THE JUDICIARY IN TURKEY:
INEFFICIENT AND UNDER POLITICAL CONTROL

In recent years, Turkey has experienced a massive deterioration in the independence and impartiality of both the judiciary and the adherence to the rule of law.

This decline began in 2014, when the Union in Judiciary Platform1, a group endorsed by the Turkish Government, won the election for the Turkish Council of Judges and Prosecutors. This deterioration accelerated following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, after which the Turkish administration declared a state of emergency (SoE) that empowered the Government to pass decree laws without legislative or judicial oversight. By dismissing more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors and hiring more than 9,000 new judges within the two-year state of emergency, the Turkish Government grasped full control of the judiciary.

Although, the SoE ceased on July 18, 2018, all of the measures adopted under this emergency regime have been incorporated into permanent legislation.

This Factsheet provides the reader with an insight into the partiality and subjection of the justice system and the government’s political grip over the judiciary in Turkey.

We, in seven chapters, have summarized the political control over the Turkish Constitutional Court, the insecurity of the tenure of judges, the ineffectiveness of decisions to release, the ineffectiveness of the decisions of the Turkish Constitutional Court, international courts and tribunals, and political interference in the judicial process.