‘Grand Defense Rally’ to be held in Ankara against the bill to ‘split bar associations’

* Photo: Özge Elif Kızıl - Ankara / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

Releasing a statement regarding the bill submitted to the Parliamentary Speaker's Office yesterday (June 30), the chairs of 30 bar associations have announced that they will hold a "Grand Defense Rally" against the bill foreseeing the split of bars in cities with over 5,000 registered lawyers.

CLICK - Bill to 'split bar associations' in three cities submitted to Parliamentary Speaker's Office

Foreseeing the establishment of more than one bar association in a city, the Bill on Amendments to the Attorneys' Act and Some Laws was submitted to the Parliamentary Speaker's Office yesterday.

According to the bill jointly prepared by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) MPs, lawyers can register in any bar association if there are more than one bar association in the city. The bill foresees that a bar association will be established by a minimum of 2,000 lawyers if there are over 5,000 lawyers in a city.

According to the figures of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), while 17,598 lawyers are registered in Ankara Bar Association, 46,052 lawyers are registered in İstanbul Bar and 9,612 lawyers in İzmir. The total number of registered lawyers across the country is 127,691.

That being the case, the bill "to split bar associations" is likely to affect these three bars with over 5,000 lawyers.

'It aims to separate and divide politically'

In the statement for the press released on behalf of 30 of 80 bar associations in Turkey, lawyers have been invited to the "Grand Defense Rally" to be held in the capital city of Ankara on July 3 at 2 p.m.

The joint statement has briefly read as follows:

"After occupying the public with statements of 'bar associations are engaging in politics' for days, this project of multiple bar associations reveals the aim of separating and dividing the bars politically. Now, this will indeed pave the way for the politicization of bars or, more precisely, for their polarization.

"It is in no way explained based on what this number of 5,000 has been specified for multiple bar associations and based on what criteria 2,000 lawyers will be granted the right to establish a separate bar association.

"We, as 80 bar associations, do not want multiple bars. If this draft becomes a law, a bar association with 44 members and another bar association with 4,958 members will each be represented by four delegates in the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB). It is compatible with neither democracy nor the principle of justice in representation.

"The provision foreseeing that a new bar association chair will be elected among the members of administrative board if the current chair's term in office expires is an expression of disrespect for the voters' will and it does not comply with the general systematics of law.

"If only those who made this proposal had heard our voice and met our demand for raising the wages of lawyers appointed as per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) to minimum wage, especially for our young colleagues. Even this shows that the realities were not taken into account.

"We are once again calling on the political power holders to abandon this project of separation and division and the democratic public to stand up against this project that will cause the voice of the people to be silenced and to lay claim to their bar associations." (AS/SD)