Ord. Prof. Dr. On the occasion of Sulhi Dönmezer’s 102nd birthday, Ministry of Justice CTE Ord. Prof. Dr. A panel was held at Sulhi Dönmezer Istanbul Education Center. After the moment of silence and the reading of the National Anthem, Ord. Prof. Dr. A barcovision screening of Dönmezer’s life was held.
In his speech at the opening, Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül, the doyen of Turkish Criminal Law, Ord. Prof. Dr. He thanked those who had ideas and efforts in organizing this panel, which aims to commemorate Sulhi Dönmezer’s 102nd birthday.
Stating that Dönmezer is a great plane tree that has taken root with his works and that he left behind a very important legacy, Gül said, “The understanding of ‘If the state calls, go, if the state wants, give’ has become a life philosophy of Dönmezer.” said.
Emphasizing that the greatest and most important qualification of a criminal lawyer is respect for the truth, Minister Gül said, “Criminal procedure is already the name of the painful walk behind the material truth. However, what I mean by ‘respect for the truth’ is more than the concrete rules of criminal procedure and a search for truth that will overcome doubt. Searching for the truth only in the rules, in dry words, in the wording of the legal texts is futile for the lawyer. To know the legislation as truth is to get lost in the corridors of words. The truth of the law is nothing different from the truth of the society. The truth of the society, on the other hand, rises on culture and history. It is derived from customs and traditions, beliefs and values. feeds.
Law, and especially the law in question, gains strength and legitimacy to the extent that it is in harmony and harmony with this truth. When its connection with this truth is broken, it cannot fulfill the function of providing social peace expected from it. Likewise, the lawyer who has the duty of interpreting and applying the norm does not have the luxury of breaking his bridges with the society in which he lives. Judge, prosecutor, lawyer, expert, academician… No matter what role he assumes, the lawyer must have internalized the history, culture, belief and values of the society in which he lives. History, culture, art, philosophy can only contribute to this geography by an intellectual who sets foot in this ancient geography. From an orientalist perspective, it is never possible to talk about an intellectual who is alienated from his own values, his own geography, and his own land due to a complex. “Alienation from society and social values also brings with it an alienation from the essence and purpose of law, that is, from the sense of justice itself.”
For this reason, Gül stated that they believe that it is very important and meaningful to improve legal education in Turkey and to carefully select those who will enter the legal professions and said, “In this context, ensuring that the entrance to law faculties and legal professions is more qualified and the curriculum is of higher quality is one of our main areas of endeavor. ” said.
“A reliable and accessible justice”
Stating that there are very important targets in this sense in the “Judicial Reform Strategy Document” announced to the public by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdulhamit Gül continued his words as follows:
“For these goals, we are taking steps to bring the subject law together with the truth of society and to operate our legal system fairly, effectively and quickly in a way that responds to social needs. Our Judicial Reform Strategy Document, which we prepared with the vision of ‘A reliable and accessible justice’, reveals the road map for the next 5 years One of the nine basic objectives we include in the document is ‘increasing the effectiveness of the criminal justice system’. The fast, effective and fair functioning of the criminal justice system gains great importance in the fight against crime and guilt. A system in which not a single crime will go unpunished and not a single innocent person will be unfairly accused. It is a common obligation of all of us to take very important steps, both within the framework of legislation and practice, to ensure that the system is truly implemented with all its elements.In this context, with the 1st Judicial Package enacted into law, and with all subsequent processes, we will create a system that is fair in terms of criminal law and meets the expectations of the whole society. We aim to implement the application together.”
Crime-sanction balance
Stating that they are determined to reconsider the balance of crime and sanctions in a way that will satisfy the society’s sense of justice, Gül said, “Our execution system, whose standards we have increased and individualized with the previous regulations, aims to rehabilitate the convict and enable him to re-socialize and adapt to social life. Along with the innovations in the Judicial Reform Strategy, execution procedures have been improved.” We aim to develop and integrate current technologies into the system. In this context, we are focusing on the alternative of elderly, pregnant and children convicted of some non-violent crimes serving their sentences at home through an electronic monitoring center. New applications such as video calls of convicts and detainees with their relatives and electronic petitions models are also on our working agenda.” made his assessment.
Stating that they continue to increase their qualifications through in-service training as well as the numerical increase of the institution’s staff, Minister Gül said, “With the permission of our President, we made our correctional personnel training system a member of EPTA, that is, the European Network of Prison Training Academies, on September 6, 2019. It is located in 5 different provinces. “We continue our work to improve the quality of these training centers.” said.
At the opening of the panel, Education Center President Bedir Fidan and Ord. Prof. Dr. Sulhi Dönmezer’s daughter, Lawyer Zuhal Dönmezer Çakıroğlu, also made a speech.
Following the opening speeches, the session titled “The Dönmezer Effect on Penal Reforms” was chaired by Çakıroğlu. Prof. attended the session. Dr. Köksal Bayraktar, Prof. Dr. Feridun Yenisey, Prof. Dr. Timur Demirbaş participated as a speaker.
Deputy Ministers of Justice Uğurhan Kuş and Zekeriya Birkan, Constitutional Court Members Yıldız Seferinoğlu and Selahattin Menteş, and former Minister of Internal Affairs Ülkü Güney also attended the opening of the panel.
The commemoration panel will continue with sessions titled “New World Types of Sharia Procedure and Simple Judicial Procedure According to the Judicial Reform Law” and “The Relationship between Judgment and Freedoms”. The panel will end with the closing speech of Deputy Minister of Justice Uğurhan Kuş.
