Akın Gürlek, who was appointed to replace Minister of Justice Yılamz Tunç by the Presidential Decree published in the Official Gazette, takes office.

Highlights from Minister Tunç’s speech;

Today, we are honored and proud to hand over the task. Thank you for not leaving us alone. We have been with you for 2 and a half years. We experienced the honor and pride of working with the effort to strengthen the capacity of our judiciary. Türkiye did not neglect its democratic development. We managed to bury the tutelage mentality in history. We have made significant progress. Our country has made significant progress by constantly renewing our legislation and in line with the needs of the age. We have achieved a significant part of the goals. We worked with our colleagues to contribute in 2 and a half years to the distance covered in 23 years. We also initiated an investment move. We visited more than 60 of our 81 provinces and met with our citizens and fellow judges and prosecutors. We worked with the awareness that these duties are not a position but are entrusted to the nation. Today, my dear brother Akın Gürlek performed important duties. The Ministry of Justice will also carry these studies forward. We will protect the trust of the nation. Great progress has been made in every field and the foundations of the Turkish Century have been laid. We had important duties to take a step towards a terrorism-free Türkiye. There were efforts we made to make the process permanent. We carried out our work in coordination and conveyed it to the commission. We received the support of our deputies throughout our duty. They and we were both in the field. Our judicial organization is a young and promising organization. We would like to thank all our lawyers here. These duties are a changing of the guard. Continuing where we left off, our main goal is the satisfaction of the nation. I thank our President, we owe gratitude to our nation. There is little we can do for this beloved nation.

Highlights from Akın Gürlek’s speech:

Dear Minister, dear administrators of our ministry. I would like to express my gratitude to our president who entrusted us with this task. Under the leadership of our President, important reforms in the fields of law and justice were implemented. The demand for justice is the assurance of our 85 million citizens. We will continue the fight against crime by pursuing reforms with determination. I come from the judiciary, I follow the problems of our fellow judges and prosecutors closely and I will strive to solve their problems.

ID İletişim’s owner, Manager Ayşe Barım, was arrested for the Gezi Park protests. It was requested that Barım be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for “aiding the attempt to overthrow the Government of the Republic of Türkiye or prevent it from performing its duties” regarding the Gezi Park protests. The undetained defendant Ayşe Barım, who was decided to be released under house arrest in the previous hearing, appeared before the judge at the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court. According to previous hearings, it was noteworthy that famous names did not attend this hearing.

Aggravated life imprisonment was requested in the opinion

The hearing prosecutor, who presented his opinion during the hearing, requested an aggravated life imprisonment for Barım for “attempting to overthrow the Government of the Republic of Turkey or partially or completely preventing it from performing its duties by using force and violence.”

HE DEFENDED AGAINST THE CONSIDERATION

In her defense against the opinion on the merits, Ayşe Barım said, “I have been in a process that I have never been in in my life since the beginning of 2025. I have not committed any crime; I have not directed the players to Gezi Park. I have never taken a political stance in my life. I thank you for deciding to release me, taking into account my health condition. I am currently continuing my life with a pacemaker. The opinion about me has been prepared. This is while all the witness statements are in my favor and there is no concrete evidence.” “I do not accept the fact that the opinion was given. I am innocent; I express this once again. I have always been a citizen loyal to my country and I have only worked. I demand from you the right to live where I can deal with my health problems.” he said.

BARIM GIVES 12 YEARS AND 6 MONTHS IN JAIL

Ayşe Barım was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for ‘Aiding the Attempt to Overthrow the State of the Republic of Türkiye’. On the other hand, Barım hugged his lawyer and cried after the decision.

“OUR ASSEMBLY WILL PERFORM ITS DUTY SAFELY IN THE NEW PHASE OF THE PROCESS”

In his statement regarding the Terror-Free Türkiye process at the AK Party Group Meeting, President Erdoğan stated that the National Solidarity, Fraternity and Democracy Commission was about to complete its final report.

Expressing his belief that the report will be perfected with the constructive contributions of the political parties in the commission, Erdoğan said, “It is a fact that, following the announcement of the report, the political institution will have more duties and responsibilities. I hope our Parliament, which is the manifestation of the national will, will do its duty safely in the new phase of the process.”

As the AK Party, we will act with the awareness of responsibility as we have since the first day, and we will be more constructive and more encompassing than ever before. We will not hesitate to take responsibility for the permanent solution of this problem, which has an economic cost of 2 trillion dollars to our country alone. “Of course, in this process, we will never let our beloved martyrs, veterans and relatives of our martyrs, who are all examples of fortitude, bow down, and we will determinedly do what is right for Türkiye’s terror-free future,” he said.

