Conference by Haşim Kılıç, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey

At Mevlana Culture Center, Haşim Kılıç, President of The Constitutional Court, addressed to audience at which he conveyed his knowledge and experiences. Among the attendees there were Haşim Kılıç, President of The Constitutional Court, Hasan Erbil, Chief Prosecutor of Republic, deputies of Konya Prof. Dr. Cem Zorlu and Hüseyin Üzülmez, Governor of Konya Muammer Erol, our Rector Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Şeker, Rector of KTO Karatay University Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak, academicians, press members and students.

At his opening speech Rector of KTO University Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak said: “I would like to thank very much Mr. President Haşim Kılıç for his kindness towards us and his consent to our invitation and so to sharing with us, especially with students his duties and experiences. I am sure that his experiences will make significant contributions to the student here, I guess majority of them from faculty of law, at the point of opening up their horizons and determination of direction of their future lives. Particularly, in recent years of Turkey, he made noteworthy contributions at critical points when we speak about democracy. We would like to express our sincere happiness upon his attendance to this conference.”

President of Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç said following in summary: “Constitutional Court’s main aim is to be guardian of fundamental rights and liberties. It is an institution that keeps the government selected within the boundaries of law and constitution. In my opinion, members of Constitutional Courts should be elected by national parliament members. However, only three members of the institution are elected by parliament. My speech will be in two parts: First part I will talk about democracy and-constitution and in second part I will answer your questions. To be able to speak of democratic system, there have to be a democratic constitution. Political parties are indispensable elements of democracy. Formerly, political parties may be shut down by Constitutional Court due the problems in functioning of freedom of thought. Nevertheless, system is not so anymore. For many years we have dealt with some artificial issues. We abandoned real issues. We underwent severe material and moral damages. We felt loathing and hatred for each other. We made our female students have double characters of which one at university, one outside university by compelling them to take off their scarves at the entrances of universities. Constitutional Court has put an end to this understanding. From then on the state does not have equal distance to beliefs though equal proximity; not negative but positive equality. Formerly, we mistakenly put effort in secularizing individuals instead of law. As Yunus said, tolerate the ones created. Because of principle that we all as humans have the distinction of being created by Almighty, we should share this honor although we have differences in our lives and we should approach each other in tolerance and understanding. Democracy is the art of making differences live in accordance. We should enforce our mutual relations by getting strength from humanistic and moral values. Although there are plenty of varied cressets in a city, they gleam equally.”

Yaratan’dan ötürü düsturuyla farklılıklarımızla insan olduğumuz için, her şeyimiz farklı olsa da aynı onuru paylaştığımızdan birbirimize anlayışla yaklaşmalıyız. Kalpler kin ve nefret için yaratılmadı. Sevgi, aşk ve hoşgörü için yaratıldı. Aksi halde demokrasinin hoşgörü ve uzlaşı görüşünü paylaşamayız. Demokrasi farklılıkları bir arada yaşatma sanatıdır. İnsani ve ahlaki değerlerden güç alarak ilişkilerimizi güçlendirmeliyiz. Bir şehirde yanan çok çeşitli  kandillerde olsa verdikleri ışık aynıdır."

At the end of conference President Haşim Kılıç answered the questions of audience. After that, Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak presented a gift to him.