BY YUSUF KANLI
TDN-The closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) - which is widely perceived as a `judicial coup against Islamists' - and the tragicomic folding of the so-called `counter-coup' of the government against the secularists serve to demonstrate the ugliest facade of polarization in the country. How the AKP closure case or the Ergenekon tragicomedy will end, we cannot prejudge, but it's certain that whatever might be the end of these two cases will be as contentious as the cases themselves.
People accused and whisked from their beds in the middle of the night for interrogation are in opposition and cannot change trial procedures in order to secure their release. However, the government is busy pondering what constitutional amendments it might undertake to escape the closure case. Stripping the chief prosecutor of the power to bring closure cases, or restricting the power to bring such cases to parliamentary approval or a qualified vote of the General Council of the Court of Appeals, or banning party closures but holding parliamentarians `individually responsible' for their actions - these are just some of the possibilities... The ruling party is planning to undertake the changes in mid-May and bring them to a referendum within 45 days. If approved, all pending cases would be brought to a close... A referendum or going to a public vote on an issue is a democratic mechanism. Yet the referendum mechanism should not be used as a tool to advance some majority dictate on the nation or as a means of evading justice...
Not only is the AKP trying to change the laws covering the closure case against itself and is thus seriously hurting the notion of justice, but with a referendum, which in essence would be just a vote on `Shall we close the AKP or not,' polarization would be further escalated in the country... Let it deluge, after the AKP is saved! That`s the mentality of the ruling party..."