The Judiciary Independent of Turkey

We are living the days when the truth is exhausted. The scene reminds us of the attacks of futuristic actors who came out of their graves after they have been awakened by ‘the establishment’ in its one last reincarnation. The target is certain. Yet the method is quite primitive. The legitimate politics is being attacked by judicial “time bombs”. All the bombs were set in and at different locations and times, and have been exploded simultaneously on the eve of 2014, the year that is expected to be Turkey’s year of destiny. We face a full-fledged political engineering scheme. Currently, the new Turkey has become the prime target and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ruling is the secondary target of the centers conjuring up android elements. What is being fought against is the new Turkey solidified in the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s personality.

Nevertheless, what is happening cannot be understood by employing the notion of ‘law.’ In extraordinary times, nothing but ‘the exception’ will determine how and where this process ends. Those who try to understand the events from what is on the surface will either be camouflaged elements or naïve and meaningless actors of the political operation. I noted the following during the February 7, 2013 operation (to remove the Chief of Intelligence from office), which failed and remained a sabotage attempt: “the February 7, 2013 operation is as relevant to the KCK-PKK, to the Kurdish Question and to the civil servants who commit crimes as the April 27, 2007 military e-memorandum is relevant to the Prophet Holy Birth Week, National Education Ministry and primary school students.” Similarly, following the developments this past week, the December 17, 2013 corruption probe is as about the “law” as the February 28, 1997 post-modern coup was about the Aczmendi (giving the image of radical but corrupt Muslims) unrest and the Turkish Schools (of the Gülen Movement) threat.” The issue is crystal-clear. The fight boils down to a power struggle through illegal ways. The fact that some figures who have spent most of their lives to tell, explain and decipher these kinds of fights are now writing pieces as if they have been captivated or being taken hostage will not

Of course, the intellectual vandalism that has been generated will not be able to subjugate the truth, the intellect and the morals. Once the dust is settled, the only thing that will remain is that the neo-tutelage centers will be narrated as the tin soldiers of the assault scenario written with the munitions collected throughout the years against the legitimate politics. There is nothing surprising about the neo-tutelage’s shooting at the legitimate politics over the shoulder of the judiciary, which is the structure of the old Turkey and lagged way behind the transformation trend in Turkey. The legitimate politics is tried to be steered in a world shaped by the current Turkish Constitution, which had created the most fertile ground to sustain the military-judiciary tutelage.

Political engineering attempts were undertaken and heavy prices were paid in the past under the cover provided by the “independence of the judiciary”. Disregarding the political, economic and social context, the judiciary has acted on its own many times as if it was living in a parallel universe. Similar developments took place when the closure case was filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2008, and when the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was shut-down. The same (kind of) engineering was applied when the parliamentary-quorum decision requiring presence of the 367 members (2/3 majority) was taken and when the right to defend in mother-tongue in courts was disallowed. Just as those decisions of yesteryears that were reached by staying far away from life, politics, and the agenda of the country did not turn into meaningful decisions on the premises of the “independenc