Change or a second Yücel Sayman era?

The Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu (First Principle Contemporary Lawyers Group) first appeared before our colleagues and the public at the 1998 bar association general assembly. Therefore, we must begin our article with the conditions of the period that led to the formation of the Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu.

Following Turgut Kazan, the reaction created by the administration of Yücel Sayman, who served as bar president for three terms, would lead to the emergence of the Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu.

The justified reactions to events organized with the financial support of foundations that are extensions of certain EU countries and are at odds with the founding codes of the Republic and distant from Atatürk's principles would become the basis for the institutional/organizational formation of the ÖİÇAG.  The main reason for the 22-year (11-term) uninterrupted rule of the ÖİÇAG from 2002 to the present is its uncompromising defense of the Republic's founding philosophy, Atatürk's principles, the rule of law, democracy, and secularism, with a profession-oriented approach.

The main reason for the 22-year (11-term) uninterrupted rule of the ÖİÇAG from 2002 to the present is its uncompromising defense of the Republic's founding philosophy, Atatürk's principles, the rule of law, democracy, and secularism, with a profession-oriented approach.

The resolute stance of the ÖİÇAĞ administrations against the alliance formed by ethnic separatism, fundamentalism, and Second Republicanism against Turkey's nation-state unitary structure has secured the massive support of the lawyers who make up the silent majority.

While Yücel Sayman is, in one sense, a bar association president who has passed away, from another perspective, he still lives on as the symbolic name of the thought and line described above.

Without further ado let us turn to İbrahim Kabaoğlu.İbrahim Kabaoğlu, who was nominated with the slogan of 'change,' is a name who, with his academic and political trajectory from the past to the present and the practices he has exhibited, is a defender, endorser, and supporter of the Yücel Sayman line.

İbrahim Kabaoğlu and the recently very fashionable'Change'” when the word is placed side by side, it is seen that what is on the table is not change, but a longing for a return to the pre-ÖİÇAĞ era, that is, the Yücel Sayman period, which isChangestaged with an impressive slogan like "" and a "what if it works" mentality.

When we look at the components of the alliance that emerged with the slogan of change and  the name Kabaoğlu, we see nothing more than an attempt to bathe in the same river for a second time or the desperate efforts of a futile ambition that has no  support at the grassroots level.