mebusan

Mebusan, or Meclis-i Mebusan, is the term used for the lower house of the Ottoman Empire’s parliament during the constitutional era. It formed the elected component of a bicameral legislature, with the other chamber known as the Meclis-i Ayan (the Senate). Deputies, elected from provincial constituencies, were responsible for proposing and adopting laws, approving budgets, and holding ministers to account within the framework of the constitution.

The Mebusan assemblies occurred during two major constitutional periods. The First Constitutional Era began after the 1876 Kanun-ı Esasi and saw the first Meclis-i Mebusan convene from 1877 to 1878 before being dissolved by the sultan. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 restored the constitution, leading to a new Meclis-i Mebusan that sat from 1908 until 1915, when wartime conditions and political upheaval curtailed its activities.

After World War I, attempts were made to reestablish parliament under occupation, and the Meclis-i Mebusan convened again in 1919 in Istanbul. Its activities continued into the early 1920s, during a period of transition that culminated in the formation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara in 1920, which displaced the Ottoman chamber and set the course for the Republic of Turkey. The Meclis-i Mebusan is thus viewed as a historical predecessor of the modern Turkish Parliament, the Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (TBMM).

In Turkish historiography, the term remains a reference to the deputies and the legislative body that operated under late Ottoman constitutional rule, representing an early stage in the development of parliamentary politics in the region.