President Erdoğan slams Turkey bar head over 'No' campaign

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has harshly criticized Turkey's Union of Bar Associations President Metin Feyzioğlu for conducting a referendum campaign abroad and taking a stance against the constitutional changes.

"You cannot knock on my door anymore. I have closed it, because you are the head of a union, the president of an institution that claims to know what law is. You cannot do this. You are not a politician," Erdoğan said in a televised interview with private broadcaster ATV on March 13.

Criticizing Feyzioğlu for conducting a referendum campaign abroad by delivering speeches against the constitutional amendments, Erdoğan accused the bar head of breaching his duties.
 
"The ones who are not allowing my minister to give a speech are allowing the president of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations to go and conduct a campaign there. He started in Turkey and toured around Europe. He is supposed to be a law professional," Erdoğan said, referring to the crisis between Turkey and the Netherlands after the latter banned Turkish ministers from meeting Turks living there.  

"At the moment he did this, but there are going to be consequences. As a matter of fact, many Bar Associations are in an uproar, claiming that the Union of Bar Associations of Turkey does not represent them anymore," he added.

"They [Feyzioğlu] are in contact with those who are affiliated to terrorist organizations, having their visits along with lawmakers from the CHP [main opposition Republican People's Party] and the HDP [Peoples' Democratic Party]. This is what they are standing on," he said.

'I am doing my job': Feyzioğlu

Feyzioğlu responded to Erdoğan's harsh words, saying the Union of the Bar Associations and the...