AFP/Reuters
Candidates backed by Turkey’s ruling party won the majority of seats in elections for the country’s top judicial body, further tightening government control over the judiciary, state media said yesterday.
The weekend vote was the latest round in a bitter feud between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his former ally Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of using his influence over the police and judiciary to damage the government with corruption allegations.
Erdogan-backed candidates won eight of out of 10 seats in a vote by more than 14,000 judges and prosecutors of the High Board of Judges and Prosecutors Council (HSYK), an independent body responsible for the appointment of judges.
The two other seats of the HSYK, which has 22 members in total, were filled by candidates seen as close to the US-based Gulen, according to the provisional results published by the state-run Anatolia news agency.
Erdogan welcomed the result yesterday and said: “Our prosecutors and judges retained their honour and dignity and gave a proper answer to those trying to gain control of the judiciary and hold it hostage.”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also hailed it as the “victory of the free will”.
Erdogan has long accused followers of Gulen of establishing a “parallel state” and of launching a corruption probe late last year implicating the president and his inner circle.
The president, who ruled Turkey as premier for over a decade, has struck back by seeking to curb the judiciary and sacked hundreds of police and prosecutors involved in the investigation.
The parliament in April passed a law giving the government greater sway over the HSYK, which has raised questions at home and abroad about the state of democracy in Turkey.
But Turkey’s constitutional court annulled key sections of the law, saying it was unconstitutional.
The outcome of Sunday’s vote fuelled opposition accusations that the separation of powers was being eroded in Turkey, echoing concerns voiced by the EU last week about political interference in the judiciary.
“The winners of this election are our people, our country, and justice. With its independent structure, HSYK will walk towards the future with a formation that solves the problems of the judiciary,” Erdogan said in a speech at Marmara University.
The president appoints four members of the council. Combined with other government-backed appointees, this would add up to 15 members viewed as sympathetic to the government, local media said.
“President Erdogan is now in a strong position to further change the composition of the judiciary and intensify the campaign against Gulenist supporters,” said Fadi Hakura at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
Thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors have been purged or reassigned since December, when a high profile corruption scandal engulfed key members of the government and brought a feud between Gulen’s Hizmet movement and the AKP out in the open.
A senior justice ministry official said that “the parallel structure was completely eliminated” by the election, but he denied that the ruling AK Party backed the eight of those elected by a block sympathetic to the government.
“They say it’s a government-backed bloc but this bloc contains social democrats, nationalists and conservatives. These groups came together and prevented the formation of tutelage over the HSYK,” the official said, declining to be named.
Erdogan, who is looking to create an executive presidency in Turkey, accuses Gulen of building influence in the judiciary and police to try to unseat him.
On Saturday he promised further steps in the fight, saying the parliament will address this after it reopens today.
The AK Party and Gulen’s movement used to be allies, joining forces to battle those allegedly involved in secularist coup plots known as “Ergenekon” and “Sledgehammer”.
But a bitter rift became public last year when Erdogan moved to close Hizmet’s preparatory schools.
Erdogan blamed Gulen for orchestrating the graft scandal and sought to strip away Hizmet’s power.
Legislation in February boosted government influence over the HSYK but some articles of the law were subsequently cancelled by the constitutional court.
“It’s been like a divorce or a separation between two lovers. And you know when two lovers separate it’s a kind of hatred and that’s usually caused by betrayal. That’s why Erdogan is so angry,” Hursit Gunes, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party told Reuters.
The European Union last week chastised EU candidate Turkey for political interference in the judiciary, saying its response to the corruption scandal had damaged judicial independence and weakened civil rights.
“It shows that the rule of separation of power is being destroyed. Constitutionally there has to be a separation of power and the judicial system has to be impartial and apolitical,” Gunes told Reuters.
None of the candidates nominated by a secularist association of judges and prosecutors won a seat, the election results showed.
