“COURT ROOMS ARE NOT POLITICAL ARENA”

Minister Akın Gürlek was reminded of MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli’s call regarding the live broadcast of hearings within the scope of investigations against some municipalities.

Gürlek, who was asked about his evaluation of the broadcast of these cases on television, said, “This must be allowed by the legislation. Currently, there is no regulation in our law regarding the live broadcast of these cases, but if the Supreme Parliament shows a will on this issue, it can of course be broadcast. I want to say this, courtrooms are definitely not political arenas, political shows or propaganda cannot be made. Judges decide on behalf of the nation, based on the evidence in the file. We need to especially underline this. Political propaganda should not be made in courtrooms. Judges are not affected by this propaganda. Because judges are supreme. “He decides on behalf of the Turkish nation.” he said.

“Can a person in prison be visited at any time? Can his messages be easily carried outside?” Asked the question, Gürlek said the following:

“We have a legislative gap here. I have instructed my friends on this issue during my Ministry of Justice process. We will make a legal regulation. There is a distinction between detainees and convicts. Lawyers can meet with detainees in prison whenever they want. Even if their lawyer goes there at 3 a.m., they can meet with the detainee, but there is no such thing for convicts. There is such a gap, especially for detainees. Lawyers can meet easily and give them their personal notes and letters. The law needs to be amended. In particular, lawyers can meet with detainees and give notes to each other, and they can do so easily. “Normally, all letters and notes are stamped as ‘seen’ by the prison administration. If they are not appropriate, they are not sent, but since there is a gap in the legal regulations for detainees, the notes can be easily given to lawyers and given to other persons through lawyers. We hope to carry out a study on this and present it to the Parliament.”

“WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE DISEASE OF ILLEGAL BETTING”

Pointing out that the issue of illegal betting is a bleeding wound of the nation, Gürlek said that he fought against this issue when he was the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor.

Stating that he will address this issue as the Minister of Justice, Gürlek said, “We need to get rid of the illegal betting problem. We have solved the illegal betting system. If there is a lack of legal regulation, we will make legal regulation. Illegal betting companies are constantly following the technology. We close a site, two minutes later a dot is placed at the end of the site and it reopens. The important thing is to dry the entire source. We may have deficiencies in terms of legal regulation. We will do about them.” he said.

Pointing out that they carried out important operations within the scope of “fixing match-fixing in football” investigations, Gürlek said, “We did not look at the names, titles and identities of the individuals here either. Football must be clean. Match-fixing should not be done here. We have carried out very sensitive studies on this issue. There is a special office in the Istanbul Courthouse. It works very well in this regard. We will spread it in Türkiye as well. As the Minister of Justice, I promise the society about illegal betting, we will go to the end of this matter, we will root it out.” “We will scrape it. If there is a deficiency, we will correct it.” he said.

Emphasizing that drugs are Türkiye’s biggest problem, Gürlek said, “We have taken the necessary steps regarding drugs. We have carried out good operations in Istanbul. Hopefully, we will do whatever is necessary to get rid of the drug epidemic during the Ministry of Justice period. Families are very upset about their children using drugs. Mothers and fathers come to me and say ‘save our sons from this disease’. We will go to the end of this process.” he said.

Stating that they reached the “barons” from drug users, Gürlek said, “I would like to thank our members of the Istanbul Police Department, our gendarmerie personnel and our prosecutor friends. We worked very well on these issues. Hopefully, we will work well as the Minister of Justice. The system is a system that goes from bottom to top. You catch the bag dealer, you catch the distributor, you catch the main distributor. You said barons, look, we carried out the Çetin Gören operation, 12 people were arrested. Then the name Siirtli Naci came out. “There is also a fight against the barons.” he said.

“FIGHT AGAINST FETO WILL CONTINUE UNINTERRUPTED”

Regarding the fight against FETO, Minister Gürlek said, “The fight against FETO will of course continue. All our chief prosecutors are already on the alert on this issue. Because FETO is a threat to the state and the country. The new structuring is also being tackled. The fight against FETO is definitely not over, it still continues, and will continue until the end. FETO is definitely our red line, our main agenda. Our fight on this issue will continue uninterruptedly.” he emphasized.

