Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Speaking at the symposium, TOBB Board Member Cengiz Günay said that as Türkiye’s real sector, they always attach great importance to consultation with the judicial community because the legal system is the pillar not only of the state but also of the economy.

Günay noted that with the support of the judicial community, they have endeavored to popularize methods such as arbitration and mediation in the business world, which will reduce the workload in the judiciary and ensure the timely and correct manifestation of justice.

Günay said that as TOBB, they recommend all employers to first use these methods and try to solve their problems, and added: “In this context, we established the center for harmonization, mediation and dispute resolution within TOBB. Mr. Cemil Çiçek, who has served in important positions such as the Ministry of Justice and the Speaker of the Parliament, assumed the presidency. Under his management, these centers developed rapidly. Again, with the TOBB Harmonization Academy, we provide trainings to mediators in every field they need. Our chambers also embraced these issues, opened their own centers and made mediation widespread.”

Günay stated that there are 126 mediation and arbitration centers working under the coordination of TOBB Mediation and Dispute Resolution Center (TOBBUYUM) within the chambers and commodity exchanges in 60 provinces, and shared the information that approximately 1,200 mediators work in these centers.

Stating that the arbitration and mediation center also operates within the Kocaeli Chamber of Industry, Günay said, “To date, 7.5 million files related to mediation have been received, 4.5 million of which resulted in an agreement. When you consider that each file has at least 2 parties, 9 million of our citizens have reached an agreement by shaking hands without going to court. In this way, a great burden on the judiciary was reduced.”

Günay emphasized that as the business world, they believe that if the law is strong, people’s trust in each other, institutions and the system will increase and said, “The more successful we are in making our legal system healthier, the stronger our country and economy will be. Therefore, as the real sector, we have supported and support every regulation that will strengthen the judicial system and increase its capacity and effectiveness.”

- Minister of Justice Tunç

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç also spoke about the importance of Kocaeli for the Turkish economy. Tunç said that the symposium will include sessions to discuss the search for solutions to the problems encountered within the scope of commercial and contract law and alternative dispute resolution methods, and that the views and opinions on these issues are valuable to them.

Emphasizing the need for an independent and impartial judiciary based on the principle of the rule of law, well-equipped lawyers, appropriate physical and technological infrastructure and legislation that meets the needs of society in order to ensure justice, Tunç explained the work they have done on physical spaces in justice services.

Tunç emphasized that in the last 23 years, they have renewed Türkiye’s basic laws in accordance with the needs of the age, expanded the ways to seek rights through constitutional reforms, made regulations that empower disadvantaged groups, and significantly strengthened the rule of law by ensuring the unity of the judiciary and restructuring the higher judicial institutions, and said, “Those who say that Türkiye is behind in the world ranking in the legal security index are doing Türkiye an injustice. When we look at that list, when we see how judicial institutions are in many countries that are ranked above our country, when we see that democratic elections are not even held there, these lists are not credible.”

Stating that it is a great injustice to the State of the Republic of Türkiye and the judiciary to say that the country is in that ranking with biased lists organized at the desk, not based on any objective criteria, and formed by taking the opinions of people with certain ideologies, Tunç continued as follows:

“Again, is it possible to show Türkiye behind Israel in press freedom indices? How can Israel be ahead of the Republic of Türkiye in terms of press freedom when Israel has killed more than 200 journalists in the last year and violated their right to life? There are some studies that are completely aimed at black propaganda. We have to give our answers to these. Especially Türkiye is one of the safest countries in terms of legal security and our judiciary is more independent and impartial than ever before in terms of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Underlining that today the judiciary has become an example to the world by achieving a structure that respects national will and democracy, acts with the nation against coup plotters and defends human rights, Tunç said, “Would foreign investors be able to come to Türkiye if there was no legal security? Until 2002, the amount of foreign investment, direct foreign capital that came to our country for 80 years was 15 billion dollars. 15 billion dollars in 80 years. Since 2002, 273 billion dollars of foreign capital investment has come in 23 years. This has happened and continues to happen because the security of law, the rule of law principle has been strengthened, and our country has achieved a high standard of democracy.”

Tunç pointed out that it is not in the interest of the country and investors for the opposition to denigrate Türkiye and call on international investors “not to come here” and said, “We are the government that takes law and economy, justice and development hand in hand. We have achieved this under the leadership of Mr. President and we continue to do so.”

Pointing out that they have also put alternative dispute resolution methods into use in order to arbitrate legal security, Tunç said, “In the last 12 years, 7.5 million disputes have gone before mediators since the application started. 4.5 million of these have resulted in an agreement. 4.5 million means 9 million people. In other words, when we look at an average of 1,000 disputes per year, that is, if we accept it as 1,000 disputes per court, almost 700 courts’ work has been resolved by mediators.”

