Turkey: New member of Constitutional Court takes oath

By Aylin Sirikli

ANKARA (AA) - Selahattin Mentes took oath as a member of Turkey's Constitutional Court on Thursday after being appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Constitutional Court head Zuhtu Arslan in his speech at the ceremony held in the Supreme Criminal Court Hall (Grand Hall) said that he believes Mentes will make important contributions with his vast professional experience.

Noting that the Constitutional Court aims to conclude individual applications within a reasonable time despite the increasing backlog, Arslan said that since Sept. 23, 2012 the court has cleared 190,000 applications out of around 236,000.

He added that the Constitutional Court had 46,000 pending applications, a massive backlog when compared to the European Court of Human Rights comprising 47 member countries and 56,000 pending applications.

"When we consider the applications, we can easily understand that no Constitutional Court in the world has the capacity to handle something like this," said Arslan.

"The protection of fundamental rights is the common goal of the state, and the reason for existence of the state. In order to march toward this goal, inter-institutional co-operation is a constitutional requirement," he concluded.

Following the speech, Mentas took oath, his curriculum vitae was presented and he was robed.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit