Deemed inadequate by European Court but appointed to Court of Cassation (23.03.2018)

CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş has said, “The appointing of judges and prosecutors has turned into a scandal in all respects. The person who got pro-AKP lawyers through the judges and prosecutors interviews was rewarded with membership of the Court of Cassation.”
                                                    
CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş, commenting on the latest developments at a press conference he staged in parliament, remarked, “The AKP is creating problems rather than solving problems.” Yarkadaş, noting that hundreds of people were being held unjustly and unlawfully in prisons in Turkey, said, “In Şakran Prison, cancer sufferer Cemal Şahin has reached a state at which he cannot get up. However, he is not released despite this.”
 
Yarkadaş, noting that 78ers’ Foundation founder, HDP Party Assembly member and Özgür Gündem newspaper columnist Celalettin Can was also facing various health problems, said, “As if all this were not enough, they changed his cell without his consent. Can’s family and children are pressing for him to be sent immediately to his old cell.”
 
Yarkadaş, stating that injustice had spread to all areas of life, said the appointments of judges and prosecutors made on Sunday was the latest example of this. Yarkadaş said, “Regime-affiliated judges and prosecutors are the cause of great injustice in prisons.”
 
Yarkadaş, pointing out that the problems being experienced in prisons must be addressed immediately and solved, commented, “We are in a period in which hundreds of people are being held unjustly, unfairly and unlawfully in prisons. How regrettable that justice is being destroyed and trampled on every day.”
 
WHY WAS BASRİ BAĞCI REWARDED?
 
Yarkadaş continued as follows:
 
“How unfortunate that the AKP’s provincial and sub-provincial chairs, administrators and prospective parliamentary candidates have been most adroitly made judges and prosecutors. If one or two examples are warranted: former chair of the AKP Zonguldak Youth Sections Abdullah Akbaş, founding AKP Sultanbeyli provincial chair Furkan Barutçu and AKP Giresun provincial deputy chair Ethem Başer have been appointed judges.
 
Council of State Presiding Judge Zerrin Güngör’s daughter, Gonca Hatinoğlu, was appointed judge in a 45-second interview and Ms Hatinoğlu was installed as a Court of Cassation judge rapporteur without going to her assigned place of duty of Elazığ. This is called decadence; this is called clout; this is called a lightning appointment. The making of this appointment is the bluntest example of the decadence in the judiciary.”
 
Yarkadaş, also noting that changes were made to the exam requirements so that AKP-affiliated lawyers could be made judges and prosecutors, said, “They did away with the requirement of initially scoring 70 in the written exam. This requirement was dispensed with because many AKP-affiliated lawyers were unable to get 70. AKP-affiliated lawyers have thus been admitted to the interviews lasting 40 or 45 seconds.”
 
Yarkadaş, stating that the team that conducted the interviews was headed by Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary at the time, Basri Bağcı, commented, “Bağcı, having seen to it that AKP-affiliated lawyers became judges and lawyers, was then recommended by the AKP to the European Court of Human Rights as a judge. However, the European Court of Human Rights, deeming Basri Bağcı to be inadequate, did not even summon him to an interview.”
 
Yarkadaş, noting that, despite this, it was not long before Bağcı was rewarded with membership of the Court of Cassation, said, “This reward was in recompense for all the AKP provincial and sub-provincial administrators being appointed judges and prosecutors.” Yarkadaş commented, “These people whom Basri Bağcı got through the interviews and form part of the AKP’s very ranks will examine and adjudicate cases involving the AKP.”
 
THEY HAVE SURPASSED MONOPOLISATION AND FORMED A TRUST
 
At the press conference, Yarkadaş, showing members of the press a photograph on which “censorship cage” was written and which contained the names of certain social media sites, noted:
 
“The AKP rulership brought out a law yesterday that cages the internet and how curious that on the same day the media owned by Aydın Doğan was sold to the Demirören group that is close to the rulership. Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, puhu tv and blu tv will now be subjected to the Radio and Television Supreme Council’s censorship. The AKP is, on the other hand, aiming to amalgamate the media prior to the 2019 elections and emit a single voice. A monopolisation of this kind has never been seen in the world. This is a media structure that now surpasses monopolisation and has taken the form of a trust. The rulership does not want to allow society any breathing space at all. The Competition Authority must immediately block this sale and block the way for monopolisation in the media.”
 
REPLY TO ŞAMİL TAYYAR
 
With a journalist recalling AK Party Gaziantep MP Şamil Tayyar's comments on the FETO trials, Yarkadaş replied, “I, too, am following with great interest the argument taking place between Şamil Tayyar and Mustafa Elitaş. Şamil Tayyar says that a FETO exchange was set up in the judiciary and those who gave money were released. He imagines himself to be an opposition MP and is complaining. Mr Şamil Tayyar, you introduced the judicial set-up about which you are complaining. If a ‘FETO exchange’ was set up, it was the regime-affiliated judges and prosecutors you appointed who set it up.”
 
Yarkadaş, stating that the AKP’s Tayyar needed to go the prosecutors and tell them what he knew, said:
 
“The Ministry of Justice and the Board of Judges and Prosecutors must immediately move into action over the claims Şamil Tayyar has raised. Şamil Tayyar is additionally trying to erase memory of the ten books he had published through the Gulenists’ publishing outlet Timaş by starting this argument. If Şamil Tayyar does not tell the prosecutors what he knows about the FETO exchange and make a criminal complaint, he is committing the offence of concealing a crime. The Palace is disconcerted by these comments of Şamil Tayyar. It has assigned Mustafa Elitaş and Hayatı Yazıcı to warn Şamil Tayyar.”