Trust in judiciary essential for economy, says Turkish deputy PM

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Deputy PM Ali Babacan speaks at the sixth annual ambassadors’ meeting. AA photo

Trust in Turkey’s legal system was essential to it attaining its long-term growth goals, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has said amid the government’s forging ahead with plans to assert control over the judiciary.

“Law and education are two issues that will push our economy up or build a big barrier on it in the upcoming period,” he said, while addressing a group of Turkish ambassadors in the late hours of Jan. 15.

Babacan, in charge of the economy, said Turkey’s aim of reaching an average national income of $25,000 per person would be unreachable if investors, foreign and domestic, could not rely on the courts.

“If we can’t make an investor, whether domestic or international, take the view: ‘I trust the Turkish legal system’ ... a national income of $25,000 will remain just a dream,” the deputy prime minister told the ambassadors on the third day of their week-long meeting of the 6th annual Turkish Ambassadors’ Conference in Ankara.

“Legal security is a prerequisite in a country. Clear, written rules, equality of opportunity, competition are operating according to these rules. These are very important,” he also stressed.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is currently pushing through parliament a draft law which will give the government tighter control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, triggering European Union and investor concerns about its commitment to EU membership criteria.

The proposal is seen as an attempt to stifle a damaging corruption investigation which erupted a month ago with the detention of businessmen close to the government and three ministers’ sons.