Kılıçdaroğlu warns: keep up the pressure and there will be an explosion

İklim Öngel
 
CHP General Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has warned, “If the process of pressure continues, explosions in society are inevitable.” Here are the key points from Kılıçdaroğlu’s opening address at the forum:
 
Rule of law suspended: We did not trust the rulership. It was moving towards the same destination as FETO. They said, “What did they ask for that we did not give?” Because of this, we said, “We do not trust your state of emergency. So, we will say, ‘no’ in parliament and we voted ‘no’.” At the point we have reached, society must see how consistent a policy the CHP has followed.
 
Struggle together: In this coup period, those with backing and those with money got out of jail. There is a single-voiced media and the universities are silent. Combatting the 20 July coup and the state of emergency that it has introduced is a requirement of being human and respecting people. We will struggle all together. If it comes at a price, we will pay it. We want to live in an atmosphere of developed democracy in our own country. The media, journalists and writers must write freely and universities must speak freely. If the process of pressure continues, explosions in society will be inevitable. We do not want Turkey to pay a further price. We do not want Turkey to regress further. We do not want there to be human rights violations. We want to live together in harmony alongside those who think differently, and we will fight for this.
 
Let the Constitutional Court sit down and think: The 31^st decree with the force of law has been issued. We see that, in conjunction with the Constitutional Court decision, decrees with the force of law are the beginning of a process that is suspending the Constitution. The political rulership has attained the power to make regulations of all kind outside the law with the Constitutional Court having reversed its previous decision. The Constitution is being blatantly violated. Article 121 says, “During the state of emergency, the Council of Ministers, meeting under the chairpersonship of the President of the Republic, may issue decrees having the force of law on matters necessitated by the state of emergency.” Are winter tyres a decision that it necessitates? Very many areas have been regulated under decrees with the force of law. Why? Because the government has suspended the Constitution through a Constitutional Court decision. The Constitutional Court, which has trussed Turkey up in this way and left it in this situation needs to sit down again and think. We have provided the Constitutional Court with a further very important opportunity. We have brought the regulation introducing immunity for civilians to the Constitutional Court. I hope that the law will knock at their door and they will say, “What are you doing?” I hope that sense will prevail.
 
They want to besiege the judiciary: The same method is now being implemented. FETOist judges were appointed to the Court of Cassation and Council of State. At that time, when we said, “You have appointed militants,” the retort was, “How can you say that?” A large portion of them are in prison or abroad. They are now doing the same under decrees with the force of law. They appoint 100 judges to the Court of Cassation and 16 to the Council of State. They will pick them just as FETO did. They want to besiege the judiciary. They want to silence all the judiciary that may oppose them. They say, “You will pass decision as we say.”
 
The judiciary has totally collapsed: A lower court says, “We do not recognise a Constitutional Court ruling.” Why does it say so? If the political authority and not the judiciary determines who is guilty and the judiciary has turned into an office that approves what the political authority says, the law has ended at that point. However much Article 153 of the Constitution says, “Decisions of the Constitutional Court are final,” the lower court says, “I am sorry, but we have received an instruction and we are not going to comply with your ruling.” The judiciary has totally collapsed. We are undoubtedly not saying this about all judges and prosecutors. But, when we look at the main actors and the courts hearing certain cases and the appointments consciously made to those courts, Turkey has consciously been placed on a certain course. The political authority determines who is guilty and the judiciary approves.
 
At the “Enough under the State of Emergency” forum at which state of emergency implementations were addressed under four headings, speakers Turgut Kazan, Rıza Türmen, Raşit Tükel and our newspaper’s Ankara Representative Erdem Gül took the floor in the sessions which they directed: “The State of Emergency in the Judiciary,” “The State of Emergency in Academia and Civil Society,” “The State of Emergency in Labour” and “The State of Emergency in the media”, respectively.
 
There is no hope over the law
 
- Prof Dr. İbrahim Kaboğlu: The decrees with the force of law being brought into effect are legally null. As to the most recent decree with the force of law, it is of the nature of a decree with the force of law that places the existence of the state in question. The Constitution cannot be amended in a decree with the force of law. And an amendment making a change to the system can most categorically not be made. But, this was done at the cost of eliminating the constitutional order. The state of emergency was proclaimed on the evening of 20 July for this. On 16 April 2017, the second period was officially brought to an end. This is now the third period. It is up to us whether it passes into the fourth period. There was hope over the law in the 12 September period. There is no such hope in the period we are living through. It is not something spoken of by those in power. The aim is not to establish the law but to eliminate it.
 
Turgut Kazan, Attorney-at-Law: There remains absolutely no judicial independence. This is the reality. I am a lawyer who tried to act as defence council in trials like the one over the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions in martial law periods. The situation we face today is much worse that that under martial law or at the special jurisdiction courts in the hands of FETOist judges. Under those circumstances we used to make our presence felt. Now, if you think, you have no presence under the state of emergency. This is just what the state of emergency is.
 
