Speaking at the opening ceremony of Judicial Year 2023-2024, President Erdoğan said: “We know that justice, which is the foundation of state, is also the driving force of social peace, prosperity, stability, development and growth. We will continue our efforts with determination to make the Century of Türkiye not only a century of economy, politics, military and diplomacy, but also a century of justice.”     President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of Judicial Year 2023-2024 in Ankara. “The rule of law is our collective goal and red line. It is the duty of all of us to increase the quality of justice services and increase confidence in the judiciary, and to prevent the reproaches of the society. No citizen should doubt that the courthouse door is the door to justice, and they should seek their rights there with peace of mind and heart. Thus, we can never compromise on the rule of law,” President Erdoğan said. “When we assumed the task of governing Türkiye, we placed ‘education, health, security and justice’ at the top of our priorities. In the past 21 years, we have always worked to deliver these promises, regardless of the conditions in Türkiye,” President Erdoğan said. “WE HAVE REALIZED MAJOR REFORMS ON JUDICIARY” “We have realized major reforms in order to raise the standards of democracy and the rule of law in our country, to widen human rights and freedoms, to ensure the swift execution of justice, and to eliminate all kinds of problems related to the judiciary,” President Erdoğan said. “We have increased the number of judges and prosecutors from 9,349 in 2002 to 24,000 with a 2.5-fold rise, and the total number of personnel of our justice system from 61,000 to 190,000. By building 280 new justice palaces across our country, we have put an end to the bad scenes of trying to distribute justice in inadequate rooms. By building magnificent service buildings such as the building where we are holding our ceremony now, we have provided our high judicial bodies with monumental places befitting the values they represent,” President Erdoğan said. Emphasizing that they increased the number of courts by 95 percent in the criminal judiciary and 45 percent in the administrative judiciary, President Erdoğan said: “We put the Regional Courts of Justice and Administrative Courts into operation in order to minimize errors and prevent the backlog in the courts of appeal. With the regional courts of appeal, the workload of the Civil and Criminal Chambers of the Court of Cassation decreased by 68 percent.” “We know that justice, which is the foundation of state, is also the driving force of social peace, prosperity, stability, development and growth. We will continue our efforts with determination to make the Century of Türkiye not only a century of economy, politics, military and diplomacy, but also a century of justice,” President Erdoğan underscored. “OUR DREAM IS TO INTRODUCE A NEW, CIVILIAN CONSTITUTION” “We have a dream that we have expressed throughout our political life and that we have presented to our nation as a government proposal in every election since 2011. This dream is to rid Türkiye of the shame of the coup Constitution and to provide Türkiye with a new, civilian Constitution that embraces today and tomorrow with its language and content, and that is worthy of the Century of Türkiye. We consider it an embarrassment for our country and democracy to talk about the ‘Century of Türkiye’ in the shadow of the coup Constitution,” President Erdoğan said. “We believe that our nation, which has paid such a heavy price for its independence and future, truly deserves a new constitution,” President Erdoğan underlined. “A first class constitution will complement the first class democracy, first class economy and first class freedoms that we promise to our nation. Our vision of the Century of Türkiye will be strengthened with such a Constitution. With this aim, we need to present to the nation a text that will be embraced by all 85 million people and that they will cherish as ‘this is my Constitution’. I hereby invite our political parties, high courts, universities, state institutions, bar associations, professional organizations, non-governmental organizations and every member of our nation to contribute to this process. With the opening of the parliament, we will restart our initiatives to provide the Turkish democracy with a new Constitution.”