Erdoğan's 'Akın Gürlek' jab at İmamoğlu: 'Threatening the judiciary is the height of irresponsibility'

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is delivering a speech at the Judicial and Administrative Judges and Public Prosecutors Assignment Ceremony.

Highlights from Erdoğan's remarks:

THEY WANT TO ENGAGE IN POLITICS AND JOURNALISM OUTSIDE THE LAW

We expect you, our young members of the judiciary who will make decisions on behalf of the Turkish nation, to work with sensitivity throughout your professional lives. You must cut through lawlessness like a knife.

The burden of every citizen who reaches the door of justice but cannot receive their rights is upon us all. The judiciary that applauded coup plotters as it did on February 28, that looked down on citizens who came before it, and that distributed deadlocks instead of justice, is the judiciary of the old Turkey.

Certain circles attempting to interfere with judicial processes are dreaming of the old Turkey and trying to protect the privileges provided by the old Turkey.

They do not refrain from encroaching on personal rights. They think they can violate the constitution and laws due to their positions. They want to engage in politics and journalism in a privileged space created outside the law.

They see it as their right to neglect basic legal principles. They think the principle of the rule of law does not bind them.

They think they can violate the constitution and laws. The arrogance of 'I can do whatever I want, I can threaten whoever I want, no one can do anything to me' will eventually crash against the wall of truth. No one is unaccountable. No one can see themselves above the law or beyond its reach. We are all obligated to provide the necessary support for the judiciary to perform its duty properly and fairly. The Turkish judiciary makes decisions only and exclusively on behalf of the Turkish nation.

And no one can dictate to those who make decisions on behalf of the Turkish nation.

You do not have to find every decision made to be accurate. You make your objections through legal channels.

We have also criticized some judicial decisions in the past. We have never resorted to shaking a finger at the judiciary, discrediting the judiciary, or threatening legal professionals doing their jobs.

Turning processes that have reached the judiciary into political material, putting our judges and prosecutors under pressure, and targeting them through their families and children is the height of irresponsibility."...

Erdoğan continued as follows:

WE SAW IT ON DECEMBER 17-25

With the decisive steps we have taken, we have largely cleansed the FETÖ virus that had infiltrated our courthouse organization from within, and we continue to do so. We are a country that has paid the price for the negligence experienced in this regard in the past. We saw this many times, especially on December 17-25. Those who use the judiciary as a tool for their own interests both instrumentalize justice and alienate it from its own existence."