Chief Advisor to the President and Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Legal Policies Board, Mehmet Uçum, wrote about the meaning of July 15 in terms of Türkiye's political history for AA Analysis.
On the evening of July 15, 2016, Türkiye was faced with one of the lowest betrayals and biggest attacks in the history of our Republic. The foreign-backed coup attempt of the fascist FETO gang was crushed by the epic struggle of our people under the brave, determined and strong leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On the tenth anniversary of the 15-16 July epic, one of the most glorious pages of our history of national struggle, it would be appropriate to consider and evaluate the various dimensions of the issue once again.
As it is known, the War of Independence was based on the inclusive philosophy of Anatolia under the leadership of Atatürk. Erzurum and Sivas Congresses, the opening of the Grand National Assembly, the adoption of the 1921 Constitution, the victories against the occupying forces, the Treaty of Lausanne and the declaration of the Republic are the most important steps of the liberation period.
The "philosophy of liberation" tried to encompass all regions, all identities and all values of Anatolia. This can be called the "Anatolian inclusiveness" of liberation. It should be underlined that Türkiye's liberation struggle with this inclusiveness is the great rebellion of the twentieth century that affected all oppressed nations against both the classical and neo-colonial approaches of imperialism. On the one hand, a Türkiye squeezed into a narrowing geography emerged, and on the other hand, a country that was successful in its war of independence against imperialism was established. It was not easy for the imperialist powers to digest this new Türkiye led by Atatürk. The imperialist powers, which attacked the Ottoman Empire with the aim of completely liquidating it or at least reducing it and taking it under control, could not fully achieve these goals. Out of resentment, the continuation of the Ottoman Empire immediately began operations against the young Republic. and these operations have been going on for about a hundred years.
After the First World War ended militarily, in a region and world environment where imperialist power wars in the world continued politically and determined by rising fascisms and authoritarian regimes, Turkey entered the establishment phase with the proclamation of the Republic. However, at this stage, instead of the "inclusive Turkish Nation" understanding that dominated during the liberation period, an exclusionary Turkish nation approach that determined the "founding philosophy" came to the fore. The regional characteristics of the period, the political situation in Europe, and the protection policies that were tried to be developed against imperialist ambitions for our country also have an impact on this. Of course, it is possible to consider and evaluate this situation historically. Inevitabilities, obligations or choices should be discussed in the context of the period, and this is the correct method. This aside, what is certain is that Atatürk, the founding leader of the Republic, managed to create a country with a legal order from the political power areas in the region we are in, by building a legal system based on the principle of secularism. However, it is also a factual fact that the preferred exclusionary understanding has serious consequences in terms of sociological, political and value systems. The founding philosophy, which includes the aim of "creating" a Western-type and pro-Western republican nation, has revealed many power practices that suppress, impoverish and even liquidate our country's richness of values and identity.
The main reason for these problems was the incompatibility/contradiction that arose between the preferences of the state apparatus we built, in other words, the internal governments, and the society. This disagreement has created a systematic pressure structure on religious people in the field of belief values. It has created harmful practices for minorities. It deepened the problems regarding Alevis. In the field of identities, it has created problems for our citizens with Turkish, Kurdish and other identities. In the field of social justice, deepening injustices emerged until the end of the 20th century.
As can be seen, society has paid a huge price in the eyes of everyone in every field until the last stage of the establishment process. Today, the Republic and its gains belonging to the entire nation, which no one will have a monopoly on, can never be evaluated ideologically, cannot be used as a tool of superiority over anyone else in terms of any segment or environment, have been achieved as a result of these costs. These gains will of course continue as red lines for the entire Turkish society. These values cannot be referenced to narrow ideological understandings and no subgroup has such a right. This being the case, it has become inevitable that the problems arising from the incompatibility/fundamental contradiction we mentioned between the internal state powers and the society will enter the liquidation process.
Second salvation within the process of completion of the establishment
The new political approach that has developed in Türkiye since the beginning of the 21st century under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has aimed to solve the problems created by the fundamental contradiction between the state and society. Through this political approach, an attempt was made to establish a "democratic center" within an anti-democratic, public-distanced, tutelary, oligarchic and authoritarian regime. In this context, we can define the political experience we had until July 15 as an effort to establish and strengthen the democratic center within an anti-democratic system. Thus, a contradiction emerged between the anti-democratic system and the democratic center.
