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Turkish Government's New Strategy: Request Extradition of Hizmet Sympathizers Using Fabricated Documents and False Claims

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Turkish Government's New Strategy: Request Extradition of Hizmet Sympathizers Using Fabricated Documents and False Claims An Advocates of Silenced Turkey Special Report March, 2018 REPORT: TURKISH GOVERNMENT'S NEW STRATEGY: REQUEST EXTRADITION OF HIZMET SYMPATHIZERS USING FABRICATED DOCUMENTS AND FALSE CLAIMS Since the corruption allegations in 2013, the existence of Mr. Erdogan’s government is 1 maintained by means of polarization and controlled political crises . By those crises Mr. Erdogan opens way to himself and, planning to create the new Turkey he incubated, is moving the game a step forward by doing this; otherwise there’d be a huge probability of someone stepping forward and saying “The king is naked!”. But what is the problem; in this process, lasting for years and including the illegal executions by the authority, there must be a critical point in terms of law and democracy – no matter how flexible they would be. And right at that point the attempted coup of June 15, 2016, qualified by 2 Mr. Erdogan as the blessing of Allah, took place, resembling the planned game ever since . In this way Mr. Erdogan, by declaring the State of Emergency (“OHAL” in Turkish), got himself a chance to change everything in the country and re-build it according to his own models3. And the impact was so that, Turkey, being ruled by means of OHAL for nearly 2 years, tends to become a country where not law but “the crushing power of state”, limitlessly controlled by the 4 authority, rules . In Turkey, where half of the judicial organizations were demoted and thousands of judges and prosecutors were put behind bars, it is impossible to take a single decision, which 5 is not what the authority wants . Even if any judge would show courage and take a decision that is not on benefit of the authority, he can find himself under investigation almost the same day, or, 6 at best, at another position overnight . At this point, the state at its notion has become such a huge monster, that even basic human rights, for an instance, right of seeking justice in case of illegal executions or right to a fair trail, are made lost their meanings. 1 Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/gold-dealer-implicates-turkeyspresident-in- corruption-scheme/2017/11/30/fd4e8a50-d614-11e7-95bfdf7c19270879_story.html?utm_term=.3e53e2de6398 Courthouse News, https://www.courthousenews.com/turkeys-erdogan-was-no-1-in-corruption-probe-witnesssays/ Foregin Policy, http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/06/why-turkeys-mother-of-all-corruption-scandals-refuses-togo- away/ 2 American Enterprise Institute, http://www.aei.org/publication/more-evidence-erdogan-behind-coup/ Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/turkey-coup-conspiracy-theory-erdogan-military-giftfrom- god-soldiers-istanbul-a7140516.html 3 EU Observer, https://euobserver.com/opinion/138537 4 Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/17/turkeys-erdogan-turneda- failed-coup-into-his-path-to-greater-power/?utm_term=.47c95f893c5b 5 The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/march-for-turkeys-jailed-judges-highlightspurge- on-dissidents. Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/0af6ebc0-421d-11e7-82b6-896b95f30f58. The Economist, https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21722200-president-erdogans-drive-power-includesputting- judges-under-his-thumb-turkeys-purges-are 6 Turkish Minute, https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/03/19/new-judges-prosecutors-give-erdogan-standingovation- at-palace-ceremony/ Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/28/judges-who-defy-turkeys-leaders-short-road-jail www.silencedturkey.org - [email protected] - 1-540-209-1934 - @silencedturkey One of the last examples of the situation are arrests of hundreds of people for the posts in social 7 media stating their position against the military operation held by Turkey on the Syrian territory . The issue progressed to the point where 11 members of the Turkish Medical Association were sentenced to jail for re-posting the anti-military announce concerning the Afrin Operation saying, 8 "War is the problem of people" . Moreover, taking advantage of weakness of the opposition for reinforcing his own absolute authority, Mr. Erdogan decided to remove the word “Turkish” from the names of some of the professional associations, such as Lawyers Association. By taking those decisions, Erdogan in his own way is trying to show that the ideas of those professional groups and their members do not represent Turkey. 