Constitutional Court member's tweet leads to new row with government

Photos of the Ministry of Interior and the Constitutional Court shared last night.

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A new debate about the Constitutional Court has started after a member of it shared a photograph of the court on Twitter last night (October 13) and said, "The lights are on."

Judge Engin Yıldırım's post came hours after a local court defied a top court ruling about main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) Enis Berberoğlu, who was stripped of MP status in June after his prison sentence was upheld by the Court of Cassation.

After reviewing Berberoğlu's individual application, the Constitutional Court ruled on September 17 that his rights to be elected and engage in political activities and personal liberty and security were violated and that he should be retried.

The lower court, however, concluded that there was no ground for the retrial of Berberoğlu, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for "disclosing confidential state information."

The decision has been criticized by the opposition as local courts have to comply with Constitutional Court decisions.

The judge's tweet was viewed by some as a reaction to the heavy penal court's decision. However, government officials and pro-government media accused Yıldırım of "implying a coup attempt."

Deputy Ministry of Interior İsmail Çataklı responded to Yıldırım's tweet, saying that "Those who have undertaken the duty of those who saluted putschists in the past by saying, 'The lights of the General Staff are on' should not even wait for a second to resign!"

The Ministry of Interior also shared a photograph of the ministry building on Twitter and said, "Our lights are never off."

Işıklarımız hiç sönmüyor. pic.twitter.com/q8k5S1uMYm

— TC İçişleri Bakanlığı Maske Mesafe Temizlik (@TC_icisleri) October 13, 2020

What does "lights are on" mean?

Checking out whether the General Staff's lights were on at night had been a habit of journalists since the 1960 coup, according to late journalist Mehmet Ali Birand. If the lights were on, it might indicate that the General Staff was set to interfere in politics, he explained in a 1991 documentary titled, "Demirkırat."

Several pro-government journalists and lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also tweeted about the issue, accusing the top court member of implying a coup.

AKP Spokesperson Ömer Çelik said, "No one can threaten our democracy. A Constitutional Court member cannot violate Turkey's 'security of law.' We won't allow those who speak the words of a junta to target our constitutional order. We cannot tolerate a putschist mentality in our institutions."

AKP deputy Abdülkadir Özel said, "Those who forgot the lights on now rest in peace," apparently referring to the coup attempt in July 2016.

The party's parliamentary group deputy chair Mehmet Muş tweeted, "No institution or person can intimidate the national will. This nation won't allow those who seek juristocracy."

The MHP also shared a photo with lights, saying that it was "the light for dark nights."

MHP deputy Levent Bülbül said they would challenge those who "threaten turkey."

Pro-government Takvim newspaper published an article on its website titled, "This is our word to Constiutional Court Engin: You'll be hung on that flagpole."

After reactions, Yıldırım posted another tweet, explaining that he meant "the light of the law, not other lights." He later deleted his first tweet as well.

Journalist Barış Yarkadaş said on Twitter that the Constitutional Court would hold an unscheduled meeting today at 2 p.m.

Debates about the Constiutional Court

This was not the first time recently that the top court was in the middle of a political polemic.

In mid-September, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu openly criticized the court over a decision annulling the law article prohibiting demonstrations and protest marches on intercity roads.

Saying that such measures were necessary to establish security, Soylu had challenged the court's president to "cycle to work."

Following Soylu's remarks, top court member Engin Yıldırım, whose tweet started the debate last night, had shared the Constitution's Article 138 on judicial independence on Twitter.

Court's president Zühtü Aslan also responded to Soylu in a written statement, without mentioning his name.

This minister had continued the debate, criticizing the court over a decision of the "Academics for Peace," who were prosecuted and sentenced for a 2016 declaration about the conflict in the Kurdish-majority southeast.

Following Soylu, MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, and ally of AKP Chair and President Erdoğan, had suggested that the top court should be "reorganized in line with the presidential system," which Turkey adopted after a referendum in 2017.

"The recent decisions of the Constitutional Court are painful and crooked. In the name of rights violations, irreparable damage is done to national rights and the sense of justice," he said in a written statement on September 30. (EKN/VK)