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The European law organisations have dedicated January 24 to lawyers in Turkey as the Day of the Endangered Lawyer. However, attorneys in Turkey faced police violence on that day.
Ankara Bar Association held a press statement in front of the courthouse after the march in the Sıhhiye Courthouse on January 24, which was organised in protest against attacks directed at lawyers in Turkey. Attorney Kemal Koranel, the Chair of Ankara Bar Association, spoke and gave the example of Colombia.
”In the last 10 years, more than 700 lawyers have been killed in Colombia, and more than 4,400 lawyers have been subjected to various attacks. As in Colombia, lawyers in this country are accused, murdered and threatened just for practising their profession and defending their clients,” he said.
The attorneys in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, also chanted slogans for the release of arrested attorneys.
Meanwhile, police intervened in the press statement held by the Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD) and the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) in Mersin on the occasion of Day of Endangered Lawyers.
As reported by Mesopotamia Agency (MA), the police attacked the group using physical violence on the lawyers who wanted to make a press statement in front of the courthouse of Mersin. Under blockade by police shields, attorney Mutluay Başaran spoke there.
Başaran said that as lawyers, they came together for all their oppressed colleagues who were, threatened, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered just for practising their profession.
The people attending the press statement also chanted, “The advocacy has never remained silent and will not be silenced” and “Let the arrested lawyers be released”.
While attorney Mutluay Başaran was reading the statement lawyers were prevented by hundreds of police officers.
Later, lawyers in Mersin staged a sit-in protest in front of the courthouse after the police prevented them.
