Cabinet of Turkey

The Cabinet of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Kabinesi) or Presidential Cabinet (Turkish: Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kabinesi) is the body that advises the President of Turkey on executive affairs. It is composed of the President, Vice President and the heads of the ministries. After the Council of Ministers was abolished with 2017 constitutional referendum, the Cabinet now acts as an informal advisory forum as all its powers and functions were vested to the President.

According to the Turkish constitution, ministers can't be a member of parliament due to separation of powers.

The President of Turkey is elected by the people every five years. The president then appoints and dismiss the deputies of the president as well as the ministers according to article 104 of the Constitution. The deputies of the president and the ministers are required to take oath before the Parliament.

After the transition to a presidential system in 2017, the cabinet does not require a parliamentary approval anymore to be formed.

Cabinet members and other members of the executive power cannot occupy any position in the Parliament. Cabinet ministers, and other executive branch appointees, must resign their seat in Parliament to serve in the government. These restrictions are in place to alleviate external pressure and influence on ministers, and to enable them to focus on their governmental work.

The Parliament has no role in confirming presidential appointments for the cabinet. However, a majority vote in the Parliament can overturn a presidential decree. It can also table a motion requesting that the ministers to be investigated on allegations of perpetration of a crime regarding their duties. The Parliament also can dismiss the President (and thus the whole cabinet) by calling for early presidential elections. In order to achieve this, a three-fifth majority in the Parliament is required. In this case, both the presidential election as well as the parliamentary election shall be renewed.

The president is the chief executive leader. Therefore, the whole cabinet's tenure is linked to the president's tenure: The president's (and the cabinet's) term automatically ends, if a newly elected president sits for the first time, or if the president resigns or dies.

The President is responsible for guiding the cabinet and deciding its political direction. According to the principle of departmentalization, the cabinet ministers are free to carry out their duties independently within the boundaries set by the President's political directives. The Parliament may at any time ask the President to dismiss a minister or to appoint a new minister. The President also decides the scope of each minister's duties and can nominate ministers to lead a department and so called ministers for special affairs without an own department. The president can also lead a department himself.