The Turkish government is deliberately creating an illusion of justice while failing to ensure genuine accountability, according to Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, spokesperson for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party. In a press briefing on Monday, she criticised the government’s handling of the judiciary, economic crisis and disaster response, calling for political accountability and a democratic resolution to the Kurdish question.
“There is no justice in this country, only an illusion of justice maintained through institutions like the Justice Academy,” Koçyiğit stated. She accused the government of using the judiciary to silence opposition while avoiding responsibility for corruption and negligence.
Koçyiğit also condemned the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its response to the 6 February 2023 earthquake, which killed at least 50,000 people in Turkey’s southeast. She claimed the government’s negligence, including repeated zoning amnesties and failure to enforce safety regulations, turned the disaster into a catastrophe. “They not only failed to prevent the destruction but are now profiting from the rebuilding process,” she said. She also pointed to discrepancies in the official death toll, noting that a former minister’s statement contradicted the government’s figures.
Addressing Turkey’s economic crisis, Koçyiğit criticised the AKP’s reliance on imports and missed export targets. She said inflation was out of control and that working-class citizens were bearing the brunt of the crisis while the government continued to benefit from economic mismanagement.
The DEM Party spokesperson also called for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, stating that “peace is the foundation of democracy”. She highlighted widespread public support for dialogue and urged the opposition to take concrete steps towards a political resolution, including the formal acknowledgment of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as playing an essential role in the peace process.
