Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has assumed the authority to declare a mobilization and a state of war. The authority to declare a mobilization previously belonged to the Cabinet, while the decision to declare war was made by the parliament.
Turkey introduced an executive presidential system in 2018 giving Erdogan sweeping powers and preventing parliament from conducting its oversight of the executive branch.
According to the new regulation published in the Official Gazette under President Erdogan’s signature, the “Mobilization and State of War Regulation” has replaced the former “Mobilization and State of War Decree,” effectively ending the practices in place since 1990. With the new regulation in effect, several older regulations have been annulled, including the 1980 Turkish Armed Forces logistical mobilization preparedness regulation, the 1991 Turkish Armed Forces personnel mobilization regulation and the 2010 Reserve Personnel deferment regulation. References to the repealed decree in existing legislation will now point to the new regulation.
Some legal experts note that this change is a routine adjustment necessitated by Turkey’s transition to a presidential system of governance following a 2017 referendum, which transferred powers previously held by the Cabinet to the president.