TURKISH JUDICIARY REPORT

 

TURKISH JUDICIARY REPORT:

THE PROCESS OF TRANSITION OF THE INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY TO THE REGIME JUDICIARY

 

As Stichting Justice Square, we are honored to present this special report, which lays bare the profound destruction of the judiciary in Turkey. Entitled "TURKISH JUDICIARY REPORT: The Process Of Transition Of The Independent Judiciary To The Regime Judiciary", this report is not merely a legal analysis—it is a reckoning of conscience and a call to action for human rights.

Following the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, Turkey entered an extraordinary state of emergency that quickly devolved into an unprecedented campaign of purges and repression targeting members of the judiciary. The principles of judicial independence and impartiality were replaced with a judiciary that operates in alignment with the directives of an increasingly authoritarian regime. Thousands of judges and prosecutors were summarily dismissed, detained, or even lost their lives based on baseless allegations without due process.

This report serves as a voice not only for the members of the judiciary but for all who believe in justice. Through dozens of documented human rights violations, comprehensive data, and deeply personal stories, this report illustrates that the injustice in Turkey is not a relic of the past—it is a darkness that persists to this day.

This report deals with the unlawful interventions especially against the judiciary and the process of liquidation of the Turkish judiciary in this process in which Turkey has moved away from democratic values, the rule of law has disappeared and the country has almost turned into an open prison. In this context, the mass dismissals of members of the judiciary, severe isolation practices, marginalisation policies and the resulting deaths and suicides will be covered.

After 15 July, systematic, discriminatory and hate-motivated violations still continue with the same intensity. The Erdoğan regime has created a "climate of fear" with the authoritarian order it has established, and this atmosphere has captured the judiciary. The judiciary has lost its independence and has become "the cudgel of the regime". Although there are national and international reports on Turkey, there is a limited number of studies analysing in detail how the judiciary has come under the control of the regime. This report aims to fill this gap with dozens of cases and details. For a better understanding of the subject, the developments and critical events that paved the way for the formation of the Erdoğan regime will first be summarised.

Ø The Coup Attempt and the Position of the Judiciary

In December 2013, the Turkish judiciary and law enforcement agencies launched operations involving ministers and bureaucrats of the Erdoğan regime and members of Erdoğan’s family in what became known as the "17/25 December major bribery and corruption operations"[1]. In these investigations, ministers, members of parliament, bureaucrats and prominent members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their families were accused of bribery and corruption allegations. A huge bribery and corruption scandal erupted, leading to a cabinet reshuffle in the government and major upheavals within the party.

Following the 17/25 December 2013 investigations involving ministers and bureaucrats of the Erdoğan regime and members of Erdoğan’s family, publicly known as the 17/25 December great bribery and corruption operations, in an attempt to discredit these processes and close down the investigations, the Erdoğan administration described the operations as a coup against the government and made allegations against the judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers involved in the investigations, without any concrete evidence, that they were linked to the Gülen Movement. These discourses were voiced by the Prime Minister of the time, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, MPs and bureaucrats, and were constantly conveyed to the public through government-controlled media organs.

In this context, the judiciary has been systematically and deliberately targeted, and large-scale purges have been implemented. This process started with investigations into illegal activities involving government officials, ministers, ministers’ children and especially Iranian-born businessman Reza Zarrab, whose testimony in the US confirmed the allegations in the investigations, and triggered sweeping changes in the Turkish judiciary.

The Erdoğan regime has introduced various legal and administrative regulations aimed at weakening the competence and functionality of the independent judiciary. In particular, fundamental changes to the structure of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) have left the judiciary open to the influence of the executive branch. These reforms were seen as part of a process that undermines judicial independence and poses serious threats to the rule of law.

After 17/25 December, when the corruption and bribery investigations involving the Erdoğan regime began, the policies aimed at ending and destroying the independent Turkish judiciary were transformed into a state policy, this time on the grounds of the 15 July coup attempt.

