Yurkevych M. Formation and сonstitutional development of the Republic of Turkey. (20th - 21st centuries)

The thesis reveals historical and legal peculiarities of the formation and constitutional development of the Republic of Turkey in the 20th and early 21st centuries on the basis of historico-legal analysis of historiographical knowledge of constitutions, constitutional laws, other legal instruments and political documents, archives as well as written sources. The Republic of Turkey formation in the early 20th century is described as a result of a number of historical and legal processes based on general state formation regularities. Abovementioned regularities are the following: transformation of continental European and Asian empires into sovereign states, formation of state ideologies on the nationalism basis, constitutionalization and democratization of monarchies as well as modern republics formation. The determinative peculiarity of Turkish statehood is the formation of state-building and legal reforms “from top to bottom” – from small elite (usually the military or bureaucracy) to numerous poor-organized civil society. In the thesis, such a peculiarity is asserted with the help of state (mainly constitutional) and legal reforms of the 20-30s, 60-80s of the 20th century as well as the 20s of the 21st century. These reforms have developed specific historical and legal phenomena – Turkish republicanism together with Turkish constitutionalism. Turkish republicanism proclaims the common good of citizens, but not the personal rights of individuals, as the main aim of the Republic. The radicalization of Turkish republicanism idea has repeatedly led to the monopolization of power by political parties, military and bureaucratic elites. The thesis demonstrates the development of Turkish constitutionalism as integral part of historical and legal processes of westernization, modernization as well as European integration, the exogenous factor of which, since the middle of the 20th century, have become the European perspective of Turkey, in particular the perspective to join the European Union. The development trends of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish constitutionalism are clarified in the thesis. To substantiate these very trends, a comparative analysis of both legal and factual constitution of Turkey was made. Factual (“political”) Constitution of the Republic of Turkey reflects the differences between written constitutional provisions and political practice in many areas, but mainly such differences appear in real interaction of state interests, society and political Islam.