While justice dies on November 10, Atatürk lives

Turkey entered November 10 amidst a major state crisis. 

A first in the world occurred… A legal scandal… The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation filed a criminal complaint against the members of the Constitutional Court (AYM). 

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The Constitutional Court ruled that Can Atalay, who was elected as a member of parliament while imprisoned in the Gezi case, should be released immediately in accordance with clear laws. The Court of Cassation not only refused to comply with this ruling but also harshly criticized the members of the Constitutional Court who issued it and filed a criminal complaint against them. 

Yet, the rulings of the Constitutional Court were binding for the Court of Cassation as well!

The decision of the Court of Cassation caused a major backlash among broad segments of society that defend the rule of law in Turkey. 

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On the night connecting November 9 to November 10, we watched the new leader of the CHP, Özgür Özel, with his parliamentary group in the Grand National Assembly. The Assembly had closed, but CHP deputies had begun a 'justice vigil' in the Parliament. 

CHP Chairman Özel said; 'A clique within the judiciary is challenging the Constitution with the courage they receive from the AKP and MHP. This is an attempted coup. If you challenge the Constitution, how can we ensure public order?' 

In statements made by the country's respected legal experts and bar associations, these members of the Court of Cassation were accused of committing constitutional crimes… They even argued that an act of insurrection against the Constitution was being carried out through the judiciary. 

The rule of law and faith in justice have once again suffered a major blow. 

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The 'justice vigil' that began in the Parliament on the night of November 10 was, in fact, a vigil for the belief in and commitment to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's legal revolutions. 

* February 1926 Turkish Civil Code.

* March 1926 Turkish Penal Code

* June 1926 Code of Civil Procedure

* October 1926 Commercial Code

* August 1929 Code of Criminal Procedure

* September 1929 Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law

It was Atatürk's legal revolution that carried Turkish society hundreds of years ahead of the religious societies it resembled, and of course, it is impossible to explain this revolution with the 6 lines I have listed… 

Atatürk's legal revolution, which has no equal in the world, had turned a society in the darkness of the Middle Ages into a nation.

Law had been severed from religious influence through the secular revolution… As in the lines of Nâzım, 'women, whose place at our table comes after our oxen,' were accepted as equal citizens before the law. 

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National sovereignty, the exercise of this sovereignty by deputies in the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey), the oversight of the government, the acceptance of every citizen as equal before the law, and legal security became possible through Atatürk's secular legal revolution. 

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When you eliminate the law, nothing remains of Atatürk's Turkey… 

With the AKP, the judiciary has become largely politicized. 

The equality of citizens before the law has almost disappeared. 

The penal system has been used as a silencer on dissidents through forced and fabricated operations. 

As the law has been wounded, our Republic, our nation-state, and our unity and solidarity have been wounded. Faith in justice has never been this low. 

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Today, on November 10, despite all the attacks by the AKP and the imperialism that brought them to power, and all the efforts to erase and make people forget him, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk continues to illuminate our path with his light. 

Atatürk, with his thoughts and revolutions, fights against reactionism in every field of life. 

He grows younger every November 10… 

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While CHP deputies were defending Atatürk's revolutions with a justice vigil in the Gazi Parliament on the night coinciding with November 10, the Presidency of Religious Affairs did not mention his name again…

Are we surprised?

We know and recognize the extensions of the mentality that showered fatwas stating 'his execution is permissible' from British planes for Atatürk and his heroic comrades-in-arms during the years of the National Struggle…

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On November 10, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is once again a light with his revolutions and thoughts. We will live to see it; we will emerge from the constitutional crisis created by the AKP's judicial operations by clinging once again to the foundations of the Great Leader.

There is no other way…