The emergence of dual state practices is due to this contradiction. On the one hand, the efforts of the democratic center trying to improve the area of rights and freedoms were progressing, on the other hand, there were anti-democratic state practices that constantly intervened in the area of rights and freedoms. Again, while, on the one hand, activities were carried out with the initiative of the democratic center to ensure the economic growth and increase the welfare of our country, on the other hand, efforts have emerged to keep our country in a weak position in every sense and to make it an assistant of the imperialist powers. This anti-democratic structure within the state has been built on closed institutions that have been susceptible to occupation by cadre movements since its establishment. For this reason, after the establishment, many cadre movements in Türkiye tried to implement an anti-national and anti-people state by taking over institutions through these closed structures within the state. The longest and most effective of these cadre movements was the politically reactionary and fascist Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) gang, which tried to nestle within the state for 45 years.
If we open a parenthesis, it is appropriate in terms of political science to describe the illegal FETO organization as a political reactionary and fascist gang, because since the ideological line of this organization is based on a monolithic worldview against diversity, the society model it proposes is politically reactionary. Since its political line is based on an approach that rejects democracy and pluralism and aims to liquidate the principle of national sovereignty, its political practice is also based on fascism. In addition, the organizational structure has the characteristics of a gang organization because it is oppressive and based on hierarchy between people. It should also be underlined that this gang also operates as an espionage organization.
As a result, on July 15, there was an overthrow and occupation attempt, the implementation center and backbone of which was the FETO gang, the ideological center of which was externally dependent. The aim of this uprising was to overthrow the democratic center, the aim of the occupation was to disintegrate the integrity of Türkiye, and this uprising is a political reactionary and fascist uprising. He is politically reactionary because he had the aim of taking Türkiye back from its current position and liquidating our country's economic, cultural, historical accumulation and belief values. It was a fascist uprising because it aimed to establish a uniformitarian, totalitarian political regime in a part of our country where it wanted to establish domination. In other words, on July 15, when a political reactionary and fascist movement attempted to overthrow and occupy, a huge conflict and confrontation took place between the anti-democratic system and the democratic center. The democratic center reacted strongly to the July 15 uprising under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The people destroyed this uprising with their great and epic resistance, disregarding their lives. This great social and political action brought to the world a new type of political leadership and the largest peaceful people's revolution in history.
As mentioned, since the beginning of the 21st century, Türkiye has started to complete its foundation, which started with the Republic. This phase developed primarily as a period of preparing the conditions for system reform through internal revisions. In a sense, efforts were made to clear the way for system reform by regressing "bureaucratic institutional domination" and solving our basic political and economic problems. While we were on this path, when the global fascist forces made their biggest counter-moves to prevent our country from completing its founding, our people repelled this attack on July 15-16 and won the second struggle for liberation. In other words, the social dimension of the national struggle has concluded successfully. The next stage is the completion of the establishment that started with the Republic, which was the task set by the second liberation.
Our first salvation is the national struggle of our people against an open imperialist occupation and division movement, and our second salvation is against a covert imperialist occupation and division movement using internal dynamics. After the First War of Independence, the establishment phase began. However, in the process of completing the establishment we have been carrying out since the beginning of this century, we had to wage the second struggle for independence. We fought the First War of Independence under conditions where we, as the Ottoman remnant, were economically and politically weaker. We fought our Second War of Independence in an environment where we were stronger politically and economically. We were successful in the first liberation with the self-sacrificing struggle of a world leader like Ataturk and the people of Anatolia. We achieved success in the second liberation with the most important direct/organic leader of the 21st century, such as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the great resistance of our people. Both of our Wars of Independence were illuminated with the lives and blood of our martyrs and veterans. In fact, the first and second liberation are two periods of our struggle against the invasion and disintegration attacks against Türkiye, which have been going on for nearly a hundred years. Therefore, it is necessary to talk about different periods of a magnificent national struggle that are not disconnected from each other but complement each other and an organization that has continuity.
