Fatih Altaylı reacts to Can Atalay case: 'It is suspending the Constitution'

Journalist Fatih Altaylı has reacted to the fact that Can Atalay, who is imprisoned in connection with the Gezi Park protests and is a TİP member of parliament, has still not been released despite the Constitutional Court's second ruling of a rights violation. Altaylı criticized the situation by comparing it to the period of the September 12 coup.

In his column today, Altaylı used the following expressions regarding the failure to implement the Constitutional Court's decision:

“A decision made by the Constitutional Court in accordance with the Constitution must be implemented, no matter what. Turkey's laws mandate this.

If you do not implement the decision of the court defined by your Constitution as the highest court, the entire legal order is in danger.

If the decisions of the highest court are not accepted or implemented, tomorrow the decisions of other courts may also not be implemented or recognized.

Once governments or those in power see themselves as above the Constitution, they begin to see themselves as above all laws, and start to choose whether or not to implement laws and judicial decisions made according to those laws based on their own desires or interests.

The end of this order means the disappearance of the state. The destruction it will cause cannot be repaired for generations. As the holder of political power, you may not like the decision.

You may not be pleased with the Constitution that you yourselves made and touted as the most magnificent of all. But you are obliged to implement every decision that is in accordance with the Constitution. You implement it; if you think it needs to be changed, and if you have the power, you change it.

But you cannot say, 'I am not implementing the laws.' This is very clearly suspending the Constitution, not recognizing the Constitution. The last time Turkey experienced such a situation was on September 12, 1980. There is no difference in logic between what is being done today and what was done on September 12, 1980. Both are the result of power prevailing over the law.”