President of Turkey from 2000 to 2007
Ahmet Necdet Sezer
(
Turkish pronunciation:
[ah'med
ned?'det
se'zæ?]
; born 13 September 1942
[2]
) is a Turkish statesman and judge who served as the
tenth president of Turkey
from 2000 to 2007. Previously, he was
president of the Constitutional Court of Turkey
from January 1998 to May 2000. The
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
elected Sezer as president in 2000 after
Suleyman Demirel
's seven-year term expired. He was succeeded by
Abdullah Gul
in 2007.
Following his legal career, Sezer became a candidate for the presidency with the joint support of many political parties in Parliament. Following the
2000 presidential election
, he took an ardent secularist approach on issues such as the
headscarf
, holding the view that secularism in Turkey was under threat. A quarrel between Sezer and Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit
in 2001 led to a
financial meltdown
, attributed to the weakness of the coalition government as well as to the large debt owed to the
International Monetary Fund
.
The landslide victory of the conservative Islamist
Justice and Development Party
(AKP) in the
2002 general election
led to strong opposition from President Sezer, who vetoed several proposed laws and referred others to the
Constitutional Court
. These included laws on banking reform and the lifting of the political ban on
Recep Tayyip Erdo?an
. During receptions at the presidential palace, Sezer refused to allow women wearing the headscarf to attend citing the laws on the
separation of religion and state
at the time; this resulted in the wives of
Abdullah Gul
and Erdo?an,
Hayrunnisa Gul
and
Emine Erdo?an
respectively, being barred from attendance. Erdo?an later said in public that he had 'suffered a lot' from Sezer.
[3]
Early life
[
edit
]
Sezer was born in
Afyonkarahisar
to Ahmet Hamdi Sezer and Hatice Sezer,
Macedonian Turkish
Muhacir
parents
[4]
who emigrated from
Serres
,
Central Macedonia
,
Greece
during the
population exchange between Greece and Turkey
following the
Turkish War of Independence
.
[5]
After finishing Afyonkarahisar High School in 1960, he graduated from the
Ankara University Faculty of Law
in 1962 and began his career as a judge in
Ankara
. Following his military service at the Military Academy, he served first as a judge in
Dicle
and
Yerkoy
, and then became a supervisory judge in the
High Court of Appeals
in Ankara. In 1978, he received an LL.M. in civil law from the Faculty of Law in Ankara University.
Judical career and appointment as chief justice
[
edit
]
On 8 March 1983, Sezer was elected as a member of the
High Court of Appeals
. As a member of the Second Chamber of Law, he was nominated by the plenary assembly of the High Court of Appeals as one of the three candidates for appointment as member of the
Constitutional Court
. Five years later on 26 September 1988, he was appointed as a member of the Constitutional Court by President
Kenan Evren
and was reappointed for another five years in 1993 by Presidents
Turgut Ozal
(who nominated him) and
Suleyman Demirel
(who confirmed his position, since the latter died in office).
On 6 January 1998, Ahmet Necdet Sezer was elected as
chief justice
of the Constitutional Court and served until his resignation in 2000, when he was elected as president.
Presidency (2000?2007)
[
edit
]
He was
elected president
and sworn in on 16 May 2000, becoming Turkey's first head of state to come from a judicial background. His term was due to expire on 16 May 2007, but because the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
had failed to elect a new president, he retained the office
pro tempore
until 28 August 2007 (the
Constitution of Turkey
states that a president's term of office is extended until a successor is elected).
On 21 February 2001, during a quarrel in a
National Security Council
meeting, he threw the constitutional code book at Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit
. Some cite this falling-out as the main reason for what became known as 'Black Wednesday', a huge economic crisis. Others claimed that the rapid reforms called for by the
accession negotiations
with the
European Union
and Turkey's strong ties with the
International Monetary Fund
caused the crisis.
[6]
Sezer was a firm defender of
secularism in Turkey
, a frequent point of contention between him and the ruling
AKP
party. On many occasions, he openly claimed that Turkey's secular regime was under threat.
[7]
Since he believes that
Islam
does not require women to wear
headscarves
, Sezer excluded legislators' wives who wore headscarves from official receptions at the
Presidential Palace
.
[8]
During his presidency, he
pardoned
260 convicted
felons
, 202 of whom were captured
leftist
militants.
[9]
[10]
[11]
(This type of pardon can be requested directly by the felon or the legal representative of the felon, but no political or court referral is necessary.) Some organisations have cited such pardons to criticise Sezer's presidency. On the other hand, Sezer also enacted harsher laws to punish people connected with
terrorism
.
[12]
Post-presidency
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
March 2023
)
|
During the
2014 presidential election
, won by Erdo?an
,
Sezer openly refused to vote, citing the lack of a secularist candidate as his reason.
[13]
Sezer endorsed
Kemal Kılıcdaro?lu
's candidacy in the
2023 presidential election
.
Awards and orders
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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