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Turkey’s Constitutional Court passed 26 articles amending the Constitution with only deleting 33 words in two articles related to the election of members to the court itself and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). The Court’s decision made public by its chief Hasim Kilic after a secret session did not satisfy either the government or the opposition parties, according to reports in the Turkish media.
The amendments passed by the Turkish Parliament in May mainly through the support of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had authorized the President of the Republic to nominate four members to the HSYK from among “academics from political sciences and economics and high-level administrators.” Following the changes made by the Constitutional Court, the President will be able to nominate members to the board only from among the jurists and lawyers.
The Court also repealed the stipulation that members of the judicial bodies like bar associations, Supreme Court (Yargitay), Supreme Administrative Court (Danistay) and Supreme Court of Public Accounts (Sayistay) should only vote for a single candidate while electing their quota of candidates both to the Constitutional Court and HSYK. With this change the voters will continue to be able to list the candidates according to their personal preferences on their ballots.
For example, voting for only a single candidate would have enabled candidates to be elected to the Constitutional Court from the 250-member Yargitay by only 40 or 50 votes while with the present change a minimum of 126 votes will be necessary to become a candidate for the post. According to the amendments, the President will then nominate one of the three candidates for each post in the Constitutional Court and HSYK put before him by the high judicial organs and bar associations.
The Court’s decision revived the political debate about the authority of the Constitutional Court. Mehmet Ali Sahin, the Speaker of the National Assembly pointing out to the article of the Constitution that says the Court is authorized only to rule on procedural grounds concerning legislation passed by the parliament, said that with the present decision the court has overstepped its authority by making changes related to the ‘essence’ of the amendments.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the new leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) repeated his party’s views that the amendments aim at putting the independent judiciary under the control of the government announced that they will launch a “No” campaign before the national referendum scheduled for September 12.
Rightwing Nationalist Action Party (MHP) leader also asked his supporters to vote “No” during the referendum.
Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) spokespersons said that they will most probably boycott the ballotting.
However, the impression from the AKP lobbies show that the members of the ruling party have welcomed the Court’s decision with suppressed glee.
Government spokesman Cemil Cicek who was in Nigeria accompanying President Abdullah Gul was the most outspoken member of AKP. “I find the decision extremely positive,” he told journalists. “I will go and cast my ‘yes’ ballot on September 12,” he added.
