The AK Parti’s Latest Trick
You can say a lot about the leaders of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (the AK Parti), but not that they are stupid. No, they are incredibly politically savvy. On top of that, they are absolutely determined to push through the reforms they want to push through, and to remain in power for as long as they want.
Last week, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that the amendment made into law under AK Parti leadership that would abolish the ban on head scarfs in universities is unconstitutional. The court ruled that the amendment should be considered null and void. The AK Parti realized that this verdict may very well mean that the court will also rule in favor of the prosecutor in a different case, in which he asks the court to close down the AKP because it intends to end secularism and to Islamize Turkey.
The AK Parti, nervous and afraid, decided to do something about the court. But what? Well, after talking about the verdict with each other for days, the leaders of this party have decided to come up with a grand proposal: turn the Constitutional Court into a puppet of the government.
The plan of the AKP is as follows: they want to push through an amendment that would make it possible for the country’s Parliament to overrule the country’s highest court.
The plan is incredibly smart in its idiocy; those who only care about ‘democracy’ (a simplistic and dangerous version of it) will embrace the idea. How nice, suddenly judges don’t have the last say, no, elected officials will now truly become the nation’s highest judge. Even court cases will be decided, not by small details like legal rules and prescriptions, but by what the majority of the elected officials want.
Nonetheless, it’s a nearly idiotic proposal. Judges should be able to function as independent people. They are allowed to make up their own minds, and they are the ones who, in the end, protect the people from government excesses. When ‘the majority’ oversteps its bounds, a Constitutional Court can come to the rescue of the majority and, by doing so, protect the people as a whole (yes, that sounds like a contradiction to all of you worshippers of unlimited majority-rule, but I promise you it’s not). If you throw that check away, there’s literally nothing standing in the way of the dictatorship of the majority.
As an aside, it’s interesting to note that the AKP wants to enable 2/3 of Parliament to overrule the highest court. Why? Because Turkey’s messed up electoral system - also a nice reform pushed through by the AKP - has awarded the AKP with just about 2/3 of the seats in Parliament, even though they got 47% of the votes in the last elections. In other words, the AK Parti proposes to allow the AK Parti to overrule the Constitutional Court.
O, how these people remind me of the Nazis. It’s utterly amazing.
Let us remember one detail: The AKP doesn’t have the two thirds actually. And they would need them not only to overrule the court, but also to amend the constitution.
This means that the MHP would have to go along in both votes.
All well and true but what you fail to state is the fact that the judisiary has become highly politisiesd in its executive rulings and thus has lost its overall indipendence. The headscarf isseu is apoling to say the least, in america women can wear it but in turkey its prohibited? and i sapose this what you call democracy? Its utterly wrong in my opinion and very backward behavior, the judges should question wether they are members of the Turkish Republic! In my humble opinion they should be tried for treason, there actions have once again took Turkey a step back in the wrong direction… Shame on them all.
To compare the AKP to the nazis is utterly shamefull. This shows your lack of understanding with this issue thus making your coments rather poinless in that you fail to mentaly understand what is going on in the country and what the judisiary has become, dont forget that these same judges or there afiliates could be part of a plan that was implemented by an underground nationalist group who were planing on cariying out terorist arracks in turkey against there own people. Im only sudjesting a conection becouse the 160 page indictment was found in one of the members hideouts saved on a cd 2 days prior to being anounced and filed by the prosecutor. Knowing this to be the case you can also make the same comparison to the nazis furthermore if an islamic nationalist group was found to be planing terorrist attacks what would be the outcome? This is lunasy, utter lunasy.
THINK.ABOUT.IT
Have u ever been in Turkey? Or really know more about that subject? I dont think so? shame on you!, because you are talking about a subject that you know nothing about it.
The allegedly planned counter move by the parliament against the court is more rhetoric than anything else. It won’t happen.
There is already some speculations as to the possibility that the closure case will be dismissed because the overturning of amendments rendered null and void the biggest cause for closure. Wishful thinking? Maybe. But who knows?
The Nazis and the AKP have one point in common: both are using democratic means with the aim of establishing a totalitarian system.