HSYK rulings should be appealable, says former Van prosecutor

Former Van prosecutor Ferhat Sarıkaya, who was disbarred by a decision of the HSYK in 2006 for indicting the then-Land Forces Commander Yaşar Büyükanıt, who has since served as the chief of General Staff and retired, spoke to the press for the first time in four years, saying he had not expected the HSYK to expel him, adding that he felt the ruling was grossly unfair. Sarıkaya said the HSYK’s decisions, which are currently non-appealable, should be opened to judicial review as this would save Turkey from more convictions at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Speaking of his disbarment, Sarıkaya said, “I do not think I deserved this.” However, he still chose not to apply to the European court saying, “I didn’t want to be paid compensation by my own state.” He also emphasized that he was a good prosecutor with a sound track record, noting that the HSYK’s disbarment decisions were almost always taken under serious pressure from various groups or individuals. He said: “I worked as a prosecutor for 13 years. I have done good things, I was a senior prosecutor. This incident most certainly troubled me, and also my family. It is not easy for someone who came from Anatolia, who was raised under difficult conditions and who believed in the sacred profession of being a judge or a prosecutor. It has passed now. I have opened a new page in my life.”

Sarıkaya said he was also surprised by the HSYK’s decision to strip four prosecutors of their special authority last week, after one of them investigated and issued an arrest warrant for another prosecutor. “The HSYK is an administrative body. It can’t possibly intervene in the judiciary. I don’t understand why they took those four off the case. I am really more concerned about my kids’ schoolwork and classes right now. These are the things I think about nowadays.”

Since he has been expelled from the profession, Sarıkaya cannot serve as a lawyer. He had to contend with some serious difficulties after the HSYK decision. “There was some financial difficulty, as I couldn’t get any compensation since I was disbarred. I sold my car to pay debts.”

Currently, Sarıkaya works as a legal counselor. “I look at certain cases, I work. I have to work and continue my life somehow.” He also said he did not feel he had been wronged by the state. “It is not right to blame the state for the mistakes of individuals,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I was just doing my job. Right, or wrong, I just did my job. The board made its decision. I might have made some mistakes. There is no prosecutor who never makes any mistakes. There can always be procedural errors. But it is not right to portray me as if I am guilty of something.”

Sarıkaya also said he had never left the country during the four years after his disbarment. Some speculation was made that he had moved to another country. “I don’t even have a passport,” he said, noting that he had spent most of this time in Ankara’s Sincan district, but then relocated to Çukurambar, also in Ankara.

The Şemdinli incident

In the November 2005 Şemdinli bombing, noncommissioned officers Ali Kaya and Özcan İldeniz as well as a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) informant, Veysel Ateş, were caught bombing a bookstore owned by a former member of the terrorist PKK. The next day, a sergeant was captured on suspicion of opening fire on a prosecutor during the investigation following the incident. The prosecutor was not harmed during the shooting, but a bystander was killed.

The trial of Kaya, İldeniz and Ateş continued for three years, but it began from scratch earlier this year after two years of hearings. The suspects had not been arrested in the initial investigation by the Şemdinli Public Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutor referred the case to the Van Public Prosecutor’s Office, ruling it outside its jurisdiction.

The Van prosecutor, Sarıkaya, ordered the arrests of the suspects, who were later indicted and tried in a Van court for “staging acts targeting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country, murder, attempted murder and causing physical injury.” Sarıkaya also started a number of investigations into top army commanders, including Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, the then-land forces commander. In the ensuing debate, Sarıkaya was disbarred by the HSYK.