A democracy assessment in Türkiye within the context of law-political perceptions of jurists and politicians

In this study, an attempt will be made to draw a general framework on the main characteristics of democracy in Türkiye by identifying both the conceptions of law and politics of the current political parties and the judges of the higher courts in Türkiye and the position of freedoms through the rule of law and the functioning of justice. For this purpose, data was collected through in-depth interviews with MPs (16) elected from the 27th Legislative Period Parliament and jurists (14) elected from the members of the higher courts, and a comparative qualitative analysis was conducted on the basis of the participant groups. The research is analyzed under four categories: (1) Lawyers’ and politicians’ conceptions of law (2) Definitions and conceptions of politics by lawyers and politicians (3) Evaluation of the priority of law to politics and politics to law, (4) Evaluation of the place of freedoms and democracy in terms of the rule of law and the functioning of justice. When we look at the results of the research, in terms of the rule of law, law is prioritized over politics in the ordinary period, but politics is prioritized over law in periods of state of emergency. When a ranking of concepts is made in the context of justice and the functioning of the rule of law, it can be said that freedom is not among the prioritized concepts. The prioritization of politics in times of emergency and the inability of the concept of freedom to find a place among the priority concepts reveals an important characteristic of the understanding and practice of democracy in Türkiye.