Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum and its Effects on Turkish Politics
Nebi Miş and Burhanettin Duran
This contribution analyses the presidential system of government and its impacts on Turkish
politics. First of all, this work elaborates the reasons of those who support a change of the
current political system, addressing the current parliamentary system’s crises from a historical
perspective. Subsequently, it explains why the system change was possible during the AKP
era, even though different political parties have made efforts regarding this issue in the past.
In this section, it refers to those crises that emerged within the system
particularly during the AKP era. Furthermore, it addresses the crises’ facilitating role with regard
to the people’s acceptance of the system change. In the third section, reasons for the AKP-MHP
agreement, which was reached subsequent to the 15 July coup attempt, are addressed. The
fourth part focuses on the presidential system of the government’s constitutional framework.
In the final part, the transition period to the new system of government and the system’s impacts
on Turkish politics are elaborated.
Nebi Miş is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Sakarya University and the Director of Political Studies at the SETA Foundation. His areas of research interests include political systems, democratisation in Turkey, political parties, civil-military relations and security politics in Turkey
Burhanettin Duran is Professor at Ibn Haldun University and General Coordinator of SETA Foundation. Prof Duran has been focusing on the transformation of Islamism, Turkish Political Thought,
Turkish Domestic Politics, Turkish Foreign Policy and Middle Eastern Politics.
