Chief Justice Zühtü Arslan has been elected president of Turkey’s Constitutional Court for the third time in a row since 2015, local media reported on Thursday.
In the voting, Arslan received the support of eight members, while the other candidates, İrfan Fidan and Kadir Özkaya, garnered five and two votes, respectively. The Constitutional Court consists of 15 members.
According to Turkish media reports, Arslan will serve as president until April 17, 2024, when his appointment to the top court expires. A new president will be elected after that.
Arslan was born in 1964 and got his bachelor’s degree in public administration from the political science faculty at Ankara University. He has a master’s degree in human rights and civil freedoms from the faculty of law at the University of Leicester and a doctorate from the same university in the field of constitutional law.
In 2001 he attended a lawyer trainee program at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In 2009, he was appointed president of the Police Academy and taught courses on constitutional law, human rights and state theories.
Arslan was appointed by the president to the Constitutional Court after nomination by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) in 2012. He was elected chair of the top court in 2015 and again in 2019.
