Türkiye's Referendum Experience

Abstract

The referendum, a semi-direct democracy tool, was used seven times in the Republic of Türkiye in 1961, 1982, 1987,1988, 2007, 2010, and 2017. Since referendums have been made more frequently in the last fifteen years, the issue has attracted public attention. The fact that the referenda were handled independently in the doctrine, and that the works that deal with all of the referenda with a holistic perspective were quite limited constituted the study's starting point. In the study, after giving brief information about the theoretical framework related to the referendum, the principles and procedures of applying for the referendum in Türkiye and the issues related to the administration and control of the referendum will be discussed. After the referendums held in Türkiye were handled separately, some inferences were made from the results and processes of the referenda