Ankara will increase proportion of regime-loyal judges

Significance

In 2019, the court ruled that Osman Kavala's indictment for attempting to overthrow the state aimed at silencing him. The role of junior judges with personal ties to the ruling party in highly politicised cases highlights the government’s unfinished project of bringing the judiciary under presidential control.

Impacts

• Turkish judges and prosecutors have long had politicised roles, yet partisan control of the courts has reached unprecedented levels lately.
• The rule of law has been the first casualty of the judiciary becoming a tool of the executive over the past decade.
• Partisan judges are ignoring legally binding ECHR decisions, a further sign of Turkey’s institutional detachment from Europe.