Mehmet Ali Birand - English
Mehmet Ali Birand - English
Mehmet Ali Birand - EnglishYazarın Tüm Yazıları

Judiciary was always boorish, you just noticed

Some of Turkey’s most repeated, biggest lies are the following: The slogan, "Leave yourself to the caring arms of justice;" the clichŽ, "Trust the police who will take you under their wings and protect you;" and the most brilliant, "Justice will certainly find the truth and determine who is right and who is wrong."

Events within the frame of the Ergenekon proved all these slogans completely wrong. Those who know the truth don’t believe in these clichŽs anyway. They view the following treatment as normal since they know it never changes.

There is another part of society that doesn’t even mind bad and boorish treatment of the accused. On the contrary they defend violence at police stations. They don’t believe in the rights of the accused or murderers. I’d like to touch on the reaction of the portion of society that has never come into contact with the police or the judiciary. We could call them "the naive part." They were never interrogated by police, or never filed a complaint, never went to a police station, never went before a judge or before court in their life.

People, if invited they would normally show up for testimony, were busted in their homes during early morning hoursÉ personal information was taken from their homes and offices during the search which sometimes lasted for hours É their telephone was tapped... their personal lives infiltratedÉ Images were presented while these people were dragged out of their homes or investigations, the events staged as if to provide more shots for TV cameras É People’s heads were held down while crammed into police cars É unrelated information was leaked to the pressÉ in the end, even if they were proven innocent they were labeled guilty from the first moment thanks to this mechanism.

The trial period is even worse.

Ambiguous allegations in the filesÉ not known if they can be counted as evidenceÉ etcÉ etcÉ

The naive part watches in a terrified way.

With interest I watch those who say, "Can people who are not proven guilty be treated like this? Can they be detained for months without being accused of anything? What kind of accusation is this?" They don’t know that these events are not that extraordinary. In fact, headlines in the newspapers are reflecting what people in this country have had to put up with for years.

It reveals the judiciary scandal.

These procedures that are against human rights and that have attracted the attention of a wide portion of society only because well known names are involved are nothing out of the ordinary within the natural process of the Turkish judiciary. As a matter of fact, these procedures are realized in a more delicate and careful way because the detainees in this case are VIPs.

Imagine being a normal citizen.

Oh my God.

It’s a simple matter to be taken into custody and give up your life. Even if you’re right, before you know it you’d be wiped out.

As if these were not enough you’d be insulted and beaten up.

It is obvious how much the Turkish security and judiciary system needs to be improved.

We can neither talk about real justice nor about "the caring hands of the judiciary."

To save one’s own life, to escape the hands of security without being dishonored or treated badly and insulted is a miracle or great chance. The European Union does not stump its feet for nothing saying "a judiciary reform is necessary."

The country’s direction will not change as long as it is not prevented that prosecutors behave as they please and prepare each file in such a way that "the judge dismisses it," as long as files are not being examined properly before a trial, as long as no healthy ground and finances are provided for prosecutors, as long as the judiciary system is not changed from the ground up and police not told the meaning of being human and maintaining of relations.

As long as our people are despised we cannot trust the judiciary or police. We need the police and the judiciary to attach importance to humans.

If we are not able to do this, then let’s not get upset with these events.
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