Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a message to newly appointed judges and prosecutors on Monday that the government needs judges and prosecutors who will serve the state.
In a message read out during a ceremony for the installation of new judges and prosecutors at the presidential palace in Ankara, Erdoğan said, “We need judges and prosecutors who will serve only the state, the nation and the law, not a certain group or a team.”
İbrahim Kaboğlu, a professor of constitutional law who was purged by the government and is a current deputy for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), responded to Erdoğan’s comment on Monday, saying Erdoğan’s remarks could have been acceptable if he had asked for a judiciary that is loyal to the general principles of law, but instead he asked for judiciary that is under the control of the state, according to the Artı Gerçek news website.
Kaboğlu also criticized the venue for the installation of the new judges and prosecutors, saying that even the fact that such ceremonies take place in the presidential palace is problematic in terms of an independent judiciary.