The 15 July coup attempt,[2] in the words of the coup text, was a military coup attempt carried out in Turkey by a group of soldiers within the Turkish Armed Forces who identified themselves as the "Peace at Home Council". However, as explained above, this coup attempt and its methodology have been found “shady” by the society and the main opposition parties. In this context, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has used the term "controlled coup" to explain this shady situation regarding the coup attempt.[3]

It has also been frequently stated that the Erdoğan regime has turned the 15 July coup attempt into an opportunity to destroy the democratic parliamentary system and build a "one man" regime.[4] Although the Commission to Investigate the 15 July Coup Attempt established by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey[5] repeatedly invited Hulusi Akar, the then Chief of General Staff, and Hakan Fidan, the Undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), to the commission in order to shed light on the coup, neither of them appeared to testify.

What is even more serious is that the report prepared by the commission, which caused great controversy, was not published on the grounds that it was technically incomplete. In response to a parliamentary question on this issue, Süreyya Sadi Bilgiç, then Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, made the following statement[6] : "The report submitted by the 15 July Coup Attempt Investigation Commission to former Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman on 12 July 2017 could not be printed and distributed during the 26th Legislative Term as it was not finalised. There is no report finalised by the Commission and submitted to the Presidency." This situation has resulted in the report, which was expected to eliminate suspicions about the coup attempt, being concealed from the public.[7]

After the 15 July coup attempt, which was accepted as "a blessing of God" by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, systematic and mass detentions and arrests were made against opposition groups, especially members of the Gülen Movement, and unjust sentences were imposed on these people by the judicial authorities, which turned into regime courts, in violation of the principle that there is no crime and punishment without law. In this unlawful process, people’s most fundamental rights such as the right to life, the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, the right to liberty and security, the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression have been taken away as a state policy. People have been left to civil death both in prisons and in civilian life under the influence of this hate policy.

The judiciary has undoubtedly been one of the places where these unlawful and discriminatory practices, which have become a state policy in Turkey, have found the most life. The judiciary has ceased to be the protector of fundamental rights and freedoms and the provider of justice; it has turned into a regime judiciary that mediates the mass detention and arrest of opponents. These unlawful and arbitrary practices have started to be implemented in all levels of the judiciary within the framework of a plan.

After the 15 July coup attempt, in the chaotic environment brought about by the State of Emergency (SoE), public officials committed offences of torture, rape, violence, threats, injuries and harassment against the opponents in prisons and detention centres, as well as direct discriminatory practices such as confiscation of bank accounts and assets. Likewise, other opposition groups were also severely affected by the culture of arbitrariness and impunity created by the state of emergency declared after the coup attempt. In this context, the writers and executives of Cumhuriyet Newspaper,[8] one of the oldest newspapers in the history of the Republic, which publishes in a secular and social democratic manner, were arrested after the 15 July coup attempt on the grounds of being associated with the Gülen Movement despite the lack of any concrete evidence. Similarly, CHP MP Enis Berberoğlu and many opposition journalists, writers, politicians and academics such as Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan were subjected to the same unlawful practices.

Ø  State of Emergency Decree Laws – Mass Expulsions – Seizures

In general, the main target of severe measures such as mass dismissals, detentions, arrests and confiscation of assets initiated after the 15 July coup attempt has been the opposition, particularly the Gülen Movement. Thanks to the chaotic environment created by the 15 July coup attempt and well-planned discriminatory policies, the Erdoğan regime has started to remove, exclude and devalue all opposition groups from the public and social sphere, especially those it considers to be affiliated with the Gülen Movement, and to impose the most severe measures such as detention, arrest and confiscation of assets against them.

In order to put these measures into practice, a state of emergency was declared on 20 July 2016. During the State of Emergency, a total of 37 State of Emergency Decree Laws were issued in a systematic and planned manner with the aim of completely eliminating the opposition from the public and private sectors, confiscating their assets and facilitating their arrest. A total of more than 130,000 public officials were dismissed from their posts by the Decree Laws issued during the State of Emergency. There were coups in Turkey in the 1960s and 1980s, but only during the 15 July period were dismissals carried out by emergency decrees.

