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2024 Bar Association Elections: Incumbent President Atty. Filiz Saraç Among 11 Candidates in Istanbul

Turkey's largest bar associations, Istanbul and Ankara, will elect their new presidents during their general assemblies in October 2024. There will be 11 candidates competing in the Istanbul Bar Association and 6 in the Ankara Bar Association. Istanbul Bar Association President Filiz Saraç has announced her candidacy for re-election. The elections are being awaited with great interest.

Gamze Tamer

Turkey's two largest bar associations, Istanbul and Ankara, are preparing to determine their new presidents through general assemblies to be held in October 2024. In the bar association elections, where intense competition is expected for both the presidency and the boards of directors, 11 candidates will compete for the presidency in the Istanbul Bar Association, and 6 candidates will compete in the Ankara Bar Association.

In both the Istanbul and Ankara bar associations, lawyers will head to the polls to elect their new presidents and administrations. The bar association elections, held every two years, are being awaited with great interest this year as well. The Istanbul Bar Association, the country's largest bar association with more than 62 thousand members, will hold its general assembly at the Haliç Congress Center on October 19-20.

ATTY. FİLİZ SARAÇ IS A CANDIDATE AGAIN!

Istanbul Bar Association President and 'Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar' (Principles First Contemporary Lawyers) Group Presidential Candidate Atty. Filiz Saraç has announced her candidacy for the elections. Saraç made the following statements regarding the Bar Association elections:

“We continue to fight and resist for an independent judiciary and justice, and we are determined to do so!”

 

Atty. Filiz Saraç, who is a candidate for President again at the Istanbul Bar Association General Assembly to be held on October 19-20, stated the following in her announcement:

 

"In our country, a strong defense and a strong lawyer are the indicators of democracy and the protectors of human rights. Unless this understanding is made dominant in every field of the judiciary, the problems of the judiciary cannot be solved.

Lawyers, who are the representatives of the defense—the only independent element of the judiciary—and their professional organizations, the bar associations, are the guarantors of the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.

Thanks to our colleagues, I have the honor of being the President of the Istanbul Bar Association during a period that also coincides with the 100th anniversary of our Republic. Aware that we owe this to our Great Leader Atatürk and the Secular Republic he founded, we have upheld these values throughout our term and will continue to do so.

 

We have stood tall against mentalities that try to change the unchangeable articles of our Constitution, those who try to enslave women and children in the order of sects and communities they have established, and against feudal structures; and we will continue to do so.

Throughout its history, the Istanbul Bar Association has not only been a professional organization but has also been and will continue to be the voice of those whose voices are sought to be silenced, women subjected to violence, children subjected to neglect and abuse, and those who are sought to be silenced. As long as the world turns, the struggle for rights of Bar Associations and lawyers will continue.

 

In this environment where the principle of fair trial is violated and Constitutional Court decisions are not recognized, we continue to fight and resist for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and justice, and we are determined to do so!

 

I am a candidate with our Boards from the 'Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar' group, of which I am a founder and from which I was elected in the previous term. As I approach the end of my two-year term, I am a candidate again, in accordance with the traditions of the Istanbul Bar Association, to complete the work we started in the previous term, some of which we have realized, and for some of which we are continuing discussions, plans, and programs to realize.

 

With the same excitement, we will continue to be a bar association that resists, develops, rejuvenates, and is the voice of our profession, our colleagues, and the citizens."