Discussions of local autonomy in Turkey

Abstract

The Europen Charter of Local Self Government was introduced and initiated in Turkey in 1992 however there were reservations placed on certain articles of the agreement. This Charter can be said to be considered as an essential reference paper for the agenda of Turkish Public Administration for the discussions of “reformation in local governments”, “empowering local governments” and “creating autonomous local governments”. The Charter has continously been present in the agenda of Turkish Politics before almost every elections, during preparation of a new constitution, the peace period and democratisation issues. These discussions are in relevance to removing or maintaning the reservations placed on the articles of the Charter.The Council of Europe has initiated the Charter and has started working in 1997 towards creating similiar documents at regions. The Council initially accepted the European Draft Charter of Regional Self Government and in accordance accepted the Reference Framework Document for Regional Democracy in 2009. The Draft Charter states that the recognition of the autonomy of regional governments will not be allowed to impact the policy of loyalty to the state in any way and that the regions will not be able to negatively impact the national unity.The purpose of this study is to research and present the discussions of the autonomy of local governments in Turkey in regards to the mentioned papers. The study will be limited to the impact caused or the impact that may be caused by the above mentioned documents and agreements in regards to autonomous local government discussions in Turkey. The above mentioned articles will not be examined in detail. Keywords: Local Autonomy, Local Government, The Principle of Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Regionalization, Turkish Political and Administrative Culture