Şark İstiklal Mahkemesi

Independence Courts can be considered among the most important institutions of our recent history. These courts were entrusted to people who were not lawyers. It was essential to make decisions in line with Mustafa Kemal's wishes in the courts, where the majority consisted of deputies of military origin. Although the hearings were open, verdicts were usually given in advance. The reason why court decisions were ridiculed by the public as "execution of the defendant, subsequent hearing of the witnesses" was the comedy of finding justification to legitimize the previously given verdict. Anyone who opposed the Republican regime and Mustafa Kemal was a potential criminal and could be tried in the Independence Tribunals. Thanks to these courts, Mustafa Kemal could easily liquidate all his rivals and opponents. Moreover; He also had the chance to strike fear into the hearts of those who had not yet gone to court. As a matter of fact, Halis Turgut and Canpolat Bey, who were sentenced to ten years of heavy imprisonment in the Izmir assassination, paid for their objections to the sentence with their lives. Their sentences were commuted to death and executed immediately, within the same hearing and without the need for any additional charges or documentation. The Sark Independence Tribunal, one of the most well-known examples of the Independence Tribunals, was established to try the rebels captured during the Sheikh Sait uprising in the east. However, the court also assumed some other duties. Liquidating feudalism in the East, suppressing Islamists and Kurds, silencing the opposition Istanbul press, and preparing the end of the Progressive Republican Party were some of these extra duties. Ahmet Emin Yalman, the owner of the Cumhuriyet Vatan newspaper, who was tried in the Sark Independence Court in Elazig, describes this court as "... a terrible revolutionary court that handed out death sentences in groups and carried out its sentences without asking anyone or being accountable to anyone." It is known that the records of the Independence Tribunal, which we have not had the chance to examine until now, are the most important reference sources in order to fully understand the Sheikh Said incident, which caused the break in relations between the nation state built after 1923 and the Kurdish people. These records contain documents, such as Sheikh Said's correspondence, that provide rich data about the purpose and course of the movement. Mahmut Akyürekli's more comprehensive study on the subject was published by History Club Publications in two volumes under the name "Sark Independence Tribunal with its Justifications and Provisions, 1925 -1927".

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Dough Type: 2nd Dough

First Printing Year: 2017

Size: 15x21

Number of Printings: 1st Edition

Number of Pages: 192

Media Type: Paperback