9 Mr. Erdogan does not hesitate to declare anyone that is in his opposition an enemy . The process of attacking the person demonized for that reason had started and knows no end, being kept up at 10 full speed . Currently the persons, which had lost their motherland, families and all earnings being forced to run from the injustice of Mr. Erdogan, like in the case with the members of service operators, are requested to be extradited due to fake documents and false claims11. A closer look at the logic and settling behind those requests needs to be taken, due to the miserable position of Turkey’s judicial body. As explained above, the limits of law and democracy violations in Turkey had been crossed long time ago and for that reason none of the decisions, made by the Government or the courts hooked by it can be questioned. The integrity of the legal concept in the country is broken. The opportunity of “Applying to Constitution Court”, which existed just 5 years ago as a part of adjustment laws of the EU and, in accordance with the European Court of Human Rights, had 7 BBC, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42863531 8 DW, http://www.dw.com/en/turkey-detains-top-medics-for-anti-war-statement/a-42363252 Hurriyet Daily News, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/11-members-of-turkish-medical-associations-centralcouncil- detained-over-afrin-operation-remarks-126483 Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/4029f562-059a-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5 9 Economist, https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21601042-prime-minister-lashes-out-his-opponentserdogan-v-judges- again 10 Times of Israel, https://www.timesofisrael.com/turkish-journalist-arrested-for-tweets-criticizing-erdogan/ 11 Economist, https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21726993-arresting-turkish-german-writer-spain-risksdoing-recep- tayyip-erdogans-dirty-work-turkey www.silencedturkey.org - [email protected] - 1-540-209-1934 - @silencedturkey been used in order to reduce the number of lawsuits on abuse of the right, currently had failed be the active way of application and is totally ruined12. The Constitution Court, Turkey’s last remaining institution to address in search for justice, the decisions of those are of absolute quality, upon application of the journalists Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan which were given an arrest warrant and serving in jail for almost 2 years for writing 3 articles and attending a television program, concluded that the 13 arrest that took place without law is “abuse of the right” . But Court of First Instance had refused this decision and blocked the releasing, acting absolutely against the actual law 14 system of Turkey . Eventually, the Istanbul Criminal Court for Major Cases No. 26 had sentenced Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and other journalists to “aggravated life” for “attempted breakage of constitutional order”15. The applications by Mehmet Altan (of February 12, 2017) and Sahin Alpay (of February 28, 2017) to the European Court of Human Rights are based on the decision of the Chamber 2 of the ECHR. In the Paragraph 181 of the decision issued on March 20, 2018, such statements as “Taking any legal due to criticism of the authorities and spreading the information which is considered to be against the national security, being a member of or supporting a terrorist organization, attempting to destroy the authority or the constitutional order, or propagandizing terror not required” took their place. In response to the Mr. Altan and Mr. Alpay’s claim concerning the rights granted by European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (AIHR), the ECHR concluded the breach of “the right to liberty and security” and “the right to freedom of expression”16. It is clearly seen that in the new Turkey the understanding of rule of law had been totally laid 17 aside by Mr. Erdogan . As to the objection institutions that could oppose to adjudications, they 12 The Nation, https://www.thenation.com/article/turkeys-new-constitutional-crisis-could-end-the-rule-of-law/ 13 Economist, https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21737059-lower-court-ignores-higher-one-orderedjournalist-freed-and- president-erdogan 14 Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-journalists/turkey-says-local-court-to-evaluateruling- on-jailed-journalists-idUSKBN1F10F0 15 Middle East Eye, http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/politicisation-turkey-s-legal-process-imperils-state-lawsay- jurists-739668730 16 Ahval News, https://ahvalnews.com/turkey/echr-turkish-government-explicitly-violated-journalists-rights 17 The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/turkey-arrests-35-people-with-links-toerdogan- critic www.silencedturkey.org - [email protected] - 1-540-209-1934 - @silencedturkey are very ineffective. That is why it is not really possible to even speak about the existing and 18 operative judicial system . The problem behind all the above mentioned is that the law had been 19 made an instrument of the authority . A huge number of international human rights being the subject of the report, the actions such as false imprisonment, kidnapping, torture and 20 maltreatment, deprive thousands of people of basic human rights . All of those prove that not only the law is violated in Turkey but seriously a loophole in the law had come into existence21. Unfortunately, the vacuum, that took place after the legal system had been laid aside, in Turkey is being filled up by the political powers for their own benefits and political interests.
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