We have moved to a presidential system in ‘spirit’

The date was Oct. 21, 2007. A referendum was held that day. The nation basically decided on two issues in that referendum.

One of the issues voted on was to prevent the repeat of the 367 disgrace. As is known, during that period Sabih Kanadoğlu, one of the former chiefs of the Court of Appeals, came up with an invention and said a parliamentary quorum of 367 is required for the election of a president.

The Constitutional Court took the 367 nonsense invented by Kanadoğlu seriously and annulled that parliamentary vote. It was the election in which Abdullah Gül was a candidate.

The text concerning a constitutional amendment, which was presented to the public for a vote, contained the sentence, “The participation of one-third of its members constitutes a quorum for all business of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, including elections it holds.” This article resembled an obituary for 367.

The other amendment, however, was more significant and fundamental.

It read: “The president, who will have passed the age of 40 and completed higher education will be a Turkish citizen who has served in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey or possesses these qualifications and is eligible to stand for election as a parliamentarian, will be elected by the public.”

These amendments were accepted in the referendum of Oct. 21, 2007 with a high “yes” ratio of 69.95 percent.

Those who voted “no” to these amendments remained at 31.05 percent.

Nobody was alerted during those days.

Nobody changed their manner. Everyone continued with their politics, debates, chatter and clatter as if nothing had changed.

I had written this previously as well. This was a fundamental amendment.

In that referendum, if it is apt to say, the characteristic of the regime changed and nobody was aware of it. Or the number of those who were aware of it was so low as to be insignificant.

The impact of that referendum, just like late-acting medication, dawned on everyone in 2014.

(Nobody should try to draw any ridiculous conclusions when I say the characteristic of the regime changed. I am not talking about secularism, the republic and such things. I am talking about a qualitative change for the regime.)

Parliamentarians are elected by the public. Therefore, the election of a president by parliament is sufficient in terms of legitimacy.

But the public heading to the ballot box and electing a president is something else.

A direct public vote, like it or not, gives direct authorization to whoever receives those votes.

Parliament used to vote as representatives of the public. In a way its votes were representative.

A public vote is direct. There are no intermediaries and brokers. It has a stronger impact.

There is one more dimension to this issue.

There were three presidential candidates in August 2014.

One was Selahattin Demirtaş, who was put forward as a candidate by the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party), or the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party, the successor to the BDP). (It is a separate discussion that Demirtaş’s candidacy proved a positive experience for all of Turkey.)

Another candidate was Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who was put forward as a “common candidate” under the stewardship of the CHP (Republican People’s Party) and the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party), and was also supported by the parallel structure etc. (The parallel structure is the term used to refer to the Fethullah Gülen-led movement.)

But the favorite, and the candidate who won the election, was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current president and who was put forward by the AK Parti (Justice and Development Party.)

İhsanoğlu presented himself to the public with his position of “I have no intention of getting too involved in the minutiae. Elect me president and I will mind my own business, and you down below can continue with your politics as you please.”

Erdoğan, however, used to say, “I will keep tabs on all fundamental issues.” “There will be a change in practices; I will use my authority and new practices will be created.”

Both candidates were put in front of the nation.

The nation didn’t opt for the candidate who was saying “I will not get involved in the minutiae” but elected the candidate who said, “I will get involved in the minutiae and head the executive,” and had made this the cornerstone of his election campaign.

This means there is a solid link between the public’s vote and the actions of President Erdoğan.

The other day President Erdoğan called a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

This, of course, is something that previous presidents – some of them at least – had done on occasion.

A furor has been raised and all hell has broken lose as if all that I have written had never occurred, as Turkey didn’t hold that referendum and Erdoğan hadn’t mentioned back in August the actions he is taking now.

Those who have not gotten used to it better get used to it.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about all that is happening.

It seems like Turkey has moved to the presidential system in “spirit.”

We will have to wait and see if it is possible to adapt current legislation to the situation?

This is the issue facing us.