Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the statement made by the Presidents Commission of the Supreme Court of Appeals was a political statement in keeping neither with the principles of democracy or judicial impartiality.
“We consider this statement unfortunate for our democracy and judicial system,” Cicek told a press conference in Ankara. “The commission does not have the duty and the authority to issue such statements. Our democratic judicial system does not allow the use of any authority which does not stem from the constitution and laws, on behalf of Turkish people. Therefore, this statement is not only lacks democratic legitimacy, it is also lacks legal legitimacy. This is a political statement and it is totally unacceptable.”
The Deputy Prime Minister said the commission was not a political organ and therefore could not take sides in political discussions.
“It cannot act like an opposition party,” he said. “It is not the job of the judiciary to discuss activities of legislative and executive organs and processes of enactment. The commission which considers arguments of the public opinion an intervention in judiciary, violated Article 138 of the Constitution itself by taking sides in ongoing cases at a higher court.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Presidents Commission of the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that political pressure was being applied to the judicial system over the closure case brought against the AKP. The party faces the prospect of being closed and its senior officials banned from political activity for five years if the charges that the AKP has sought to undermine the secular regime in Turkey are proved.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin was another government official to criticize the commission’s statement, declaring it political and unnecessary. “Neither the judiciary nor the executive body should control each other,”he said. “The Turkish Justice Ministry and the government have done and will continue to do whatever required for the separation of powers.”
