Inflaming a potential legal crisis, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticized the Constitutional Court for “many mistakes” and pushed his colleagues in the AK Party, which is in power, to back an unprecedented challenge to the court by an appeals court.
In remarks posted late on Thursday, Erdogan addressed the expanding discussion around the rule of law following the criminal charge against Constitutional Court justices on Wednesday by the Court of Cassation’s appellate court.
Erdogan told reporters on a flight returning from Uzbekistan, “Unfortunately, the Constitutional Court has made many mistakes in a row at this point, which seriously saddens us,” according to a transcript of the conversation released by his office on Friday.
In its lawsuit, Yargitay, the highest appeals court, said the Constitutional Court’s decision last month to free parliamentary deputy Can Atalay from prison was unconstitutional.
Erdogan said that the Constitutional Court “cannot and should not underestimate the step that the Court of Cassation has taken on this matter.”
Protesting against what they called an “attempted coup” by the appeals court, the major opposition party, the CHP, and the attorneys’ bar association in Turkey launched a protest march in the capital city of Ankara on Friday.
According to legal experts and commentators, an unprecedented conflict between the two most illustrious courts has arisen. “The backlash from the Court of Cassation is an aggressive and transparent assault on the Constitutional Court,” stated Bertil Oder, a constitutional law expert at Koc University.
“Such criminalization of constitutional judges intimidates not only the relevant judges but also furthers the degradation of the rule of law in Turkey,” she stated.
Comment Template