# Turkey’s constitutional referendum approves an executive presidency

Date: 2017

## The fact

On 16 April 2017 voters approved a package that abolished the premiership, expanded presidential decree power, and let the president remain party leader. The High Electoral Board certified a narrow yes.

## Context

The campaign ran under emergency rule. OSCE criticised the unlevel field. [Erdoğan](/people/recep-tayyip-erdogan) campaigned for yes; the AKP and MHP organised; YSK counted. He did not print every ballot.

The 2018 presidential election is a different date. The 2016 emergency is a different date.

The president of Turkey is head of state and, since the 2017 executive-presidency reform, head of government. The Grand [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) writes statutes; the Official Gazette records decrees; courts, governors, and the armed forces implement. He does not write a European Council conclusion, an IMF programme, or a UN General Assembly resolution.

## Evidence and sources

Supreme Election Council of Turkey carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [democratic-resilience](/drivers/democratic-resilience): a completed change from a parliamentary executive to a presidential one concentrates power in one office.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 16 April 2017 certified referendum approving the executive-presidency package.

Not established: that every later inflation print was this ballot, or that OSCE’s unlevel-field finding is a unique later vote-fraud judgment.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

YSK certified. The Assembly had sent the text to the vote.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Turkey’s constitutional referendum approves an executive presidency, not a later speech about Turkey’s constitutional referendum approves an executive presidency.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Turkey’s constitutional referendum approves an executive presidency on 2017-04-16 is not a licence to treat every later Supreme Election Council of Turkey communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Turkey’s constitutional referendum approves an executive presidency into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He campaigned for and politically owned the package. YSK certified. The Assembly had sent the text to the vote. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The Grand National Assembly, the Official Gazette, governors, courts, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. A detention is not a conviction.

The 16 April 2017 constitutional referendum approved amendments replacing Turkey’s parliamentary model with an executive presidency. Venice Commission analysis of the amendment package focused on separation of powers and the concentration of executive authority.

## People

- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: https://factrail.ai/people/recep-tayyip-erdogan

## Drivers

- Executive-Power Concentration: https://factrail.ai/drivers/executive-power-concentration
- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/turkey/311721
- https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD%282017%29005-e
- https://www.ysk.gov.tr/doc/dosyalar/docs/2017Referandum/2017HO-Ornek135.pdf
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-politics-idUSKBN17I0A2

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/tr-presidential-system-2017