A neutral guide to the constitution, the presidency, the Grand National Assembly, the courts and local government of the Republic of Türkiye.
Last reviewed on 27 September 2026.
The Republic of Türkiye is a unitary state with a presidential system of government, a single-chamber parliament and a written constitution. Its current constitution dates from 1982, but it has been amended many times, and the most far-reaching change — the move from a parliamentary to a presidential system, approved by referendum in 2017 — took full effect in 2018. This page describes how the system is set up on paper and how its main institutions relate to one another. It is intended as a neutral, descriptive reference.
The Republic has had four constitutions: the Law on Fundamental Organisation of 1921, adopted during the War of Independence, and the constitutions of 1924, 1961 and 1982. The 1982 constitution was drafted after the military intervention of 1980 and approved by a referendum in November 1982.
Since then it has been amended repeatedly, both by parliament and by referendum. Among the most significant changes:
The first articles of the constitution set out the character of the state. Article 1 declares that the state is a republic; Article 2 describes it as a democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law, loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk; and Article 3 establishes the indivisible integrity of the state with its territory and nation, Turkish as the official language, the red flag with the white crescent and star as the flag, the İstiklal Marşı as the national anthem and Ankara as the capital. Article 4 provides that these first three articles cannot be amended, nor can an amendment to them even be proposed.
Secularism (laiklik) has been part of the constitution since 1937. In the Turkish model the state does not simply stand apart from religion but also organises religious services: the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), established in 1924 and mentioned in the constitution, administers mosques, appoints imams and provides religious guidance. The constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and religious belief, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, and bars the exploitation of religion for political purposes. How secularism should be interpreted — particularly in education and public dress — has been one of the long-running debates in Turkish political life.
Under the parliamentary system the president was a largely ceremonial head of state, and executive power lay with a prime minister and cabinet answerable to parliament. The 2017 amendments abolished the office of prime minister and made the president both head of state and head of government. The new system came into force with the simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections of June 2018.
The president, directly elected for five years, heads the state and the government, appoints vice-presidents and ministers, and may issue presidential decrees within limits set by the constitution.
The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, a single chamber of 600 members elected for five years, passes laws, adopts the budget and ratifies treaties.
Independent courts headed by the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, with a separate council for the appointment and discipline of judges and prosecutors.
The president is elected by direct popular vote for a five-year term. A candidate must win an absolute majority of valid votes; if no one does, a run-off between the two leading candidates is held two weeks later. A person may be elected president at most twice, although the constitution allows a further candidacy if parliament calls early elections during the president's second term. Candidates must be at least 40 years old and have completed higher education, and they can be nominated by political parties meeting certain thresholds or by a set number of voters' signatures.
The president appoints and dismisses vice-presidents and ministers, who are not required to be members of parliament and who give up their seats if they are. The president may issue presidential decrees on executive matters, though not on fundamental rights reserved to law, and a law passed by parliament prevails over a decree on the same subject. The president also prepares the budget, appoints senior officials and some members of the high courts, and represents the state abroad. As of September 2026, the president is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has held the office since 2014 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2023.
Parliament and the president are elected on the same day for the same term. Either can bring about early elections, but if one calls them both face the voters. Parliament can override a presidential veto of a law by an absolute majority of its members. It can scrutinise the executive through written questions, parliamentary inquiries and general debates, and it can open an investigation into the president for alleged crimes, although each stage requires an increasingly large majority of members. The Constitutional Court can review the constitutionality of laws and presidential decrees.
The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, TBMM) first met in Ankara on 23 April 1920, a date still celebrated each year. It is a single chamber with 600 members — the number was raised from 550 by the 2017 amendments — elected for five-year terms. Citizens may vote from the age of 18, and since 2017 the minimum age to stand for parliament has also been 18. The Assembly elects a Speaker from among its members, who presides over its business and ranks second in the state protocol order after the president.