Union of Judges and Prosecutors Chair Bülent Yücetürk: The crisis has embroiled in crisis, not just the judiciary, but every aspect of Turkey, from the judiciary to politics and from international relations to the economy. It appears impossible to exit this crisis by lifting the state of emergency or making existing statutes functional again. The sole route for exiting the crisis will be like a constituent power with the reconstruction of the judiciary. For, there remains no judiciary in place.
 
Former European Court of Human Rights Judge Rıza Türmen: Elections cannot be held under the state of emergency. In fact, there is a clear provision in many democratic countries’ constitutions that elections cannot be held in state of emergency periods. There is a need for a new citizenship identity that moves beyond individuals going to the polls every four years and paves the way for actorship and not spectatorship in politics. If we can pull this off plenty will change. We are at a vital turning point. We will either lose everything or establish a new Turkey. We must achieve such unity for a new Turkey.
 
Human Rights Association Chair Öztürk Türkdoğan: With the Contemporary Jurists Association closed, citizens are experiencing serious difficulties in getting defence. A lawyer cannot be found in certain trials. Associations such as Sarmaşık and Rojava which helped people have been closed. There is huge pressure on representatives of civil society organisations. Many of our friends have been forced to go elsewhere in the world illegally because they do not have passports.  Lots of our friends are being threatened. The forming of gangs within the state threatens civil society.
 
Federation of Women’s Associations Chair Canan Güllü: Ten women’s associations have been closed. What came as number eleven to be closed was a children’s association. This association was closed in a period in which abuse of children is undergoing wholesale increase. Women’s centres have been closed of municipalities to which curators were appointed. There was confidential information about women at these centres and this confidential information was accessed.
 
Veli Saçılık: We have no guns in our hands. We have nothing apart from our being justified. There remains no oppression that we have not seen in Yüksel Street. They come crushing down on us and stuff us into cars. The prosecutor has filed 700 cases against us and says, “Don’t bring them again fine them.” I have fines of 20,000 lira. We are obviously conducting a peaceful protest.
 
Erdem Gül: There are those who are unaware that they are imperilled due to the state of emergency in the country or who do not think that the state of emergency imperils them. It is our duty to get this across. The responsibility lies before us of removing the uniform attire into which the media has been dressed. We are unable to do our own job that will aid society to exit both the state of emergency and these straits and breathe freely.
 
Gökmen Ulu: As soon as I heard about the rising I sought solace in the company of the president. I was the first reporter to hear the announcement. That night we showed how important and valuable the free press was. The CHP has turned out to be right. It made known its distrust of the rulership.
 
JOINT DECLARATION FROM “ENOUGH UNDER THE STATE OF EMERGENCY”
 
A final declaration was issued following the forum. The following demands were included in the declaration:
 
* The new regime created by the ruling party has become synonymous with an operation directed against parliamentary democracy, the national will and the Republic. In conclusion, the proclamation of the state of emergency is based on absolutely no just and lawful foundation.
 
* All the coupists’ aims are being realised under the state of emergency coup. While the coupists are currently behind bars, their ideas are in power.
 
* This siege that is taking our country step by step into darkness must be broken through democratic struggle. We, all circles of society that the state of emergency is targeting, make a 12-point appeal. The state of emergency must be lifted immediately and the reign of decrees with the force of law ended. Legislative and oversight powers must be restored to the Turkish Parliament and the rights that have been usurped from members of parliament must be returned to them.
 
* All decisions that restrict the freedom of assembly and protest and all prohibitions such as curfews that restrict freedom must be lifted immediately.
 
* More than one hundred thousand public servants regarding whom there is no finalised judgment that would warrant their expulsion have been quite literally abandoned to hunger. Their expulsion procedure must be converted into a suspension procedure as per Law number 657, and they must be granted the right to fair judicial and administrative trial.
 
* Taking account of the right to life of educationalists Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça and the delicate condition they are in, they must immediately be restored to their posts.
 
* With pressure ended on the freedom of expression, speech and the press, press workers who are imprisoned for the news reports, articles and statements they have made must be restored to freedom.
 
* Democratic mass organisations that have been closed purely for being in the opposition despite not having the slightest connection with FETO must be opened at once and the print and visual media outlets that have been seized must be returned. Regulations that prevent academics or other staff members who have been expelled or are not subject to judicial or administrative investigation from working in other areas must be annulled at once, and cancelled passports must be reinstated.
 
* Education programmes filled with sexist, discriminatory, anti-secular and unscientific practices must be immediately ended.
 
* Investigations must be launched into the AKP mayors and other politicians whom the AKP forcefully ousted from office.
 
* All administrative acts and public procurements made in the state of emergency period must be examined by an independent commission.
 
* Claims about paramilitary formations and illegitimate political formations in the army and police organisations must be examined by independent judicial organs.