Author: İsmail Öztürk
Cleaning Cannot Be Made with a Dirty Broom
The representatives of the six opposition parties, who came together under the leadership of the CHP, promised to return to the parliamentary system with the joint protocol they signed. With the return to the parliamentary system, they made some decisions aiming to reactivate the legislature and to transform the judiciary into an independent one.
If the opposition parties can convince the people and defeat Tayyip Erdoğan in the first general election to be held, this will be the first victory in the return to the rule of law and democracy before the transition to the parliamentary system. Returning to the parliamentary system is a fundamental political necessity in restoring the deteriorated political system in Turkey. But Erdogan’s departure and a return to the parliamentary system alone are not enough. There are many important issues such as re-establishing the deteriorated legal balance, preventing human rights violations, removing the debris created by decree laws, reforming the bureaucratic structure that has turned the country into a police state, neutralizing the corruption mechanisms that robbed the state treasury together with politicians, and eliminating policies based on social segregation and hostility. Strategies and projects need to be built in this regard.
Turkey has suffered tremendous losses in legal and human rights standards in the last nine years. The process of intervention and pressure on the judiciary, which started after 17 and 25 December 2013, continues to increase with each passing year. The opposition’s covert support for the moves of the ruling Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate his authoritarianism, by keeping quiet for some social and political reasons, has moved Turkey away from being a state of law.
The disappearance of the independence of the judiciary and the entry of the judiciary under the direction of the Palace transformed the state into an unaccountable and uncontrollable mechanism. Corruption and bribery spread through the entire bureaucracy. Politics and bureaucracy first plundered the state’s own assets. Then, by activating the mafia he resurrected, he fearlessly and publicly invested in all kinds of illegal activities that bring money in the national and international arena.
Maintaining his power with the vote of the conservative people with the claim and propaganda of a belief that prohibits alcohol, gambling, drugs and adultery, Erdogan did not hesitate to connect the illegal revenues of all these sectors to his own pool through the mafia groups he used. Even in the cocaine trade, which normally has a route far away from Turkey, Turkey began to be used as a center. According to the claims of Sedat Peker, the names closest to Erdoğan are actively involved in the organization of this trade.
In today’s Turkey, where the judiciary has lost its independence, the state itself has been robbed by politics and bureaucrats. The Turkish economy, which began to be associated with the mafia and black money, lost its credibility. The government, which was supported by the people saying “It steals but works”, has again sunk the country’s economy by signing debts that will mortgage the country’s present and its future. It seems that the Turkish people, overwhelmed by the economic crisis, will retire Erdogan and his alliances, who did not understand the warning given in the municipal elections before.
Turning corruption into a system, Erdogan filled the politics and bureaucracy showcase, especially the judiciary and police offices, with dirty and questionable names in order to maintain his power. While these names, who are in bribery and ideological blindness, became a legal shield to Tayyip Erdoğan on the one hand, they also corrupted the justice system by creating corruption pools on the other. In addition to getting rid of the Erdogan Government politically, this dirty justice mechanism also needs to be repaired.
You cannot dream of a clean society with a dirty judicial bureaucracy. This dirty team, which has managed to maintain its existence in every period in return for bribery and office, may support you in judging corrupt Erdogan and his party members, but the judicial system continues its pollution in a different way. There is no cleaning with a dirty broom.
Getting rid of the Susurluk process, which was captured by corruption and the mafia, was possible with a serious struggle of 10 years. The most important power in overcoming this process and removing the mafia from social life was the presence of trained and clean personnel in the police and judiciary units. The only power that corruption and the mafia cannot deal with is the judicial and police bureaucracy that cannot be bought. The opposition and society, now more than ever, complain by asking “Isn’t there a brave prosecutor or a policeman?”. All of the courageous prosecutors and police officers were unlawfully dismissed overnight with the decree laws. The educated and clean officers of the country were either sent to the prisons or forced to flee abroad.
Thousands of educated people, who were educated in Turkey’s own schools, who worked for many years, many of whom had master’s or doctorate degrees in the country or abroad, and who had no complaints or investigations against them, were sacrificed in order to protect a few corrupt power holders. The judicial system has collapsed. The police have evolved into bribery addicts outside the organization and torture addicts within the organization.
If the justice system that Erdogan has broken in Turkey is to be fixed, the work must begin with a repair from the place where the system was broken. The turning point of the deterioration of the system is the 17th and 25th December investigations. Instead of politically discussing whether the target of these investigations is coup or corruption, all parties to the investigation should be listened to and all evidence should be discussed in a way that is open to the public, in the presence of a commission composed of impartial lawyers and legal representatives in the Parliament. In addition, all files labeled as “conspiracy” in which the members of the police and the judiciary are ideologically accused can also be investigated by the Parliamentary commission.
Clean and honest police and judiciary members of Turkey, who were dismissed from their positions after 17 and 25 December and whose freedom and many fundamental rights were deprived after 15 July, are the pride of this country. They have been subjected to great persecution along with their families because they did not sell their positions and souls to the corrupt power and deep dirty gangs. After the clean officials of the country were dismissed from their positions, the state mechanism started to collapse by losing its mind and consciousness. Indicators in every field such as law, human rights, corruption, welfare and happiness have turned down.
Our ancestors say, “The valiant rises from where he fell down”. If you want to rebuild the country and turn all social indicators up again, I would like to remind you of the most important point that you have never included in your coalition protocol. You should start by reinstating all the officers who were dismissed overnight with the Decree-Law. If there are people accused of any matter, they will be decided by impartial courts within the framework of normal law.
