Turkish MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu decries lack of judicial independence after İzmir prison visits

CHP Deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu visited seven prisons in İzmir, located in the Aliağa Şakran and Buca Kırıklar facilities, meeting party officials, local mayors and detained individuals. He reported that each inmate faces separate investigations or cases.

Tanrıkulu said the Turkish judiciary no longer has independence or impartiality, noting that “there is no rule of law, and citizens have lost faith in justice.” He compared the current situation to the post‑coup period, arguing that even then such severe violations had not occurred. He warned that both written legal norms and unwritten values such as conscience and custom are being ignored.

Concluding his remarks, Tanrıkulu urged action, stating that “we will either find a way or make one,” and called for resistance against what he termed a period of lawlessness.