“HELLO JUSTICE” LINE WILL BE ESTABLISHED

Pointing out that citizens mostly complain about the length of litigation processes, Gürlek continued as follows:

“A divorce case, a rental case, a cadastral case takes a very long time. The grandfather files the cadastral case, but it is not completed on time by his grandson. I am thinking of establishing a system like this in my new term as the Ministry of Justice. We will establish a line called ‘Hello Justice’. What is this line? For example, a citizen has a divorce case. The citizen’s divorce case has not been completed for 17 sessions, so the citizen is the victim here and wants it to end. Or there is a rental case. Since 8 sessions. “The rent case is ongoing. Here, the citizen will reach the Alo Justice line. This may be by phone or e-mail.”

Minister Gürlek stated that they cannot give instructions to judges and prosecutors on this issue, but they will convey the grievances of the citizens.

COMMERCIAL COURTS WILL BE GATHERED UNDER ONE ROOF

Stating that Istanbul is a trade city, Gürlek said:

“The world’s trade revolves here. Commercial courts are very important courts. We have very big cases here. We are planning to establish a pilot in Istanbul, I am thinking of gathering all the commercial courts in one place, in a single building. Now, what will be the benefit of this for us? There are commercial courts in Anadolu Courthouse, Çağlayan Courthouse, Bakırköy Courthouse, Küçükçekmece Courthouse. It is very messy. Now the citizens go to Küçükçekmece, cannot make a decision, they leave.” He is applying from the Anatolian Courthouse. All commercial courts will be in a complex, the location is unknown, and our commercial judges will work in these buildings separately from outside the courthouse. This will prevent the process from being prolonged, especially in commercial cases, and will ensure uniformity. We are planning to launch this process as a pilot in Istanbul soon.”

“WE WILL NOT ALLOW STREET GANGS”

Minister Gürlek, on the question about the “new generation criminal gangs”, said, “While working as the Chief Public Prosecutor in Istanbul, we carried out operations against street gangs, but we need to stop the participation. Young people are somehow emulated, or rather encouraged and involved. We need to fight against them. Of course, we may have shortcomings as a law. Some regulations have been made in the 11th Judicial Package. Work on the 12th Judicial Package continues. We will make regulations regarding this. Unfortunately, criminal organizations use these children due to the gap in the law. This is “Legal regulations need to be made on this issue. We need to address the concept of children.” He made a statement.

Emphasizing that they will fight against street gangs until the end, Gürlek said, “We will definitely not let street gangs tolerate it. I hope I will do this as the ‘Executive Minister’. We will destroy street gangs until the end. Operations are already being carried out constantly.” he said.

“GAZA IS OUR RED LINE”

Responding to the question about Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Gürlek said, “As you know, we had the Sumud Flotilla that brought aid to Gaza. Unfortunately, it was attacking brutally and barbarically. During my term as the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, we arrested 37 people. Gaza is our red line. We will take all necessary steps in this regard. Israel’s barbarity and lawlessness are obvious, but we, as the Ministry of Justice, will follow this process.” he replied.

Minister Gürlek said, “The Presidential Strategy Directorate determines a staff. Then, we make recruitments on a provincial basis. In this regard, hopefully, we will bring 15 thousand personnel to our justice community according to a periodic calendar. Likewise, interviews for assistant judge and prosecutor positions will also begin.” gave the information.

In his message, President Erdoğan stated that the state and the nation showed great solidarity by joining hands after the earthquakes on February 6, 2023. Reminding that more than 455 thousand residences, workplaces and village houses were delivered to their rightful owners in this context, Erdoğan noted that it is aimed for 500 thousand citizens to become homeowners in all 81 provinces with the newly launched housing mobilization.

President Erdoğan said, “Ignore those who say we cannot do it, we will hopefully implement it within the determined timetable, just like all our previous projects,” and thanked all citizens who applied for the project and entrusted their hopes to the state.

At the draw ceremony where the beneficiaries of 6 thousand 865 houses were determined in Tekirdağ, a short film about the 500 thousand social housing move was also screened. In his message, President Erdoğan expressed his hope that the draw would be a new beginning for the citizens who are eligible to become homeowners, and that hopes should be kept alive for those who have not yet qualified.

“I pray to God Almighty that this great social housing move, which carries hope for the future, will bring abundance to our country and peace to our nation,” said President Erdogan, and completed his words by greeting the citizens.

