Turkey’s trial with the judiciary

Turkey's Constitutional Court was not founded due to a mandatory democratic principle or as a result of a natural historical development of the country's law. Rather, it arose out of the 1960 military coup, after which power was handed over to civilians by Turkey's Kemalist civilian and military elites.

For this reason, even after power appeared to have been assigned to the civilian government, certain control mechanisms that could be described as a kind of electronic cuff were put in place by military and civilian elites. Whenever these limits were violated, one or more such mechanisms were activated simultaneously and civilian politics was undermined and controlled without the necessity of a visible military coup.

The Constitutional Court was established after the 1960 coup and the National Security Council (MGK) was added to the system of control following the coup in 1980.

On Feb. 28, 1997, a government was formed comprised of a coalition of the center-right True Path Party (DYP) and the Islamist Welfare Party.

This coalition was a breath of fresh air for Anatolian-based small- and medium-sized businesses. After the coalition came to power, these enterprises flourished, achieving growth without having to do business with the state. As a result, the voice of a new middle class, mostly consisting of religious conservatives, was heard for the first time. In order to silence these voices, elite groups initiated a discrediting campaign against then Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan through disinformation fed to the media. After Turgut Özal, Erbakan was the second civilian statesman who had attempted to resolve the issue of the PKK.

This coup was staged by the MGK and the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) in collaboration with the army and media. Erbakan was thrown out of office without the need of brute force or a military coup thanks mainly to MGK decisions.

However, in 2002, five years after this incident, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), a wing of the Welfare Party, came to power due in part to a loss of $400 billion after the banks were siphoned on Feb. 28. As a consequence, a serious economic crisis hit the country in February 2001, which precipitated early elections.

A similar non-military coup was plotted, aimed this time at the AK Party, the effects of which are still ongoing. In 2007, the Constitutional Court intervened in the presidential election. The presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, prime minister at the time, was blocked by the alteration of the voting technique in Parliament. In response, supreme judicial institutions such as the Court of Appeals and Council of State released memorandums. The army also issued a harsh warning on April 27.

Each of these obstacles was overcome due to the perseverance of the AK Party. Even the army's authority was normalized through reforms.

And now we find ourselves on the brink of the upcoming 2015 general elections, an event of historic importance. The Constitutional Court has once again placed the subject of the election threshold on the agenda in order to open a debate that could undermine the election. According to the Constitution, any regulation in electoral law will not influence the elections held this year. Despite that, this debate has the potential to discredit the new 2015 Parliament.

Among the 20,000 files waiting to be seen, the Constitutional Court prioritized the demand of two complainants who objected to the 10 percent threshold. However, the country did not regard this action as an acceptable judicial decision, instead interpreting it as yet another intervention by the judiciary into elections.

This latest obstacle will also be overcome through politics.