Parliamentary privileges in history of Turkish Parliament 1908-1995

The thesis's subject is parliamentary privileges which used to implement and still continue to be implemented from Meşrutiyet period of Ottoman Empire to the present. Privileges for deputies have an important place in constitutional law and parliamentary law. As we know, law has a changeable structure. Law systems affect one another in paralel with national developments. Privileges for deputies which are one of the constitutioal institutions got many bases. One of the aim that we want to obtain is to examine development period of privileges for deputies in law of Turkish parliamentary history. The other aim is to examine deputies whose legislative immunities were lifted from the first Ottoman Empire's constitution to the present constitution of the Republic of Turkey ( also known as the Constitution of 1982). In other words, we tried to explain privilegies for deputies not only the technical side but also the concrete cases. For making exact assessments in Constitutional Law, we have to wait a cooling period. Because of that, we examined mixted comission's reports and Turkish Parliament's debates about lifting cases until the year 1995. Immunities has an important function for deputies. Priviligies for deputies provide an area where deputies can perform legislative operations without any pressure. Priviligies guarantee deputies's freedom of speech during legislative operations. Due to priviligies, deputies can not be arrested with any reason, that is known as freedom from arrest, during legislative period. Parlamentary priviligies continue to be implemented in many countries from the past to the present. Implementations can have differences because of their covering. But they would attain the same objectives. When we compare Turkish parliamentary history with Britain, France and United States of America, we can express that priviligies for deputies were enacted later than others. The reason for this is the progress of priviligies for deputies which follow parallelly parliament's development progress. In order that parliament exist, it must be formed a constitutionnal regime. As is known, the first Ottoman Empire's Constitution (also xv known as "Kanun-u Esasi") became effective in the year 1876. In this constitution, it settled Ottoman Parliament, deputies and parliamentary priviligies for the first time. The period can be called either limited monarchy or constitutionnal monarchy began with the announcement of Meşrutiyet. That period is a milestone for Ottoman Empire and Turkish parliamentary history. But it was interrupted by the dissolution of the Ottaman parliament called "Meclis-i Mebusan". However, in the year 1908, Meşrutiyet was announced for the second time. After the announcement of second Meşrutiyet, in 1909, law-maker amended Kanun-u Esasi's some articles. But they did not change articles about parliamentary privileges and they prefered to implement it in the same way. Parliamentary privileges which appeared after the constitutional monarchy period of Ottoman Empire, were issued in the Turkish Constitution of 1924. These priviliges were settled in the Turkish Constitution of 1961 and 1982. There are a minor difference between three constitutions. But in the Turkish constitution of 1921 which came into operation in the period of first Turkish Assembly, they accepted different method than the constitutions of 1924, 1961 and 1982. Accordingly, Kanun-u Esasi's articles which were not opposite with the constitution of 1921's articles continued to remain in force. In other words, until the announcement of Republic and the constitution of 1924's implementation, some articles inside of Kanun-u Esasi remained in force. Kanun-u Esasi's articles about parliamentary privileges were not opposite with the constitutiton of 1921's logic. In short, inside of that constitution, law-maker would not issue parliamentary privileges separately. Instead of that, the articles of Kanun-u Esasi, continued to remain in force. As we remarked at the beginning, parliamentary privileges which continue to be implemented from Meşrutiyet to the present, were explained in point of technical constitutionnal law, firstly. The articles about priviliges for deputies in the Constitution of 1876, 1921, 1924, 1961 and 1982 are similar. But they have some minor differences because of their contents. xvi The minor differences between these constitutions came up because of the political structure that they entered into force. As a matter of fact, both constitutions 1924 and 1961, one of the privileges for deputies which is called "freedom of speech", implemented in a large scale. That is caused by political structure that they came into force. Also both constitutions 1924 and 1961, they issued "freedom of speech" largest scale than the other constitutions. More clearly, due to these constitutions, deputies had the opportunity to express their ideas and vote without recourse in the Assembly. And they could also repeat what they voted or expressed outside of the Assembly without recourse. In these constitutions, "freedom of speech" was settled largest scale than "freedom from arrestation". The constitution of 1924 is the Republic of Turkey's first constitution. On 29 th October 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared that Turkey would be a republic and renamed it as the Republic of Turkey. Following that process, loads of reforms were done and due to it, "freedom of speech" for deputies also was issued in a large scale. The process which the constitution of 1961 settled, was also a milestone. As is known, this constitution was issued after the Military Coup done by Turkish Armed Forces on 27 th May 1961. Loads of new constitutional institutions which did not come into force, were settled in the constitution of 1961. One of these new institutions is the Constitutional Court. Along with the establishment of Constitutional Court, against the decisions made about abolition of parliamentary immunity by the Assembly, could be applied, in a time limit, to that court for cancel it. If we compare the constitution of 1961 with the constitution which were implemented before itself, we notice that it paid special attention to the fundamental rights and freedoms. In the constitution of 1961, "freedom of speech" for deputies was issued like the constitution of 1924. And they also continued to be implemented like the constitution of 1924. However, we can not determine the sam efor the constitution of 1982 which was come into force after military coup on 12 th Septembre 1980. The fundamental Rights and freedoms were limited in the constitution of 1982. That also affected "freedom of speech" for deputies. Contrary to the constitutions 1924 and 1961, with the Parliament's decision, deputies can be blocked to repeat outside what they expressed or voted during constitutional operations. In other words, if there is not any Parliament decision, deputies can also repeat their speech and express their votes outside of the Assembly. From the point of "freedom from arrest", the difference between constitutions is not very clear. Articles about "freedom from arrest" in the constitution of 1876 shared similar aim with the other constitutions. But we can not determine the same for its covering. In this context, articles about parliamentary immunity in the constitutions of 1924, 1961 and 1982 are so similar. During thesis's writing period, we also examine deputies whose parliamentary immunities were abolished. This is the other issue that we focused in thesis. We read records of Turkish Grand National Assembly, secret records of Assembly, records of Senate of the Republic and National Assembly (these are about the constitution of 1961. During this period, there was a bicameral system.) for making assessment. In this context, we also examined mixed commission reports. During thesis's research, we could not reach any information about Ottoman Parliament's deputies whose parliamentary immunities were abolished. That is why, we can remark that the first decision about abolition of parliamentary immunity, made during the constitution of 1921. The first deputy whose parliamentary immunity was abolished, named Nazım Bey (Tokat). During the same period, in five more deputies's abolition of parliamentary immunity were discussed. These are Memduh Bey (Karahisarşarki), Musa Kazım Efendi (Konya), Abdülhalim Çelebi Efendi (Konya), Yunus Nadi Bey (Menteşe), Haydar Bey (Van), Mehmet Bey (Biga), Emin Bey (Bursa), Süleyman Beydir (Canik). During the period which the constitution of 1921 was in force, called the single- party period. From the constitution of 1924's adoption to the year 1946, single-party system continued to implement. Therefore, the constitution of 1924's period was seperated into three parts. These are single-party period, multi-party period after the year 1946 and the period of Democrat Party government