Turkish Constitutional Court caught red-handed
The European Court of Human Rights has just struck a massive blow to Turkey's Constitutional Court, which is the target of criticisms that it does little to protect human rights.
The Turkish Constitutional Court — once seen as a bulwark of freedoms and human rights — is now criticized for its inability to deliver justice to Turkish citizens.
The top court has issued crucial freedom-serving decisions in the past, such as the decision to lift the ban on Twitter and Facebook, and another that challenged the government's anti-democratic actions. Since 2016, however, it has been at the receiving end of criticisms over its hesitation to deliberate certain cases that might provoke the ire of the government.
The first troublesome sign was the Constitutional Court’s decision on journalist Can Dundar in February 2016. Can Dundar, the then-editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet daily, published reports on the Turkish intelligence service's transfers of weapons and ammunition to Syria. These revelations angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who deemed the information a state secret. He vowed that Dundar would "pay a heavy price." Dundar was subsequently arrested, and courts dismissed all his objections. He was released from prison following a court decision ordering as much.
Erdogan publicly criticized the Constitutional Court for its decision on Dundar. "It has been wrong that the Constitutional Court has put itself in the place of the court of the first instance,” he said. These remarks followed a slander campaign against the court and its head, Zuhtu Arslan, by pro-government media outlets. Media portrayed Arslan as having links to FETO, or the Fethullah Terrorist Organization.