July 15-16 can be described as the biggest political revolution of the 21st century so far. This revolution can be called the "National Democratic People's Revolution". This revolution, which has qualitative and quantitative differences from many political revolution practices that history has seen so far, is national because it repelled the overthrow and occupation movement of global fascist forces against our country. He protected our country and our values. This revolution is democratic because it protected the national will and protected democracy. This revolution is a people's revolution because not the cadre movements but the people themselves achieved this revolution under the leadership of the organic and direct leader of the people, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. July 15-16 is a revolution because every revolution has two stages. The first is changing the power, the second is the construction of a new power. On July 15-16, our people destroyed the bureaucratic institutional sovereignty by defeating the FETO gang nestled in the institutions that are the internal powers of the anti-democratic system. The anti-public structures within our army, judiciary, administrative bureaucracy, economy, education and culture, which were used for this sovereignty, were eliminated from their position of sovereignty with the July 15-16 Revolution. We are now in the construction period, which is the second phase of the 15-16 July Revolution. This is now the period of restructuring the National State and building the people's state.
July 15-16 is the largest peaceful revolution in world political history. Millions of people who took to the streets, lay down in front of tanks, shielded their chests from bombs and bullets, losing 252 martyrs and 2193 veterans, were never involved in any action that would harm property or life. No economic value or hardware was damaged. No civilian responded with weapons against this fascist movement. He sacrificed his life but did not cause a civil conflict even though he had the opportunity.
Private insurance companies have determined that almost all of the losses of July 15-16 were caused by the bombings and shootings of the FETO gang against the public, the Parliament, the security forces' premises, in front of the first bridge, around the Social Complex and other places, and the damage caused by tanks, vehicles and the environment. With perhaps one or two exceptions or those caused by self-protection, no damage has been determined due to civilian actions. The mind, conscience, consciousness, sense of justice and wisdom of this people; It is the fundamental guarantee of the protection of the homeland, democracy and the state.
On another note, Turkey has a very strong democratic culture because it developed its understanding and understanding of democracy not through economic prosperity but through the self-expression of the society. As is known, Western democracies were built on welfare societies. The reason for this was the class wars against capital-controlled states and the pressures of the socialist system at the time. For this reason, a democratic culture dependent on economic processes has emerged in the West and a fragile understanding of democracy has emerged. In other words, as the welfare society erodes, democracy and democratic culture tend to decline. It is as if the democratic veneer is falling away, and racism, xenophobia and fascistic practices are emerging underneath. In Türkiye, the democratization process developed as a result of the society's struggle to express itself freely with all its values and identities, and this situation continues. Turkey has a much stronger democratic culture because it developed its democratic culture not through economic prosperity but through the self-expression of the society. The main reason for this is that the main contradiction in Türkiye is not class-based but the contradiction between the state and society. Therefore, the priority of the society in Türkiye has been the need to freely express their beliefs, identity and cultural values, rather than economic prosperity. The struggle for democracy also developed in this environment. The economic status of the middle class that developed in the 80s was not the main basis of the struggle for democracy, but its supporter. After the July 15-16 National Democratic People's Revolution, the will for democracy in Turkish society became much stronger and permanent. For this reason, Turkish democracy has reached a power that is least affected and can be least affected by economic processes.
Because of this culture, in the July 15-16 National Democratic People's Revolution, the people put forward a practice that gave up on itself but did not compromise on its values. Moreover, due to this culture, the will for democracy in Turkish society became much stronger and permanent after the 15-16 July National Democratic People's Revolution. Another important result is that the claim of sociological polarization turned out to be unfounded. The issue of polarization in our country was an issue that was exaggerated and especially provoked before July 15. In fact, an intense perception operation has been carried out as if the oppositions, conflicts and polarizations that were tried to be created in areas of representation such as politics, media, culture and intellectual grounds also existed within society. The 15-16 July Revolution revealed that these polarization claims do not have a sociological counterpart that extends beyond the areas of representation. Democracy watches and Yenikapı Rally have shown that Turkish society, together with all identities and segments, act together when it comes to homeland and democracy. Every environment, every political segment, every belief group, every ethnic group, that is, the whole of Türkiye, took part in this process. In addition, the joint constitutional amendment activity of the three parties at that time, which continued for a certain period of time and achieved agreement on some provisions, demonstrated that it was possible to cooperate in the field of political representation. Again, MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli's attitudes supporting the government in every national policy have been a great example of political cooperation. The culture of acting together on the basis of patriotism, called the Yenikapı spirit, has become a spirit embraced and carried by the people and has become a national value.
