The Constitution Since the creation of the Republic of Turkey, the government has seen four new constitutions, the last one being implemented in 1982. The first constitution was that of 1921, when Ataturk lead the newly formed Grand National Assembly to try and gain their freedom from impending Allied rule. The constitution included that, stated on the Grand National Assembly’s website, “sovereignty belongs to the nation without any reservation and limitation” and “the legislative and executive powers are vested in the Assembly” (“History,” n.d.). The second constitution can as of 1924, after the Anatolia region became the Republic of Turkey. The 1924 constitution contained elements of both the parliamentary system and governmental …show more content…
It was first created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk during the 1920’s when Turkish people were trying to resist separation of the land (Mertz, 1995). For a few decades, when the Constitution of 1961 was created, the legislature became a bicameral structure, splitting Parliament into the National Assembly and the Republican Senate. Though when a new Constitution was drafted after the military coup of the 1980’s, the Republican Senate was abolished and the legislature went back to being unicameral. According to the “Legislative Branch” article on Michigan 's’ Consulate General Republic of Turkey website, the Grand National Assembly (GNA) is made up of five hundred and fifty deputy seats and convenes on the first day of october each year (“Legislative Branch,” 2006). It also states that the GNA uses a majority vote to make decisions (“Legislative Branch,” 2006). Some of the powers given to the legislate are the authority to create, veto, and amend laws, can, like the United States, pass bills that may have been veto by the President (Mertz, 1995). The Assembly also decides and approves the budget, has the ability to declare war, can approve of the Presidents international treaties, and can even vote a minister out of the Council of Ministers (Mertz, 1995). The qualifications for the GNA are that the candidate must be at least thirty and have completely primary education and they serve for four-year terms (Mertz, 1995; Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). The candidates are elected by the proportional representation system, or multi-party district system, but in Turkey, candidates are elected from a closed-list, which means that voters have no influence on which candidates from the party they vote for get the seats won by that party in