People power finally in action at Turkey’s constitutional court
One of the amendments brought in by last September’s referendum on constitutional change was the right for Turkish citizens to apply directly to the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial body in the land.
The court tended to busy itself with constitutional disputes, such as whether the ruling AK Party should be closed down, and only accepted applications from politicians and the like.
Now, the Constitutional Court will be an additional level of appeal for ordinary Turkish citizens who feel their cases were not adequately handled by the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal.
The move has been hailed as an emancipation, a Great Leap Forward for Turkish citizen rights and a way for a court so often seen as aloof to connect with ordinary people.
How fitting, then, that the first ever “ordinary” application to the court has come from someone claiming his mind has been invaded by Martians.
“I suspect my mind has been invaded by Martians,” NTVMSNBC reports the applicant as saying. “I have evidence to support this. Please intervene.”
Regretfully, the applicant has been sent a response saying Martian coercion is outside the Constitutional Court’s remit. It’s a shame: we may never know what the evidence was.
