Had we be living under ordinary circumstances; if law had existed and the rule of law were respected; check and balance mechanisms had been working; if the principle of the division of powers had not been abolished, then an independent and impartial jurisdiction would have acted on the issues which Reza Zarrab has talked about before the judiciary in the United States of America. Prosecutors and judges, who believed in honesty and law and acted according to their conscience and not their personal interests, would step in and start investigations against the politicians and bureaucrats who were named in Zarrab’s court statement. And dignified politicians and bureaucrats would have resorted to resigning.
Today, however, the principles of personal and corporate political morality and professional ethics have been totally eroded, consciences have been blunted. Those who want to have us believe that society as a whole is responsible of all this corruption, tax evasion and bribery by depicting it as “a plot against Turkey” must know that these claims are directed at members of the ruling party, not the country or society.
Bekir Bozdağ, the current deputy Prime Minister and former Justice Minister, fails to remember the judicial shows that were staged in Turkey when he says “the U.S. judiciary is performing a theater play in New York”. When saying, “Imagine a trial whose judge took part in a FETÖ organization”, Bozdağ forgets that HDP members are being prosecuted on the basis of indictments prepared by prosecutors who are under arrest for being a member of the FETÖ organization itself. Bozdağ, who loves to talk big when it comes to dissidents or HDP politicians, can never be considered credible.
The AKP government’s discourse to maintain its power is based on denying every claim and document. It is the government that prevents the claims from being investigated through commissions in the Parliament. The commission reports are prepared not to understand but to cover up facts; and only the government’s supporters are invited to the commissions to provide information. This is precisely what happened in the case of the commission set up for the 15-16 July coup attempt and in the case of the commission which investigated the claims about the four ministers, including the former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan.
It is the AKP government that is actively preventing the claims and the documents from being investigated by an impartial and independent judiciary. Through judges and prosecutors who are appointed by the Turkey Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) which is controlled and directed by the Justice Minister and his undersecretary, from the lowest to the highest judicial organ, judiciary decisions are being made in favor of the interests of government members, and against the opposition.
-Zarrab’s current claims are grave and directed to members and institutions of the government. These allegations must be investigated through a parliamentary commission formed with equal participation. This investigation must be comprehensive and wide-ranging, offering impunity to no one.
-The members of the judiciary should take steps for an impartial and independent trial assessing the claims that have now been voiced. These claims are about politicians, members of the government, former ministers, senior bureaucrats, and therefore cannot be taken lightly. The lower courts do not have sufficient powers and are not the appropriate place for the investigation of these claims.
They think that the best defense is offence, and choose to call the individuals who have made these allegations slanderers, liars or coup plotters, however this won’t clear the mess they have made. Those who obstruct independent and impartial jurisdiction, and do not operate the check and balance mechanisms should know well that they are condemned by society’s conscience and their names will go down in history as the most dubious and tainted government to have ever ruled Turkey.
Peoples’ Democratic Party
Central Executive Board
30 November 2017