(author known to editor)
WHAT WAS PLANNED BEFORE THE COUP ATTEMPT
and WHAT HAPPENED THEN?
(Italics are made by the author) the rest is from the column, and it is written before the coup attempt
“On June 13, (2016) the government submitted to parliament a bill envisaging a massive purge at two of the country’s highest courts, which many say will put the last nail in the coffin of judicial independence and separation of powers.”
Sami Selcuk, a former head of the Court of Cassation (Yargitay) made a comment about the draft
Regarding the substance of the draft, Selcuk decried it as the “last nail in the coffin” of judicial independence. “The planned system is compatible neither with the Anglo-Saxon nor the continental European system. It’s peculiar and nonsensical. It’s harmful,” he wrote in the same article for Cumhuriyet. “Such changes could be found only in times of military coup. In a normal legal order, no one can even dare to think of [such changes].”
Pointing to persistent government efforts to control the judiciary, Selcuk added, “We’ve never experienced interferences on such a scale in the past five decades. As a former judge, these are days of mourning and shame for me. [The draft] has prepared the coffin for the judiciary, which is already ailing and suffering from a crisis of confidence. I hope the legislature doesn’t put the last nail in the coffin.”
The only difference is that the last nail in the coffin was put by the executive not the legislative.
