Parliamentary investigation in the history of Turkish parliament and activity in practice (1982-2017)

In the Constitution of 1982, the methods of "question, general debate, parliamentary inquiry, interpellation, parliamentary investigation" are regulated as the means for the Turkish Grand National Assembly to collect information from and supervise the Council of Ministers. Regardless of what the methods of supervising the government are, availability of these methods in the legislation, their enforceability and efficiency in enforcement are extremely important. In a system that is supervised by the legislation, it is not that possible for a democratic regime to operate properly. The parliamentary investigation, which is one of the "ways of collecting information and supervising the government" in the Constitution of 1982, is the most effective of these methods. The Parliamentary Investigation is supervision mechanism of legislation over the executive as a means of both legal and penal supervision. For this reason, in a system where parliamentary investigation is not operated properly, it is not likely to supervise the council of ministers especially in terms of criminal liability. Although the "Parliamentary Investigation" was technically regulated in the Constitution of 1961 for the first time, it has been a part of Turkish Constitutional Law since the Ottoman Constitution of 1876. Through the parliamentary investigation method, the parliament can ensure that a prime minister or minister is tried before the Supreme Court and held criminally responsible for his/her acts and actions related to his/her duties. During the period of Constitution of 1982, 116 parliamentary investigations were opened and parliamentary investigation committee was formed for 40 of these investigations. 9 of 40 files which got to the parliamentary investigation stage were referred to the Constitutional Court to render a judgment in the capacity of Supreme Court. Turkey has changed the government system with 2017 Constitutional Change and some changes in the legal regime of the parliament investigation has also been made. Therefore, academically, it won't be wrong to divide 1982 Constitution period as 1982-2017 and post-2017. The subject of this study has been limited in terms of Grand National Assembly of Turkish Republic (TBMM) and Supreme Court application at 19882-2017 period of the parliament investigation institution. The aim of the determined limitation is to determine the framework of study subject in the field of Turkish Constitution Law with date and to determine the framework of the study. Also, another aim is to state that there are two different periods of 1982 Constitution in terms of legal regime of parliament investigation.