Nurullah Albayrak*
Early in the morning today, those checking social media learned that 106 people, including İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu along with two district mayors, were facing detention warrants on charges of terrorism and organized crime. İmamoğlu was detained along with more than 80 others during the day. İmamoğlu’s wife, Dilek, told Turkish media that police arrived right after sahur, the pre-dawn meal eaten by Muslims fasting during Ramadan. This development brings to mind the events of July 22, 2014, when police officers who had carried out anti-corruption operations against the government were detained at sahur time, triggering the chain of unfortunate events that followed.
The pressure on judicial independence and the justice system in Turkey has long been a subject of debate. However, believing that today’s events are unprecedented does not reflect the truth. The lawlessness we witness today is a continuation of the injustices experienced over the past decade. The detention operation against İmamoğlu appears to be a new version of the 2014 sahur operation against the police. Sadly, history is painfully repeating itself.
Sahur operations: past and present
As part of the corruption investigations on December 17 and 25, 2013 implicating government officials and pro-government businessmen, detentions were carried out under a prosecutor’s orders. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan portrayed these operations as a coup attempt against them and quickly moved toward legal reforms to punish those carrying them out. As a result, the Peace Criminal Judgeship system, which remains controversial today, was introduced. The first act of the eight specially designated Peace Criminal Judgeships in İstanbul was to arrest the police officers who led the corruption investigations after prosecutors launched investigations into them. Their detentions took place at sahur time on July 22, 2014, just like the detention of İmamoğlu today. These detentions, the ensuing judicial processes and the unlawful punishments against those police officers became one of the most significant indicators of the politicization of Turkey’s justice system. The foundations of today’s lawlessness were laid back then.
With the July 22 operation, the government made a countermove against the corruption allegations and activated its strategy to protect its power. At that time, the police were detained and punished and the justice mechanism was used as a weapon to secure the government’s legitimacy.
What is happening today is no different. The government seeks to eliminate a political figure it sees as a rival to maintain power. This process, carried out with the aim of purging, taking revenge and neutralizing the opposition, shows that the government continues to use the law as a tool for its survival.
Those who supported or remained silent during the operations against the police in 2014 could not foresee how the process would expand over the years and how arbitrary investigations and judicial processes would become a societal problem. Either it was not realized or was deliberately ignored that lawlessness is not just an individual issue but rather a systemic problem. Similarly, today, if no action is taken to stop the judicial harassment of a specific political figure and his circle, it will affect much larger segments of society tomorrow.
One fact we forget: Once lawlessness begins, it expands its boundaries and eventually affects everyone.
What happens without an independent judiciary?
Since July 22, 2014, the reality that the judiciary in Turkey is not independent has made the continuous repetition of the cycle of lawlessness inevitable. An independent judiciary not only ensures fair decisions but also prevents the law from being arbitrarily used as a tool of oppression. Since the judiciary came under political control: detentions and arrests have become tools of political reckoning; the law has been used not to deliver justice but to intimidate certain groups; the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals have been arbitrarily violated; and dissenting voices have been silenced, creating a widespread atmosphere of fear in society.
Therefore, simply wishing for the end of İmamoğlu’s judicial ordeal is not enough. The real issue is how this order of lawlessness will be eliminated.
Of course, the greatest responsibility in this struggle falls on İmamoğlu’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has ignored the lawlessness against other groups for years. It must now be accepted by everyone that justice can only be achieved with a principled and consistent stance against all forms of lawlessness.
The struggle for an independent judiciary and the rule of law is a necessity that will protect not just certain individuals but society as a whole.
Fighting against lawlessness is a must
Unless an independent judicial system is established, today’s detentions will turn into punishments, and new detentions will be inevitable. The post-2014 process is the clearest proof of this.
It is imperative to raise public awareness to remove the justice mechanism from being a tool of politics, to re-establish the rule of law and to make the judiciary independent. In a system where the law is used arbitrarily and the judiciary becomes a tool of political reckoning, no one is safe. Today’s targets may be specific individuals, but as long as this order continues, everyone will be the next victim.
Therefore, raising our voices against lawlessness is not just for the victims but a necessity for the entire society. Remaining silent will only deepen and normalize injustice. Otherwise, such operations will continue, the rule of law will be completely destroyed and the concept of justice will become meaningless.
*Nurullah Albayrak is a lawyer and human rights defender who lives in exile in Belgium. This article was first published on the TR724 news website.