High court’s Twitter verdict should be overturned: Turkish PM

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Reiterating his government’s harsh criticisms against the Constitutional Court’s ruling lifting a ban on Twitter, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the ruling wrong.

In addition to this, he said the ruling should be overturned with hints that new measures can be taken to restrict the scope of individual applications to the court.

“The constitutional court’s ruling on Twitter did not serve justice. This ruling should be corrected,” Erdoğan told his Justice and Development Party (AKP) group on April 8. Erdoğan had said his government will implement the ruling although he did not “respect” what he called a ruling that does not serve national interests.

The court’s ruling ended a nearly two-week black out on Twitter that was imposed by the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) after numerous phone recordings allegedly depicting Erdoğan and his family members, revealing a corruption network.

The prime minister said everyone witnessed how Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have been used in attacks against Turkey and argued his government had never attempted to restrict freedoms.

“Everyone saw that these companies acted irresponsibly on issues even concerning Turkey’s national security. These companies should abide by Turkey’s laws as they do in many countries. They will cooperate with us just like they do with the U.S., England or Russia. They will come here and pay taxes. They will respect our laws,” he said.

Criticizing the Constitutional Court for upholding the law to the advantage of Twitter instead of national interests, Erdoğan said they will continue to defend the rights and privacy of all Turkish people. “It’s us who brought the individual application. As the name implies, it’s about individual application. History will not forgive you if you rule on an issue that has an overall implementation. Therefore, you would only serve companies,” he added. 

Underlining that he will not respect this ruling and that it does not serve justice, Erdoğan said the days when justice will manifest are close. His statements are seen as signals of a fresh move from the government to restrict the scope of individual applications to the Constitutional Court. The right to individual application was given to the Constitutional Court in 2010 as a remedy to decrease the number of cases appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.