Deficiencies in effective access to justice in Turkey

Broad laws against terrorism and threats to the state, political pressure, and inadequacies in the judicial system limited access to justice, as did lengthy pretrial detention and lack of transparency in the prosecution of cases related to state security.
The time lag between arrests and presentation of indictments; leaks of information, evidence, or statements; restricted defense access to evidence put forward by the prosecution; and the secrecy of the investigation orders also fueled concerns about the effectiveness of judicial protections for suspects.

The close connection between prosecutors and judges gave the appearance of impropriety and unfairness in criminal cases, while the broad authority granted to prosecutors and judges contributed to inconsistent and uncertain application of criminal laws.

During the year the government adopted judicial reforms to speed up and improve judicial processes.

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Who is This Woman Challenging Erdogan in Turkey?

But in light of an impending "dictatorship of the Erdogan clique," says Tarhan, she wants to campaign for a different and more modern Turkey. "In this country, religious leaders are now declaring women who have been raped to be partially culpable, because they showed too much cleavage. They see women as nothing but baby-making machines. Do you really think that I can just sit there and do nothing?"

Until recently, Emine Ulker Tarhan was a Supreme Court justice in Ankara. But now she has discarded her robes and is challenging Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Turkish leadership. The prime minister, she alleges, is establishing a surveillance state and is “becoming more dictatorial every day."

There are days on which Emine Ulker Tarhan isn’t constantly worried about bugs and wire taps. They are days when Tarhan, tall and blonde with metal-rimmed glasses, gets her 1964 VW Beetle out of the garage and puts on a CD by Zulfu Livaneli, the Turkish balladeer whose voice reminds her of “clear air."

And then are days, she says, when she feels like a character in George Orwell’s tale of a surveillance state, “1984." That’s when she sees the thought police on patrol, and when she is afraid to say the wrong word in her own home.

Today is one of those days. It’s a Monday morning in the embassy district of the Turkish capital Ankara, and Tarhan, wearing a black blazer over a blue blouse, is sitting in a friend’s law office, where the two are exchanging knowing glances. Could this office be bugged, too, they wonder? “Our country’s government is becoming more and more dictatorial every day," says Tarhan. “This isn’t paranoia."

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Tears in Akhtamar Surp Cross Church..

The ceremony made on 19th September for the first time after 95 years in Surp Cross Church in Akhtamar Island was made without a Cross.

Turkish goverment which gave permit for making a ceremony for once in the historical cathedral does not deem the cathedral as a worship place. It wants to show itself to the West as a country which has religious tolerance, to accelerate the acceptance process for European Union and to attract more tourists to the location, by using the cathedral as a tool for its political and economical objectives.

On one side, Turkish government smiles at the outer world and on the other side it makes inquiries for the purpose of determining whether there are families in Van who offer Armenian pilgrims to host them at their home and continues to launch formal investigations about those families it has detected.
And beyond everything, Ankara likes to see Armenians in conflict with eachother.
I don’t want to enter into details of that matter, but I want to share an approach bearing the Armenian spirit.

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