That’s democracy?

The commentary by Turkey’s chargé d’affaires in Israel (“Strength and resilience of Turkish democracy,” Comment & Features, August 3) is based on a common misunderstanding – that democracy consists only of holding of elections.

Many totalitarian regimes hold elections, but where the candidates are preselected by the existing regime or only one party is permitted to run, or voters are intimidated by violence or the threat of it, only the most cynical would call it democracy. Democracy requires three more elements, all of which should be safeguarded by constitutional provisions: freedom of association, including the liberty to form political parties; freedom of expression, including a free press; and, above all, an independent judiciary, whose powers should include supervision of elections.

The independence of judges requires a selection process on the basis of their legal acumen and personal integrity alone, without regard for their politics, together with tenure and a constitutionally protected ban on the removal of judges (who are subject to dismissal only after due process by a tribunal within the judicial system for disciplinary infractions).

Any regime that closes newspapers and television stations because they oppose the government, and which arrests or dismisses judges for political reasons only, has no business calling itself democratic. PHILIP MARCUS

Jerusalem The writer served as a judge of the Jerusalem Family Court for 17 years.