Turkish judiciary in the grip of Erdogan

Ahmed Adel

The judiciary is the pillar of any true democracy worldwide, but the situation is different in Turkey, where the judges are loyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party. Against that backdrop, a Turkish administrative court on Friday halted an order from Istanbul’s new mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu’s, to copy the database of the municipality and its associated companies

Imamoglu ordered a copy to be made of the municipality databases and formed a team including three experts outside the municipality staff was put together for the task.

A former Turkish judge told the Cumhuriyet daily that Erdogan had called and asked him to stop prosecutors from going after his son Bilal Erdoğan during a corruption operation in December 2013.

In October 2014, pro-Erdogan judges released 53 people loyal to the regime, including sons of former ministers, accused of corruption and bribery.

Researcher Karam Saeed, an expert on Turkish affairs told THE REFERENCE that Erdogan is seeking to control the judiciary in Turkey for long time, citing that many judges who loyal to the Justice and Development Party were appointed in March 2013.

”In April 2017, the Turkish authorities sacked around 45 judges and prosecutors after the foiled coup in July 2016,” the researcher said, adding that Erdogan has endorsed bills against the judiciary.