Day 10: Turkish Parliament - Althea

 Today, we were able to visit the Turkish Parliament. The tour took us through much of the building, telling us about the history along the way. In the entrance, there are two small gardens to either side, one which still shows some damage from an attempted coup in 2016. Then we moved on to the General Assembly room, where they explained the ideas behind the setup of the room. 

Damage from the 2016 attempted coup

The General Assembly

There are seating areas for the 600 members of parliament, the President, other government officials, the press, and the public. 

After, we went through a tunnel connecting two administrative buildings that contained murals on the walls and ceiling that represented important aspects of major cities in Türkiye. It was interesting that we were able to recognize quite a few sites despite only being here for a short time, such as the Hagia Sophia and the remains of the library in Ephesus. 

The next portion of our journey was informative. We were given a presentation on the way bills are passed in the Turkish governmental system. The first part of the presentation was how the party system worked. There are 600 members of parliament, 15 represented parties, and 6 official post groups currently. A party needs 20 members to become a group, where they can have influence in the committees of government and decide the agenda of parliamentary meetings. They currently have a majority formed through a coalition of their two major parties. Their system of passing laws is somewhat similar to the United States, except with a unicameral system. A bill needs to be approved and proposed by a committee, sent to parliament, and then approved by the president. If the president vetoes the bill, then parliament can amend it and send it back, or vote to peg it despite the veto. 

The biggest part of this visit was the opportunity to meet Nevzat Pakdil, former Vice Speaker of the Grand National Assembly and current member of the Turkish Parliamentary Association. He gave a small speech about the importance of peace, and sharing the world with others despite our differences. It roughly translated to the idea that the world is for all of us, we need to keep it clean and in peace, and that it is in our hands as students. It was an interesting opportunity that differed from what we have talked about previously in this course, and it was an opportunity I was glad to have as a way to see and understand more of Türkiye.