Numan Kurtulmuş: Ambiguous areas in the Constitution must be resolved

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Numan Kurtulmuş answered journalists' questions on the plane while returning from Azerbaijan, where he had gone to attend the 14th General Assembly of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).

In response to the question, "Do you see the problems in the judiciary as issues that need to be solved urgently?", Kurtulmuş said that they currently see that many areas of conflict are within the Constitution. Stating that these are things that reveal systematic problems and produce systemic issues, Kurtulmuş spoke as follows:

"If you look at Article 153, the decision of one judicial authority is justified; if you look at Article 138, the decision of another high judicial body is justified. Especially in the field related to the judiciary, we need to build a system where there is no contradiction between judicial institutions and no power struggle between judicial institutions. Above all of these, in Turkey, the executive, legislative, and judiciary are independent of each other, but the institution that even has the power to make the constitution in Turkey is the TBMM. Constitutionally, everything must be put in its proper place; no one should be in a race of 'If your word is a word, my word is a stronger word.' This does not benefit anyone in any way. Within the framework of the Constitution, everyone's responsibilities and powers are clear. If there are ambiguous areas here, which there are in some matters, these must be resolved and it must be ensured that everyone acts within their duties and responsibilities."

"THERE ARE TRAP AREAS IN THE CONSTITUTION"

Reminding that there have been experiences in the past, Kurtulmuş said that they have seen the Council of State cancel a decision made by the government, placing itself above the law. Stating that they have witnessed the Constitutional Court positioning itself above political parties and the national will in political party closure cases, and that they have not forgotten the practices where the Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prevented the election of a president in the TBMM by inventing a procedure that did not exist during the 367 absurdity, Kurtulmuş said, "These are not things that happened by coincidence. These are trap areas that those who had the 1961 Constitution and the 1982 Constitution written deliberately, perhaps by planning, sprinkled into the system to create certain areas of conflict. Turkey needs to move past these."

News Source: 12punto