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Threats, Profiling Now The 'Norm' In Turkey's Civil Service

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  • Threats, Profiling Now The 'Norm' In Turkey's Civil Service

    THREATS, PROFILING NOW THE 'NORM' IN TURKEY'S CIVIL SERVICE

    Legal Monitor Worldwide
    December 15, 2014 Monday

    The secretary-general of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Gursel
    Tekin, said in a statement on Nov. 6 that members of the Constitutional
    Court and their families are being threatened by members of the ruling
    Justice and Development Party (AK Party). His statements prompted
    discussions regarding Turkey's problems with political threats,
    coercion and blackmail.

    This statement came after the head of the Constitutional Court, Ha?im
    K?l?c, recently announced that the court was considering reaching a
    verdict regarding individual applications requesting to lower Turkey's
    10 percent election threshold. K?l?c reportedly spoke with a Turkish
    media outlet about the forthcoming verdict, and how it must be applied
    in the upcoming elections scheduled for June 2015.

    Ergun Ozbudun, a professor of constitutional law at ?stanbul ?ehir
    University, told Today's Zaman that "even if the high court rules that
    the 10 percent threshold has led to a violation of personal rights,
    this would not lead to the annulment of the [threshold law]."

    Tekin's remarks bring to the surface a dark and dangerous side of
    Turkey's civil service sector, where threats, blackmail and profiling
    have always have been used as tools of coercion and intimidation.

    Selim Sava? Genc, an associate professor of international relations
    at Fatih University, told Today's Zaman that "in a normal country,
    threats -- or even rumors of threats -- towards members of the
    judiciary would cause the ruling party to fall."

    "In truly democratic countries, the profiling or threatening of
    normal citizens by the government would be considered a scandal. But
    in Turkey, rumors of threats to members of the highest court in Turkey
    are considered a simple event," said Genc.

    CHP deputy Faruk Lo?o?lu also spoke to Today's Zaman, saying, "The
    separation of powers in politics is being torn apart."

    Underlining that the judiciary must be independent, Lo?o?lu, a former
    ambassador to the US, went on to say, "Unfortunately, there is a
    deepening and widening case of abuse of fundamental human rights
    in Turkey."

    "Blackmailing, threatening or even giving suggestions to the
    Constitutional Court is not acceptable in a state governed by the
    rule of law," he said.

    Profiling was commonplace during the Feb. 28, 1997 "postmodern coup."

    A clandestine body within the military known as the West Study Group
    (BCG) went so far as to make teachers of courses in national security
    keep tabs on their students and their families. However, profiling
    became a constitutional crime with the Sept. 12, 2010 referendum. In
    September 2014, documents acquired by Today's Zaman revealed that the
    Ministry of Family and Social Policy engaged in profiling practices
    deemed "illegal" by the state. The ministry reportedly recorded its
    employees with specific codes if they were deemed to be affiliated
    with the faith-based Hizmet movement.

    Similar to practices of the single-party era in Turkey when Greek,
    Armenian and Jewish citizens were classified with numbers one, two
    and three, respectively, the AK Party reportedly uses the code "111"
    for classification of people allegedly affiliated with the Hizmet
    movement, a faith-based group inspired by the teachings of Islamic
    scholar Fetullah Gulen.

    It was revealed in November that the Interior Ministry profiled not
    just prospective police officers but also their family members --
    classifying them according to their ideological, social and religious
    affiliations.

    According to documents obtained by Today's Zaman, the intelligence
    department of the National Police Department apparently profiled
    thousands of university graduates aspiring to become police officers,
    leading to the unjust elimination of many candidates.

    The documents show that, in a move that clearly violates their right
    to privacy, profiling extended beyond prospective police officers to
    members of their families. The documents suggest that most of the
    newly recruited police officers were employed owing to references
    from AK Party deputies or bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry.

    To add insult to injury, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office
    recently rejected a legal complaint about profiling by a public
    institution on the grounds that it is considered a "normal" procedure.

    The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office rejected the complaint made
    by Y?ld?r?m Kaya, a former head of the Education Personnel Union
    (E?itim-Sen), who protested the government's profiling of him. The
    prosecutor's office claims that what Kaya calls "profiling" was simply
    detailed security investigations into candidates for the police force.

    Mehmet Ta?tan, the prosecutor in Y?ld?z's case, announced that as long
    as people are prospective police officers, it cannot be considered a
    crime to keep a profile of people with whom the candidate communicates
    -- it simply draws a picture of his social environment. However,
    in his verdict of "no prosecution," the prosecutor also confirmed
    that the documents verifying instances of profiling, which appeared
    in the media, were genuine.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has, for over a year now, continued
    to unjustifiably insult and threaten the Hizmet movement. Erdo?an
    has blamed the movement, which he refers to as the parallel
    structure/state," for several graft probes that rocked the government.

    Since December of last year, Erdo?an and the AK Party have relentlessly
    targeted the Hizmet movement, which they see as the driving force
    behind two major graft probes made public on Dec. 17, 2013. The graft
    investigation implicated not only businessmen close to the government,
    bureaucrats and four former ministers of the Cabinet but also Bilal
    Erdo?an, the president's son. 2014 Legal Monitor Worldwide.

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