What the judicial crisis in Turkey means

Is Erdoğan governing Turkey according to the constitution or according to his own understanding? No one can claim that Turkey is governed according to the law and the constitution.

Turkey is currently experiencing a serious rights crisis. This is what the forces that stand up for justice and democracy and call themselves the opposition are saying. We should say good morning to them. Was what happened when the HDP's municipalities were usurped, and the immunity of its deputies was lifted and they were sent to prison in accordance with the law? Was the fabricated Kobanê lawsuit that was filed years later in accordance with the law? Was this open interference in the political sphere, especially in matters concerning the Kurdish people, supposed to bring democracy to Turkey?

Didn't those who voted in favour of Turkey's invasion of Iraq and Syria and for the war authorisations know that by doing so, they were fouling their own nest? Anything could be done to the Kurds, including massacres and expulsion, and these people could just continue sitting in their villas. The CHP leadership is now labelling the refusal of the Court of Cassation to comply with the Constitutional Court's decision to release TIP (Workers’ Party of Turkey) deputy Can Atalay as a coup d'état. But this is not the first time! According to the provisions of the Turkish constitution, Turkey must comply with the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The government has not complied with these judgments. The judgements against Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş are well known.

Those who criticise Erdoğan should first look at themselves. What have they done against the fascist escalation and the abolition of the law? Have they fought against it, or have they become an extension of the right? Erdoğan is constantly playing with the parties that call themselves the opposition. He makes fun of them. Now he says let's make a new constitution. Is there still a constitution at all? Is Erdoğan governing Turkey according to the constitution or according to his own understanding? No one can claim that Turkey is governed according to the law and the constitution.

Turkey does not need a constitution. Erdoğan is not governing the country according to the laws and the constitution. Take a look at how Hitler ruled and judge Erdoğan accordingly. When did Hitler rule Germany according to the law and the constitution? In which law was the genocide of the Jews enshrined? Hitler, just like Erdoğan, made the laws meaningless. He gathered all power in his hands. He undermined the institutions and created a permanent state of crisis at home and abroad. He allowed neither opposition nor democracy. In the end, he led Germany and the world into a major catastrophe.

Erdoğan is no different from Hitler. He rules Turkey by creating crises, undermining institutions and suspending the law. The constitution stipulates that the decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding for all judicial bodies, institutions, etc. Don't the members of the Court of Cassation know what that means? They know it better than anyone else. As judges of the Court of Cassation, can they, with their legal identity, adopt a position that contradicts this? That is not possible. You can't say the judgement of the Constitutional Court is right or wrong, we don't follow it. Why can they say that now and demand that the judges of the Constitutional Court should also be punished?

This situation is by no means independent of Erdoğan. In its current form, the Constitutional Court could sometimes make decisions that are not to the liking of Bahçeli and Erdoğan. Bahçeli has already called for the Constitutional Court to be closed. The recent judgement of the Court of Cassation does this de facto. Bahçeli's demand is therefore being fulfilled. The Constitutional Court is being rendered dysfunctional and de facto dissolved by the non-recognition of its decisions.

The 100th anniversary of the Republic was just celebrated. One hundred years later, the republic has become open fascism. With the Turkish-Islamic synthesis, Turkey under Erdoğan is moving further and further away from law and democracy. What kind of sultanate and dictatorship Turkey will become will be determined by Erdoğan's moves. The opposition is ineffective. We use the term opposition, but we do not mean real opposition. We mean the system parties inside and outside the parliament. These parties cannot be the opposition in the true sense of the word. They have not set themselves such a task. But they call themselves the opposition. This opposition is subordinate to the government. It is an extension of the government.

What did the opposition do when Turkey occupied Afrin? Did the opposition criticise the invasion even once? Did it form a delegation and carry out an inspection there? No. It condoned all the crimes against humanity that were committed there. It approved and supported the occupation and the attacks. Chemical weapons have been used in South Kurdistan, there is constant bombing, and the occupation zones are being expanded. Has the alleged opposition even once questioned what is happening there? No. It supported it blindly and unconditionally. It cried out against the claim that chemical weapons were used. The CHP in particular said that "our army" would never do such a thing and that no one could say such a thing. However, it was influential figures in this state who admitted that the same army had used chemical weapons in Dersim. Was it not the warplanes of this army that slaughtered young people in Roboski? Did those who unleashed tens of thousands of armed jihadists on the people of Afrin do everything in the name of justice and democracy? What did those who protest today as humanists against what is happening in Palestine and say that war crimes are being committed do when the same thing was done against the Kurds in Rojava?

Those who want to bury the Kurds in darkness cannot live in the light. You reap what you sow!

Source: Yeni Özgür Politika