Haşim Kılıç
Well, you have to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Chief Justice of Turkey’s Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, Mr. Hasim Kilic served a stern reminder to the government not intervene in the affairs of the judiciary:
After comments from the head ofTurkey’s top court that the judiciary will not be subservient to the government, ruling party officials and opposition representatives voiced their opinions on the debate on Tuesday.
Responding to comments from Constitutional Court President Haşim Kılıç, who said on Monday that “politics will not be able to encircle the judiciary,”
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Tuesday that “no one is trying to encircling anybody.”
Bozdağ added, “There will be no problem if everybody is engaged in his or her own business.”
Devlet Bahçeli, head of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told journalists that Kılıç had an important warning.
“The head of theConstitutional Courtissued an important warning as required by his position and lessons that were learned from the past. Even if late, it was an important statement,” Bahçeli said. “If other members of the judiciary join him in supporting that statement, the use of the judiciary for specific purposes, and a politicized judiciary, will be prevented.”
Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu also voiced a similar opinion on Kılıç’s remarks. Although late, he said, the remarks were good.
Kılıç, who spoke at the opening of the International Symposium on Judicial Reform, stressed that the Turkish judiciary faces important problems and that they will not allow the judiciary to be encircled by politicians.
“Yesterday we opposed the judiciary’s efforts to encircle politics and today we oppose politicians’ encirclement of the judiciary,” he said[4].
