Turkish justice minister condemns main opposition CHP leader’s ‘language against judiciary members’

ANKARA

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has condemned main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over the “language he used against members of the judiciary.”

“CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu is insulting and directing unjust accusations against the judiciary and its members every time he doesn’t get the ruling that he wants,” Bozdağ wrote on his Twitter account on May 17, adding that a person who believes in the state of law doesn’t use the language Kılıçdaroğlu uses.

“A person who believes in the state of law doesn’t use the disrespectful, unjust, criminal, unethical and unmoral language that Kılıçdaroğlu uses against the judiciary. Praising the judges who issue the rulings one wants and criticizing those who don’t is not something that a person who believes in the state of law would do. I strongly condemn CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu’s language against the judiciary and those engaged in judicial duties. I invite him to use a respectful language against the judiciary and the members of it,” he said. 

Saying that judges and prosecutors were carrying out their duties in accordance with the constitution, laws and their personal conviction, Bozdağ noted that members of the judiciary did not let their decisions be influenced by external parties, such as the media. 

“The judges and prosecutors, who carry out their duties impartially and independently, don’t let their decisions get effected by political, religious, philosophical, moral, cultural and economic differences of themselves and the sides of the case. They also don’t permit the names of the sides, their titles, positions, fame, works and printed and visual media to affect their rulings,” he added. 

Bozdağ said people who blamed the judiciary and those carrying out judicial duties had done the biggest damage to justice and the judiciary. 

“Of course we can harshly criticize the judiciary and members of it when necessary. This is a right, but we need to abstain from blaming and slandering,” he said.