26 November 2009 / BUGÜN GÜLAY GÖKTÜRK,
The there-are-pressures-on-the-judiciary campaign that the Turkish Bar Association (TBB) waged in order to create a wiretapping paranoia could not live up to their expectations. Out of 78 bar associations invited to the meeting held by the TBB in Ankara, 22 did not attend and boycotted it.
Those that attended prevented a joint declaration from being issued, thereby saving the bar associations from being instrumental in the creation of a coup atmosphere that pro-Ergenekon people are seeking to bring about. This is an important development. For the first time in Turkey, placards reading “pro-coup bar associations” were hung, and some bar associations parted ways with the bar associations these placards refer to. We should expect this development to influence prosecutors and judges working in other areas of the judiciary. This row is a healthy one. The noise we hear is the one coming from the destruction of the ideological hegemony of despots.
