶ This party had not participated in the Turkish general election, 2007.

The breakdown of seats in the previous legislature was as follows:

Parliament building

The building which first housed the Parliament was converted from the Ankara headquarters of the Committee of Union and Progress, the political party that overthrew Sultan Abdulhamid II in 1909 in an effort to bring democracy to the Ottoman Empire. It is now used as the locale of the Museum of the War of Independence. The second building which housed the Parliament has also been converted to a Museum, the Museum of the Republic. The Grand National Assembly is now housed in a modern and imposing building in the Bakanlıklar neighborhood of Ankara.^[6] The monumental building's project was designed by Clemens Holzmeister.

The building was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50,000 lira banknotes of 1989-1999.^[7]

Reverse of the 50000 lira banknote (1994)

Fifty civil engineering feats in Turkey Regional development Turkish Railway Turkish Highways Southeastern Anatolia Project Buildings Ankara Railway Station Mersin Halkevi Building Anıtkabir (Atatürk’s Mausoleum) Faculty of Arts and Sciences Building in İstanbul University TBMM (Parliament Building) AKM (Atatürk Cultural Center) ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University campus) Ankara 19 Mayıs Stadium İstanbul Abdi İpekçi Arena İstanbul Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium İstanbul Galleria Shopping center Kızılay Emek Business Center İstanbul İş Bankası Towers Transport 75th Anniversary Selatin Tunnel Ankara Metro Bosphorus Bridge Kömürhan Bridge Antalya International Airport (International services terminal) İstanbul Atatürk International Airport (International services terminal) Birecik Bridge Hydrology Çubuk-1 Dam Keban Dam and Hydroelectric Plant Karakaya Dam and Hydroelectric Plant Atatürk Dam and Hydroelectric plant Oymapınar Dam and Hydroelectric plant Şanlıurfa Irrigation Tunnels Yeşilçay Drinking Water Plant Mersin Harbor Industry BTC (Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan) pipeline and Yumurtalık terminal Erdemir (Ereğli Iron and Steel Plant)

See also

• List of Chairmen of the Senate of Turkey
• List of Speakers of the Parliament of Turkey
• Politics of Turkey
• List of legislatures by country

Notes

References

External links

• The official site of the Grand National Assembly, including some pages in English
• Photo of TBMM (High-Resolution)