A constitutional referendum was held in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on 7 November 1982. The new constitution was approved by 91% of voters, with a 91% turnout.

Background

In 1980 the Grand National Assembly was scheduled to elect a new President to replace Fahri Korutürk. However, the parties were unable to agree on a candidate, and on 12 September 1980, the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...

led by Kenan Evren staged a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

, dissolved the Grand National Assembly and started ruling the country through the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

. The NSC set up a Consultative Assembly and appointed all 160 members. Political parties were shut down, and those who had been members of parties were excluded from the Assembly.Ergun Özbudun (2012
Turkey’s Search for a New Constitution
''Insight Turkey'', Vol 14, pp39-50 It worked from 23 November 1981 and 17 July 1982 to draw up the new constitution, which would replace the 1961 document. Evren claimed the 1961 constitution had liberties "luxurious" for Turkey.

New constitution

One of the transitional provisions of the constitution named Evren as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

until 1989. The constitution also banned civil society organisations from political activity, whilst political parties were banned from working with civil society organisations, including

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s. The Army was given a majority in the National Security Council, which was also deemed to be superior to the cabinet.

Results

References

{{Turkish elections Constitutional referendums in Turkey

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...