“In the Name of the Turkish Nation.”
For twenty-five years I have read these words at the top of court judgments, and I still feel the same weight every time. In the 103rd year of our Republic, I believe these few words are the plainest expression of the Republic in law.
Sovereignty belongs to the nation without any restriction or condition; judicial power, too, is exercised on behalf of the nation. The judge decides according to his or her conscientious conviction and writes a reasoned judgment. The reasoning is more than a procedural rule: it tells the person being judged, “I have heard you, and this is why I decided as I did.” The Republic turned the individual into a citizen to whom account is owed.
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Turkish Civil Code. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who opened the Ankara School of Law in 1925 and led the adoption of the Turkish Civil Code in 1926, built a new legal order and also trained the lawyers who would keep it alive. Graduating from what is today Ankara University Faculty of Law is a great honour for me as well.
Today we stand at another threshold. AI tools scan statutes and court decisions in minutes, analyse and synthesise them; they have become part of our desks. Yet rendering judgment in the name of the nation, writing the reasoning, and carrying the trust citizens place in justice are not tasks to be handed over to a machine. These tools speed up the work, but the real judgment remains in the human conscience. The generation of 1925 built the new without fear, but never removed the human being from the centre. That is our task, too.
This responsibility belongs not only to lawyers, but to judges and prosecutors as well. Article 138 of the Constitution is clear: judges are independent in the discharge of their duties; they give judgment in accordance with the Constitution, the law and the rule of law, according to their conscientious conviction. No organ, authority, office or person may give them orders or instructions. The Republic lives on in law when this sentence lives every single day. For judges, for one reason or another, to take into account anything other than their conscience, the law and established case law when rendering judgment is unacceptable; there is nothing in it that can be defended under any circumstances.
I remember with respect and gratitude Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his comrades in arms, who left us this legacy; I pray for the souls of our martyrs and offer my thanks to our veterans.
Happy 103rd anniversary of our Republic! Long live the Republic!
