Constitutions and Constitutional Legitimacy in Turkey

This study engages in a political theoretical reading of constitution making and constitutional change processes in Turkey within the framework of Carl Schmitt’s and Jürgen Habermas’s theories. The first part of the study expounds on the theories of Schmitt and Habermas regarding the legitimacy of constitution making/reforming processes. The second part of the study elucidates changing conceptions of the constitution and constitutional legitimacy in Turkey from the perspective of the framers of constitutions since the early Republican period on the basis of the theoretical frameworks presented in the first part. In this respect, the constitutional debates on the formation of 1921, 1924, 1961 and 1982 constitutions, and 1923, 1937, 1971, 1995 and 2010 amendments in relevant Assemblies are examined in order to understand how the authors of the constitutions, particularly the members of the Constitutional Committees and generally the members of the parliaments, conceive the constitution, the practice of constitution making and constitutional change and how they justify their practice.