CONSTITUTIONAL COURT CASES ARE A HABIT THE CHP CAN’T QUIT
Ercan Yavuz
Today’s Zaman
April 21 2008
Turkey
Challenging nearly every law proposed by the governing Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) that passes in Parliament has become
a style of opposition for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as
indicated by the number of applications the party has filed with the
Constitutional Court.
In the past five years of AK Party rule, the CHP — the main opposition
party in Parliament — has appealed to the Constitutional Court against
laws adopted by Parliament 120 times. Experts say the effective cost
of the CHP’s objections totals a stunning $100 billion. The CHP has
taken every single law vetoed in the term of former President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer to the Constitutional Court.
Among the laws the CHP has challenged at the Constitutional Court
is the law that allows for the sale of state land that has lost its
status as forest land, known as the "2B Law." The government expected
the state to make $25 billion from the sale of such land, but the CHP
has blocked it. The first passage of the Social Security Reform bill,
which attempts to fix Turkey’s social security deficit of $22 billion
a year, was taken to court by the CHP.
Other laws the CHP has blocked were not as financially significant,
but were nonetheless vital to the country’s democratization and
EU-harmonization process. In the past three years, the CHP has
harshly opposed passing EU-inspired democratic reforms and it has
challenged many such laws. The Constitutional Court has annulled some
EU harmonization laws after they were brought to the court by CHP
applications. These include the Foundations Law, which returns Turkey’s
non-Muslim religious minorities’ goods and property confiscated from
them forcefully and unjustly decades ago.
In the latest such move, the CHP announced that it would be challenging
proposed amendments to the infamous anti-free speech Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The CHP has threatened to appeal
if a bill that would change the article passes. Article 301 is seen
as an obstacle to free speech by the EU and many rights groups. By
criminalizing insults to the ambiguous concept of "Turkishness,"
the article has been exploited by many nationalistic prosecutors
to charge writers and journalists for expressing opinions that run
against the official ideology of the state on matters such as the
Ottoman killings of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians
claim amounted to genocide; an allegation that Turkey strongly denies.
If the 301 amendment is rejected by the Constitutional Court, it will
deal a severe blow to Turkey-EU relations, observers say.
Among the recent bills annulled by the Constitutional Court that were
challenged by the CHP are new taxes to be introduced by the Finance
Ministry, a law on establishing nuclear power plants, a law to fight
illegal housing and a wiretapping law.
In May last year, the Constitutional Court annulled a presidential
election in Parliament after the CHP appealed against the first round
of the election, asserting that at least 367 deputies had to be present
for the voting for to be valid. Although such a rule had not affected
previous presidential elections, the top court went ahead and canceled
the election in a move that appeared to have been done to block the
presidency of the AK Party’s only candidate, Abdullah Gul, who was
later elected by a comfortable majority when the Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP), which entered Parliament after the general election of
July 22, 2007, supported AK Party candidate Gul’s nomination.
Politically motivated petitions
Most of the CHP’s petitions stem not from legal concerns, but
rather political concerns. During his term as president, Sezer, a
staunchly secular and nationalist former head of the Constitutional
Court, frequently vetoed the AK Party-proposed bills adopted in
Parliament. However, the president can only veto a proposal once. Every
proposal vetoed by Sezer would then be passed as-is in Parliament,
only to be challenged later by the CHP.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman, AK Party Deputy Chairman Dengir Mir
Mehmet Fırat claimed that Sezer’s vetoes had cost Turkey at least
$50 billion. "The vetoes of the 10th president [Sezer] cost Turkey
greatly, both economically and politically. I would dare to say that
at least $50 billion was lost because of Mr. Sezer’s attitude and
his suspicion toward every step taken by the government."
Fırat recalled that a row between Sezer and former Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit sparked a major financial crisis in 2001, with $30
billion flying out of Turkey’s financial markets almost overnight. "The
loss incurred from the 2B Law is about $25 billion. You do the math to
see how great the loss is when other vetoes of his are added to this."
The CHP, which has made a tradition of bringing every single vetoed
law to the Constitutional Court, is most certainly also responsible
for the financial cost to the country.
Since the AK Party won a resounding victory in the general election
of July 22, the CHP has challenged seven laws and constitutional
amendments. These are: the amendment that removes a ban on the
Muslim headscarf on university campuses, the Foundations Law, a law
that would allow for the building of nuclear reactors, the witness
protection law, changes made to the law on prosecutors and judges,
and changes to the TCK.
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