As was clearly seen a few months ago in research conducted by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), which showed the current judicial structure’s sole purpose is to fulfill the directives of the status quo establishment and to protect the interests of the “deep state,” and which appears as the obvious representative of the status quo -- what one may also call the Ergenekon structure -- to say that the current judiciary is one focused on individual rights and dispensing law and justice would be an extreme case of naïveté. The practices of the judiciary over the last year alone can provide us with very many examples that would prove our argument right.However, the generally accepted suggestion is that one should hold out one’s hopes about a country as long as it has a properly functioning judicial system -- even if all of its other institutions may have become corrupt. Or, just the opposite -- the corruption of the judicial system, as in Turkey, or its having become politicized by deviating from the law, even if universal standards have been attained in many institutions, would provide sufficient reason to be extremely pessimistic.
As has been duly expressed by Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay, this is a country where “those who don’t want the country to develop have infiltrated key posts.” The Turkish judiciary, under strong influence from an ideological establishment stuck in the 1960s, has apparently waged a ferocious war on the developing tendency of democracy in this country with the pretext of defending secularism, whereas it is not possible to find a mass of people who have a problem with secularism except for a group as marginal as those found in other countries. Yet it is possible to talk about an extremely influential group, which, pretending to defend secularism, has declared war against democracy and the public will although it is in the minority. If we really have to mention a threat, that threat -- we certainly have to underscore this -- is against democracy.
It is also possible to state that an uninterrupted chain of conspiracies generated against liberal democracy and individual rights and freedoms such as the media, the military, crowds of agitated people who take to the streets as a result of manipulation, heightened separatist terrorism and ethnic and sectarian tensions -- which take the stage according to the conjuncture -- continue to take their toll at full speed, and it is thus possible to say that the leading role of these conspiracies has now been accorded to the judiciary. Could there be a worse catastrophe and tragedy than turning the judiciary and law into instruments used in these conspiracies against social peace and political stability, given that everyone will surely need this judicial system one day in some way or another?
The judiciary in this country has become badly politicized and has come under the influence of leftist ideologies and a certain sect to such an extent that it has become very easy for an average Turkish citizen to foretell, through a simple set of arithmetic calculations, what sort of decision will be made on what subject by which chamber of which court, so much so that even having information on which members of which supreme judicial organ were appointed by which president makes it possible to make a very accurate guess on what sort of ruling could be made by that particular judicial organ.
As a matter of fact, the current situation is so grave that it is almost certain that two out of 11 members of the Constitutional Court -- where the closure case opened against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will be deliberated -- will always vote in favor of laws, liberal democracy and freedoms as they were appointed by the late president Turgut Özal, just as it is almost certain that eight of the members appointed by Ahmet Necdet Sezer will make anti-democratic decisions. (One of the members was appointed by Süleyman Demirel.) Now, who can deny that an ideological judgment based on an arithmetic reality will prevail over law in this court? Who can reject the fact that the current situation is a result of ideological staffing instead of a legal reality?
If you don’t believe me, leaf through the reasoned explanations of verdicts reached so far by the Constitutional Court. You will see that the reasons put forward by the members who voted in favor or against the decisions appear to be as legally sound as those of all others. So, we can easily conclude that the problem of repressiveness and anti-democracy in Turkey stems not from laws or legislation, but from the archaic mindset and ideological attitudes of the justices. That is, it is possible to justify any sort of ideological view in these courts as it is possible everywhere in the world.
With all these reasons in mind, how likely is it to anticipate the indictment about the AK Party, which was prepared completely arbitrarily and through ideological assessments -- assessments that bewilder all Turkish and foreign democrats -- will be deliberated by the current Constitutional Court with legal sensitivities taken into regard? Do I need to point out once again that knowing that eight members of the 11-member court were appointed by Sezer, two by Özal and one by Demirel is tantamount to knowing that the internal balance of the court will thus be heavily tilted toward the status quo and anti-democracy rather than freedom and democracy?
Therefore, a rejection by the Constitutional Court of the indictment prepared -- based on fabricated news stories -- by Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, who was curiously appointed by Ahmet Necdet Sezer only 15 days before his term in office expired, will be a complete surprise for all democrats like myself. Today, it has become much clearer that Yalçınkaya was appointed by Sezer on a special mission.
I assure you that my biggest wish is to see my theory proven wrong.
