The practices of municipality and mayoralty from the tanzimat to the present

The history of the municipalities in Turkey is based on a history of one hundred and fifty years. Despite the existence of traditional institutions in the Ottoman state that fulfilled local services before the Tanzimat, these institutions did not create a local government tradition. The municipalities established after the Tanzimat period were not established in order to ensure the participation of the people, democratization and establish an autonomous local government. On the contrary, it has been to strengthen the center of aim of the state, to ensure that the central government dominates the whole of the country, and to form auxiliary organizations in the center. This situation has traditionally affected the municipality of the republican period. The mayors were assigned by the first municipal organization by appointment until 1963. After this date, although the mayors were allowed to be elected directly by the public, administrative supervision on both municipalities and municipal governments was implemented as day-to-day and, in some cases, led to the removal of the guardianship from the mayor's duties. In addition, the strong mayor application continues until today to ensure that the decisions taken in the municipalities in Turkey are implemented more quickly and effectively. This situation leads to a situation in which we can say semi-administrative guardianship among the bodies of the municipalities.