Striking picture from CHP's Günaydın: 5,000 of 22,000 judges and prosecutors are AKP officials

CHP Group Deputy Chairman Gökhan Günaydın stated the following at the "Modern Law and the Politicization of the Judiciary" panel:

"Today, there are 22,000 judges and prosecutors in Turkey. 5,000 of these are people who were just yesterday serving as AKP provincial or district board members and were given robes through makeshift exams. When the CHP government is established tomorrow, I do not want to see a single CHP-affiliated judge or prosecutor on the bench when we appear before the court as a suspect, defendant, or witness. I do not want that because that place must be independent."

The opening speeches of the panel held at the Caddebostan Cultural Center were delivered in order by the Foundation's Chairman of the Board of Directors İsmail Doğan Subaşı, Kadıköy Mayor Mesut Kösedağı, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and CHP Chairman Özgür Özel.

Later, a session moderated by IMM Assembly CHP Group Deputy Chairman Ülkü İnanlı Sakalar was held. CHP Group Deputy Chairman Gökhan Günaydın, former Istanbul Bar Association President Turgut Kazan, lawyer Prof. Dr. Hasan Sınar, and journalist-author Nur Batur participated as speakers in the session.

NOT IN COMPLIANCE WITH DECISIONS

Defining universal law, Günaydın said:

"Universal law is not formed according to the internal affairs of any country or the conflicts in any country; it is formed as a result of that common and magnificent march of humanity. Universal law was formed with that accumulation. So, how do countries transfer this universal law into their own internal systems? They transfer it through laws. You go out and form a parliament. You make laws in that parliament and say to the citizen, 'This is a body of law that you are obliged to comply with.' Well, the question is this: What do we do if those laws are not in compliance with domestic law? There is only one place we can trust: The Constitutional Court. It is an institution brought to Turkey with the 1961 Constitution. We will assume that the Constitution is in compliance with universal law. We will ensure that the Constitutional Court also audits whether the enacted laws are in compliance with the constitution. The European Court of Human Rights will also audit whether this entire body of law is in compliance with the European acquis, in other words, whether it is in compliance with universal law. Imagine a country. You decide whether it needs to be named or not. It complies with neither ECHR decisions nor Constitutional Court decisions. Can we talk about law and justice here? Unfortunately, this is the situation Turkey is currently in.

"IT CONSOLIDATED THE BORDERS OF THE ONE-MAN STATE"

Turkey, unfortunately, passed two important constitutional amendments in 2010 and 2017 through referendums, which have gone down in history as the most fundamental characteristics of abusive constitutionalism. Especially the 2017 constitutional amendment consolidated the borders of the single-party, one-man state we are in today. We are now facing a new system in the country where, instead of independent powers that check and balance each other among the legislative, executive, and judiciary, all power is concentrated in one man, and therefore that 'government of my person' renders everything else insignificant and keeps its own existence far above the future of the country. In this context, the audit of the Constitutional Court has also inevitably regressed to the status of a defender of a regime that has officially constitutionalized a one-man regime that is already contrary to universal law, beyond even failing to comply with its own rules and decisions. This one-man regime says to the land registry director, police chief, population director, governor, minister, chief prosecutor, and everyone: 'I exist, you are nothing but my copies. As long as you maintain the feature of being my copy, I will provide you with various opportunities here. You will also benefit from the system. If you do not comply with this, I want to say that you will also get a taste of the state's velvet iron fist.'"

REMINDER OF TRUST IN THE LAW

"Thus, terms like the state's governor, judge, prosecutor, and law enforcement become concepts that we all need to use with caution. I am a legal professional. I want to ensure, protect, and preserve my trust in the law. I want to say the phrase 'This country has judges and prosecutors' with pride, but we cannot close our eyes to the facts. Today, there are 22,000 judges and prosecutors in Turkey. 5,000 of these are people who were just yesterday serving as AKP provincial or district board members and were given robes through makeshift exams. I am saying this here in the presence of our esteemed Chairman of the Republican People's Party. I am sure we do not think differently. When the CHP government is established tomorrow, I do not want to see a single CHP-affiliated judge or prosecutor on the bench when we appear before the court as a suspect, defendant, or witness. I do not want that because that place must be independent."

News Source: 12punto