In the speech made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the opening ceremony of 2020-2021 Judicial Session at the Presidential Palace, some lawyers were accused of having close relations with “terrorist organizations.” Bar Associations were not invited to the opening ceremony after protesting it by not attending it last year. Judges and Prosecutors took place in the ceremony as the representatives of the independent judiciary. President Erdoğan wanted to debate the methods on how to dismiss those lawyers from profession. Erdoğan claimed that the dismissal of lawyers, who protected lawyer Ebru Timtik after her death on the 238th day of her indefinite hunger strike with the demand of fair trial, must be debated. Targeting especially the Istanbul Bar Association, Erdoğan said, “With God’s will, we will do whatever is necessary in the following session to prevent this bloody road that extends from legal practice to terrorism.”
01.09.2020
bianet.org