Ankara No. 2 Bar Association President Gökhan Ağdemir, who said "We made 70 of our members judges-prosecutors" in the television program he attended, decided to withdraw from his presidential candidacy after the reactions.
The words made by Ankara No. 2 Bar Association President Gökhan Ağdemir in a television program attracted great reaction from the judicial public.
Ağdemir's statement, "We are a reference for our friends who want to become judges and prosecutors. During our approximately two-year working period, we made seventy of our bar association member lawyer friends as judges and prosecutors. We have become a reference, let's talk to the ministries. Thank you, the ministry gave us privilege in that sense as well" became the agenda in a short time.
Judges' Union, lawyers and opposition representatives reacted to Ağdemir, who said that they were a reference for 70 lawyers becoming judges and prosecutors in two years.
The Judges' Union demanded that the Ministry clarify whether privileges were granted to some bar associations and that the admission processes of the 70 people in question be examined.
Ağdemir, whose words created great controversy, recently announced that he had withdrawn from his candidacy for the Ankara Bar Association No. 2 presidency.
Sharing a post on his account
Ağdemir's post is as follows:
"WITH RESPECT TO THE PUBLIC
Dear colleagues, valuable public opinion;
Recently, some of the expressions I used in a live broadcast I attended were taken out of the integrity and context of the speech and reflected to the public; I regret to observe that I have been drawn into a discussion process that targets me, the duty I carry out, and the Ankara No. 2 Bar Association that I represent.
In this process, I saw once again that taking a statement out of its context and taking it into different meanings, creating a perception through certain expressions, and reducing the effort spent for two years to a single discussion leads to deliberate and malicious distortions. My sadness is not only because of the criticism directed towards me; This is because the successes of the legal profession, our bar associations, and our young colleagues have become the subject of these discussions.
My aim during my term as the President of Ankara Bar Association No. 2 is; Our aim is to protect the rights of our colleagues, to contribute to the development of our young lawyers by strengthening internship training and to move our Bar Association forward. It is not possible for me to accept that the efforts we have made, the work done and the achievements we have made in this direction are ignored and a political discussion is carried out against our institution by some opposition circles through me.
However, I believe that the claim to personal righteousness should not take precedence over the reputation of the institution represented. Because bar associations are not just a person's personal matter. Honor, ethical values and moral responsibility of the legal profession; It is greater than personal expectations and the political calculations of some circles.
I stated that I was open to criticism. I also know that no one is immune from criticism. However, I believe that the distinction between criticism and decontextualization, biased evaluation and prejudice, and distortion and perception efforts should be carefully evaluated.
I also have a firm belief that the principles of merit, equality and adherence to the law should be protected in processes related to public office and judicial membership. In an environment where these principles are discussed, it is my responsibility not to allow the perception operation carried out on me to harm the future of our Bar Association.
For this reason, I am announcing to the public that I have decided to withdraw from my candidacy for the President of Ankara No. 2 Bar Association in order to prevent the public debates about me from causing further damage to the institution I represent, to protect the reputation of our Bar Association, and to prevent the ethical values of the legal profession from becoming a cheap political tool.
I hope that what happened in this process will be evaluated within the framework of common sense and fairness, without harming the common values of our colleagues.
I would like to wholeheartedly thank all my colleagues and colleagues who worked with me throughout my term of office, who contributed to the development of our bar association and who did not spare their support. I believe that the effort we put in, the work we carry out, and the struggle we wage for our young lawyers will be evaluated fairly over time.
Beyond the discussions about myself, I respectfully submit to the public that my commitment to the basic principles of the rule of law, the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the honor of the legal profession and the institutional prestige of our Ankara Bar Association No. 2 will continue.
Hunting. Gokhan Agdemir"
