Marching for justice

The government is reacting, but main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's "justice march" is at least shedding light on the concepts of law and the judiciary. 

The reaction of the government does not go any further than the usual polemics and accusations. "They are walking on the roads that we have built; let them take the train, it's faster; they are walking together with terrorists," are such accusations. They do not actually go to the "core."

This is not too surprising either because in our country no government has dealt with matters on law and justice as serious issues with high values. At all times, the yearning for law and justice have been voiced when in opposition, in other words when weak, but then law and justice turn into political tools once in government. 

Of course, there have been advancements but if we still have not become a "rule of law" state today, the fundamental reason is that our deeply-rooted political culture regards politics superior to justice. 

Esteemed historian Şükrü Hanioğlu summed up our history on this topic. According to Hanioğlu, first it was the Muslim judges (kadı) would select among various fatwas and rulings, thus there would be very different rulings on the same matter. Then, the political reforms (Tanzimat) made in the Ottoman State in 1839 conveyed the idea of "law" against this. Instead of drawing conclusions from fatwas, standard "law" texts were provided to judges. The practice of the idea of "law" strengthened during the Ottoman era and the republic after these 1839 reforms. 

This is of course a very important development. But as Hanioğlu wrote in daily Sabah on July 2, "There have not been serious advancements in the materialization of...