Council of State in Transition Process to Republican Turkey
Zeki Eraslan
Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, Ankara/TÜRKİYE
Keywords: Council of State, Change and Transformation, Legal Regulations, Minutes, Administrative Justice, Press, Parliament
Abstract
It is clear that the Şûrâ-yı Devlet/Council of State was created in order to ensure the continuation of the structural reform process as part of the change and transformation of the central organization of the Ottoman modernization. Şûrâ-yı Devlet/Council of State, which was inherited by the Republic of Turkey with its equipped and distinguished savings of more than a half century, underwent frequent structural changes between 1868-1922. In order to understand the structure of this institution which continues its existence today as Danıştay, revealing the legal developments during the Second Constitutional Era and Turkish National Struggle which could be considered as a transition process is significant.
While the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) Government was questioning the future and existence of the Council of State, especially during the years of the National Struggle, this institution was continuing its work in Istanbul. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate this transition process through the approaches of the Istanbul and Ankara governments to Council of State.
The discussions in Ankara at the TBMM Government and news in the press of period reflect the pains of the transition from a heterogeneous empire to a homogeneous unitary state, namely the Republic of Turkey. In my previous study on the Council of State, it could not be possible to examine the issues of how was the approach to the Council of State and related discussions from İstanbul and Anatolian press and the minutes of TBMM during the National Struggle. The lack of the aforementioned study has been tried to be eliminated in this study in the light of new documents encountered in the archive, news in the press and some legal regulations implemented in this period.
In this context, the process of transformation of the Council of State during the II. Constitutional Era and the National Struggle will be analyzed in this article through the legal arrangements made, Ottoman archival documents, press of the period and minutes of the parliament.