Turkish judiciary under control of Islamist sects: Top court member

Duvar English

A member of Turkey's Court of Cassation who wished to remain anonymous said that Islamist sects have taken over the judiciary, Halk TV journalist İsmail Saymaz said on Oct. 19 in his opinion piece. 

"Each Islamist sect in the judiciary has a WhatsApp group; they hold meetings separate for men and women," Saymaz reported the judiciary member as saying. 

Islamist sects have taken over the place of the Gülen network, which is widely believed to have undertaken the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, the court member reportedly told Saymaz.

Dubbed a terrorist organization by the state, members of the Gülen network were evacuated from state offices in thousands following the coup attempt in efforts to "cleanse the state of coup plotters."

"One of the Islamist groups is the Hak-Yol Foundation of the Naqshbandi sect, the other is the Menzil," said the anonymous judiciary member. 

Members of the Hak-Yol Foundation have reportedly taken over the judiciary, are quite active in the Justice Ministry and the Court of Cassation, and control Turkey's Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) with their near-thousand members. 

The December 17-25, 2013 corruption investigations into the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were a turning point for the illegal structures in the Turkish state, the judiciary member reportedly said. 

"When operations against the Gülen network started after the December investigations, those who stayed at the Hak-Yol dormitories said that they'd always been with this group. After all, they can't be touched if they're members of a sect."

The groups work in the favor of their own gains instead of the state's, the judiciary member reportedly said, adding that he has reported his observations to the Presidency and the Justice Ministry -- with no outcome. 

'Which sect should we join?'

Four prospective judges and prosecutors once asked Saymaz's source which sect he would recommend joining.

"I told them to work for the state. 'Hak-Yol may be in power now, and Gülen [network] was in power before, but you will work for another 30 years,' I told them. They are so desperate to ask such a question," the source reportedly told Saymaz. 

Islamist sects have become a national security issue as they favor their members in business and bureaucracy, Saymaz's source noted. He also said that those affiliated with these groups are difficult to prosecute because of the organizations' tight-knit structure.