Erdogan unveiled in Ankara on Tuesday the new "reforms" aimed at boosting Turkey’s rule of law and independence of courts, describing it as the another step in his plans to improve human rights in the country.
“Today, we are happy to have fulfilled this responsibility and take great pleasure in presenting the Action Plan to our nation. Since change is constant in our lives, our efforts for reform must also be constant,” Erdogan said during the event announcing his so-called "reform" plan.
The leader unveiled in May 2019 a Judicial Reform Strategy Document for the stated purpose of strengthening the independence, transparency, and objectivity of Turkey’s courts. However, almost two years on, human rights organizations do not report observing significant improvements in Turkish courts regarding these aspects. On the contrary, the sentencing of Erdogan’s opponents and crackdowns continue to take place.
The government hopes to roll out the plan over the course of two years.
The "reform" package’s principles include that everyone is equal before the law, disregarding their language, religion, race, color, gender, political opinion and other identifying factors, reported state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA).
The plan also includes the formation of an independent Human Rights Monitoring Commission for Penal Institutions, which will include members from bar associations and universities. A large number of bar associations in the country are dominated by Erdogan’s opponents.
However, Turkey has come under fire for cracking down on opponents, especially the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and jailing their members and officials. A lawmaker from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) called for the closure of the HDP on Tuesday.
“Inshallah, we will close the HDP,” said Cahit Ozkan. Such a call has been made by several members of the AKP and its allied Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), including the ultranationalist leader of the party Devlet Bahceli. They claim that the HDP is the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. The group has struggled for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey for decades.
Erdogan’s announcement of the new human rights plan, coincides with prosecutors seeking a two-year sentence for Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and an outspoken member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). He is accused of insulting Erdogan.
Onursal Adiguzel, deputy leader of the CHP, described the new plan “as a confession letter” in a tweet on Tuesday, saying that Erdogan “listed what the AKP has messed up in our country.”
Roisin Pillay, Europe and Central Asia director of the International Commission of Jurists, said on Monday that there is a “systematic practice in which the Turkish courts, which are not independent, apply criminal law and procedures arbitrarily against critics of the government.”
“The action plan needs to address these structural failings in the judicial system,” she added.
One of the long-detained opponents of Erdogan is the HDP’s former co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, who has been in jail since November 2016 for terror charges. Demirtas had run against Erdogan in the 2018 Turkish presidential election. Erdogan said in December that Demirtas cannot benefit from his judicial “reform” plans.
