Grand National Assembly of Turkey


Grand National Assembly of Turkey is the unicameral legislative branch of the Turkish government. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the unitary Turkish Constitution.

Composition

There are 600 members of parliament who are elected for a five-year term by the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system, from 87 electoral districts which represent the 81 administrative provinces of Turkey. To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, from 1982 to 2022, a party must have won at least 10% of the national vote to qualify for representation in the parliament, but in 2022 this was reduced to 7%. As a result of the 10% threshold, only two parties won seats in the legislature after the 2002 elections and three in 2007. The 2002 elections saw every party represented in the previous parliament ejected from the chamber and parties representing 46.3% of the voter turnout were excluded from being represented in parliament. This threshold has been criticized, but a complaint with the European Court for Human Rights was turned down.
Independent candidates may also run and can be elected without needing a threshold.

Speaker of the parliament

A new term in the parliament began on 2 June 2023, after the 2023 general election. Devlet Bahçeli MHP temporarily served as the speaker, as it is customary for the oldest member of the TBMM to serve as speaker during a hung parliament. Numan Kurtulmuş was elected after the snap elections on 7 June 2023.

Languages

The parliament's minutes are translated into the four languages: Arabic, Russian, English and French, but not in the Kurdish language which is the second most spoken native language in Turkey. Though phrases in the Kurdish language can be permitted, whole speeches remain forbidden.

Members (since 1999)

  • Members elected in 1999
  • Members elected in 2002
  • Members elected in 2007
  • Members elected in 2011
  • Members elected in June 2015
  • Members elected in November 2015
  • Members elected in 2018
  • Members elected in 2023

    Parliamentary groups

Parties who have at least 20 deputies may form a parliamentary group. Currently there are six parliamentary groups at the GNAT: AK Party, which has the highest number of seats, CHP, MHP, Good Party, DEM, and New Path.

Committees

Specialized committees

  1. Justice Committee
  2. Constitution Committee
  3. Committee for Harmonization with the European Union
  4. Public Works, Zoning, Transportation, and Tourism Committee
  5. Environment Committee
  6. Foreign Affairs Committee
  7. Digital Media Committee
  8. Petitions Committee
  9. Security and Intelligence Committee
  10. Internal Affairs Committee
  11. Committee for the Inspection of Human Rights
  12. #Subcommittee for the Inspection of Islamophobia and Racism
  13. #Subcommittee for the Inspection of the Rights of Convicts and Detainees
  14. #Migration and Integration Subcommittee
  15. #Children's Rights Subcommittee
  16. Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men
  17. State-owned Enterprises Committee
  18. National Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports committee
  19. National Defense Committee
  20. Planning and Budgeting Committee
  21. Health, Family, Employment, and Social Affairs Committee
  22. Industry, Commerce, Energy, Natural Resources, Information, and Technology Committee
  23. Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Works Committee

    Parliamentary research committees

These committees are one of auditing tools of the Parliament. The research can begin upon the demand of the Government, political party groups or min 20 MPs. The duty is assigned to a committee whose number of members, duration of work and location of work is determined by the proposal of the Parliamentary Speaker and the approval of the General Assembly.

Parliamentary investigation committees

These committees are established if any investigation demand re the president, vice president, and ministers occur and approved by the General Assembly through hidden voting.

International committees

  1. Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
  2. NATO Parliamentary Assembly
  3. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
  4. Turkey — European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee
  5. Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States
  6. Asian Parliamentary Assembly
  7. Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean
  8. Inter-parliamentary Union
  9. Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
  10. Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean
  11. Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States
  12. Parliamentary Assembly of the Economic Cooperation Organization
  13. Parliamentary Assembly of the Southeast European Cooperation Process
  14. Andean Parliament
  15. Latin American Parliament
MPs can attend more than one committee if not a member of Petitions Committee or Planning and Budgeting Committee. Members of those committees can not participate in any other committees. On the other hand, MPs do not have to work for a committee either. Number of members of each committee is determined by the proposal of the Advisory Council and the approval of the General Assembly.
Sub committees are established according to the issue that the committee receives. Only State-owned Enterprises Committee has constant sub committees that are specifically responsible for a group of SOEs.
Committee meetings are open to the MPs, the Ministers' Board members and the Government representatives. The MPs and the Ministers' Board members can talk in the committees but can not make amendments proposals or vote. Every MP can read the reports of the committees.
NGOs can attend the committee meetings upon the invitation of the committee therefore volunteer individual or public participation is not available. Media, but not the visual media, can attend the meetings. The media representatives are usually the parliamentary staff of the media institutions. The committees can prevent the attendance of the media with a joint decision.

Current composition

The 28th Parliament of Turkey took office on 2 June 2023, following the ratification of the results of the general election held on 14 May 2023. The composition of the 28th Parliament, is shown below.

Parliament Building

The current Parliament Building is the third to house the nation's parliament. The building which first housed the Parliament was converted from the Ankara headquarters of the Committee of Union and Progress. Designed by architect Hasip Bey, it was used until 1924 and is now used as the locale of the War of Independence Museum, the second building which housed the Parliament was designed by architect Vedat Tek and used from 1924 to 1960. It is now been converted as the Republic Museum. The Grand National Assembly is now housed in a modern and imposing building in the Bakanlıklar neighborhood of Ankara. The monumental building's project was designed by architect and professor Clemens Holzmeister. The building was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 50,000 lira banknotes of 1989–1999. The building was hit by airstrikes three times during the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, suffering noticeable damage. It went through a renovation in the summer of 2016.

History

It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 amid the National Campaign. This constitution had founded its pre-government known as 1st Executive Ministers of Turkey in May 1920. The parliament was fundamental in the efforts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of Turkey, and his colleagues to found a new government out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey has had a history of parliamentary government before the establishment of the current national parliament. These include attempts at curbing absolute monarchy during the Ottoman Empire through constitutional monarchy, as well as establishments of caretaker national assemblies immediately prior to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 but after the de facto dissolution of the Ottoman Empire earlier in the decade.

Parliamentary practice before the Republican era

Ottoman Empire

There were two periods of parliamentary governance during the Ottoman Empire. The First Constitutional Era lasted for only two years, elections being held only twice. After the first elections, there were a number of criticisms of the government due to the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 by the representatives, and the assembly was dissolved and an election called on 28 June 1877. The second assembly was also dissolved by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II on 14 February 1878, the result being the return of absolute monarchy with Abdul Hamid II in power and the suspension of the Ottoman constitution of 1876, which had come with the democratic reforms resulting in the First Constitutional Era.
The Second Constitutional Era began on 23 July 1908 with the Young Turk Revolution. The constitution that was written for the first parliament included control of the sultan on the public and was removed during 1909, 1912, 1914 and 1916, in a session known as the "declaration of freedom". Most of the modern parliamentary rights that were not granted in the first constitution were granted, such as the abolition of the right of the Sultan to deport citizens that were claimed to have committed harmful activities, the establishment of a free press, a ban on censorship. Freedom to hold meetings and establish political parties was recognized, and the government was held responsible to the assembly, not to the sultan.
During the two constitutional eras of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman parliament was called the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire and was bicameral. The upper house was the Senate of the Ottoman Empire, the members of which were selected by the sultan. The role of the Grand Vizier, the centuries-old top ministerial office in the empire, transformed in line with other European states into one identical to the office of a prime minister, as well as that of the speaker of the Senate. The lower chamber of the General Assembly was the Chamber of Deputies of the Ottoman Empire, the members of which were elected by the general public.