The consequences of the revolution regarding cleanliness in the state and the principle of remaining within the law
The results of the July 15-16 Revolution's liquidation of anti-public structures nestled within the state and system; It has emerged in public office, economy, media, organization and politics. According to the data of the State of Emergency Investigation Commission, 131 thousand 922 precautionary measures were taken only through decrees. 125 thousand 678 of these transactions are dismissals from public office. 3483 procedures include rank revocation and student termination, and 2 medal revocation procedures. 2761 precautionary measures were taken in the fields of economy, media and organization in the form of establishment, closure of organizations and appointment of trustees.
Although there was a large-scale purge in terms of quantity, the real revolutionary result emerged in the qualitative purge. In fact, around sixty percent of the generals and admirals in the army and one-third of the judges and prosecutors in the judiciary were dismissed for their links to anti-public structures. Likewise, the purge among high-ranking public officials is a purge with a high qualitative impact.
In addition, the Country Leadership, which has demonstrated the will to fight against enemies of the people and fascist gangs within the law and in accordance with the requirements of the state of law, has revealed perhaps the first example of staying within the law in a revolutionary period in world history, due to political and sociological dynamics. We can call this the "principle of remaining within the law", which first emerged in revolutionary periods. In this context, legal remedies have been opened in all media for those who claim to be victimized. In particular, the establishment and active activity of the State of Emergency Investigation Commission has been an important opportunity to seek justice. 127 thousand 292 applications were made to the Commission against the precautionary measures taken through decree laws. In other words, there are more applications than the total number of transactions, which is 125 thousand 678. The Commission decided on all of these. It made 17 thousand 960 acceptance decisions. Since the law does not provide the right to sue the administration against the acceptance decisions made, these decisions came into force immediately. The commission's duty was completed on January 22, 2023.
At that time, according to the data of the Ministry of Justice valid as of January 26, 2018, the number of prosecution investigations carried out in terms of criminal investigations and prosecutions reached 105 thousand 709. In this context, 214 thousand 442 suspects were investigated. In terms of prosecutions, that is, criminal cases opened, 43 thousand 274 case files and 90 thousand 166 defendants were reached. Criminal processes were carried out within the framework of the principle of remaining within the law, and those whose guilt was certain and proven were punished.
According to the current data of the Ministry of Justice, the very high numbers reached in investigations and prosecutions, convictions and other decisions show that the legal fight against the FETO gang continues uninterruptedly, effectively and decisively. Apart from these, political structures that believe in democracy and do not see any way other than democratic politics as permissible and legitimate have contributed to the liquidation process by making an effort to cleanse those who are in direct or indirect contact with the political reactionary-fascist gangs within themselves.
It is also necessary to emphasize the extremely important changes made in the politics and leadership style of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who made the July 15-16 Revolution successful and had a great impact on the strengthening of Turkish democracy. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's political history and practice are a very important example of demand politics and direct leadership. The innovations brought by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to his style of politics and leadership have greatly changed the principles of democratic politics in Türkiye.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made a radical change in the way of doing politics in Türkiye by implementing people-based direct politics, that is, demand politics, instead of representation politics. One of the most important results of this is that it emphasizes "demand democracy" instead of "thesis democracy". Thesis democracy is based on the politics of representation. It mainly takes place as the practice of developing what is best for the people by the political elites, turning it into a thesis, presenting it to the public and trying to get their support. As a result, an elitist style of politics emerges.
However, demand democracy is based on demand politics. It is implemented as the practice of influencing the political system through the political program produced based on the demands and needs of the people. As a result, it requires a sociological style of politics. In this context, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has radically changed the type of leadership, as he acts as the direct voice or even limb of the people, instead of representative leadership. As a positive observation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's leadership is "Direct and Organic Political Leadership" and this is a new type of leadership. This leadership practice has a uniqueness that cannot be fully explained by the political leaderships classified so far.
