Turkish lawyer groups to boycott judicial ceremony over separation of powers

Turkish lawyer groups to boycott judicial ceremony over separation of powers
Turkish lawyer groups to boycott judicial ceremony over separation of powers

At least 19 barassociations representing lawyers from provinces across Turkey, including thethree largest cities, have said they will boycott an annual ceremony for thejudiciary because it will take place on the grounds of the presidential palace.

Many said holdingthe ceremony in a location related to the presidency signals a lack ofseparation of powers.

The independence ofTurkey's judiciary has been hotly debated in recent years, especially since acrackdown on the judiciary and other state bodies following the July 2016abortive coup and after the country switched to an executive presidentialsystem in June last year.

Critics say courtsare under the influence of politics. President Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Partyhave repeatedly said the judiciary is independent and makes its own decisions.

According toReuters' checks of tweets and statements by the individual bar associations andtheir heads, at least 19 said they would not attend the ceremony, organised byTurkey's top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, for the start of thejudicial year at the Presidential Congress and Culture Centre in Ankara onSept. 2.

The 19 bar associations boycotting the ceremony, including those for the cities of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, represent some 77% of lawyers registered in Turkey's 79 provincial bar associations as of Dec. 31, 2018, according to data from the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB).

Mehmet Durakoglu,head of the Istanbul Bar Association, said the executive presidential systemwas damaging the separation of powers.

"At a timewhen discussions [on the separation of powers] are ongoing with the utmost intensity… the choice of location for the opening ceremony is not a simplematter," he wrote in a letter, posted on his association's website.

"The choice isextremely important in that it states the position of… the Court of Cassationin these discussions."

The ceremony washeld at the Presidential Congress and Culture Centre in 2016 and then again in2018.

The TBB, anumbrella body, said on Saturday its head, Metin Feyzioglu, will attend theceremony and make a speech, as is customary.

State-owned Anadolunews agency quoted the presidency of the Court of Cassation on Saturday assaying that most of the bar association heads that were invited had said theywill attend.

Accusations thatthe Court of Cassation was under political influence were unjust, it said.

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