Özet:

The 1961 Constitution has the distinction of being the fourth constitution in the history of Turkish law. This constitution, which was prepared as a result of the May 27, 1960 Military Coup, made a significant contribution to the development of Turkish democracy, as it included fundamental rights and freedoms in detail and reflected a liberal-pluralist understanding. However, the aforementioned libertarian aspect of the constitution had made the constitution the focus of criticism in the years after its adoption. In particular, the ideology adopted by the constitution and the liberal practices carried out within this framework had been met with reaction by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). In this context, the TAF gave a harsh memorandum to the Presidency on 12 March 1971, which demanding the resignation of the legitimate government. With the effect of this event, which has been also called the “March 12 Memorandum”, the political life in Turkey was interrupted again after the May 27 Military Coup. The memorandum had a significant impact on the current legal order as well as the political life in Turkey. In this context, some amendments to the 1961 Constitution came to the fore and the constitution was amended in 1971 and 1973 due to the effects of the memorandum. These amendments had the characteristics of the most extensive regulation made in the constitution. With the these regulations, the content of the constitution was changed extensively and the way of its implementation differed significantly from its original version. This caused the constitution to had a different character from the original version, too. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the process through which the 1961 Constitution was adopted, what political events caused the 12 March Memorandum to be given, what changes were made in the constitution within the scope of the memorandum, and what effects these changes had on Turkish democracy with a legal and historical psychology. The aforementioned work was created by using copyrighted works and periodicals. In addition, this article is a qualitative study and was prepared using the document analysis method.

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