Taking the Constitution back to pre-Republic times

From November 13, 1918, when the Allied fleet anchored in the Bosphorus, Istanbul became a captive city. The captivity reached a new level on March 16, 1920, when the Meclis-i Mebusan (Ottoman Parliament) was raided by Allied forces and some deputies were arrested. It is time to briefly touch upon the struggle for power and authority between Ankara, the center of the National Struggle, and Istanbul, the center of the Sultanate and Caliphate.

Between 1918 and 1922, the short-lived Armistice Governments (Bab-ı Ali) of the captive city followed one another. Attempts to block the Erzurum and Sivas Congresses and to stifle the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey), the source of legitimacy for liberation, before it could take root, would come from the Damat Ferit governments of the Armistice period. In this process, Ankara tactically avoided directly targeting the Caliph-Sultan, who had accepted British tutelage, and directed all its criticism at Damat Ferit.

At the Sivas Congress, the mandate and protectorate were rejected, and the principle of full independence was adopted. By merging the Societies for the Defense of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia, local/regional liberation organizations were brought under a central structure (ARMHC), and the Representative Committee (Heyeti Temsiliye), the executive organ of the National Struggle, was formed under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. The Representative Committee would continue to function as the central organization of the National Struggle until the TBMM began its work on April 23, 1920.

After April 23, 1920, with the activation of the TBMM as the organ of legitimacy for the National Struggle, the mission of the Representative Committee would end, and the TBMM, as the representative organ of the National Will, would become the sole decision-maker. Under the extraordinary conditions of the War of Independence, a parliamentary government system existed where legislative and executive powers were intertwined. Mustafa Kemal, as the President of the TBMM, assumed much heavier and more important responsibilities.

After April 23, 1920, the winner of the intensifying struggle for power and authority between the Bab-ı Ali and the TBMM would be Ankara. Despite the support of the Caliphate and Sultanate, the military and civil influence of the Armistice Governments in Anatolia was almost completely neutralized. The Kanun-i Esasi (Constitution) of 1876 was in effect for both Istanbul and Ankara. So, in such a process, why was the Law of Fundamental Organization (Teşkilat-ı Esasiye Kanunu), which was not called a Constitution but was characterized as one, brought to the agenda? The 23-article Law of Fundamental Organization dated January 20, 1921, was conceived as the foundational text that would provide legitimacy to Ankara/TBMM's legislative, executive, and judicial activities, as well as to the new, undeclared state, both domestically and in international relations.

Every activity of the legislative and executive organs of the National Struggle, the civil and military operations, and the legal legitimacy and legality needed for the undeclared state to perform its functions would be provided by the 1921 Constitution. On the other hand, as mentioned above, the 1876 Constitution was not abolished. Likewise, the Sultanate and Caliphate still maintained their existence. For this reason, the background of why certain circles cling to the 1921 Constitution and use it as a reference for a "New and Civil Constitution" should be carefully considered.

Are you asking what the real purpose of the civil/anti-coup (!) Constitution campaign is, which can be summarized as being fixated on the period when the Sultanate and Caliphate still existed and the Republic had not yet been proclaimed, refusing to cross the threshold of October 29, 1923, and ignoring the 1924 Constitution, the fundamental legal basis of modern Turkey?

It is to pave the way for returning to pre-Republic times with a new/civil Constitution that will legitimize a reactionary coup aimed at dismantling the nation-state and unitary structure-based state/regime architecture!