Turkey’s Constitutional Court has annulled a legal provision granting the president sweeping authority to make decisions that directly affect major economic activities, ruling that the measure violates the country’s constitution, the Bianet news website reported.
The court found that the provision granted the president overly broad authority to regulate a wide range of financial activities, including the movement of foreign currency, precious metals, securities and related financial instruments without defining how or under what conditions this power could be exercised. It ruled that such discretion violated constitutional protections, including the right to own property, conduct business and enter into private agreements and reaffirmed that only the legislature can impose restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms.
The ruling followed a referral from the Council of State, Turkey’s top administrative court, which asked the Constitutional Court to assess whether the provision was constitutional while reviewing a separate case. Under Turkish law, courts can refer legal provisions to the Constitutional Court if they believe those provisions may violate the constitution.
Although the article was amended in July 2025, the court found that it continued to grant the president overly broad regulatory authority, lacking sufficient legal boundaries.
The decision comes after years of growing presidential control over Turkey’s economy, particularly under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Since switching to a presidential system of governance in 2018, Erdoğan has increasingly used executive authority to shape financial and monetary policy, often bypassing parliamentary oversight.
In practice, the provision allowed the president to regulate foreign exchange transactions, the movement of precious metals, financial instruments and other key economic areas. Although framed as efforts to “protect the value of the Turkish currency,” critics say these powers allowed Erdoğan to intervene in markets with little legal restraint.
Erdoğan’s strong opposition to high interest rates, which he has called “the mother of all evils,” also led to pressure on the central bank, repeated dismissal of governors and what economists called “unorthodox” policies. These interventions fueled high inflation, a sharp loss in the value of the lira and mounting concerns among investors about institutional independence.
In its ruling the court emphasized that such sweeping powers cannot be exercised by a presidential decree alone.
The decision also marks a rare institutional pushback against the growing concentration of executive power under President Erdoğan. Since the adoption of the presidential system of governance in 2018, critics have warned that the erosion of parliamentary oversight and the increasing use of presidential decrees have undermined judicial independence and democratic safeguards.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling reaffirms that only the legislature, not the executive, can impose restrictions on fundamental rights, setting a precedent that could constrain future overreach.
