ANKARA - Supreme Court Chairman Eraslan Ozkaya said on Friday that holding a judicial and administrative reform together with legal reforms was inevitable from now on.
2002-2003 Judicial Year started with a ceremony held in Supreme Court.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Parliament Speaker Omer Izgi, Constitutional Court Chairman Mustafa Bumin, State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Ciller, several state ministers, Justice Minister Aysel Celikel, Labour and Social Security Minister Nejat Arseven, National Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary General Gen. Tuncer Kilinc, and several other high level military and civilian officials participated in the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ozkaya said a very big judicial reform had been made under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk following foundation of Turkish Republic, stressing that Turkish legal system was settled on basis of democratic, secular, contemporary legal state.
Ozkaya said social, economic and political conditions changed in this long period of time, and that technology developed rapidly, and that necessities and values of individuals and society changed.
Ozkaya said, ''our laws which had been prepared as reformist and progressive in the first years of the Republic, in time came to a position that could not meet needs of growing Turkey.''
Ozkaya said the source laws which were taken from the west could not be renewed and amended in time according to the needs of the society.
Stating that the amendments were not adequate, Ozkaya said, ''making judicial and administrative reform together with legal reform became inevitable.''
Ozkaya said 1982 Constitution based on the state not the individual, stressing that some amendments which will prevail supremacy of legal state were made following efforts of the Parliament.
Ozkaya said establishment of a independent new Judges and Prosecutors Supreme Board soon was primary condition of a secure, impartial and just trial.