by Burak Bekdil
A survey, released Jan. 20 and conducted by Kadir Has University in Istanbul, revealed that the percentage of Turks who trust the judiciary in the country dropped from 33% in 2011 to 28% at the end of 2014.
Originally published under the title, "Justice, Erdogan Style."
Journalist
and anchorwoman Sedef Kabas faces five years in prison for tweeting
that the public should "not forget the name of the judge" who dropped
all charges in a mega-corruption investigation involving four ministers,
their sons and high-profile businessmen.
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That never happened, but the indictment against the opposition deputy was the precursor to how Turkey's justice system would evolve and become an instrument to suppress any kind of dissent.
Today, courtrooms can sometimes be places where people seek justice, and sometimes where acts of a distasteful Turkish comic opera are played. Recently Sedef Kabas, a journalist and anchorwoman, sent a tweet and called on Turks not to forget the name of the judge who had dropped all charges in the mega-corruption investigation, known as the Dec. 17-25 probe, which involved four ministers, their sons and some high-profile businessmen.
"Do not forget the name of the judge who decided not to pursue the proceedings in the Dec. 17 probe," Kabas wrote in her tweet.
Turkey's justice system has evolved into an instrument for suppressing free speech.
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Then came the case of Dr. Hasan Herken, a professor of medicine and university dean in western Turkey. In a social media posting, he mocked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "16 warriors," symbolic figures standing for 16 states founded previously by Turks in history. He later deleted the tweet but it was too late. He did not want to insult anyone, he said. Not good enough. He started to receive death threats, including against his family, and finally resigned from his faculty post. No one has been prosecuted for threatening the professor. Probably because prosecutors are busy chasing up dissidents and opposition figures.
Last October, another opposition politician, CHP's Deputy Chairman Veli Agbaba, made an announcement for the press in Istanbul and asked a few disturbing questions about the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP): "Has the government been negotiating with the global terrorist Yasin al-Qadi over a piece of [publicly-owned] land for a shopping mall? ... Is the Justice and Development Party giving a gift to al-Qadi? ... Has this land been given to al-Qadi's company without bidding?"
Erdogan's close relationship with Saudi terrorist financier Yasin al-Qadi is off limits for public discussion.
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Multimillionaire Saudi businessman Al-Qadi is not just an ordinary man. The UN placed sanctions against al-Qadi in 1999 and 2000, when he was named by UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1333 as a suspected associate of Osama bin Laden's terror network, al-Qaeda. The US and European Union also applied sanctions to al-Qadi.
But some European courts overturned al-Qadi's listing as a terrorist, and his name started to disappear from some of the blacklists: Switzerland in 2007, the EU in 2008 and 2010 and Britain in 2008 and 2010. All the same, under US law, he remains a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
Al-Qadi, whom Erdogan once referred to as "a family friend", was among hundreds of suspects in the Dec. 17-25 investigations until the judge, whose name the journalist Kabas wanted to remain in the collective Turkish memory, dropped all charges against all suspects.
Facing a prosecutor's request for the removal of his parliamentary immunity, the MP Agbaba told reporters: "AKP is using [the justice system] in order to whitewash its cronies ... Apparently, al-Qadi is not only ruling Istanbul but also the Turkish justice system." Agbaba may be prosecuted for stating that too.
Sadly, if they face a serious legal case, Turks would probably be better off hiring, instead of the best attorney in town, a senior official of the ruling AKP party. And they are aware of this.
A survey, released Jan. 20 and conducted by Kadir Has University in Istanbul, revealed that the percentage of Turks who trust the judiciary in the country dropped from 33% in 2011 to 28% at the end of 2014.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Source: http://www.meforum.org/5009/turkey-free-speech
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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