Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In addition to Yavuz, the President of the Supreme Court Mehmet Akarca, Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Bekir Şahin, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court Hasan Tahsin Gökcan and students of the faculty and various members of the high court attended the symposium.

TOBB Board Treasurer Faik Yavuz emphasized that one of the most important aspects of the investment environment is the guarantee of contractual obligations.

“Individual applications are important for the protection of the fundamental rights of individuals whose fundamental rights and freedoms have been violated by the public. In order for the market economy to function fully, the state must guarantee the rights of individuals to life, property and free entrepreneurship. Both democracy and market economy are based on essential fundamental rights and freedoms. In terms of establishing a competitive market economy, the principles of property rights, freedom of industry and trade, freedom of contract and equality before the law are indispensable conditions.”

Pointing out that the place of law is very important in their culture and beliefs, Yavuz said, “We are a nation that believes that justice is the basis of property. That's why we need to keep the balance of justice. We must work to make the right strong.”

Faik Yavuz, who reminded that the Akhis solved the trade disputes in Akhism, which forms the basis of the Chamber-Commodity Exchange Community, said that this was later forgotten and that Europe had taken them and developed them. Yavuz noted that after TOBB took charge of this endeavor, mediation was made mandatory first in labor-employer disputes, then in commercial cases, and finally in consumer cases, and reported that its use is increasing day by day with the support of the business world.

Faik Yavuz said: “Within TOBB, we have launched the UYUM Mediation and Dispute Resolution Center. We have increased the number of mediation and arbitration centers in our chambers. Since 1991, we have supported the quick and effective resolution of our members' disputes with the TOBB Court of Arbitration.

As TOBB, we started to work with the İstanbul Arbitration Center, which we are among the founders of, to make İstanbul the arbitration center of this whole region. We have taken steps with the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture to effectively use arbitration in the Islamic world.

We have enabled the Islamic Chamber Arbitration Center to be operational in İstanbul. One of the most important aspects of the investment environment is the guarantee of obligations arising from contracts. The individual application route is also a procedure that is important for the protection of basic rights and freedoms, the rights and freedoms of individuals who are violated by the state. In order for the market economy to function fully, the state must guarantee the rights of individuals to life, property and free entrepreneurship.

Both democracy and market economy are based on essential fundamental rights and freedoms.

In terms of establishing a competitive market economy, the principles of property rights, freedom of industry and trade, freedom of contract and equality before the law are indispensable conditions. Of course, we owe the Supreme Court a thank you for that. Their decisions on infringement led to significant improvements in the protection of property rights. I would like to thank all our lawyers who make people their subjects as citizens and on behalf of the Turkish business community.”

- Constitutional Court Deputy President Hasan Tahsin Gökcan

Constitutional Court Deputy President Hasan Tahsin Gökcan stated that the individual application is not an appeal, adding that “The individual application is a rights-seeking and constitutional audit unit that examines the claim of infringement caused by public power.”

Gökcan reported that since 2012, individual applications have started to be applied in the Turkish legal system, and nearly 350,000 individual applications have been submitted to the Constitutional Court so far.

Gökcan said the Constitutional Court has ruled on more than 290,000 applications, of which about 15,000 are in violation. Gökcan reported that 62.5 percent of them were ruled to be in violation of the right to a fair trial.

Pointing out that the Constitutional Court has received more applications than constitutional institutions in other countries, Gökcan said this is because the individual application is seen as a “method of appeal.”

Gökcan continued:

“An individual application is not a method of appeal. The Constitutional Court is also not a body that conducts an appeal review of judicial or administrative disputes through individual application. The individual application is a rights-seeking and constitutional audit unit that examines the alleged infringement caused by public power. The Constitutional Court is not interested in the determination of any unlawfulness in this constitutional audit, but focuses on the question of whether there is a fundamental infringement of rights related to the judicial process.”