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which is the scene of frequent workers’ protests because it does not pay the salaries and social rights of its employees on time, continues to waste the scarce resources created by public taxes in order to cover the losses of the municipal companies, which have become a black hole because they constantly make losses. İZBB, which transferred 2.4 billion liras of capital to İztarım and İzelman Companies last month, is now preparing to transfer money to the Fair Organization Company İzfaş, which provides services within the municipality, and the maritime company İzdeniz, which carries passengers and vehicles in the inner bay. By the instruction of İZBB President Cemil Tugay, both motions, which were put on the agenda in the first session of the metropolitan municipality council in February, were referred to the specialized commissions for discussion. The proposals will be discussed and decided upon again in the municipal council in the coming days. If the proposals are accepted, İZBB will transfer 349 million 849 thousand liras to the fair company Izfaş and 1 billion 858 million liras to Izdeniz. Thus, the amount of resources transferred from İZBB’s coffers to municipal subsidiaries in the last two months will reach 4.6 billion lira.

Medya A.Ş., which is in Ekrem İmamoğlu’s A team. It was revealed that President Murat Ongun, İmamoğlu’s coffers, textile businessman Hüseyin Köksal, and Ongun’s partner, fugitive Emrah Bağdatlı, held drug and prostitution parties in the VIP flat number 2604 in Raffles Hotel, where they held tenders and bribery meetings. 10 suspects were arrested along with Gülşah Rojin Demir, codenamed ‘Mama Gönül’, who brought women to the A team and attended the parties in the flat where the network led by the detained former Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality President Ekrem İmamoğlu, who caused a public loss of 161 billion, held secret meetings. Gülşah Rojin Demir, who previously testified to the prosecutor’s office, gave additional testimony the other day.

Stating that they had a relationship with Hüseyin Köksal from 2019 to 2024, Demir said, “He wanted to have an imam marriage with me. I left because I did not accept.” Demir stated that, thanks to his meeting with the manager of an investment company, he heard that Ekrem İmamoğlu from the investment company in question frequently traded on the stock market. Demir stated that the manager of this investment company told him that ‘Imamoğlu looks after finance and stock market affairs, buys and sells paper in the stock market, and thus evaluates İmamoğlu’s money.’ He also said, “He told me that İmamoğlu sometimes received money from abroad and that he invested the money by buying and selling on the stock market.” The prosecutor’s office put the manager of the investment company in question under the spotlight.

Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Çiftçi started his duty quickly. The Ministry dismissed Giresun’s Görele Mayor Hasbi Dede, who was arrested for “sexual harassment against a child”. In the statement made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “Görele Mayor Hasbi Dede was referred to the court on 10.02.2026 within the scope of the investigation numbered 2026/332 by the Görele Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for the crime of ‘sexual harassment against a child’ and was arrested for the crime of ‘sexual harassment against a child’ by the decision of the Görele 1st Criminal Court of First Instance numbered 2026/17d, in accordance with Article 127 of the constitution.” “He has been suspended from his duties as a temporary measure in accordance with Article 47 of the Municipality Law No. 5393. It is respectfully announced to the public.”

Dede was replaced by CHP’s Hüseyin Çakıcı, a retired history teacher and the oldest member of the municipal council. The election will be held in the coming days. Dede was elected Mayor of Görele from CHP in the last local elections. When the scandal broke out, he was called to testify, judicial control measures were applied, and then he was arrested.

The Bill on Amendments to the Highway Traffic Law, which also includes regulations to increase traffic fines, was accepted by the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and became law. Highlights of the new regulation are as follows:

Those who drive without a license plate will be fined 46 thousand liras and their driver’s license will be revoked for 30 days.

Drivers who drift will be fined 140 thousand liras.

A fine of 180 thousand liras will be imposed on those who insistently follow another vehicle or get out of the vehicle for the purpose of attack.

Those who use mobile phones while driving may be fined up to 5 thousand liras, and in case of repeated use, up to 20 thousand liras.

Those who do not wear seat belts will be fined 2,500 liras.

Those who drive without a license will be fined 40 thousand liras, and those who get behind the wheel even though they have a license will be fined 200 thousand liras.

Anyone who passes the red light will be fined 5 thousand lira. If this is repeated within a year, the penalties will multiply and reach up to 80 thousand liras.

Drivers’ licenses who use drugs or stimulants will be canceled and a fine of 150 thousand liras will be imposed.

The penalty for those who drive with alcohol over 0.50 promil will be increased to 25 thousand liras. A penalty of up to 50 thousand liras will be imposed for the second violation, and up to 150 thousand liras for the third and subsequent violations.