Turkey's Constitutional Court elected Zühtü Arslan as its new chairman on Tuesday after he received 11 out of 17 votes.İsmail Rüştü Cirit has been elected as the chairman for Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals with 280 out of 516 votes.Born in 1964, Arslan obtained his bachelor degree from Public Administration at the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara University. He obtained his master's degree regarding "Human Rights and Civil Freedoms" at the Faculty of Law in University of Leicester. He also obtained his doctorate degree from the same university at constitutional law field. He obtained the title of associate professor in 2002 and the title of professor in 2007.Arslan worked for the European Court of Human Rights in 2001. He was appointed as chairman of the Police Academy and taught courses on "Constitutional Law", "Human Rights" and "State Theories".Arslan was appointed by the President to Constitutional Court membership from the nominations of Council of Higher Education (YÖK) in 2012.Arslan replaced Haşim Kılıç who held the post since 2007.Kılıç gave a farewell speech in which he outlined the reforms made at the Constitutional Court and its duties. "The Constitutional Court is now the representative of fundamental rights and freedoms" Kılıç said, referring to the earlier position of the Court as "limiting, reducing and prohibiting."Kılıç cited "hate discourse" as Turkey's biggest problem, while stating that elections in judiciary had become problematic as they revealed the political ideas or orientations of each judge and prosecutor even within the smallest administrative unit.Regarding the criticism over the decisions of the Constitutional Court during his tenure, he responded that "Those who benefited the most from our decisions accused us of being coup plotters." He reiterated several times that his retirement is not related to the upcoming elections in June 7; however, he said that he will now be more free to express his thoughts and that he would continue to contribute in the name of basic rights and freedoms.İsmail Rüştü Cirit, born in 1955, graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Law in 1978 and began his career as a judge in Balıkesir province of Turkey.Cirit was elected as a member of The Supreme Court of Appeals in 2004, while he was the chairman of the Üsküdar High Criminal Court.In 2011, Cirit was elected as the head of the 13 Penal Chamber by the Supreme Court of Appeals Grand General Assembly.