With the Decree Law No. 672[9] , more than 40,000 public officers were dismissed at once. There is no other similar case in the world. Again in Turkish and world history, the highest number of judicial personnel dismissed by a single decree was carried out by the HSK on 24 July 2016.[10] The General Assembly of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors dismissed 2,847 judges and prosecutors at once with the dismissal decree dated 24/08/2016. It is seen that these dismissals were list-based, without the right to defence, and based on pre-prepared lists. Approximately 4,500 judges and prosecutors were dismissed from the profession during and after the State of Emergency.

On the other hand, 48 health institutions, 1,061 educational institutions, 800 dormitories, 223 courses and study centres, 155 foundations, 1,595 associations, 15 universities, 19 trade unions and 174 media outlets were closed down by the decrees issued during the State of Emergency in Turkey. Furthermore, 985 commercial enterprises were transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF). Similarly, 70 newspapers, 20 magazines, 34 radios, 30 publishing and distribution companies and 33 television channels were closed down by emergency decrees. Similarly, Bank Asya, which was seized and transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF) before the coup attempt, was also closed down.[11]

The value of assets confiscated through the KHKs (Decree-Law) and the Anti-Terror Law during the State of Emergency period is estimated to be at least USD 32.24 billion as of 21 July 2016, when the State of Emergency was declared.[12]

Ø    Mass arrests and detentions

In the witch-hunt launched by the Erdoğan regime, hundreds of thousands of dissidents, particularly those linked to the Gülen movement, have been subjected to terrorism investigations, unprecedented mass detentions and arrests. Grave violations of rights have been experienced in every field. This issue has been the subject of many reports and studies. In this context, when the data presented in the section titled "Armed Terrorist Organisation Membership Cases" of the report titled "The Ordinarisation of Lawlessness" prepared by the Democracy and Atılım Party (DEVA) is examined, it is seen that between 2016 and 2020, at least 1,576,566 people in Turkey were investigated for "being a member of an armed terrorist organisation".[13]

As reported in the US 2021 Human Rights Report on Turkey, as of the 5th anniversary of the coup attempt (2021), the Turkish Ministry of Interior announced that 312,121 people have been detained and 99,123 arrested since the coup attempt for alleged links to the Gülen Movement.[14]

In his statement dated 13 July 2023, Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç stated that as of 15 July 2016, the Gülen Movement had been targeted:

·            693 thousand 162 people were subjected to judicial proceedings,

·            67 thousand 893 people are still under investigation,

·            122,632 people were convicted,

·            He stated that there are a total of 15,539 detainees and convicts in prisons, including 12,108 convicts, 2,605 remand prisoners and 826 remand prisoners.[15]

In his last speech in the Parliament on 20 November 2024, Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya, in the context of the 2025 budget preperation works in the Parliemanet Plan and Budget Commission, stated that in the first ten months of 2024 alone, 4,177 operations were carried out against the Gülen Movement, 6,727 people were detained, 935 people were arrested and 1,317 people were given judicial control orders.

In order to ensure that public officials who carried out unlawful orders, engaged in torture, ill-treatment and degrading behaviour, and committed inhumane acts, decisions and actions beyond the scope of their duties during the operations carried out during the State of Emergency do not suffer afterwards and to ensure that they are comfortable in other operations to be carried out, these public officials have been given the "armour of irresponsibility" with the State of Emergency Decree Laws. In addition to this, civilian elements were also given this armour of irresponsibility. In this context, firstly, with the Decree Laws No. 667 and 668 dated 27 July 2016, it was stipulated that the legal, administrative, financial and criminal liability would not arise due to these duties and actions of the persons who took decisions and performed duties within the scope of the State of Emergency Decree Laws. Similar provisions were also included in subsequent decrees with the force of law.

