No to the 'opening' bar masked as change, yes to the Republic's bar

Bar associations are professional organizations for lawyers who struggle to seek rights, in other words, for the defense. Conceptually, the legal profession is matched not with the word 'power' that does not comply with the law, but with the word 'justice'. The organization of lawyers in bar associations under mandatory membership is regulated by law. The regulations regarding professional discipline and professional ethics in the Attorneys' Law are aimed at ensuring access to justice for citizens seeking rights before the judiciary. The regulations in Articles 76 and 95 of the Attorneys' Law demonstrate the social responsibilities of bar associations in favor of the rule of law and democracy.

In Article 76 of the Attorneys' Law, titled 'Establishment and Qualifications of Bar Associations', it is stated: “Bar associations are professional organizations with the status of public institutions that have legal personality, carry out all their work with the aim of defending and protecting the rule of law and human rights, and conduct their work according to democratic principles.”

 In Article 95 of the Attorneys' Law, titled 'Duties of the Board of Directors', it is stated: “….. 21- To defend and protect the rule of law and human rights and to make these concepts functional”, which shows the responsibilities of bar associations that go beyond being merely a professional organization.

The more bar associations and lawyers practicing their profession are outside the control of political authority (not the law), the more the legal security of citizens and their access to justice are guaranteed. The bar associations created by the political authority by abolishing the requirement of a single bar association in every province are the result of its need for partisan legal branches that are called bar associations. In another sense, this regulation is the result of the discomfort felt regarding the traditional stance of bar associations and their umbrella organization, the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, which has extended from the past to the present in favor of the Republic's founding philosophy, democracy and the rule of law, separation of powers, and judicial independence.

Following the above explanations, it is time to bring the subject to another front of transforming bar associations. Undoubtedly, it is not only the political power that is uncomfortable with the traditional stance of bar associations that uncompromisingly defends the Republic's founding philosophy, the modern democratic secular rule of law, judicial independence, and the separation of powers. There is also an intervention in bar associations by an understanding that aims to replace the nation-state unitary structure-based Republic of Turkey with ethnic and sectarian fragmentation, rejecting national integrity and dividing it into compartments through sub-identities.

Different groups will compete in the Istanbul Bar Association General Assembly to be held on October 24-25, 2026. The practice exhibited after the 2024 general assembly, which was won with the slogan “Change in the Bar” by an understanding that was liquidated by Istanbul Bar Association lawyers in the 2002 general assembly due to its insensitivity to the basic qualities of the Republic and the country's founding values, and the statements aimed at abolishing/changing the first four articles of the Constitution, clearly show what kind of change those who have been in the management of the Istanbul Bar Association for the last two years are pursuing.

Istanbul Bar Association lawyers will make a choice between “The Republic's Bar or the Opening's Bar” between the candidate of the “New Opening” period masked with the slogan of change and the candidate of the alliance on the common ground of the Republic, based on the founding architecture of October 29, 1923.