09.09.2021 12:59 Turkey’s judicial year inauguration Have you seen the photo from the inauguration of the judicial year? After seeing the photo, did you wish you hadn’t? I did. What we saw at that opening ceremony will be our future. 07.07.2021 11:27 A pattern of Alevite massacres The Madımak massacre was not an “isolated incident” as Turkish officials like to say, but was one of the bloodiest examples of a series of attacks. This was a series of attacks on the efforts of the Alevis in Turkey to be recognized and to participate in social-political life with all their rights and responsibilities. 22.06.2021 10:59 Attack on HDP in İzmir reminiscent of past violence After the attack on the HDP office in Izmir and the murder of employee Deniz Poyraz, the government immediately began signaling its strategy to absolve themselves of any responsibility. It is apparent that they want us to think that this was not an organized attack, but the result of disgruntled healthcare worker with emotional problems. This reminds us of the wave of violence that occurred after the 2015 elections when the AKP lost its majority. 24.03.2021 11:28 A Turkey without Kurds Last week the parliamentary membership of HDP MP Gergerlioğlu was revoked. On the same day, a suit was filed in attempt to shut the People's Democratic Party (HDP) down entirely. This is the modern version of the antiquated dream of a “Turkey without Kurds.” The primary motivations of these political moves are to sustain the power of the ruling coalition, appease the coalition’s Islamist-racist electorate, and prevent the HDP’s predominantly Kurdish electorate from voting for the opposition. 05.02.2021 12:43 A brief history of the command ‘look down’ A video from the protests against President Erdoğan’s appointment of a rector to Boğaziçi University depicts a police officer shouting at students to “look down” and police officers rushing in to beat them shortly after. This, in fact, is not a new command in Turkey. Six years ago in Hakkari the same command was used to force down the heads of Kurdish workers. Those methods which were used to force down the Kurds now exist as a means of forcing down many more opposition heads.  20.01.2021 14:54 The continuous murder of Hrant Dink The case of the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink remains unresolved despite the promises made by the then prime minister, Erdoğan and his AKP. Calling the killing of Armenians in Turkey “genocide” is seen as defamation, so their project became not the removing of the genocide mechanism but managing its optics. Dink was not murdered when the shots were fired at him. His murder continues. 07.01.2021 11:40 The arrest of Boğaziçi students is laden with symbolism The action whereby the police tear down the doors and the action where by the doors of the Boğaziçi University are handcuffed are associated with each other. The door of the university is regarded a wall for some people now. Those inside the wall and those outside the wall have been absolutely separated. 22.12.2020 10:57 Strip search and Turkey’s race toward barbarism By saying she “doesn’t believe there is anything like the strip search happening in Turkey,” AKP deputy Özlem Zengin ignited a political conversation around the barbaric practice, but this not a new issue. Strip searching is a form of humiliation which has always been present in Turkey, but has recently become a regular practice in prisons and police stations. Such an act has no place within the law, rules, moral codes, and social conventions of our society. 12.12.2020 21:57 Syrian-Turkish partnerships can boost Turkey's economy While anti-Syrian resentment is on the rise, so is the proportion of Syrians who intend to stay in Turkey in the long-run. Yet a recent report points to the contribution of Turkish-Syrian business partnerships to Turkey's economy. Such success stories should be emphasised as to overcome anti-Syrian prejudice in Turkish society. 20.11.2020 10:35 Is that so, Justice Minister Gül? Last week, Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül said that justice needs to be carried out according to conscience, the law and the Constitution, not according to personal influences. According to the government, a law reform means forming a new order in which no one will be able to speak of or demand law reform. while they say “reform” they mean “deform.” Because if the law was truly enforced no matter what, as the Justice Minister claims it is, could the Kurkut case have ended like this? 16.10.2020 10:57 Why the authorities banned a Kurdish-language play The district governor ban's on a theater play in Kurdish-language should be interpreted as a punishment against the Kurds for having voted for the opposition in Istanbul’s mayoral elections. Yet it is not only a punishment, for when the government throws a stone, it wants to hit more than one bird. 15.09.2020 10:49 The complete removal of legal defense in Turkey For the moment, what is called “justice” in Turkey is the tool for the ideological war for building the “new Turkey,” the ongoing war accompanied by all kinds of stimuli and nurturing. 16.07.2020 08:56 The political sand in the bucket of law: Hagia Sophia Turkish Council of State's decision about the Hagia Sophia is a peak of anti-legality. It is such a political decision that you cannot even fathom sticking any legality on it. As you would not be able to carry water in a bucket full of sand. Let me explain why. 15.11.2019 01:12 Justice as a Russian roulette The decision to rearrest experienced journalist Ahmet Altan proves the predictability rule of legal system to be reversed by anti-legality. That's a kind of predictability too.