Constitutional Court as the new ‘coup’ HQ

Turkey’s political lunacy is not likely to end anytime soon. Its latest episode is the condemnation of the Constitutional Court as the headquarters of yet another “coup attempt” against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Here is the longer version of the story. Since the military regime of the early 80’s, Turkey has the highest “national election threshold” in the world. Unless a party receives 10 percent of the votes all across the county, it cannot put even a single deputy in the Parliament. The system is obviously designed to eliminate smaller parties and empower larger ones, for the sake of “stability.” But all democrats have criticized this unusually high threshold for being unfair against “representation.”

That is why almost every political figure gives lip service to “lowering the electoral threshold.” But when they achieve power, they never pass the legal amendment to lower the threshold, because it simply serves them well. The elimination of the smaller fish only makes the bigger fish, especially the biggest one, highly advantageous. That is why no one expects the AKP to lower, let alone abolish, the threshold — unless it becomes a must for the “peace process” with militant Kurdish nationalists.

Yet something unexpected happened earlier this week. The leader of the Great Union Party (BBP), a small right-wing party, appealed to the Constitutional Court, saying the 10 percent national threshold “violates their rights” to be represent the people. In return, the head of the Constitutional Court, top judge Haşim Kılıç, said to the press that the court will consider the appeal immediately and may give its verdict in 2-3 weeks. If the court decides to lower or abolish the threshold, he...