Members are elected by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies, which largely follow provincial boundaries, with the largest provinces divided into several districts. Seats are allocated by the D'Hondt method. To win seats, a party must pass a national threshold: this was 10% for decades, one of the highest in Europe, and was reduced to 7% by an electoral reform in 2022. Since 2018 parties have been able to contest elections as part of formal alliances, and votes for the alliance as a whole count towards the threshold. Independent candidates can stand without facing the national threshold.
The constitution provides that judicial power is exercised by independent courts on behalf of the Turkish nation. The court system has several branches:
Appointments, promotions and discipline of judges and prosecutors are handled by the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (Hâkimler ve Savcılar Kurulu, HSK), whose thirteen members include the minister of justice and deputy minister, with others appointed by the president and elected by parliament. Military courts, apart from disciplinary courts, were abolished in 2017.
Türkiye is a unitary state, and its provinces have no legislative powers of their own. The country is divided into 81 provinces (il), each subdivided into districts (ilçe). Central government is represented in each province by a governor (vali) and in each district by a district governor (kaymakam), both appointed by the centre through the Ministry of the Interior. Governors oversee public order and coordinate state services.
Alongside this appointed administration there is an elected tier. Thirty of the largest provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, are metropolitan municipalities, each with a directly elected metropolitan mayor and council responsible for services such as public transport, water and major infrastructure across the whole province. Within them and elsewhere, district and town municipalities have their own elected mayors and councils. In the remaining provinces, special provincial administrations with elected provincial councils provide some services outside the towns. At the smallest scale, villages and urban neighbourhoods elect a headman (muhtar). Local elections are held every five years; the most recent took place in March 2024. The central government has the legal power to remove mayors in certain circumstances, such as terrorism-related investigations, and to appoint trustees in their place, a practice that has been the subject of legal and political debate.
Elections are organised and supervised by the Supreme Election Council (Yüksek Seçim Kurulu, YSK), a judicial body whose decisions cannot be appealed to any other court. Voting is compulsory in law, though the small fine for not voting is rarely enforced, and turnout has traditionally been high by international standards. Presidential and parliamentary elections are held together every five years, local elections on a separate five-year cycle, and constitutional amendments approved by at least three-fifths but fewer than two-thirds of members go to a referendum. Citizens living abroad can vote at diplomatic missions and border crossings.
Türkiye has had a multi-party system since 1946, when the single-party period that followed the founding of the Republic ended. The Constitutional Court has on several occasions closed parties found to have acted against constitutional principles. Parties must be organised in at least half of the provinces to take part in elections.
Türkiye is a founding member of the United Nations (1945) and of the OECD (1961). Other key memberships:
Türkiye is also the only country that recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a question that continues to affect its relations with the EU.
Türkiye is a unitary republic with a presidential system. Since 2018 the directly elected president has been both head of state and head of government, alongside a single-chamber parliament of 600 members and an independent judiciary headed by the Constitutional Court.
The president is elected by popular vote for five years and may normally serve at most two terms. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, a run-off between the top two is held two weeks later. Presidential and parliamentary elections take place on the same day.
The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye has 600 seats, up from 550 before the 2017 constitutional amendments. Members are elected for five years by proportional representation, and a party needs at least 7% of the national vote to win seats.
No. The office of prime minister was abolished under the constitutional amendments approved in the 2017 referendum, which took effect after the June 2018 elections. Executive power now rests with the president, who appoints vice-presidents and ministers.
Yes. Article 2 of the constitution describes the Republic as a secular state, and this provision cannot be amended. The state also administers religious services through the Presidency of Religious Affairs, and the constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and religious belief.
Türkiye has been a NATO member since 1952 and a member of the Council of Europe since 1949. It is an official candidate for EU membership and opened accession negotiations in 2005, but those negotiations have been effectively stalled for several years.
Related guides: The 81 Provinces of Türkiye, Türkiye since 1923.