THEY TOOK AN Oath DESPITE THE OBSTACLES OF CHP MEMBERS

After what happened, Parliament Deputy Speaker Bekir Bozdağ took a 10-minute break from the session.

After the break, Gürlek and Çiftçi took the oath among AK Party deputies and officially started their duties.

After the chaos, the meeting was suspended for another 15 minutes.

“WE WILL CONTINUE WITH DETERMINATION A CONFIDENTIAL UNDERSTANDING OF JUSTICE”

On the other hand, Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek, in his post on his NSosyal account, expressed his gratitude to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for entrusting him with such an honorable duty as the Ministry of Justice.

Minister Gürlek noted the following in his post:

“In line with the vision of the Turkey Century, we will resolutely pursue a transparent, accountable and trustworthy understanding of justice, based on the principles of the rule of law, judicial independence and impartiality. We will continue our work to further raise human rights standards without compromising our uncompromising stance in the fight against crime and criminals.”

Stating that he will strive to further strengthen the trust in justice in consultation with members of the judiciary, academia, bar associations, non-governmental organizations and the nation, Gürlek thanked Yılmaz Tunç and his colleagues, who have carried out the task devotedly until today.

Handover ceremony at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice! Minister Mustafa Çiftçi and Minister Akın Gürlek started their new duties

Akın Gürlek, who was appointed as the Minister of Justice with the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, made the first post on his x account after taking over the ministry post.

Expressing his gratitude to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for entrusting him with such an honorable duty as the Ministry of Justice, Minister Gürlek said, “In line with the vision of the Turkey Century, on the basis of the principles of rule of law, judicial independence and impartiality, we will resolutely pursue a transparent, accountable and trustworthy understanding of justice. Without compromising our uncompromising stance in the fight against crime and criminals, we will continue our work to further raise human rights standards.”

“WE WILL EFFORT TO FURTHER STRENGTHEN THE TRUST IN JUSTICE”

Stating that the members of the judiciary will strive to further strengthen the trust in justice, in consultation with the academy, bar associations, non-governmental organizations and the nation, Gürlek said, “I would like to thank our Minister and his colleagues who have carried out this duty devotedly so far; on this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude to our President once again. I wish him the best of luck for our beloved nation.”

I would like to express my gratitude to our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who entrusted me with such an honorable duty as the Ministry of Justice. In line with the vision of the Türkiye Century, on the basis of the principles of rule of law, judicial independence and impartiality; transparent, accountable and trust… pic.twitter.com/KFQQktyilp

— Akın Gürlek (@abakingurlek) February 11, 2026

In his farewell message, Minister Çiftçi reminded that he was appointed as the Minister of Internal Affairs as a result of the appointment decision published in the Official Gazette dated February 11, 2026, with the approval of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

On this occasion, Çiftçi expressed his heartfelt gratitude to President Erdoğan, who did not spare their trust by deeming him worthy of this lofty position and the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and said, “After my duty in our ancient city Erzurum, which is the foreword of Anatolia and the lock of Islam, with the motto ‘Service to the public is service to God’, today I am experiencing the honor and weight of taking on a greater responsibility for the peace and security of our beloved nation. Reverend.” Under the leadership of our President, our main goal is to maintain peace in every corner of our country, to protect the survival of our state and to be a servant to our nation. May God give us the strength to carry this sacred trust placed on our shoulders and not embarrass us against our beloved nation.” he said.

Addressing his brothers and sisters, Çiftçi said: “With the blessings of our esteemed President, I am leaving the post of Governor of Erzurum, which I have held with great honor for about two and a half years, on the occasion of my appointment. Erzurum is not just a city, it is the unshakable castle of the Turkish-Islamic civilization in Anatolia and the torch of our War of Independence. During my time in this ancient geography, I am leaving every corner of our city with the understanding of ‘Service to the public is service to God.’ We have endeavored to reach out to individuals and provide relief to their troubles. Your dignified stance, love for the homeland and appreciation have been my greatest source of motivation throughout my term of office. If we have been able to do work worthy of the historical heritage of our city and the nobility of our people, this is the greatest honor for us. On this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude to all our public institutions, non-governmental organizations and the appreciative people of Erzurum who have supported us throughout my term of office. Well done, may God preserve our unity and solidarity.”