Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Amme Idaresi Dergisi, cilt.42, sa.4, ss.25-57, 2009 (SSCI)
'Public Servant' is a vital concept in the practice of Criminal Law, since under Turkish Penal Code, some actions are considered crime only if the perpetrator/victim is a civil servant Turkish. Moreover, with respect to some crimes, the perpetrator/victim's civil servant status is seen as an aggravating factor. Article 6/1-c of Turkish Penal Code No. 5237, which was put into effect on 1 June 2005, defines the term 'public servant as 'a person who holds a government position by election or appointment and who participates in public activities and actions'. The term 'public activity', being used by the Turkish Penal Code is in fact not an embedded concept. There-fore, the problem of determining who is and who is not a public servant still persists in the practice of penal codes. In order to eliminate this problem, firstly, case laws re-ported when Law No. 765 was in force should be taken as basis. In others words, people conducting civil services should be considered public servants. Besides, in view of the lawmaker's purpose in enforcing the said provision, regarding only a small part of those conducting public services as civil servant might prevent inclusive understanding of the 'civil servant' concept, thus avoiding drawbacks in respect of constitutional state.