Ø  The Transformation from the State of Law to the State of Regime

In the process that started after the 17/25 December bribery and corruption operations in Turkey and continued with the 15 July coup attempt, the Erdoğan regime has systematically and deliberately made a number of legal and administrative arrangements in order to suppress the opposition, especially the Gülen Movement, and to erase and destroy them from social, public, political and economic life. First of all, it should be known that the regulations made in this process were mainly carried out through the judiciary. The structure of many fundamental institutions, especially the Council of Judges and Prosecutors[16] , has been changed and many new legal regulations have been introduced. The main reason for all this is the Erdoğan regime’s desire to bring all powers under its control.

With the constitutional and legal changes made to its institutional structure, the state has turned into a¨regime state¨ rather than a state of law. Rather than the independence of powers and institutions, Turkey has evolved into an antidemocratic process of consolidation and control of powers in one hand. As a natural consequence of the transformation of the state order into the Erdoğan regime, all elements of the power mechanism have adopted this policy. ¨Likewise, the judiciary, which it took under its control after the 17/25 December process, has turned into a "regime judiciary".

Around 4,500 judges and prosecutors were dismissed during the state of emergency declared after the 15 July coup attempt. In place of those dismissed, approximately 15,000 judges and prosecutors were recruited with simplified exams and politicised interview conditions. Therefore, the process of cadre formation in the judiciary has been completed and all elements of the regime’s judiciary have been made ready. The judiciary has been turned into the shield and saviour of the regime.

People have been subjected to hate speech and crimes, discriminatory practices, torture and ill-treatment in detention centres and prisons, rape, threats, insults, abductions and disappearances in social and public life. These grave crimes against humanity committed by law enforcement forces and other public officials in a systematic and planned manner have been ignored by the judiciary. Instead of questioning these unlawful acts, the judiciary legitimised these inhumane practices with its decisions and made the culture of impunity dominant in the country. Arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, ill-treatment and violation of the right to a fair trial as a result of systematic, discriminatory and totalitarian policies have been covered up by the judiciary. This attitude of the judiciary has led to the spread of the culture of impunity both in prisons and in social life and has become a state practice.

Ø  Liquidation of the Turkish Judiciary and Construction of the Regime Judiciary

The State of Emergency declared in the aftermath of the coup attempt on 15 July 2016 has created deep ruptures not only at the political and social level but also in the judicial system. This period has gone down in history as the starting point of the Erdoğan regime’s systematic interventions, purges and criminal sanctions against the judiciary. This process, which aims to eliminate the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, has caused Turkey to move away from the rule of law.

During and after the State of Emergency period, thousands of members of the judiciary who were alleged to be opponents of the regime were dismissed, arrested or forced into exile due to their alleged links to the "Gülen Movement". Although it is known that these judges and prosecutors are not affiliated with the Gülen Movement, the Erdoğan regime wanted to purge the judiciary, which it perceived as a threat to itself during the 17/25 December bribery and corruption operations, under the pretext of a coup d’état and claimed that these members of the judiciary were affiliated with the Gülen movement as a justification for this. In this context;

·     Approximately 4,500 judges and prosecutors were investigated between 2016 and 2024. This number corresponds to a significant proportion of the total number of judicial personnel in Turkey. Considering that in 2016 the number of judges and prosecutors was around 15,000, one third of the Turkish judiciary was purged during the State of Emergency.

·     Among the dismissed members of the judiciary are members of higher judicial bodies such as the Court of Cassation and the Council of State.

·     Many members of the judiciary have been accused of legal and social acts that cannot be considered as evidence of crime, such as membership of the judicial association YARSAV, supporting independent candidates in the HSK elections instead of the candidates of the government-backed Association for Unity in the Judiciary, and alleged use of the ByLock application.

While the administrative and criminal investigations against judges and prosecutors were ongoing, the State of Emergency was declared on 21 July 2016 and then the State of Emergency Decree Law No. 667 was issued on 23 July 2016.[17] With this Decree Law, regulations have been introduced in terms of the trial and disciplinary proceedings of judges and public prosecutors, eliminating the basic guarantees in the Constitution and bypassing the disciplinary procedure in Law No. 2802. 2847[18] judges and prosecutors were dismissed in the first stage under the State of Emergency measures, without even taking the defence of judges and prosecutors, with the authority granted by the State of Emergency Decree Law No. 667. As of 2022, a total of 4,362 members of the judiciary were dismissed from the profession with 20 different decisions covering members of the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, the Council of State and judges and prosecutors of first instance.[19] Some dismissals were later cancelled through re-examination and appeal processes.

