ISTANBUL — A top figure in Turkey's AK Party said trust in the judiciary had been eroded during the group's time in office, comments likely to anger President Tayyip Erdogan and pointing to unease in the ruling party ahead of a parliamentary election. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, who has sparred with Erdogan in the past, suggested in a television interview late on Monday that the Justice and Development (AK) Party had lived up to only half its name after more than a decade in power. “What I am sad about is that we are very good on development, but are we so good on justice?” Arinc, who has served the maximum three terms in parliament and is not standing in the June 7 election, told Haberturk TV. “We have made very nice palaces but we have to work hard to increase confidence in justice and the judiciary,” he said, referring to “palaces of justice,” the new courthouses built under the AKP, which was founded by Erdogan. Opinion polls point to a clear AKP victory in June but it may fall well short of the strong majority Erdogan wants to further his goal of establishing a full presidential system, something the AKP has said would be a priority. He has defied opposition calls to keep out of campaigning despite a constitutional ban on the head of state engaging in party politics, and his frequent interventions in policy have also triggered rumblings of dissent within the AKP. Arinc has been a rare senior voice of dissent in the ruling party in the past. In March, he criticised the president for interfering in the government's handling of a peace process with Kurdish militants. While his latest comments did not target Erdogan directly, they follow judicial reforms under an Erdogan-led drive to purge the influence of an Islamic cleric whom the president accuses of trying to topple him in a manufactured graft scandal. Hundreds of judges and prosecutors and thousands of police officers have been purged or reassigned since the corruption investigation targeting Erdogan's inner circle emerged in late 2013. Related court cases have since been dropped. Erdogan says the scandal was contrived by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies the accusation. In February, Turkey's outgoing top judge warned that the judiciary could become an “instrument of revenge” in the hands of political authorities, after government-backed candidates strengthened their grip on key courts. “If the trust felt for the judiciary has fallen to around 20 percent in a country ... we should put our heads between our hands and think hard,” Arinc said. — Reuters
