ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an historic overview of municipalism in Turkey from the late Ottoman Empire until the last law reform in 2012. It traces the country's different periods of centralisation, de-centralisation and re-centralisation of local politics, explicates their most important effects, and analyses them in the political context of their respective political periods. The legal reforms of 2004 and 2005 were the first successful essential moves towards the decentralisation of political power in Turkey. A more aggressive way of attacking political opponents is to evoke a trial often on the basis of an alleged kamu zarari. Critics have argued that the latest legal reform, Law 6360, has overturned the Die turkische Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP's) previous commitment to decentralisation, and that the party is seeking to recentralise political power in the hands of the national state. Whereas all parties use trials as political tools, their use has become endemic under the AKP government for taking action against opposition municipalities.
