In Turkey the law and the courts are being used for the sheer sake of political aims. It carries out its decisions on the basis of double standards which rely on this. They never haul up before the courts those who commit crimes, using the government's authority, Those who express their ideas about the way the government works are sent to prison with the heaviest of possible sentences. The Justice Ministry's circular on cell types is being published and if it is put in force there will be great problems in the prisons. The cell system especially which has been considered sufficient for those convicted of crimes of thought has been applied frequently following 1980 and has resulted in a number of deaths.
History moves in strange ways.
When I was in prison at the end of the 1980s, the Justice Minister was again Oltan Sungurlu. The infamous circular of August 1 was produced during Sungurlu's time. The insistence on imposing this circular cost tens of people their lives. Now with a similar approach, this government wants to stick a rod into the bee's nest in the name of social peace as the party in power. It is clear that the sentences which are being tightened up with this measure are not going to provide justice but will once again place the prisons on society's agenda as a problem.