|
Turkey launched a mass new purge of the police and judiciary yesterday as parliament debated controversial legal reforms that have heightened the crisis engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. |
Around 470 police were sacked or reassigned in the capital Ankara and another dozen police chiefs were removed from their posts in the western port city of Izmi, local media reported.
It followed a similar move on Tuesday by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) which removed 96 judges and prosecutors from their jobs.
It is the latest in a series of mass shake-ups since the eruption in mid-December of a corruption scandal targeting several top politicians and business leaders including Erdogan allies.
At least 2,000 police and prosecutors have been dismissed or reassigned in recent weeks in what critics have blasted as government efforts to stifle the graft probe.
Erdogan, on a visit to Brussels on Tuesday to try to advance Turkey’s EU membership bid, defended the government moves to tighten its control of the judiciary despite concerns at home and abroad.
Those who fell victim to the latest reshuffle include five chief prosecutors and other senior figures who oversaw the trials against hundreds of top military officers convicted of plotting against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
The purge extended to the other sectors at the weekend, with the dismissal of high-ranking officials at the top banking watchdog, communications regulatory body and state television.
Dozens of people including the sons of ministers, and business leaders were rounded up a month ago on allegations of bribery in construction projects, money laundering, gold smuggling and illicit dealings with Iran, setting off the worst crisis in Erdogan’s 11-year rule.
But the prime minister insists it is a “coup plot” by supporters of exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time AKP supporter, to destabilise the government ahead of March local elections.
The turmoil has also had a major impact on the economy, sending the lira tumbling to record lows almost daily and jeopardising government growth targets.
In Brussels, the prime minister refused to budge on the reforms despite EU concerns about the threat to the independence of the judiciary, a key criteria for membership of the European club.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Erdogan that respect for rule of law and independence of the judiciary were basic principles of democracy and essential conditions for EU membership.
Erdogan, a feisty leader who bristles at open criticism, scolded EU leaders for raising the dispute in public.
“The judiciary should not go beyond its defined mission and mandate. This is what we’re doing. Anything else is misinformation and disinformation,” Erdogan said.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy said he had urged Erdogan “not to backtrack on achievements and to assure that the judiciary is able to function without discrimination or preference, in a transparent and impartial manner”.
The Turkish parliament is this week debating the bill, which notably calls for a greater government say in appointments at the HSYK, the country’s top independent judicial body.
But the opposition has been using a variety of tactics to try to stall the discussions on what it considers unconstitutional legislation.
“Nobody has faith in the rule of law and the democracy anymore,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of main opposition Republican People’s Party, as he unveiled its new slogan ahead of the elections: “Turkey’s Unifying Power”.
But the head of the Turkish Bar Association Metin Feyzioglu defended the reforms, saying: “For justice, we have to introduce an efficient, independent and impartial system.”
The corruption scandal has sparked new protests against Erdogan after he faced down a wave of nationwide anti-government demonstrations in June.
Turks have come out on to the streets to demand his resignation over the corruption scandal and what many see as his increasingly authoritarian rule, including recent moves to clamp down on the Internet.
Gulen meanwhile, in his first media interview since the crisis erupted, warned that Turks were “upset that in the last two years the democratic progress is now being reversed”.
He also told the Wall Street Journal he was worried about the government’s moves to try to repair ties with the army, which has led coups against three previous administrations since 1960 as self-declared guardians of the secular state.
The purge of the judiciary and police has brought a corruption investigation shaking the government to a grinding halt and could undermine confidence in state institutions, senior legal figures and the opposition said yesterday.
“Turkey is ablaze with the justice agenda,” said Feyzioglu, chairman of the Turkish Bar Association. “Everyone in the country has started to ask when there is an investigation or trial what side the judge, prosecutor or police officer is on. The foundation of the state and the country’s legal order has been shaken.”
“While the government claims that it is fighting against a parallel structure, it is actually closing off the corruption investigations ... It is taking away those who know their cases best. It causes a great deal of harm,” said Murat Arslan, chairman of the YARSAV association of judges and prosecutors.
“It is quite clear there is political intervention here ... they are quite clearly intimidating the whole of the judiciary. It is sending the message that ‘you cannot conduct an investigation which touches me’,” he told Reuters.
The state plays a strong role in Turkish political culture, often at the expense of individual liberties. The sight of open institutional feuding can only raise public concern where crises in the past have taken the form of army coups.
Erdogan has essentially banished the army from politics in 11 years in power. His popularity seems as yet largely unaffected by the current turmoil and there is no sign of the summer demonstrations that shook his government reigniting on a similar scale.