Political leaders do not gossip

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said his opinion that the July 15, 2016, coup attempt was a “controlled” one was strengthening and that he had a file concerning this. When reporters asked him where the file was, he answered, “I can hold a meeting later where I will reveal it.” 

He was immediately snapped by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

We will definitely hear that song all through next week; you might as well wear earplugs. 

Even just this incident alone is more than enough to demonstrate that Kılıçdaroğlu should not be in politics but instead should be in a coffeehouse that retired people frequent. Any politician who has a file that would prove or strengthen this opinion does not sleep on it or put the file on the top shelf. He would arise, shout at the top of his voice, reveal his evidences and show everyone how far his political opponents would go in order to take power. 

If a politician cannot do that, then it means he is only gossiping; the leader of the main opposition party should not waste time with gossip. 

If the “yes” votes come out of this referendum, then be sure this is due to Kılıçdaroğlu’s short-sightedness and awkwardness. 

They cannot conduct a proper campaign. Let alone this, they almost, on a weekly basis, present a card into their opponents’ hands, one which they can use, build on and carry on abundantly. 

Turkey should not only get rid of the mentality of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) but also the CHP and this style of doing politics.
  
Long live Turkish judiciary

During the days of the black and white Turkish films of my childhood, the films would end with a scene at the courthouse, where the dear judge sentences the villain to a heavy penalty and then the relatives of the victim or the victim would shout “Long live the Turkish judiciary.” 

Those days remain in the days of the “Old Turkey.” In “New Turkey” now, justice does not serve the victims anymore, but serves the bigheads and the powerful. 

Recently, in a case involving singer Atilla Taş and other defendants, the panel of judges decided to release 21 defendants. Then, later, the office of the prosecutor found another cause; they were arrested again and kept in jail for another charge. But they were released from the media case on parole.  

Upon this, the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) dismissed the panel of judges who reached this ruling and the trial’s prosecutor. The reason for the dismissal was “the probability of these releases being intentional.” 

There should, by far, be nobody left who does not know that pretrial arrests should be the last method resorted. If evidence has been collected, if you can put the defendants on parole, thus preventing their escape, then why do you arrest them before trial? And now, after this decision of the HSYK, in which case do you expect the panel of judges to rule “the release of defendants on parole?” 

This decision of the HSYK is an open intimidation to judges and prosecutors. It is a declaration to everyone that in certain cases, those who decide on a release will be in trouble. 

There cannot be such a justice; there cannot be such a trial. This decision is one that will be remembered as one of the shameful pages in Turkish judicial history.