Turkish parliament passes controversial law allowing split of bar associations

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —  The Turkish parliament passed a controversial law in the early hours of Saturday, paving the way for the split of bar associations despite wide opposition from lawyers and political officials. 

Lawyers and the heads of bar associations marched toward the capital city of Ankara on June 22 to protest an attempt by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to regulate them through new legislation, which they see as an attempt to silence them. However, the party ignored the demonstrations and submitted the bill to the parliament late June.

The  legislation was passed on Saturday- thanks to the support of AKP ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

Opponents of the law, including political opposition parties, believe that the legislation is a  government plan to further influence decision-making institutions.

Each Turkish province has one bar association with thousands of members. All of the associations are members of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) which can impact on the judicial institutions and their rulings in the country. 

According to data from TBB, the number of registered lawyers across Turkey is 127,691 - most of whom are from Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir provinces. The new law allows bar associations with over 5,000 members to be split over many other smaller bar associations with a minimum of  2,000 lawyers.

AKP and MHP lawyers can now form their own bar associations within six months and dominate the TBB. They can also direct laws in favor of their parties.  

This could be a blow to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) which has thousands of members, supporters and officials behind bars, who could now be at the mercy of lawyers affiliated to the AKP or MHP. 

Dilan Dirayet Tasdemir, an HDP parliamentarian, addressed those who voted for the law on Saturday, saying  “Your purpose is not democracy, justice or rights, but controlling the bars.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists explained the draft law on Wednesday, saying it “outlines the government-led effort to reduce the influence of leading bar associations, reflecting the executive’s growing dissatisfaction with the bar associations’ public reporting on Turkey’s crisis for human rights and the rule of law.”