The position of the President in Turkey

Systems based on the separation of powers where legislative and executive forces are separated; it emerged as a parliamentary system and a presidential system, and then a semi-presidential system was added. In the parliamentary and semi-presidential system, the head of state is one side of the dual executive structure and in the presidential system, it constitutes the executive body alone. These three systems are characterized by the election of the president and his constitutional powers. How the president uses his constitutional powers in practice shows the functioning of the political system. From this point, three factors determining the position of the head of state were ascertained: the election of the head of state, the constitutional powers of the head of state, the use of the constitutional powers of the head of state and the situation in practice. When these three elements are considered as a whole, it becomes clear that the president is in a strong or weak position. In Turkey, from the amendment of the 1921 Constitution in 1923, until the amendment of the 1982 Constitution in 2017, the executive body in our constitutions had a dual structure. The President, who is the head of state, is organized as the less competent part of the executive body. However, it was observed that the Presidents working in this process could have power beyond their constitutional powers in practice. With the 2017 constitutional amendment, the dual executive structure was abandoned and the President had a strong position in terms of both constitutional powers and practice. In this study, the position of the President was explained by taking into consideration all our constitutions in the Republican period. At the same time, the method of measuring the constitutional powers of the president was used, the Constitution of 1961 and 1982 and the Constitutions of other countries that are contemporary of these Constitutions are compared with each other according to the constitutional powers of the heads of state.