Top judge tool of anti-AKP coalition: Turkish interior minister

ANKARA

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Interior Minister Efkan Ala has accused the head of the Constitutional Court of being a tool of an anti-government coalition, saying he found the top judge’s transformation in the last two months telling.

“What is weird here is that the head of the Constitutional Court has become part of this alliance [against the government]. It’s very interesting to observe his change in the last few months. This can’t be seen a normal change,” Ala said in an interview with Kanal 7 on April 27.

Turkey’s top judge, Haşim Kılıç, is continuing to draw strong reactions from government officials after he made a very critical speech slamming Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other government officials’ frequent accusations against the judiciary on April 25. Although Erdoğan did not directly respond to Kılıç’s statement, he argued that Kılıç was among the victims of illegal eavesdropping allegedly perpetrated by what the government calls the “parallel state,” a code for the movement of Fethullah Gülen.

In contemporary countries, the heads of supreme justice do not speak in such fashion, Ala said, adding that it was a sign of underdevelopment.

Describing Kılıç’s speech as a political one that shows that the top judge has seriously changed over the time, Ala said the speech had ended the top judge’s potential career if he had any ambition of running for the presidency in August.

“Perhaps he still assumes that the role given to him before the local elections is still valid. He continues to play this role. How can you explain this [address] otherwise?” Ala said, adding the anti-government coalition had yet to digest the AKP’s glorious results in the March 30 local polls.