Turkish Cypriot judiciary renews calls for judicial reform referendum

The north’s supreme court’s chief justice Bertan Ozerdag on Sunday renewed his call for a referendum to be held with a view to enacting sweeping reforms to the Turkish Cypriot judicial system, so as to allow it to operate faster and more efficiently. “The constitutional amendment aims to increase the number of supreme court judges, to have administrative cases heard in district courts as first instance cases, to transition to a three-tiered judicial system, and to pave the way for compensation regulations in administrative cases,” he told the north’s Tak news agency. Under the north’s legal system, such changes would require a referendum to be enacted, and Ozerdag said that a bill to this end had been sent to the Turkish Cypriot legislature by the ruling coalition, with the matter currently pending before the legislature’s legal affairs committee. However, with the Turkish Cypriot legislature now on an elongated summer recess which will not end until October 1, it will at the very least be months before issue is discussed there. “A constitutional amendment is very necessary for the development and acceleration of the judiciary. Compared to the past, this need has increased even more. This amendment is now crucial for the development of the judiciary, the acceleration of judicial processes, and the increase of capacity,” Ozerdag said. The four-point plan for judicial reform was presented by Ozerdag and bar association chief Hasan Esendagli in December last year, with the pair saying at the time that a referendum should be held by March at the latest. However, this did not come to past, and though ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel suggested in February that the referendum should take place in May, this plan, too, evaporated. Ustel is already planning to hold legislative and local elections in the north on the same day this year – December 6 – but both Ozerdag and Esendagli had in December warned against holding the referendum on the same day as another election, saying that they wish for it to be “independent of politics and solely focused on the judiciary”. Unal Ustel The first point of the four-point plan would see the north’s supreme court expanded from its current configuration of eight judges to 11, with “specialised structures” within that 11-member body to be formed for the court’s various functions. Those functions will include the civil, criminal, and family chambers, the supreme administrative court, and the court’s duties regarding elections and referenda and constitutional matters. The second point entirely concerns administrative justice – the matter of the fairness and legality or otherwise of decisions made by public bodies – with Ozerdag and Esendagli pointing out that a backlog of around 800 case files in the field of administrative justice has accumulated at the supreme administrative court. To combat this, they suggested the creation of district administrative courts in the north’s six administrative districts – Famagusta, Kyrenia, Lefka, Morphou, northern Nicosia, and Trikomo – to deal with what they described as “simpler administrative procedures”. The existing supreme administrative court would then act as the appellate body for those wishing to appeal district administrative court decisions. Cases deemed “critical”, such as those related to the Immovable Property Commission or decisions taken by the north’s cabinet, would under the planned reforms still be taken directly to the supreme administrative court. Additionally, the supreme administrative court would be empowered to order the payment of compensation, meaning those wishing to file for compensation would no longer be required to file a separate civil suit to do so. The courthouse in Lefka The third point foresees the creation of a “three-tiered judiciary”, to replace the north’s current two-tier system. At present, appeals against district court decisions are taken directly to the supreme court in one of its guises, with the plan set out to create intermediate courts of appeal which will operate separately from the supreme court, with those wishing to appeal those decisions then able to take the matter to the supreme court under certain circumstances. The plans state that the supreme court would only involve itself in “cases of a principle and precedent nature”, and that this state of affairs would mirror reforms carried out to the Republic of Cyprus’ judicial system in 2021 following European Union recommendations. The fourth point states simply that the new courts of appeal and district administrative courts would have their roles codified in the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution and that this will “clarify the judicial hierarchy”. The plans foresee that should the reforms be passed into law, a transition period between a year and two years would be required for them to fully take effect. Turkish Cypriots demonstrate in favour of a ‘yes’ vote ahead of the 2004 Annan plan referendum The Turkish Cypriots have held five referendums thus far in their history, with the first taking place in 1975 to ratify the constitution of the interim ‘Turkish federated state of Cyprus’, which was formed the year prior in the island’s north in the aftermath of Turkey’s invasion of the island. That referendum passed with over 99 per cent support, and a decade later in 1985, the constitution of the ‘TRNC’ was ratified with 70 per cent of the vote in a similar referendum. The next referendum did not take place until almost three decades later, with the Turkish Cypriots accepting the Annan plan to reunify Cyprus in 2004 by an almost two-thirds majority. However, over three quarters of Greek Cypriots voted against it, and as such, it was never implemented and the island remains divided. Two further referendums have taken place since, with the Turkish Cypriot electorate twice rejecting planned amendments to the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution. The first, in 2014, saw then Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu propose 21 sweeping amendments, including mandatory wealth declarations for ‘MPs’, limitations on immunity for ‘MPs’, and new regulations regarding the function of the north’s courts. Almost two thirds of the electorate rejected the plan. Six years later, the Turkish Cypriot electorate was invited to ratify plans to expand the north’s supreme court to 16 judges. That referendum took place on the same day as the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election’s first round and failed by just 283 votes.