Emina Ulker Tarhan is deeply concerned about Turkey’s future. A Supreme Court judge until recently, Tarhan decided to quit her prestigious job in order to enter politics and fight the current Turkish government. The 48-year-old woman joined Turkey’s main opposition party and is running for a parliament seat in the Ankara region.
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“I decided to enter politics because of the current government and its intolerable policy, and as a judge I could not voice my views about that,” Tarhan told Yedioth Ahronoth in a special interview.
- The former judge slammed Prime Minister Erdogan’s ruling party, charging that it conducts itself undemocratically and aspires to acquire absolute power via oppressive tactics.
“We had political assassinations that were not solved. About 60 journalists are in prison because of things they wrote,” she said, adding that all national institutions are under great pressure by Erdogan’s ruling party.
“In order to create the regime they are interested in, they are trying to take over the court system,” she said.
‘Erdogan behaves like a tyrant’
According to Tarhan, basic human rights are constantly undermined under Erdogan’s rule.
“The government misuses the issues of religious and ethnic identity in order to increase the polarization in society,” the former judge said. “Corruption affairs involving illegal funding for the ruling party are not being investigated. Civil organizations that oppose the government are being portrayed as opportunistic, useless bodies.”
“Every day we move further away from democratic thought and from the spirit of the law,” Tarhan said. “The government behaves like an organized gang.”
Turning her attention to Turkey’s prime minister, who positioned himself as a harsh critic of Israel, the opposition member had particularly harsh words.
“Erdogan is not the prime minister of a democratic state. He wants to be the sultan of the Middle East,” she said. “A general who did not stand up to honor him at a certain event was thrown to jail. This is the behavior of tyrants. All tyrants are similar to each other, and all of them end up facing a similar fate.”