Saying Goodbye to President Sezer

Although President Sezers official time in office ended on 16 May, the unsuccessful presidential elections at the end of April have left him in office until a new president is elected. Bianet has taken a look at his life and presidential career.

İstanbul

As President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's time in office draws to a close, bianet has taken a look at his biography and his presidential career.

A legal career

Sezer was born in Afyon, western Turkey, on 13 September 1941. He studied law and started his career as a judge in 1962 in the Turkish capital Ankara. He was a judge in several cities, and then worked as an investigating judge at the Supreme Court of Appeals. In 1978 he received a Master in Civil Law from Ankara University.

In 1983 he was elected into the Supreme Court of Appeals. In 1988 he was chosen as a member of the Constitutional Court, and in 1998 he became the president of that court. In 2000, he was elected as the 10th President of the Turkish Republic and started his duty on 16 May 2000.

Ahmet Necdet Sezer married in 1964 and he has three children. He is known for his humility; he has been spotted going shopping in the corner shop, for instance.

In his seven years in office, Sezer visited 49 foreign countries.

Sezer vetoed 65 out of 1034 laws

Some of the laws that Sezer vetoed during his time in office are:

* 15.12.2000 Sezer sent the Law on Conditional Release from Prison back to parliament. Thus Islamist politician Erbakan's prison sentence was postponed, but he remained barred from politics.

* 27.04.2002 Sezer vetoed the Law concerning conditional prison release and postponement of trials and punishments for crimes committed before 23 April 1999.

* 19.12.2002 Sezer vetoed amendments to Articles 67,68 and 78 of the constitution. These changes eventually allowed the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to become Prime Minister.

* 14.08.2003 Sezer vetoed the Law concerning "Private Schools for 10,000 Poor Students", arguing that the state should not hand education over to the private sector.

* 01.04.2005 Sezer vetoed the law that would allow foreign companies to fully take over television channels.

* 10.05.2006 Sezer vetoed Article 15 of the Law on Social Security and General Health Insurance, arguing that the law was incongruous with a social state.

* 29.11.2006 Sezer vetoed several articles in the Law on Foundations, arguing that it was incompatible with the Lausanne Treaty.The Law on Foundations is controversial as it deals with the community foundations of religious minorities in Turkey.

* 07.12.2006 Sezer vetoed Article 6 of Law 5557 on Changes to Land Protection and the Use of Land.

* 06.02.2007 Sezer sent the "Petrol Law" back to parliament, arguing that the control of petrol by foreign companies represented a national security risk.

* 25.05.2007 Sezer vetoed three articles in the "Nuclear Law", saying that there was not enough clarity on how privatization would be carried out.

Sezer wants to protect national economy

Ahmet Cakmak, a professor from Marmara University in Istanbul, has evaluated Sezer's time in office for bianet. According to Cakmak, Sezer has left the presidential position as a more statist and nationalist institution than it was before.

Although Sezer does not oppose globalization, his vetoes in privatization laws show that he has tried to protect the country's economy from being taken over.

* This article has profited from Erbil Tusalp's book, "Goodbye Honourable Sezer" (AÖ/EÜ/AG/EÜ)