Zühtü Aslan and Süleyman Soylu (Photos: AA)
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The argument between Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and Constitutional Court President Zühtü Aslan over the top court decisions continued as the former accused the latter of supporting a "terrorist declaration."
Soylu started the polemic on September 14 when he criticized a top court decision repealing a law article prohibiting demonstrations and protest marches on intercity roads.
"Then, you do not need to have police protection. Go to work by bike, then. Go ahead, cycle back and forth to work, we are free, right? Why do you have police protection?" he had said.
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Aslan responded to Soylu's remarks without mentioning his name last night (September 23), saying that one "needs to read and understand a text in order to criticize it."
In an event held on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the introduction of individual applications to the Constitutional Court, a written statement by the court's president was read out by his deputy as Aslan did not attend the event due to the death of his father-in-law.
"Judicial decisions, especially Constitutional Court decisions, are not sacred texts. They can be criticized, moreover, they should be criticized. The judicial institution whose decision is criticized benefits the most from this," the statement said.
"Nevertheless, I think that at least two points are important for criticism of judicial decisions to be useful. First of all, to criticize any text, one should first read and understand it," the statement noted, adding that criticism before a reasoned decision was released or without reading a decision would result in "misinforming and misleading the public."
"We see in some criticisms of the decisions that our decisions are being criticized without reading them or sometimes, even though they are read, they are not understood adequately," Aslan further stated.
On the same night, Minister Soylu continued targeting the top court over its decisions during a program on the pro-government broadcaster TGRT Haber.
About the court's ruling about the Academic for Peace last year, he said, "This is a declaration of a terrorist organization, the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]. The Constitutional Court says this declaration is freedom of thought. It's my right to criticize the decision that the Constitutional Court gave."
More than a thousand academics stood trial over the "Peace Declaration" regarding the 2015-2016 conflict in the Kurdish-majority southeastern provinces. After hundreds of academics were handed prison sentences for "terrorist propaganda," the Constitutional Court had ruled that the court verdicts violated freedom of expression.
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Also criticizing the Constitutional Court for complying with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) jurisprudence, he said, "Is our Constitutional Court a branch of the ECtHR? What is this admiration for the West about?"
Recalling that Aslan was the chair of the Police Academy before being elected the Constitutional Court President, Soylu said, "I dismissed 41 percent of the sub-inspectors because of FETÖ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organization]," referring to the Fethullah Gülen group, an Islamic organization that is widely believed to have orchestrated the failed coup attempt in July 2016. (EMK/VK)
