Ankara Bar Chair Sağkan elected the head of Union of Turkish Bar Associations

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The Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) 36th Ordinary General Assembly was held on December 4-5, 2021.

On the second day of the General Assembly yesterday, the chair and executive board members of the TBB were elected. In the election where 348 delegates cast votes, Ankara Bar Association Chair Erinç Sağkan has received the votes of 181 delegates and elected the new Chair of the TBB while 156 delegates voted for Metin Feyzioğlu, now the former TBB Chair.

According to Sağkan's proposed list, the following people will be in the executive board of the TBB:

Aydın Bar Association Chair Gökhan Bozkurt, Trabzon Bar Association Chair Sibel Suiçmez, Bursa Bar Association Chair Gürkan Altun, former Adana Bar Association Chair Veli Küçük, Kırklareli Bar Association Chair Turgay Hınız, Aksaray Bar Association Chair Ramazan Erhan Toprak, former Muş Bar Association Chair Abdulbaki Çelebi, Şırnak Bar Association delegate Ali Bayram, Ankara Bar Association delegate İsmail Cumhur Bozkurt.

If Feyzioğlu had been elected, the following people would be now sitting on the executive board of the TBB:

Ağrı Bar Association Chair Mehmet Salih Aydın, Bilecik Bar Association Chair Halime Aynur, Siirt Bar Association Chair Nizam Dilek, former Isparta Bar Association Chair Gökmen Hakkı Gökmenoğlu, Sinop Bar Association Chair Hicran Kandemir, Bitlis Bar Association Chair Fuat Özgül, Giresun Bar Association delegate Gültekin Uzunalioğlu, Tokat Bar Association Chair Melih Yardımcı, Çorum Bar Association Chair Kenan Yaşar and Elazığ Bar Association Chair Mustafa Yentür.

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Erinç Sağkan was one of the bar chairs who objected to the enactment of the law splitting bar associations in June 2020, when bar association chairs marched from İstanbul to the capital city of Ankara in protest and were met with heavy police intervention at the entrance to the city.

After the Supreme Election Council (YSK) cancelled the Metropolitan Municipal elections in İstanbul in May 2019 shortly after opposition's Ekrem İmamoğlu won the election by a narrow margin and received his certificate of election, a black banner was hung on the building of the Ankara Bar Association. The banner signed by the Presidency of Ankara Bar Association read, "We are right across injustice". The building of the Ankara Bar was right across the YSK building. When the banner was hung, Erinç Sağkan was the Chair of Ankara Bar Association. (RT/SD)