Why do AKP officials fear the rise of the HDP?

Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan, speaking on a TV show on the state TRT channel, said it would create “some problems” if the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) crosses the 10 percent election threshold. He said, “There is no trouble for a political party to cross the threshold but if there is a terrorist organization on one hand, if there are armed people, if there is a political mentality that cannot be freed of its guardianship, that acts as the extension of it, that serves its purposes, the perception of this as if this were a normal thing will create other problems, I think.”

Let us first remember that Akdoğan was with the HDP delegation when the statement of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was brought by the HDP from İmralı island prison and read aloud at Dolmabahçe. 

In other words, Akdoğan does not object to the HDP entering the elections with independent candidates and being represented in parliament. The reason for his uneasiness is that the “presidential system” calculations of the resident of the Beştepe Palace have been disrupted because of this development. 

The reason is that they are obsessed with “introducing the ‘Turkish-style’ presidential system and with his unrestrainable ambition, to turn President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan into an elected Sultan.” For this reason, they want the HDP to be caught in the threshold so they can have extra deputies from those regions where the HDP is the majority; and, so that they can change the constitution without having to reconcile with anybody else.  

They do not care a bit that millions of people will not be represented in parliament, because what they only understand from the concept of “national will” is to obtain a majority in parliament which would enable them to serve their own will. 

No trace of rule of law left 

I read in the papers that bar association lawyers who went to the courthouse to file an objection against the arrest of lawyer Umut Kılıç on charges of insulting Erdoğan were unable to find a judge of the peace court to deliver their petition to. 

It seems that all the judges had some business at that time or they decided to play hide and seek. 

The Umut Kılıç incident is a sample incident that shows there is not even a trace of rule of law left in Turkey. Rule of law means a state that is committed to the rules it has set. The judges apply these rules using the power of trial on behalf of the nation, and the rules that bind them are the laws. 

The Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) seeks the “existence of a strong suspicion of a crime” to decide for an arrest. To make the decision to arrest, the suspect must have run away, hidden or there should be concrete evidence that the suspect would attempt to escape. 

The person in question is a lawyer, his whereabouts was known but he was again arrested. For an arrest, it is always sought that the defendant has the possibility to tamper with evidence, hide evidence or exert pressure on witnesses.

The only evidence of the case is the minutes of the meeting which were drafted by the civil servants of the Justice Ministry and that document is already inside the file anyway. 

That means there is no possibility to hide the evidence; there is no question of exerting pressure on witnesses, they are the “mighty” civil servants.

The law orders the arrest has to be justified. They should have cited what the arrest was based on, but it was not cited. 

Even if Kılıç is convicted, his verdict will not be announced, it will be postponed. In other words there is no situation that requires his imprisonment but he has nevertheless been arrested awaiting trial so that he suffers, even if for a short while. 

These judges who have ruled on the arrest and who have rejected the objection, if they are not bound with the laws of this country, then can we say there is rule of law? 

Normally, this practice should upset the entire country, but it has only been protested by a handful of lawyers.

If a lawyer can be subjected to such treatment today, then what else is there waiting for us, the ordinary citizens tomorrow?