Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Justice Ministry Undersecretary Ahmet Kahraman attended yesterday's HSYK meeting, boosting hopes that the appointment list would finally be announced. However, in a statement they made in the evening, the HSYK announced that it has not yet reached a decision.
The list is traditionally announced in June, but has been delayed this year amid questions over whether it will have a decisive impact on the Ergenekon case, in which retired generals and retired and active duty military personnel of various other ranks as well as tens of other defendants are standing trial for planning to topple the democratically elected government. Last week HSYK member Ali Suat Ertosun sparked controversy when he proposed the removal of the prosecutors and judges assigned to the Ergenekon case.
Then arrived claims that the board was also planning to replace prosecutors who were conducting a probe into the urban arm of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and another prosecutor who was carrying out an investigation into jailed Col. Cemal Temizöz, who has suspected links to the killing of hundreds of civilians by gendarmes in the 1990s in southeastern Turkey.
These proposals drew the ire of jurists and intellectuals as well as the justice minister, who refused to attend the HSYK's deliberations on the appointment list last week.
The issuance of the list turned, thus, into a Gordian knot as the board cannot make a decision on the list when the justice minister does not attend its meetings. In accordance with the Law on Judges and Prosecutors, all board members have to attend a meeting and an absolute majority must favor a decision in order for it to be approved. If the justice minister or his undersecretary do not attend an HSYK meeting, the board cannot make a decision.
Ergin left halfway through the deliberations yesterday afternoon, refusing to comment on the reason for his departure. No comment was available from other HSYK members.
The appointment list is highly anticipated by more than 1,500 judges and prosecutors whose new positions will be made public in the list.
 Several thousand people marched through downtown İstanbul on Saturday in support of the trial of dozens charged with plotting a coup d'état against the government, urging the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors not to replace the case's current prosecutors and judges. |
HSYK member Ertosun's attempt to replace Ergenekon prosecutors and judges has sent shockwaves across the country, with several analysts stating that such replacements would deal a serious blow to the case, which is referred to as the case of the century in Turkey. Analysts said such a move would allow illegal groups in the country to go unpunished and prosecutors would be hindered from any future effort to reveal their existence.
In the meantime, main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen stated that the membership of the justice minister and his undersecretary in the HSYK should be cancelled as the board cannot act independently when the minister attends its meetings.
“The government should not interfere in the judiciary. HSYK members will feel at ease only when the membership of the justice minister and his undersecretary is cancelled. However, the head of this board is the justice minister. Thus, the HSYK cannot work free of interference,” Öymen claimed yesterday.
Similarly, Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu, head of the Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV), called on all bodies to take their hands off the judiciary, adding that no one should dare play games over judicial organs.
A group of lawyers in the central province of Eskişehir, on the other hand, protested against the controversial attempt by the board to remove prosecutors and judges conducting Turkey's top judicial cases with an ad that appeared in local newspapers. In the ad, the lawyers warned the HSYK not to interfere in the judiciary. “We carry a complaint to the public about all those who wish to turn the judiciary into an instrument to reach their malicious objectives,” read the ad.
Who is on Ertosun's replacement list?
A Turkish daily released the names of judges and prosecutors Ertosun wished to replace on Monday.
According to the Bugün daily, Ertosun demanded the replacement of Ergenekon prosecutors Zekeriya Öz, Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel and Fikret Seçen.
İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Turan Çolakkadı are also on the HSYK member's list.
Bugün also wrote that Ertosun is not pleased with the head of the Diyarbakır High Criminal Court, Dündar Örsdemir. Örsdemir is well known for his investigations into unsolved murders in the Southeast.
The HSYK member also demanded that Murat Gök, a prosecutor who conducted various probes into criminal organizations in the Aegean city of İzmir, be removed from his position.
Rüstem Eryılmaz and Resul Çakır, the judges who ordered the arrest of Col. Dursun Çiçek -- whose signature was found on a highly disputed action plan against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Gülen movement, are also on Ertosun's list.
Though Çiçek was arrested on suspicion of links to the plot, he was soon released after an appeal by his lawyer.
Ertosun also demanded the replacement of İdris Asan, a judge at the İstanbul 9th High Criminal Court. Asan has ordered the arrests of several Ergenekon suspects.
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