Turkey’s top court refutes claims of head joining political party for general elections

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet Photo

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has denied claims that its head would be joining a political party to run in the upcoming general elections set to take place in June.

“There is news in some written and visual media outlets that the head of the Constitutional Court, Haşim Kılıç, will join a political party. Such news is irrelevant to reality,” read the statement published on the court’s website on Jan. 26.

Kılıç is set to retire in a few months, but would need to resign from his duties within 15 days if he wants to run in the general elections.

He has recently complained of “intense pressure” being applied to members of his court, after been targeted by the government over its rulings on individual complaints and particularly after it added complaints that the 10 percent election threshold is "unconstitutional" to its agenda. A number of government officials had described the court's consideration of the latter as an attempted “coup.”

“When the court’s agenda is announced, enormous pressure is imposed on our members,” Kılıç said in an interview with daily Sözcü on Jan. 2, when asked why the court had ceased to regularly announce its agenda on its official webpage.

“Members are extremely annoyed at this situation. That’s why we have decided not to announce the issues on the Court’s agenda, in order to ease pressure on our members,” added Kılıç.