Turkish Constitution of 1961

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Basic data
Title: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Anayasası
Short title: 1961 Anayasası
Number: 334
Type: Constitution
Scope: Republic of Turkey
Adoption date: July 9, 1961
Official Journal : No. 10859 BC July 20, 1961, p. 4641 ff., Resmigazete.gov.tr (PDF; 3.38 MB)
Expiry: September 12, 1980 (de facto), November 7, 1982 (de jure)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version .
Publication of the Constitution as Law No. 334 in Official Gazette No. 10859 of July 20, 1961

The Turkish Constitution of 1961 ( 1961 Anayasası ) was the constitution of the Republic of Turkey from July 20, 1961 to November 7, 1982 .

content

It consisted of 157 articles and is still considered the most democratic constitution in Turkey. She explicitly committed to human rights . Around a third of this constitution consisted of fundamental rights and obligations (Articles 10–62).

With this constitution, among other things, the separation of powers was introduced, a bicameral parliament (Grand National Assembly) - consisting of the Senate of the Republic ( Cumhuriyet Senatosu ) and the National Assembly ( Millet Meclisi ) - created and a constitutional court established.

Constitutional amendment

At the end of the 1960s there were riots between right and left camps and the economic situation deteriorated again. The military intervened again on March 12, 1971 , calling on politicians to amend the constitution . As a result of these changes (1971–1973), among other things, the powers of the executive were strengthened, basic rights were restricted and military justice was expanded.

Emergence

Military coup

In the 1950s there were serious clashes between the political camps, especially the ruling party (DP) and the opposition ( CHP ). The government under Prime Minister Adnan Menderes assumed increasingly authoritarian and repressive traits, broke with secularism , suppressed the opposition and the economic situation in the country deteriorated.

On May 27, 1960, the Turkish military finally staged a coup and the National Unity Committee took over the government.

Execution

Constitutional Committee

On the day after the coup, lawyers from the University of Istanbul and Ankara founded a constitutional committee, the so-called Onar Commission . This included the academics Sıddık Sami Onar , Muammer Aksoy , İlhan Arsel , Lütfi Duran , Hüseyin Nail Kubalı , Ragıp Sarıca , Bahri Savcı , Naci Şensoy , Hıfzı Vendet Velidedeoğlu and Vakur Versan . İsmet Giritli and Tarık Zafer Tunaya were removed from the committee due to disagreements with the chairman, Sıddık Sami Onar.

Law No. 1 of June 12, 1960 partially repealed and amended the 1924 Constitution .

The draft prepared by the Constitutional Committee was submitted to the Committee for National Unity in October 1960 after five months of work, but the latter rejected it as inadequate.

Constituent Assembly

On October 31, 1960, the National Unity Committee decided to set up a Constituent Assembly ( Kurucu Meclis ). For this purpose, a five-person scientific committee was formed, which was supposed to create a legal basis for this meeting within 20 days, which was finally implemented on December 13, 1960 in the form of Law No. 157 . Together with Law No. 1, Law No. 157 formed the constitution of Turkey under the military rule of 1960/61.

On January 6, 1961, the Constituent Assembly , which was composed of an Assembly of Representatives and the Committee of National Unity - that is, of two chambers - began its work. The majority of the Assembly of Representatives consists of representatives of the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi and the Republican Peasant People's Party , as well as representatives from the judiciary, universities, the press, trade unions, the bar, the chamber of commerce, agriculture and other civil society organizations.

A 20-person committee was formed from the representative assembly, which was charged with the actual drafting of the constitutional text. Chairman of the Committee was Turhan Feyzioğlu , the other members were: Muammer Aksoy , Sadik Aldoğan, Nurettin Ardıçoğlu , Amil Artus , Doğan Avcioglu , Hazim Dağlı , Turan Güneş , Münci Kapani, Enver Ziya Karal , Coşkun KIRCA , Mümin Küley, Emin Paksüt , Ragıp Sarıca, Bahri Savcı, Celal Sait Siren , Mümtaz Soysal , Tarık Zafer Tunaya, Cafer Tüzel, Hıfzı Vendet Velidedeoğlu and Abdülhak Kemal Yörük .

Three months later, the finished draft was discussed separately, first in the Assembly of Representatives and later in the National Unity Committee. Finally, on May 27, 1961 , the Constituent Assembly voted with 260 votes in favor and two abstentions for the draft, which was voted on by referendum on July 9, 1961 . The High Electoral Committee assessed the referendum in Resolution No. 106 as follows:

“It was found that on July 9, 1961, the day of the referendum, the total number of voters in Turkey was 12,735,000 and a total of 10,322,169 voters exercised their right to vote. Of these, 10,282,561 votes were valid and 39,608 were invalid. The number of “yes” votes was 6,348,191 and the number of “no” votes 3,934,370. The new Turkish constitution of 1961 came into force on July 9, 1961. "

On October 15, 1961, the first general elections to the National Assembly and the Senate of the Republic after the new constitution came into force took place.

Repeal

With the military coup of September 12, 1980 , the constitution of 1961 became effectively invalid and was replaced by the constitution of 1982 , which was adopted by referendum on November 7, 1982 and entered into force on October 18, 1982.

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ a b c d Gerhard Leibholz (Ed.): Yearbook of the public law of the present . Vol. 13, Mohr Siebeck Verlag , Tübingen 1964, p. 340 ff.
  2. ↑ Law on Repealing and Amending Certain Provisions of Constitutional Law No. 491 of 1924 .
  3. ↑ Bertold Spuler, u. a .: Studies on the history and culture of the Middle East: Festschrift for Bertold Spuler on his seventieth birthday . Brill, 1981, ISBN 978-90-04-06535-2 , p. 273 with additional information
  4. ↑ Law on the formation of the Constituent Assembly as a supplement to Provisional Law No. 1 of June 14, 1960 on the repeal and amendment of certain provisions of the Constitutional Law No. 491 of 1924 .
  5. ↑ More precisely regulated in the second section of Law No. 157 of December 13, 1960.
  6. ↑ According to Art. 1 of Law No. 157 of December 13, 1960.
  7. ↑ TBMM Albümü Cilt 4 archived in the version from March 4, 2016 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

literature

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