Transforming the Judiciary into the Rulers’ Proxies: The Case of Hagia Sophia

Abstract

This article examines from a critical perspective the judgment of the Turkish Council of State (Danıştay) in 2020, which invalidated the executive decision of 1934 regarding the designation of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul as a museum. We argue that Council of State did not really perform adjudication of a legal dispute in this case, but rather functioned as a proxy of the executive power for particular reasons. As a matter of fact, we argue the justifications regarding the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the right to property on which the decision was based to be a falsification. Moreover, the developments before and after the decision demonstrate this judgement to be a product of a non-judicial motivation. Lastly, the sequence of political actions regarding the conversion of several other museums into mosques that have been observed in Turkey over the last ten years implies the non-judicial dynamics behind the Council of State’s decision regarding Hagia Sophia. Our analysis reveals the political decisions that would possibly be the subject of criticism by domestic opponents and the international community to have been eliminated by referring the issue to the packed courts in order to avoid all undesired consequences.