Ahmet Sezer

Ahmet Sezer (1941- ), Turkish jurist, tenth President of the Republic of Turkey (2000-2007). Born in Afyon, he studied law at the University of Ankara, graduating in 1962. He commenced his career as a judge in Ankara and then in Dicle, and after completing postgraduate studies in civil law in 1978 he was elected to the High Court of Appeals in 1983. In 1988 he was appointed to the bench of the Constitutional Court, and in 1998 was nominated Chief Justice. A consensus candidate between the parties in the ruling coalition of Bülent Ecevit, in May 2000, Sezer was elected to the presidency by the Grand National Assembly to succeed Süleyman Demirel.

Sezer was regarded as a conservative and secularist who aimed to bring continued political stability to Turkey, thus helping secure substantial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other Western agencies. His priority was constitutional reform that would enable Turkey’s future membership of the European Union. In August 2000, Sezer twice vetoed a government decree that had been intended to lead to the dismissal of civil servants who were suspected Islamists, insisting that the National Assembly must pass such a law, and the Constitutional Court backed his opinion in October. Relations with Ecevit deteriorated and in February 2001 a public row between the two men over the pace of investigations into political corruption caused a currency crisis. Sezer continued to use his veto over government reforms although a second crisis was averted in January 2002 when he reluctantly accepted banking reforms to secure the continued support of the IMF.

Sezer further emphasized his secularist credentials with the election of the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AK) as the majority party in Turkey's elections in November. He rejected a member of the new Cabinet as education minister—a former university dean who had been sacked for campaigning for the lifting of the ban on Islamic headscarves on campuses. Sezer vetoed a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the AK, to enter Parliament and so become prime minister in place of his deputy Abdullah Gül. Erdogan had been prevented from standing by a ban placed upon him for reciting an Islamic poem at an election rally. However, the amendment was later passed over the president’s veto and in March 2003 Erdogan became prime minister. Sezer and the AK came into conflict again in 2007, when Erdogan considered standing as Sezer’s successor in the office of president. The prospect of an openly religious president prompted large secularist demonstrations, and Sezer claimed that the Kemalist foundations of the Turkish state were under threat. Even though Erdogan did not stand, another candidate from the AK, Abdullah Gül, took his place. When members of the Turkish parliament boycotted the vote on the new president, Erdogan called legislative elections for July. After a resounding victory for the AK, Abdullah Gül was elected to the presidency, and was sworn into office as Sezer’s successor on August 28.