Erdoğan attended the sixth general assembly meeting of the Anatolian Lions Businessmen’s Association (ASKON) in İstanbul on Saturday, where he commented on the investigation into the alleged Sledgehammer coup plot
He said the enforcement of laws was significant for the future of the country. “If institutions are being subjected to a purge, so to speak, nobody should be uncomfortable about this, and this should proceed. If it doesn’t and things continue as they used to, our descendants would face it and its cost would be much heavier,” he stressed. Sixty-seven officers, both retired and on active duty and including former naval and air forces commanders, were detained last week as part of the investigation into the Sledgehammer plot. Of those detained, 33 have so far been arrested by the court.
Erdoğan also criticized the current legal procedure for launching and finalizing political party closure cases and stated that Parliament should be the entity to decide whether a closure case should be opened against a political party, in order to stay in line with international democratic norms.
“The judiciary can now intervene in the executive branch as it pleases. The closure of a political party possessing 65 percent of all the seats in Parliament, or let it be the smallest there, it doesn’t matter, even so, is between two lips. Is it possible to accept that? If there was a culprit, then he should pay for his actions, but convicting a legal entity and forcing it to bear the burden is not in line with democracy,’’ he said, adding that judicial reform is urgently needed.
Tensions are high in the country over the possibility of a new closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals prepared an indictment against Erdoğan’s governing party in 2008, but the Constitutional Court ruled against party closure.
