My judge, your judge, my prosecutor, your prosecutor
The files of active and formerly active judges and prosecutors in several provinces have been examined for some time, their relationships being scrutinized. This research is to determine, “Is that judge from us? Is this prosecutor a parallel?” This research somehow blows up in Istanbul, exploding the rule of law with it.
A court makes a decision but it is not carried out. The group that is against the group that has made the decision considers the decision null and void and as if that was not enough, the judges who made this decision are immediately relocated. Strange, but these “unlawful” developments are covered in our laws. The claims of the Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, corruption scandal has caused panic in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP); this panic has triggered new arrangements, such as special laws that place justice under the control of the executive. Anything unlawful now has a place in our laws. Our laws allow it and rule of law goes in the trash bin.
The legal disaster that has been experienced over the decision to release our colleague, Hidayet Karaca, and 72 police chiefs is showing us this:
Even though the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) 27/4 says the court’s decision is definite, and it may say so, it is not applied.
The safeguards for judges and prosecutors do not exist anymore. Article 44 of the Law on Judges and Prosecutors states a judge or prosecutor cannot be dismissed unless there has been an investigation or a document drawn up about them. The two judges who decided to release Karaca and 72 police chiefs were discharged; an inspector prepared a document about them in a couple of hours, and then it was covered by the laws.
Judges and prosecutors are contradicting each other politically. The legal guarantees of arrested people disappear. It is a shocking example of how justice is controlled by the executive.
Unprecedented
This is a legal disaster that is unprecedented in the history of the Republic; a doctoral thesis should be written about it. If there is such arbitrary management in a country, then there is no law left for anybody to take refuge in. It is the day when new Constitutional Court chair Zühtü Arslan warned the government, the community and the world of justice.
He may warn as much as he wants. The heads of high courts and the head of the Bar Association of Turkey have made the same warnings before, but who cares? Arbitrariness does not have any boundaries. In the face of this disaster, they still continue to blame each other: “They took orders from there; we have documents.”
Take note history, law has disappeared in Turkey.
Twelve ambassadors
In the past 10 years, on different dates and for different periods, we have withdrawn our Washington, Paris, Baghdad, Vatican, Vienna, Damascus, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Libya, Stockholm, Sanaa and Lisbon ambassadors, either because there was a bilateral conflict or because that country said “Armenian genocide.”
There is no such record in the history of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As our foreign policy fails, they are withdrawing ambassadors, whatever good this may bring; also, as if those countries ever cared much…
If you are withdrawing your ambassadors from these countries because they said “Armenian genocide,” then why can’t you withdraw your ambassadors from Berlin, Moscow and the EU?
