Turkish former deputy interior minister elected as top court member

Duvar English

The Turkish parliament on Oct. 5 elected former Deputy Interior Minister Muhterem İnce as a Constitutional Court (AYM) member.

İnce was appointed as Deputy Interior Minister under Minister Süleyman Soylu in 2018. İnce was also elected as a Court of Accounts (Sayıştay) member in June.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) group deputy chair Meral Danış Beştaş commented on the issue, saying: “What kind of achievements did Muhterem İnce really achieve in the Court of Accounts; what did he do in three months so that he was deemed worthy of the AYM membership?”

With this appointment, the number of AYM members appointed under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will increase to 10. The top court has 15 members in total. Two-thirds of the members are enough to vote in favor of the closure of the HDP. Some say that İnce was first appointed to the Court of Accounts in order to be elected as an AYM member, so that the top court can shut down HDP in an ongoing case against it.

After the appointment, İnce tweeted: “I have been elected as a member of the Constitutional Court with the great favor of the esteemed members of the Court of Accounts with whom we have been working as well as the esteemed deputies in our Assembly. May God grant us to be worthy of this trust in the journey of law and justice.”

Following this message, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) group deputy chair Özgür Özel tweeted: “Don't make fun of the nation so much, Muharrem... Don't we know that you were first elected to the Court of Accounts and then to the Constitutional Court? You thank the members for what work you did in the Court of Accounts where you stayed for three months and did not even turn a page. We condemn this fraud."

The other five members of the AYM were appointed during former President Abdullah Gül’s rule.