When did the regime change?

A change in government is not the same thing as a change in regime. If the ruling party loses an election and the opposition wins, the regime does not change; the government changes. Before November 3, 2002, the single-party or coalition governments that changed through general parliamentary elections, while having significant differences from one another, did not allow the existing status quo to reach dimensions that would challenge the boundaries of the regime.

November 3, 2002, must be accepted as a milestone in the sense that the state/regime equation, symbolized by October 29, 1923, fundamentally changed. The 22-year AKP government since November 3, 2002, will take its place in political history as a period during which the regime/state equation, power centers, and the institutional beams and columns of the state/regime were destroyed.

Before November 3, 2002, the state/regime equation of the Republic of Turkey was based on a multi-party political life and the separation of powers, which acts as a balancing force between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the military was considered an effective dynamic of the regime. Against potential interventions by the political power, high judicial bodies such as the Constitutional Court, the Council of State, and the Court of Cassation possessed legal safeguards. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had traditions that did not change according to the ruling government and experienced staff who were not discarded on a whim. What has been described up to this point is the story of the recent past, where the dynamics and codes of the state/regime that did not change according to the governments continued to exist. Despite the financial, political, and economic pressures from imperial centers, the resistance shown by Turkey in the Aegean, Cyprus, and the Southeast in the first years after November 3, 2002, will be evaluated as the status quo (!) that had not yet been fully liquidated dragging its feet against external demands!

It is time to explain the strategic goal of liquidating the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) through the National Security Council. While the National Security Council, established by Law No. 2945 in accordance with Article 118 of the 1982 Constitution, consisted of the President, the Prime Minister, the Chief of General Staff, the Ministers of National Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, and the Commanders of the Land, Air, and Naval Forces and the General Commander of the Gendarmerie, with Presidential Decree No. 6 dated July 15, 2018, the military was pruned as much as possible, and the political power gained as much weight as possible. The General Commander of the Gendarmerie was removed from the council, and the Vice Presidents and the Minister of Justice were added as new members. If the President does not attend, the meeting is held under the chairmanship of the Vice President, and the preparation of the National Security Policy Document is carried out by the Secretary General of the National Security Council, who is appointed by and responsible to the President!

The fate of the institutions that are closed to direct intervention by the executive and serve as the guarantors of the regime, the constitutional order, and the rule of law will be no different from that of the military; all of them will be restructured under the influence of the 'Reis' (the President)! The new status quo centered on the 'Reis', which will be the sole determinant of high judicial bodies such as the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, and the Council of State, will be put into effect with the demagoguery of transitioning to full democracy through the liquidation of military tutelage.

Whatever would happen if an understanding fed by opposition to October 29, 1923, seized power is what is happening in today's Turkey. If the separation of powers, secularism, the rule of law, modern democracy, and traditional regime dynamics have been eliminated and power has been concentrated in one person, then the regime has changed at its root. So, are you asking what the 'New Constitution' is about? It is the need for legal legitimacy. The need for a legal legitimacy that does not exist, just to keep up appearances!