In his statement dated 24.02.2024, Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç said;

·     In this process, 4,006 judges and prosecutors were dismissed from their jobs,

·     3,888 of them filed a lawsuit,

·     He stated that 387 of those who filed a lawsuit were reinstated by the Council of State.[20]

Many of the members of the judiciary, who were reinstated with the cancellation decision of the 5th Chamber of the Council of State, were suspended again after the cancellation decision of the Council of Administrative Chambers of the Council of State[21] following Erdoğan’s statement that "we will pursue this matter and we will follow up on it".

On the other hand, it was announced that 2,230 judges and public prosecutors under investigation were under arrest as of 21 September 2016 after the declaration of the State of Emergency. After this date, suspensions and dismissals continued as well as arrests.[22] Furthermore 2 members of the Constitutional Court, 140 members of the Court of Cassation and 48 members of the Council of State were detained.

During this period, lawyers and jurists who were considered to be close to the regime were appointed to replace the purged members of the judiciary, thus completely eliminating the independence of the judiciary. In this context, only in 2016, a total of 4,610, new judges and prosecutors were admitted to the profession. Again, very shortly after, on 24 December 2016, an exam was announced for the recruitment of a total of 3,800 judges and prosecutors. In other words, considering these figures only in 2016 (4610+ 3800: 8410), it can be easily understood how the coup process was turned into an opportunity and how the regime judiciary was rapidly built.[23]–[24]

Ø Judicial Officers Left for Dead

Although Turkey has been frequently criticised by international judicial bodies and independent human rights organisations for these unlawful practices, the pressure on members of the judiciary has continued to increase. The Erdoğan regime not only dismissed the purged members of the judiciary from their jobs, but also targeted them with criminal sanctions. Most of the arrested members of the judiciary were subjected to isolation, threats, torture and other inhumane acts in prisons and suffered severe health problems. In this process, some members of the judiciary lost their lives in prison.

During and after the State of Emergency, many members of the judiciary attempted to leave the country illegally due to the unlawful ban on leaving the country. However, these attempts, especially those made via the Aegean Sea and the Evros River, resulted in tragic deaths. The members of the judiciary who lost their lives in this process had to resort to migration routes under inhumane conditions in order to escape the regime’s pressures. As can be seen, while some members of the judiciary lost their lives in prison during this extraordinary conditions, others faced tragic events and deaths while trying to flee abroad. Some of them struggled with difficult living conditions in the countries where they sought asylum and lost their lives in the process.

On the other hand, as a result of the culture of impunity that started with the State of Emergency in Turkey, torture and similar treatments have been intensively committed both in detention centres and prisons. In this process, as in all segments of the society, judges and prosecutors who were detained or arrested were subjected to torture and similar inhumane treatments. The main purpose of torture against judges and prosecutors was to force them to make statements against themselves or others. These physical and psychological tortures inflicted on judges and prosecutors during the State of Emergency were carried out with the knowledge and even with the instructions of judges and prosecutors who are colleagues of these individuals.[25]

This report aims to shed light on the effects of the post-SoE purges and cadres on the Turkish judiciary, the tragic consequences of the unlawful practices and decisions in this period, including the right to life of judicial personnel, and to reveal the scope of the Erdoğan regime’s intervention in the judiciary in detail. In this context, firstly, the process in which the Turkish judiciary lost its independence and turned into a regime judiciary and what happened in this period will be briefly summarised. The judiciary’s perspective on the rights violations both before the state of emergency and after the state of emergency decrees issued after the state of emergency will be discussed in general terms. In the second part, the short stories of the valuable members of the independent judiciary, which the Erdoğan regime firstly abolished in order to dominate the country, who lost their lives due to the injustices, unlawfulness and inhuman treatment they suffered both in prison and outside will be included.