The protest and cry of a jurist friend
Adem Sözüer is a criminal law professor. He is the Dean of the School of Law at Istanbul University.
He has always been on the side of rights and law, each and every time: During the Feb. 28 period, during the military tutelage period, and during the period when the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was making legal reforms. He has always been on the side of law, on the side of rights.
Sözüer is today screaming, rebelling, and crying out loud: “The AK Party came to power with the motto of ‘the citizen against bureaucracy,’ but now it is defending the bureaucracy against the citizen. With the new ‘security package,’ the powers of elected representatives and the judiciary are being transferred to the bureaucracy. In which democracy in Europe is a governor given the powers of a prosecutor? All people involved in criminal law are against this bill.”
Adem Sözüer also explained what would happen if the package passes:
He said the authorization to use weapons will pave way to extrajudicial executions. The police or the gendarmerie will be able to conduct body searches, even to the extent of removing the target’s underwear. The police will be able to detain a person for 48 hours without informing the prosecutor.
Under the name of the “relocating measure,” the exile penalty practice of old will return. The governor and the district governor will be granted prosecutors’ powers.
Sözüer is not a figure from the opposition. He is not from the main opposition CHP or from any other opposition party. He is not an anti-AK Party person. He is not in any anti-government group. On the contrary, he is a friend of the AK Party. He is a name who contributed to the legal reforms of the AK Party.
Look, members of the AK Party. You have already shut your ears to the warning of your founder, first chairman, and former president, Abdullah Gül. Now, at least lend an ear to your friend, Adem Sözüer.
Four mistakes in the ongoing Necdet Özel debate
Mistake number one is for Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, instead of attacking the decision-making government, to attack the chief of general staff, who is an officer of the government. This is extremely wrong.
Mistake number two is for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - despite the head of the government, the prime minister - to enter into a polemic with an opposition leader in the name of protecting the chief of general staff.
Mistake number three is for the “impartial” president to criticize an opposition leader elected by the votes of the people, telling him that he “cannot even be a piece of the toenail that the chief of general staff cuts off.”
Mistake number four is for the chief of general staff, even if only to defend himself, to join the polemic with the opposition leader.
Resign general, resign!
After the military’s recent operation to relocate the Tomb of the Süleyman Şah, recording the nation’s biggest recent success, two planes of the Air Force crashed from the air. Four of our pilots died in the accident.
There is no war, no operation, and no war games. But there is still a crash...
I know for sure that this will not even move a piece of the toenail he has cut off, but let me make my call nevertheless: General Necdet Özel… Resign!
