The Grand National Assembly of Turkey, usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the National Campaign. The parliament was fundamental in the efforts of Mareşal Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1st President of the Republic of Turkey, and his colleagues to found a new state out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire.
Feleknas Uca is a Yazidi politician active in Germany and Turkey. From 1999 to 2009, she was member of the European Parliament from Germany, serving with Die Linke. Feleknas Uca was at one time the world's only Yazidi parliamentarian until the Iraqi legislature was elected in 2005. In June 2015, she was elected as a Member of Parliament in Turkey representing Diyarbakır.
Ali Atalan is a Turkish-German politician. Formerly a member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia with Die Linke, he is currently a member of the Turkish Parliament with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The Electoral system of Turkey varies for general, presidential and local elections that take place in Turkey every four years, five years and five years respectively. Turkey has been a multi-party democracy since 1950, with the first democratic election held on 14 May 1950 leading to the end of the single-party rule established in 1923. The current electoral system for electing Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly has a 10% election threshold, the highest of any country.
The Turkish general election of November 2015 was held on 1 November 2015 throughout the 85 electoral districts of Turkey to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. It was the 25th general election in the History of the Republic of Turkey and elected the country's 26th Parliament. The election resulted in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regaining a Parliamentary majority following a 'shock' victory, having lost it five months earlier in the June 2015 general election.
The Labour, Democracy and Freedom Bloc was an electoral alliance formed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) with several other smaller left-wing parties and political movements in Turkey. The alliance contested the 2011 general election by fielding candidates from participating parties as independents in order to bypass the 10% election threshold needed to win seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The alliance won 5.67% of the vote, initially winning 36 MPs. The Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey later annulled the election of BDP MP Hatip Dicle in Diyarbakır, reducing the alliance's elected MPs to 35. The Bloc fielded 65 candidates in 41 provinces.
The June–July 2015 Turkish Parliament Speaker Elections were held on June 30 and July 1 in order to elect the next Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The election took place due to the election of a new parliament in the 7 June 2015 general election. Outgoing speaker of the 24th Parliament, AKP member Cemil Çiçek, was ineligible to stand as he stood down as an MP at the general election.
Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat is a Kurdish politician who was one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001. He served as a Member of Parliament for the Grand National Assembly from 1999 to 2011 and again since 2015 as a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The Deputy Speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey serve on the Speakers Council in the Grand National Assembly, the unicameral Parliament of the Turkish Republic. There are four Deputy Speakers, selected according to the parliamentary composition of the incumbent Parliament. Unlike the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, the Deputy Speakers are not elected by MPs. Instead, each party who has enough representation to nominate a Deputy Speaker can do so, with their nomination automatically becoming official. However, parties can also hold elections within their parliamentary groups to determine their Deputy Speaker.
Yurdusev Özsökmenler is a Turkish politician who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 9 July to 1 November 2015. She was elected as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Van in the June 2015 general election from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). She previously served as the Mayor of Bağlar between 2004 and 2009.
Mehmet Emin İlhan is a Turkish politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who served as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Ağrı from 7 June to 1 November 2015.
İsmail Kahraman is a Turkish politician from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who served as the 27th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 22 November 2015 to 7 July 2018. He has been the Member of Parliament for İstanbul's first electoral district since 1 November 2015, having previously served as an MP for İstanbul between 1995 and 2002. He also served as Minister of Culture from 1996 to 1997 in the government of Necmettin Erbakan as a member of the Islamist Welfare Party.
Mithat Sancar is a Turkish professor of public and constitutional law, columnist and translator. Since the June 2015 general election he is a member of the Turkish parliament for Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı is a Turkish politician from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who currently serves as a Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly since 24 November 2015. She previously served in the same position between 2 July and 23 June 2015. She has been a Member of Parliament for İstanbul's second electoral district since 22 July 2007, having first been elected in the 2007 general election and re-elected in the 2011, June 2015 and November 2015 general elections.
The mid-term Turkish Parliament Speaker elections of 2017 were held on 20 November 2017 in order to elect the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly. The election took place in three rounds, with a fourth becoming unnecessary after incumbent Speaker İsmail Kahraman was re-elected with 289 votes.
The 3rd Ordinary Convention of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was held to elect the leaders and chief party officials of the HDP, a left-wing and pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. The party employs gender quotas for internal elections, requiring the election of one male co-leader and one female co-leader. Ankara Member of Parliament Sırrı Süreyya Önder was elected as the convention's presiding officer.
The Turkish Parliament Speaker election of 2018 took place on 12 July 2018 to elect the 28th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, who will serve for the first three years of the 27th Parliament of Turkey. With 7 parties represented in the 27th Parliament, the speaker was expected to be elected in the third round, as no party or electoral bloc had the necessary two-thirds majority to elect their candidate outright.
