3. Turkey’s Local Government Reform Process

Starting in early 2016, and gaining pace with the state of emergency declaration following the coup d’état attempt in July 2016, the central government has appointed governors and district governors as trustees to almost 100 municipalities on account of supporting terrorist groups, replacing the elected representatives of local governments. The majority of municipalities (a total of 94 municipalities as of January 2018) were governed by People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the epitome of Kurdish politics. The replaced municipalities include the provincial municipalities of Ağrı, Batman, Hakkari, Tunceli, Mardin, Siirt, Şırnak, Diyarbakır, Van, and Bitlis.

The first municipality is established in 1855 following the Crimean War (Keleş 2011: 136).

Ittihat ve Terakki Party (Committee of Union and Progress) governed the Ottoman Empire from 1908 to 1918.

An Islamic judge, who is the highest political authority in local settlements responsible for settling the disputes and overseeing the public services.

The Charter was opened for signature by the Council of Europe’s member states on October 15, 1985. Turkey signed the charter in 1987, but it became part of the jurisdiction only after 1993. Turkey made reservations for 7 articles in the Chart. These reservations are the following; Article 4.6: ‘the manner and timing of consultation should be such that the local authorities have a real possibility to exercise influence’; Article 6.1: ‘local authorities must be able to order their own administrative structures to take account of local circumstances and administrative efficiency’; Article 7.3: ‘disqualification from the holding of local elective office should only be based on objective legal criteria and not on ad hoc decisions’; Article 8.3: ‘according to the principle of proportionality, the controlling authority, in exercising its prerogatives, is obliged to use the method which affects local autonomy the least’; Article 9.4, 9.6, and 9.7 ‘the rules and conditions on the allocation of financial resources to local authorities’; Article 10.2 and 10.3; ‘rules and conditions on forming associations between local authorities’; Article 11.1: ‘access by a local authority to a properly constituted court of law’.

PKK is an internationally recognized terrorist organization, which has been involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state since the 1980s with the initial aim to create a Kurdish state, that later evolved to Kurdish autonomy following the capture of the head of the organization, Abdullah Öcalan.

The president Abdullah Gül was a former minister in the AKP government.

Translation is taken from www.​lawsturkey.​com.

In the initial version, ‘opening and operating of pre-elementary schools’ is mentioned as part of the municipal services. The Constitutional Court has annulled this provision with the decree in 2007. The Court justified its decision on ‘acknowledging pre-elementary education part of the national education, thus it cannot be a local demand, and as a local authority municipality cannot be in charge of these services’.

First-tier municipalities are established inside the metropolitan municipal borders and they have the same competencies as the district municipalities. Their difference from district municipalities is that the first-tier municipalities cannot have territories outside the metropolitan municipal borders. First-tier municipalities are abolished after the enactment of the new metropolitan law in 2012.

A small parenthesis is needed here. After the 2016 coup-d’état attempt, Turkey has declared a state of emergency. This allowed the government to enact draft decrees only with President’s approval without going through the parliamentary process. Under decrees issued during the state of emergency, as of December 2017, 113 102 civil servants have been dismissed, among them, 4022 were dismissed from local administrations. So, not only the number of contracted personnel has increased but also the number of permanent personnel has decreased. https://​memurunyeri.​com/​memur/​manset-haber/​17023-29-aralik-2017-itibariyle-kurumlara-gore-toplam-ihrac-ve-iade-sayilari.​html.

The translation is taken from the official Web site of the constitution, www.​anayasa.​gov.​tr. The principle of ‘centralization’ refers to the ‘integral unity in administration’ and ‘local administration’ refers to the principle of ‘decentralization’.

Following 2014 local elections, BDP created a joint structure with the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), and since then HDP runs in general and local elections largely representing Kurdish voters.

For further information, see the Report CG32 (2017) prepared by the fact-finding mission of the Council of Europe.

According to 2015 data of Turkish Statistical Institute.

In the general elections of 1991, the Social Democrat Public Party (SDHP) won 21% of the votes. In the following elections in 1995, only 11% of votes were gained by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which succeeded SDHP.

More of this to come in Chapter 4, on my interpretation of findings from quantitative analysis.

The UNDP Turkey’s Web site explains the purpose of the Local Agenda 21 as followed: ‘In response to the global mandate as contained in Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, the Local Agenda 21 Program was launched in 1997 in Turkey under the auspices of UNDP Turkey and Capacity 21, and coordinated by IULA-EMME. The program, encompassing 59 partner cities as of October 2004, reflects a decentralized and enabling approach, based upon networking and collaboration among equal partners. Based on community participation, local stakeholder involvement, the establishment of local partnerships and decentralization of the local decision-making process, the LA21 Program of Turkey has provided a unique opportunity for the enhancement of local democracy and for practical implementation of the concepts of “good governance” and “sustainable development” in Turkey’.

According to 2015 data, there are 105.201 active associations in Turkey (Ministry of Interior, Department of Association).

The four biggest cities have the highest percentage of active associations per province: Istanbul 20.02%, Ankara 9.59%, İzmir 5.47%, and Bursa 3.98%.

The Turkish economy has shrunk 6.1% in 1999, and in 2000, Turkish Lira was devaluated about 40%.