Constitutional Court

The final stage has been reached in the dismissal of provincial Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) organizations which signed to convene an extraordinary party convention. Of the 18 provincial organizations in favor of the extraordinary convention, 16 have been closed down. 

Thus, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is assuming he has prevented a "plot" organized against his party. 

It is official now that the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will not return to the Constitutional Conciliation Commission. It is also official that just as their justifications for why they left the table were not convincing, their excuses for not coming back to it are also far from convincing.

I'm no legal expert, but a layman's practicality tells me that the constitution is the basic law of the land, and in any civilized country, requires respect. It is unthinkable, for example, that a U.S. or German president would come out, after a ruling by the high court he or she does not like, and say, "I do not respect this and will not abide by it."

The hunt for the members of the "parallel structure," or "parallel state," terms used by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) circles to define the followers of Fethullah Gülen, has finally gone wild.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has called the daily Cumhuriyet report on intelligence trucks bound for Syria "espionage against the state." 

"There is an issue of espionage in the [Cumhuriyet's] National Intelligence Agency (M?T) reports. Literally, the subject is about aid materials sent to Bay?rbucak Türkmens, not about the two journalists expressing their opinion," Davuto?lu said.

A key advisor for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has criticized Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu?'s remarks on the president's comments over the top court ruling that led to the release of daily Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, saying the president's statement had not been personal, but rather made as the head of state.

The International Press Institute (IPI) Turkey National Committee has paid a visit to Cumhuriyet journalist Can Dündar who was released early on Feb. 26 after 92 days in Silivri Prison together with Erdem Gül, the Ankara bureau chief of the newspaper. 

When Turkey's Constitutional Court made a landmark decision last week to free two imprisoned journalists, everything first looked fine. The two scribes in question, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, had been in jail for 92 days for a news story they ran months ago exposing that the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (M?T) was shipping weapons to some groups in Syria.

Here is the brief story: 

- Unknown people release input that shows Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria with cargo that hardly looks like tents, food or medicine. That input is already in the public domain. Prosecutors launch a probe into the cargo and its lawfulness. 

When President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an blasted the Constitutional Court before taking off for Africa, he took most of us by surprise. If we had been living in the 1990s or even the early years of the 2000s, his statements would have been flashing on newswire screens. People would be calling each other to get reactions, TV stations would call up legal experts to read between the lines.