Bar associations says new proposal is aimed at undermining longstanding government critics…
Police used shields and pepper spray to disperse a protest by lawyers against new legislation to break up Turkey’s influential bar associations, after Ankara’s governor imposed a 15-day ban on demonstrations in the city.
A number of organisations – including the Istanbul Bar Association, Izmir Bar Association and Ankara Bar Association – had planned a “Great Defence Rally” in the Turkish capital on Friday, in a show of opposition to changes to the Attorneys Act.
However, the Ankara governor’s office on Thursday said that “all demonstrations and events” in the city would be banned for 15 days, nominally because of an increase in coronavirus cases.
A crowd of lawyers gathered outside the Ankara courthouse on Friday afternoon to demonstrate, defying the protest ban.
“You want to sew buttons to our robes by splitting bar associations. You want everyone to be silent,” said Ankara Bar Association chair Erinc Sagkan.
“You say, ‘The bars went too far.’ As long as you continue to make the judiciary dependent, we’ll continue to ‘go too far’.”
Shortly after Sagkan’s comments, the group attempted to march, but was blocked and then attacked by police.
Read more at. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-lawyers-protest-bar-association-reform-police
