Rules are binding for everyone, top judge replies to president

Turkey's Constitutional Court rulings are binding for everyone, the head of the top court has said following critical statements from the country's president over a ruling that led to the release of two journalists who were arrested in late 2015 over a news report about trucks allegedly carrying weapons to Syria.

"The rulings the Constitutional Court issues within its authorization defined by the laws in the constitution are binding for everybody and every institution. This is a constitutional rule," Constitutional Court President Zühtü Arslan said at a conference on supporting individual applications to the Constitutional Court in Ankara on March 1.

Arslan's statements came after remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an over a ruling issued by the top court that led to the release of daily Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül early Feb. 26 sparked a debate through press statements among political party leaders.

Erdo?an said he would neither accept nor respect the ruling issued by the Constitutional Court late Feb. 25 that provided the legal ground for the release of Dündar and Gül hours after the ruling.

"This incident has nothing to do with freedom of expression; it is a case of spying," Erdo?an said Feb. 28 ahead of an official trip to Africa.

Dündar and Gül, who were arrested on Nov. 26, 2015, on terrorism charges, were incarcerated for more than 90 days under "pre-trial" arrest in a case filed after daily Cumhuriyet published a report in May 2015 that reported on state-owned trucks allegedly carrying weapons to Syria. The trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (M?T) were stopped and searched in the southern Turkish province of Hatay in January 2014, the...