Turkish lawyers plan boycott over fears for judicial independence

Bar associations object to ceremony being held at Turkish president's palace

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a ceremony in Istanbul on July 15, 2019 to mark the third anniversary of an attempted coup. Reuters

At least 19 bar associations representing lawyers across Turkey, including its three largest cities, have said they will boycott an annual ceremony for the judiciary because it will take place in the grounds of the presidential palace.

Many said the location signals a lack of separation of powers.

The independence of Turkey’s judiciary has been hotly debated in recent years, especially since a crackdown on the judiciary and other state bodies following the July 2016 coup attempt and after the country switched to an executive presidential system in June last year.

Critics say courts are under the influence of politics. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have repeatedly said the judiciary is independent and makes its own decisions.

According to Reuters’ checks of tweets and statements by the individual bar associations and their heads, at least 19 said they would not attend the ceremony, organised by Turkey’s top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, for the start of the judicial year at the Presidential Congress and Culture Centre in Ankara on September 2.

The 19 bar associations boycotting the ceremony, including those for the cities of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, represent roughly 77 per cent of lawyers registered in Turkey’s 79 provincial bar associations as of December 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 system was damaging the separation of powers.

“At a time when discussions [on the separation of powers] are ongoing with the utmost intensity ... the choice of location for the opening ceremony is not a simple matter,” he wrote in a letter posted on his association’s website.

The ceremony was held at the Presidential Congress and Culture Centre in 2016 and again in 2018.

The TBB said on Saturday that its head, Metin Feyzioglu, would attend the ceremony and make a speech, as is customary.

State-owned Anadolu news agency quoted the presidency of the Court of Cassation on Saturday as saying that most of the bar association heads who were invited had said they will attend.

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