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President Erdoğan slams CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu for violating constitution

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the opposition CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for obstructing justice as he opposed a legal decision and the separation of powers.

Daily Sabah TÜRKIYE
Published June 17,2017
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Opposition Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will not obtain justice by violating the constitution and going out, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday.

Speaking at the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) meeting, Erdoğan criticized the opposition leader for obstructing justice as he opposed a legal decision and the separation of powers.

"How can we expect justice from the judiciary if they are in such pressure" Erdoğan said, adding that carrying "justice" banners will not bring justice.

Referring to Article 138 of the constitution, which states "No organ, authority, office or individual may give orders or instructions to courts or judges relating to the exercise of judicial power, send them circulars, or make recommendations or suggestions," Erdoğan said Kılıçdaroğlu was clearly violating the law.

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party launched a 400-kilometer march from Ankara to Istanbul Thursday, a day after one of its deputies was given a a prison sentence on espionage charges.

The march came as a protest after CHP's Istanbul deputy Enis Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in jail for leaking secret documents to the press in the controversial National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks case. Berberoğlu was accused of supplying confidential footage of a raid on MIT trucks, carried out by the Gülenist terror group (FETÖ), to Cumhuriyet daily's former editor-in-chief Can Dündar and its Ankara representative Erdem Gül.

In May last year, the Turkish parliament voted to strip lawmakers facing trial of their parliamentary immunity.