Details

Turkey - annual report 2014

Published: May 5, 2014
Länderbericht Türkei 2014

Working visit by a Turkish delegation from the Office of the Public Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Turkey to Celle Office of the Public Prosecutor General

Strategic framework

Legal policy starting point

2014 was a turbulent year for Turkey, as had also been the case in the year before. The protests by the Gezi movement have calmed. Tensions in society and on the political landscape have however persisted. Clashes within the alliance of the governing AK Party led, also in 2014, to massive staff-related and institutional re-structuring within the police and judicial apparatus. Political clashes also took place in the judiciary. This particularly relates to the key institutions of the Turkish judiciary: the Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court and the Judicial Academy. The election to the Supreme Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors, which as the self-governing body of the Turkish judiciary was to be a guarantor of the independence of the judiciary, was also highly politicised. The turbulent political situation affects the reform process in the Turkish judiciary, and therefore also impacts cooperation between the IRZ and the Turkish partners, in particular through the staff changes. Despite all this, it has been possible to continue the good cooperation which has been built up in recent years, and it is possible to expect that this will continue to be the case in the future.

Overall concept

The IRZ has been supporting the comprehensive judicial reform in Turkey since 2007. The number of partners and projects has grown continuously in recent years. The IRZ’s work has concentrated on the introduction of the constitutional complaint and lawyers’ training, as well as on fundamental issues of criminal procedure law and on mediation. In addition to its bilateral work, the IRZ is also highly active in EU twinning projects, which continue and complement the bilateral work, with five projects. In the interest of sustainability, the IRZ continues to work with the Turkish partners after the projects have come to an end. For instance, a follow-up project to the Twinning project on the law on patents, designs and trademarks, which was successfully implemented with the Turkish Patent Office from 2009 to 2011, has been operated on a bilateral basis since 2012 also with the involvement of the Supreme Court Yargitay, as well as of the Federal
Patent Court.

Foci of activity in 2014

Constitutional law / human rights and their enforceability

  • German-Turkish seminar entitled “German case-law of the Federal Constitutional Court on individual applications” in cooperation with the University of Istanbul
  • German-Turkish seminar entitled “Fundamental rights in administrative law in the light of the judgments of the Constitutional Court and the administrative courts” in cooperation with the University of Istanbul
  • Seminar entitled “Protection of fundamental rights in criminal proceedings via a constitutional complaint” in cooperation with the University of Istanbul
  • Workshop entitled “The introduction of the constitutional complaint in Turkey – initial experience, further prospects” in cooperation with the University of Istanbul

Civil and commercial law

  • Working visit on the labour courts by a delegation from the Ministry of Justice
  • Study visit by a delegation from the Office of the Public Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Turkey on issues of criminal procedure law
  • TAIEX study visit by a delegation from the Ministry of Justice on mediation
  • Conference on industrial property rights in a German-Turkish comparison; follow-up of the twinning project on industrial property rights

Criminal law and the law on the prison system

  • Working visit by a delegation from the Ministry of Justice on the topic of “Victims’ rights”
  • Study visit by a delegation from the Office of the Public Prosecutor General to the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Turkey on the topic of “Property crimes”

Basic and further training

  • Working visit to Germany by a delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Justice on lawyers’ training
  • Drafting of curricula for lawyers’ training in the Turkish Judicial Academy, follow-up on the twinning project with the Judicial Academy

EU Twinning projects

  • Twinning project on witness protection with the Turkish police (since 08/2013)
  • Twinning project on lawyers’ training with the Turkish Judicial Academy (10/2012-12/2014)
  • Twinning project on cybercrime with the Turkish police (12/2012-10/2014)
  • Twinning project with the Turkish Ministry of Justicve on the introduction of judicial press spokespersons (since May 2013)
  • Twinning project with the Turkish Ministry of Justice on expert witnesses (since 1/2013)

Outlook

The IRZ will be continuing its consultation services in Turkey in 2015. It will focus on cooperation with lawyers and with notaries. The IRZ will also continue to work together with the university partners. The agenda will include the constitutional complaint, which was introduced in Turkey in 2012, general issues of criminal procedure law and the protection of industrial property rights. Finally, implementation of three twinning projects will continue in 2015. The twinning projects on lawyers’ training and on the fight against cybercrime, which ended in 2014, will be continued by bilateral follow-up activities.