Of course, the feeling of "full trust in the leader", which is one of the most important results of direct leadership in relations with the masses, strengthens the belief in the leader's perspective. As such, the masses adopt and support the leader's approaches, even if they are not completely sure or think differently in some cases. In this respect, another feature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's leadership stands out. We call it "transformational leadership".
This leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was one of the main factors of the July 15-16 Revolution. From now on, no political actor in Türkiye has the chance to achieve great success without engaging in sociological politics and producing organic/direct leadership practice.
The other dimension that makes Türkiye's democracy strong is this change in the style of doing politics and leadership practice. The only politics that can gain high legitimacy in Türkiye from now on is the one that is directly based on the people. It is to transform the demands and needs of the people into a democratic political program. The greatest strength of democracies is to have a political system and the opportunity to make policies that will ensure that the principle of national sovereignty is implemented with the will of the people. In this context, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's style of politics and leadership played a role in deepening democracy in our country. Again, with the July 15-16 Revolution, directly led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the objective conditions for the strong construction of a democratic system in which national sovereignty belongs to the people have been fully formed for our country.
Numerical data and major revolutionary actions
The following data on public participation in the process from July 15, 2016 until the democracy watches were suspended on August 9, 2016, is published for the first time in this activity. The data are collected in two groups: numerical and operational.
Numerical data: After the July 15 coup attempt, the number of people who took to the streets in all of Türkiye, first spontaneously and then with the call of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was 2 million 596 thousand 368. That night in Türkiye, people in 80 provinces except one showed great resistance against the coup attempt by going to squares, airports, around active military units and other places they deemed risky. 1 million 897 thousand 142 of those who participated in the democracy resistance on the night of July 15 took to the streets in thirty major cities. The remaining 699 thousand 226 people participated in this democracy epic in fifty cities. Considering this mass resistance, it is not uncommon in the world political history for more than 2.5 million people to take part in a revolutionary action in such a short period of time, protecting the country and democracy and making the people's will effective. In addition, in terms of geographical spread, the 15-16 July National Democratic People's Revolution is a first in world political history. Indeed, people living in 80 provinces of Türkiye took part in this democracy resistance. The number of participants in the 26-day democracy watch, which started on the night of July 16 and was interrupted on August 10, 2016, was 37 million 635 thousand 323. These data were created with the information and documents obtained separately from the governorship of each province by the Undersecretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at that time.
Thus, our people took part in this struggle for democracy with 40 million 231 thousand 691 participants during the democracy watches on the night of July 15. Of course, since this total number includes people who participated in democracy watches more than once, that is, there are duplications, it is not possible to deduce from these data how many people participated in total. However, it is observed that after the democracy watches start, there are new participants every day, people prefer to participate in rotations, and there are people who want to take part in the processes by participating only once or twice. From this perspective, even if the rate of duplication is considered as four times, it can be claimed that more than ten million people actively took part in this struggle for democracy. As can be seen, more than forty million participation is an extraordinary number for a country of eighty million people. Of course, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met the need for leadership of the country with superior will and courage, played a major role in the number of participants being so high and the democracy watches continuing for 26 days without showing any weakness.
Actional data: After the coup attempt started on the night of July 15, many public institutions and public spaces were occupied by the coup plotters. The people ended almost all of these occupations. Again, the occupation of many places and areas by the coup plotters was prevented by the public. In order to show the scope and degree of danger of this uprising, it is enough to look at the places that were occupied and liberated by the people and the places where the people prevented the occupation.
The central institutions of the state, the activity offices of high-level executive organizations that are at the center of the state and government functioning such as the Presidency, the Prime Ministry and the Ministries, the headquarters of the police forces, media channels, airports, coordination and satellite communication centers, military aviation areas and centers, intelligence centers, the highest civil administrative authorities of the provinces, the headquarters of the police forces in many provinces and public areas where the public could be gathered were either occupied by the coup forces that night or the occupation of these places was prevented by the public.
