Arınç was speaking at a conference organized by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in İstanbul on Sunday. He touched upon a wide array of issues, including the HSYK’s much-denounced intervention in an ongoing probe, the Supreme Court of Appeals’ support for the HSYK’s decision, the coup plots exposed in the last two years and the inaction of past governments regarding shady networks’ manouvers.
He had particularly harsh words for the judiciary as it caused yet another crisis when the HSYK revoked the special authorities of the prosecutors conducting a probe into Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner, who is accused of falsifying documents and being a member of the alleged Ergenekon terrorist gang. “We do not have a conflict with the board. We only demand that it do its job independently of day-to-day political issues,” he said. The HSYK’s independence and impartiality have been questioned by many, including the European Union to which Turkey aspires to join. Several progress reports prepared by the European Commission have asked for judicial reform which will increase the transparency and credibility of the board.
Arınç reminded the audience of the Şemdinli incident to exemplify how biased the decisions of the board can be. Van Prosecutor Ferhat Sarıkaya had initiated a number of investigations into military commanders over links to a bookstore bombing in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district in southeastern Turkey. Sarıkaya was later disbarred by the HSYK in 2006 in a widely condemned decision and thus cannot work as a lawyer to this day. “A handful of biased members of the judiciary made the AK Party a target. We never thought about interfering in the judiciary’s work but we will not allow any new tricks by those who played with the life of a young prosecutor four years ago,” he said, adding that the Supreme Board of Appeals had disclosed its opinion on Cihaner’s probe by expressing support for the HSYK’s decision and is thus not a credible court to hear his case.
Arınç condemned previous governments for their inaction regarding the illegal actions of shady networks which have started to come before justice only recently. He stated that the burden of those unsolved murders, which happened before the AK Party came to power, lies on the government’s predecessors.
