Come on, whoever understands: Autonomy

The meaning of the word "autonomy" in the TDK dictionary is defined as the right of a community, an organization to govern itself freely according to the laws it has established, the state and the right of a person, a community to set the law to be followed by itself. The word "autonomy", which is the foreign equivalent of the word autonomy, is of French origin and is expressed as the state of self-governance. We also use the word autonomy in technology as self-governing vehicles and devices, but our subject is politics. 

Paragraph 2 of Article 123 of the Constitution states that "The organization and functions of the administration are based on the principles of centralized administration and decentralization". This means that the principles of "centralization" and "decentralization" are "constitutional principles". In other words, our Constitution allows decentralization. In our system, decentralization" has three conditions of existence: In other words, in order for an institution to be a decentralization institution, 

- Having a public legal entity, 

- Autonomy vis-à-vis the central administration and 

- The central administration should also be subject to tutelage control. 

In the current system, local administrations, i.e. municipalities, are the most concrete form of decentralized self-government. Although the constitutional principle provides the possibility of decentralization, in practice, we see that the central administration in Turkey is highly empowered and rigid, and the administrative tutelage power granted to the central administration over local governments is used in an almost hierarchical manner. The reason for this is the problem of partition that our country has been facing for years. On the other hand, this rigid and hierarchical tutelage of the center leads to problems regarding the democratic participation of citizens in governance and the rapid and proper execution of public services. 

What needs to be discussed here is whether decentralized governments are truly autonomous. We have already given a definition of the word autonomy. We said it was the right to govern and legislate. On the other hand, we said that autonomy is one of the conditions for the existence of decentralization. But do we use the word autonomy in the same sense when making these definitions? I think misunderstandings start at this point. 

The word autonomy has a political and administrative meaning. Definitions such as federalism and autonomous regions are definitions of political autonomy for the exercise of sovereignty. What we define as the autonomy of decentralized government is a definition of administrative autonomy. It is related to local administrations. When commenting on autonomy, it must be stated whether it is a political or administrative definition. Because from this point on, we are talking about completely different things. 

At the beginning of his speech at the 18th CHP congress held on September 5, 2014, CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the presidential candidate of the National Alliance, said the same thing he had said at the Tunceli rally on May 19, 2011: "We accepted the Charter of Autonomy for Local Governments, but they made reservations to some of its articles. Let local governments be autonomous, let's pass a special law, let all municipalities have revenues and let mayors serve. They did not agree to this either. Because they are not democrats and not libertarians" and reiterated that "We will definitely bring the European local self-government autonomy charter to power" and that he stands by his promise. This issue is also brought up by the CHP on various platforms. 

With the preparation and proposal of the Union of European Municipalities, the European Parliament opened the European Charter of Local Self-Government for signature on October 15, 1985 and the Charter entered into force on September 1, 1988. Turkey signed the Charter of Local Self-Government on November 21, 1988. Law No. 3723 dated May 8, 1991 on the Approval of the Ratification of the Charter was published in the Official Gazette No. 20877 dated May 21, 1991. The Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 92/3398 dated August 6, 1992 on the ratification of the Charter and the official Turkish translation of the Charter were published in the Official Gazette No. 21364 dated October 3, 1992. The instruments of ratification were deposited on December 9, 1992 and the Charter of Local Self-Government entered into force for Turkey on April 1, 1993. When the Charter of Local Self-Government was ratified by Turkey (Official Gazette: 3.10.1992), reservations were made to many articles: The reservations are mostly on the following articles of the Charter on "administrative autonomy".  

- The central administration shall consult local authorities in the planning and decision-making process on all matters of concern to local authorities.

- Local governments shall determine their own organizational structure.

- The criteria to be observed in the supervision of local governments by the central administration shall be proportionate to the benefits to be protected.

- In the use of financial resources, local governments will be autonomous in implementing their own policies.

To summarize; Kılıçdaroğlu's promise to remove the reservations on Articles 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 of the Charter of Local Self-Government is misinterpreted and reflected as a green light for a 'federal state' within Turkey. However, as mentioned above, these articles are entirely related to administrative autonomy and have nothing to do with the definition of political autonomy. 

As a matter of fact, the Millet Alliance has committed to the following concrete proposals under the heading of Local Governments in the Joint Memorandum of Understanding, which provide even greater administrative autonomy to local governments than the Charter. I don't understand how this leads to federalism or autonomous regional governments, let me know who understands!

- We will implement the Local Government Reform.

- We will re-evaluate all local government legislation and restructure local governments administratively and financially.

- We will transfer the provincial organizations of some ministries to local governments according to their areas of duty. 

- We will end the excessive tutelage of the central government over local governments. 

- We will ensure that those who come by election leave by election, and we will put an end to trustee practices in local governments that ignore the right to vote and be elected.

- We will ensure that elected administrators cannot be dismissed without a judicial decision. 

- We will also make it possible to temporarily suspend local administrators who are being investigated for crimes in office only with a judicial decision. 

- We will ensure that the replacement of a mayor who loses his/her qualification for election or is suspended from office will be elected by the municipal council. 

- We will strengthen the capacity of local governments to increase their own revenues.

- We will increase the share of municipalities from general budget tax revenues.

- In determining the shares of municipalities from general budget tax revenues, we will take into account the contribution of provinces to production and exports, the difference in population between summer and winter, day and night, and irregular migration.

- We will enact the Basic Law on Mukhtars. 

- We will restore legal personality to villages that were transformed into neighborhoods under the Metropolitan Law. 

- We will support town municipalities in non-metropolitan provinces, which have difficulty in developing and providing services due to lack of budget, on a project basis.

- We will evaluate the reopening of previously closed town municipalities and the creation of new municipalities in line with the needs.

- We will address the situation of Special Provincial Administrations within the framework of the restructuring of public administration.

- We will restructure the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and put an end to partisan and unfair practices that discriminate between municipalities. 

- We will increase participation by including mukhtars, relevant non-governmental organizations and professional chambers in the decision-making mechanisms of local governments. 

- We will prioritize democratic participation, strengthen city councils, and make it compulsory to establish city councils that have not been established immediately.

- We will establish equal opportunity units in local governments to ensure qualified participation in local governance mechanisms. 

- We will ensure that local governments open their data to the public and allow universities, civil society organizations and professional chambers to use this data to develop local solutions. 

- We will establish local government service standards and make decision and business processes transparent, understandable and traceable. 

- We will make issues related to council meetings, zoning plan amendments, resource utilization, borrowing, tender and procurement decisions, and audit reports transparent and understandable for the public, including live broadcasts.

- We will conduct e-government voting (public voting) on certain projects.

- We will assign signature responsibility to mayors for tenders and payments exceeding certain amounts, and ensure that mayors cannot delegate authority except in cases of long-term illness. 

- We will prohibit the appointment of first and second degree relatives by blood or marriage of mayors and deputy mayors as chief of staff, consultants and advisors. 

- We will set objective criteria for the internal and external financing of large-scale projects of municipalities, and we will impose a time limit on the use of the central government's approval authority that delays or prevents municipalities from accessing financing. 

- We will subject the companies and subsidiaries established by local governments to a comprehensive evaluation based on criteria such as duty, function, need, effectiveness, efficiency and compliance with the public procurement law.

- We will redefine the members of the Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) to include institutions related to transportation and to give the weight of representation to metropolitan municipalities. 

- We will implement an effective internal audit and Court of Accounts audit in local governments, and we will meticulously monitor whether the audit findings are fulfilled or not.