Turkish judiciary battle: AKP 1, Gulenists 0
The minielection for the the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) had a clear result: The government won, the Gulen movement lost.
About a month ago, I wrote an Al-Monitor article on "The next battle for the Turkish judiciary." That battle was fought on Oct. 12, and the winner was the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. The loser, at least in the eyes of many, was the AKP's former-ally-turned-enemy: the Gulen movement and its alleged network in the Turkish judiciary.
The battle in question was the minielection held to elect new members of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). This is a body that oversees the allocation, promotion or inspection of all judges and prosecutors all across Turkey. It is, in a sense, the government of the judiciary.
Since the constitutional amendments of 2010, 10 of the 21 main members of the HSYK are elected by direct vote among all judges and prosecutors across in Turkey, which make up some 15,000 people. The other 11 seats are filled by the justice minister, his undersecretary, four appointees of the president and several appointees by other bodies of the high judiciary. So, the government, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, would already have a say in the formation of the new structure of the HSYK. But they also saw it as imperative to block the members of the Gulen movement (real or perceived) from winning the 10 elected seats of the board.
That is why, in the weeks before the election, the government promoted a list of HSYK candidates who joined under the name "Unity in the Judiciary." One of their spokesmen said to the media that if they were elected, they would "work in harmony with the executive." A rival list was called Yarsav, which gathered more secular/Kemalist judges and prosecutors. Meanwhile, the Gulen-affliated members of the judiciary entered the race allegedly as "independents."
