1982 Turkish constitutional referendum

In 1980 the Grand National Assembly was scheduled to elect a new President to replace Fahri Korutürk. However, the parties were unable to agree on a candidate, and on 12 September 1980, the Turkish Armed Forces led by Kenan Evren staged a coup d'état, dissolved the Grand National Assembly and started ruling the country through the National Security Council.

The NSC set up a Consultative Assembly and appointed all 160 members. Political parties were shut down, and those who had been members of parties were excluded from the Assembly.[2] It worked from 23 November 1981 and 17 July 1982 to draw up the new constitution,[3] which would replace the 1961 document. Evren claimed the 1961 constitution had liberties "luxurious" for Turkey.[4]

One of the transitional provisions of the constitution named Evren as President until 1989.[5] The constitution also banned civil society organisations from political activity, whilst political parties were banned from working with civil society organisations, including trade unions.[2] The Army was given a majority in the National Security Council, which was also deemed to be superior to the cabinet.[2]