The effect of the election of president by public on Turkish democratization process

With the proclamation of the Republic, Presidential position gained an important place in Turkish political life. Essentially, the importance given to presidency in Turkish government(ruling) tradition is the same (equal) with today. Turkey adopted parlamentary system exactly in 1961 constitution because of the Council System put into action with 1921 constitution for a while and principle of union of force accepted with 1924 constitution. Since 1961, it has become a state governed with parlamentary system. Generally, president is selected by parliament(general assembly) in parlamentary systems. However, the 11th presidential election crises took place in 2007 due to the end of the office term of 10 th president of Turkey, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, has started a new process in Turkey. Presidential election crises faced in 11th president election brought Constitutional Amendment with itself. In the first round of presidential election, 367 vote as a quorum was not reached and decision of immediate election was taken. Besides, The Constitution was changed in that the president can be selected by public. With the referandum in October, 21, constitutional amendment package regarding selection of president by public was approved. Accordingly, principle of selection of the president who have executive power by public was accepted in Turkey for the first time. In this study, the results of this constitutional amendment for our country are examined. While doing so, current situation was evaluated in two different aspects. First one is the effect of the selection of president by public on democracy and the second one is its effect on governmental system.