WE WILL DEFEND DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW

On the eve of the NATO Summit to be held in Ankara on 7 and 8 July, operations were conducted in the early morning hours across several provinces, most notably Istanbul, resulting in the detention of numerous individuals, among them our Bar member and President of the Istanbul Branch of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (“Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği-ÇHD”), Attorney Ezgi Önalan, along with Attorney Yunusemre Işık. Further detentions were carried out in front of the Grand National Assembly, adding our Bar members Atty. Pınar Akbina Karaman, Atty. Doğan Zafer Çıngı, and Atty. Fettah Ayhan Erkan, together with Atty. Tacettin Çolak, Atty. İbrahim Kıvılcım Çolak, and Atty. Sait Kıran, as well as numerous citizens, to those already in custody.

The sweeping bans, detentions, and arrests implemented across the country in recent weeks have come to constitute a process of arbitrary and mass annihilation of fundamental rights and freedoms that remain protected even in times of war.

Indeed, as recently as last week, dozens of individuals, including our colleagues Atty. Doğa İncesu, Atty. Semra Demir, and Atty. Kürşat Bafra, were unlawfully remanded into custody in the course of such operations.

These operations constitute a manifest act of intimidation designed to render the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inoperative, to suppress opposition, and to penalize democratic society. Such practices, irreconcilable with the rule of law, amount to the de facto suspension of fundamental rights and freedoms and are intended to produce a chilling effect upon their holders.

The targeting of lawyers on account of the cases they undertake, their professional activities, their opinions, or the professional associations and civil society organizations to which they belong, and their detention through pre dawn raids on their homes, in disregard of the provisions of the Attorneys' Act safeguarding the independence of the legal profession, constitutes an attack not merely upon our colleagues, but upon the institution of the defence and the right to a fair trial.

As the Istanbul Bar Association, we demand the immediate release of our detained colleagues and fellow citizens, and hereby respectfully announce to the public our unwavering determination to continue our struggle against all encroachments upon the independence of the defence, the rule of law, and fundamental rights and freedoms, and to stand firmly alongside our colleagues.