- published: 02 May 2016
- views: 63267
The politics of Turkey takes place in a framework of a secular parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Turkey is the head of government,and the President of Turkey is the head of state who holds a largely ceremonial role with substantial reserve powers.
Turkey's political system is based on a society of powers. Executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Its current constitution was adopted on 7 November 1982 after the Turkish constitutional referendum.
The function of head of state is performed by the president (Cumhurbaşkanı). A president is elected every five years on the principle of universal suffrage according to the current constitution. The president does not have to be a member of parliament, but he/she must be over 40 years old and hold a bachelor's degree. The current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was Directly elected in 2014. Executive power rests with the president, the prime minister (Başbakan) and the Council of Ministers. The ministers don't have to be members of Parliament (a recent example is Kemal Derviş). The prime minister is appointed by the president and approved through a vote of confidence (güvenoyu) in the parliament. The prime minister is Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose Justice and Development Party, which is often termed "conservative" but is in fact better termed "faith-based", won a plurality of parliamentary seats in the November 2015 general elections.