Minister Tunç stated that they have been following with regret the targeting of the judiciary in recent days, especially through the investigations launched due to corruption allegations, and said, “Declaring someone innocent or convicting them with prejudices before the evidence is revealed, before the trials are completed is never compatible with the law and the rule of law. We attach importance to the presumption of innocence.”

Emphasizing that it is contrary to the independence and impartiality of the judiciary to say “The judiciary is wrong, it can’t be, he is innocent” from the very first moment without knowing the content of the file on ongoing investigations and without seeing the evidence, Tunç said: “It is not right to threaten members of the judiciary, to make statements aimed at defaming the judiciary, to call for a street boycott. Here we all have to wait for the judicial process. Everything will be revealed after the investigation. The public will see the guilty and the innocent, who did what, with all transparency when the indictment with its evidence is revealed. The call for a boycott is also unreasonable. Our businessmen and especially our business world and tradesmen have seen that our nation did not heed this boycott call. This is of no benefit to anyone, to our country. What is the benefit of stopping production, making tradesmen close their shutters, what is the benefit of those who make these calls? Therefore, different reactions can be shown in democratic countries, but especially efforts that may affect the purchasing power of our citizens, efforts to shake the economy, will not be appreciated by our nation, and when the time and place comes, it will respond.”

Stating that the attitude of the judiciary towards accountability, transparency and preventing the squandering of public resources is an attitude that should be appreciated and respected, Tunç continued as follows: “Is it possible in a state of law and democracy to expect the judiciary to remain silent while public resources, the rights of all of us, the rights of the orphans who have not lost a feather, are being squandered? Of course, the judiciary will hold both the corrupt and those who violate the law to account. This is what is done. Otherwise, everything will be unjust. Everyone tries to do whatever they want. Attempts and behaviors aimed at influencing the judiciary should be avoided. The judiciary is independent, the judiciary does its duty, but no one can replace the judiciary and pass judgment. Today, every step taken by the judiciary is carried out transparently and before the eyes of our nation. No one who believes in the rule of law should be disturbed by this process because the judiciary walks with the law against crime, no matter who it is, and does not give anyone any armor protection outside the law. The judiciary neither hides the guilty nor stains the innocent, as long as the law speaks, as long as the judiciary does its job freely and impartially. When justice is served, the economy is strengthened, the investment environment is revitalized and social confidence increases. On this occasion, we once again emphasize the need for a patient, prudent and justice-based approach to the process. I would like to express once again that everyone who believes in the rule of law should support this process.”

Stating that they continue to take measures to ensure that the judiciary can make fair and fast decisions, Tunç reminded that there are 264 targets in the Judicial Reform Strategy Document announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on January 23.

Tunç shared the information that the projects for new courthouses are ongoing and Kocaeli Courthouse is one of the 64 courthouses in the investment program.

Pointing out that they are working to make human resources more effective, Tunç noted that 3,369 judges and prosecutors have joined the system in the last 2 years and the number of judges and prosecutors has reached 25,695 and that they rank in the middle of the Council of Europe countries.

Stating that the number of specialized courts has reached 2,199, Tunç added that 2,383,924 labor dispute files have been brought before the mediators so far, 1,112,189 of them have been agreed upon, and 343,914 of the 952,041 commercial cases brought to the mediators have been concluded with an agreement.

- Other speakers

Mayor of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality Tahir Büyükakın stated that these meetings are meetings aimed at shaping the judicial and administrative structure in order to build a better functioning and faster working business world and said, “When we sit one-on-one with the business world, when the representatives of the courthouse, the administration, the chambers come together, we will actually build a new Türkiye that functions better, more beautiful, more confidently going into the future. What we are talking about is actually the New Turkish Century. The new century is Türkiye’s new vision.”

Ayhan Zeytinoğlu, President of Kocaeli Chamber of Industry, noted that there is a greater need for specialized courts in areas such as trade, intellectual property, labor law and customs disputes in industrial-intensive provinces such as Kocaeli. Zeytinoğlu pointed out that the mediation system is a good solution, but despite the transition to the mandatory mediation system, some disputes are still carried to the litigation stage, Zeytinoğlu said that as the business world, they also have important duties, and that the chamber, which has a mediation center, continues its efforts to conclude more disputes with an agreement.

Necmi Bulut, President of Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce, stated that predictability, trust and fast solution mechanisms are always among the most basic needs for the business world. Emphasizing that where there is trade, there may be disputes from time to time, but the path to be followed in solving problems ensures the right result, Bulut stated that delayed justice negatively affects both business processes and investment decisions, and that the importance of alternative dispute resolution methods has increased. Bulut explained that it is a great opportunity to meet with members of the judiciary at the same table, to share problems directly and to seek solutions together, and stated that in this way, the business world will come into closer contact with the law and the law will come into closer contact with the real economy.

Hakan Öztatar, Director General of Legal Affairs, emphasized that the symposium aims to bring together all parties of the judiciary and the business world, to exchange ideas, and to address problems such as prolonged judicial processes, especially employee-employer disputes, with solution proposals.

(A.A.)