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Top court rapporteur resigns from YARSAV due to political stance
In his petition for resignation Can argued that the association is no longer a professional organization for the judiciary as it does not defend freedoms and instead supports military coups.
He asserted that YARSAV has adopted the “friends and enemies” discourse of the Sept. 12 era in ideological debates. “Defined in the European Union 2009 Progress Report as the organization that ‘attempts to influence the judicial process in critical cases,’ this organization has adopted this mission openly and determinedly,” he said. Concerning his petition for resignation, Can continued: “President Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu had even written articles advocating conscientious objection. That was when I joined this organization. Yet it soon emerged that what they understood of judicial independence was independence from democratic principles.”
Can pointed out that this organization of judges and prosecutors was supposed to defend freedoms and democracy in Turkey. “However, YARSAV gave way to the creation of an image that it saw ‘freedom’ as a shield against ‘non-democratic’ attitudes, perceptions, organizations and discourses and regarded procedural safeguards as a means for overriding the merits of a case. In this context, it failed to refrain from accepting anti-democratic figures as members or presenting them to the general public. Going further, it defended military coups as necessary and part of the ‘right of resistance’ on TV,” he said.
Can’s petition contained striking assessments such as the observation that when Turkey makes progress toward a more democratic and liberal structure, YARSAV gives the impression of being too ideological. Referring to the democratic reforms in his petition, Can stated: “The process is that of making the republic no longer a power tool for the elites but a power tool for the people with a democratic and liberal content, i.e., that of the maturation of the republic.”
Noting that he had joined and supported YARSAV with the belief that an organization of judges and prosecutors would contribute to the reinforcement of democratic awareness and social responsibility in this process, Can thanked YARSAV members who defended freedoms. The rapporteur of the Constitutional Court pointed out that soon after its establishment, YARSAV changed its identity as an organization of judges and prosecutors and turned into a tool for political power with its media relations, member profiles, the philosophy it advocates, its role in constitutional debates and interventions with democracy.
YARSAV influences critical cases
In his petition for resignation from YARSAV, Can said: “The overall perceptions about YARSAV can be summed up as follows: In ideological debates, YARSAV took the friend-enemy dichotomy of the 1930s. In every debate, it tried to impose its typical militarist, pro-guardianship discourse and practice it on the social political sphere, which it saw as its rival, and it provided legal assistance to any other attempts at such impositions. It either lent support to or remained silent about lynching campaigns against pro-democracy judges and prosecutors who refused to change their legal stance. For these reasons that I do not like to write about, I resign from your association.”
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