The İzmir branches of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), the Human Rights Association’s (IHD) and the Lawyers Group in İzmir released a statement denouncing an attack by Turkish soldiers against lawyers in the Samandağ district of Hatay. ÇHD İzmir Branch director Beste Salman delivered a speech at the ÇHD office on Monday.

Salman noted that the debris removal work has caused serious harm to the people of the region struck by two devastating earthquakes on February 6. She said: “Earthquake survivors are trying to reach the authorities and voice their reaction by keeping vigils for life. The gendarmerie and other law enforcement forces are violently suppressing the just demands of the earthquake victims. Our organizations, which endorse the rightful demands of the people, stand by the earthquake survivors against these violent attacks on vigils for life.”

Salman recalled that lawyers who went to the region to defend those taken into custody during a vigil in Yeşilköy on April 2, were also attacked. She continued: "Lawyer Aytekin Aktaş was severely tortured by 10-15 gendarmerie officers while he was doing his profession. He was taken to a separate area away from his client in a detention vehicle. He was brutally beaten and had all his clothes torn by soldiers who threatened him with death, citing the state of emergency in the region. He was released without any formal procedures after being tortured for a long time while handcuffed behind his back. After his release, he was tortured for a second time when he wanted to take down the plates of military vehicles and the names of the torturers."

Salman concluded: “This torture was directed against the laws, lawyers and the people's right to life. We have filed a criminal complaint to call this arbitrary persecution to account. We will bring torturers to account. ‘We are not gone, we are here’, as people say during the vigils.”