Places occupied and attacked for occupation purposes
In Ankara, the center of the state, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), the highest decision-making body, which is the heart of the functioning of the political system, and the Presidential Complex, which is the highest representative and executive body, were subjected to both destruction and occupation by the coup plotters. The main sections of the General Staff, Akıncı 4th Main Jet Base Command, TRT General Directorate News Center and some units of the Ankara Provincial Police Department were directly occupied. These important centers are public; It saved the country from occupation by giving martyrs and veterans.
Many areas and institutions in Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city and an important center for Europe and the world, have been occupied by the coup plotters. Especially Atatürk Airport, Bosphorus (15 July Martyrs) Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, TRT Ulus Building, Harbiye TRT Radio Building, Disaster Coordination Center Building, Istanbul Governorship, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Building, Borsa Istanbul, Harbiye Military House, General Nurettin Baransel Barracks, Çengelköy Sabancı Police Station were occupied by the coup plotters. All these occupied areas were taken from the coup plotters by the people. Apart from these, the Municipality and Sarıkamış District Police Department in Kars were occupied by coup plotters. Sakarya Governorship Campus was also occupied. These occupations were also broken by the intervention of the people. Not only public authorities and public areas, but also provinces, especially Istanbul, where private media organizations were occupied. It is the people who put an end to this occupation.
As can be seen, when we look at the authorities that were occupied and tried to be taken under control, especially in Ankara and Istanbul, it is clearly understood that this vile coup attempt could have been successful if it were not for the resistance of the people integrated with the country's leader. Indeed, if we look at the institutions and areas that were prevented from being occupied by the people, there is no doubt that if the people had not taken to the streets that night (that night when this political reactionary and fascist overthrow and occupation movement was prevented by a real popular resistance), a bloody future would have awaited the country.
Places that are prevented from being occupied by the public
In Ankara, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Presidential Complex, the Gendarmerie General Command, Türk Telekom, some departments of the General Staff and some units of the Ankara Provincial Police Department, TÜRKSAT, the Undersecretariat of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the units of the TRT General Directorate other than the News Center, the EGM Intelligence Department, the EGM Special Operations Department, the EGM Aviation Department, by the public. They are vital centers whose occupation is prevented. It is clear that occupying these centers will be a great advantage for the success of the low coup attempt. In this respect, it is obvious how vital the people's efforts to prevent the occupation are.
The people in Denizli prevented the coup fascists from using Çardak Airport and prevented them from attacking Ankara and Istanbul with military planes. Türkiye's top city in every field is Istanbul; Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Presidential Mabeyn Mansion, Prime Ministry Dolmabahçe Office, Bayrampaşa Riot Police Branch Directorate, Bayrampaşa Police Headquarters, AK Party Istanbul Provincial Headquarters stand out as places where the coup plotters attempted to invade but the people prevented the occupation. Again, many units in Kars were tried to be occupied by the coup plotters, but the people prevented them. Governorship Service Building, DHMI, Provincial Police Department, Police-Public Order Branch Directorate, Police-Regional Traffic Branch Directorate, Police-Riot Force Branch Directorate, Kazımpaşa Police Station, MİT Building and Central Mosque are the places that were subjected to occupation attempts. Likewise in Siirt; The Governorship Service Building and the Governorship Residence, the Provincial Telecom Directorate in Ardahan and the Provincial Police Department were among the targets of occupation by the coup plotter fascists, but the resistance of the people prevented these from happening.
In addition to these places concretely identified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in many provinces, the coup plotter gangs failed to take over and occupy the provinces and support the attacks on Ankara and Istanbul, as the people took to the streets. There are also provinces, especially Istanbul, where private media organizations attempted to invade. It is the people who prevent these invasion attempts.
In short, the numerical and operational data of the July 15 process contain great lessons to understand what kind of disaster Türkiye came back from the brink of. It should be noted that analyzing all data regarding July 15-16 in various dimensions will be very instructive for a more in-depth understanding of the July 15-16 National Democratic People's Revolution.
[Mehmet Uçum is the Chief Advisor to the President and Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Legal Policies Board.]
*The opinions in the articles belong to the author and may not reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.