President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed Metin Kıratlı, Turkey’s top bureaucrat serving at Erdoğan’s presidential palace, as a new member of Turkey’s Constitutional Court, casting yet another shadow over the court’s independence, effectiveness and authority.
Kıratlı, an associate professor of law, was the “highest-ranking civil servant” before his appointment to the top court as head of the Directorate of Presidential Administrative Affairs at Erdoğan’s palace.
He was the first president of the directorate, established following the 2018 general election, when Turkey effectively switched from a parliamentary system to a presidential system of governance and structured state institutions accordingly. He used to serve as Erdoğan’s deputy secretary-general after Erdoğan’s election to the presidency for the first time in 2014.
Erdoğan’s decision to appoint Kıratlı to the Constitutional Court was published in the Official Gazette on Thursday. Kıratlı, who is also a member of the Higher Education Board (YÖK), will replace former member Emin Kuz, who had been appointed by former President Abdullah Gül in 2013 and retired in May due to age.
The term in office of the court’s 15 members is limited to 12 years. Twelve members are appointed by the president from a list of candidates nominated by top courts or from among top bureaucrats, while three are appointed by parliament, which is currently dominated by Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
With Kıratlı’s appointment, 10 members of the court were selected by Erdoğan, while three were appointed by parliament and two by former President Gül, an AKP co-founder.
Lavish meal
Kıratlı recently came to public attention due to allegations that he paid a hefty check at a restaurant in the popular holiday resort of Bodrum for dinner with a local AKP official. He reportedly paid 168,000 lira ($5,075) for a two-person meal at a time when millions of Turks are trying to make ends meet amid the high cost of living, with the monthly minimum wage standing at 17,002 lira ($513).
In the wake of the public outrage, an Ankara court on July 12 imposed an access ban on more than 100 news reports and social media posts about Kıratlı’s allegedly lavish meal at his request, according to the Free Web Turkey platform.
Court’s image in tatters
Kıratlı’s appointment comes at a time when there are widespread concerns about the top court’s waning authority due to the failure of lower courts to act in line with its rulings in political cases, for instance in the case of jailed opposition politician Can Atalay.
Atalay remains in prison and stripped of his parliamentary status due to resistance from the Supreme Court of Appeals, which upheld his sentence in the politically motivated Gezi Park trial.
The court’s resistance to the Constitutional Court’s decisions on Atalay led to an unprecedented judicial crisis in Turkey that saw the filing of criminal complaints against members of the Constitutional Court by the Supreme Court of Appeals.
It has also raised concerns about the rule of law and the separation of powers in Turkey, with critics arguing that defiance of Constitutional Court decisions undermines democratic principles and legal certainty.
The Turkish judiciary faces widespread criticism for its perceived lack of independence. Critics accuse Erdoğan of exerting control over the judiciary and establishing one-man rule in the country, particularly after a coup attempt in 2016, following which he launched a massive crackdown on non-loyalist citizens, and the country’s subsequent transition to a presidential system of governance, which granted him vast powers. The post-coup period also saw the purge of over 4,000 judges and prosecutors from their jobs.
Many say there is no longer a separation of powers in the country and that members of the judiciary are under the control of the government and cannot make judgments based on the law.
In a development that validated the critics, Turkey was ranked 117th among 142 countries in the rule of law index published by the World Justice Project (WJP) in October, dropping one rank in comparison to last year.