34 bar associations issued a written statement against the appointment of a trustee after the sentence given to Van (Wan) Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor Abdullah Zeydan.

The statement drew attention to the attacks against the electoral will of the people in Turkey, and added: "The policies that have been systematically implemented since 2016 have now become a tool that effectively eliminates the functioning of democratic mechanisms.

The will of the people is ignored, and local governments are rendered dysfunctional by replacing elected administrators with appointed bureaucrats. This understanding has gone down in history as a clear intervention against the will of the voters.”

The statement continued: “The trustee policy is no longer an exception, but a management practice, and this situation is unacceptable. In the face of Article 38 of the Constitution, which states that 'no one can be considered guilty unless proven such by a court decision', the executive's exceeding its judicial authority and violating the presumption of innocence to dismiss elected individuals has grave consequences in terms of legal certainty."

The bar associations that signed the statement are as follows: "Van, Hakkari, Adiyaman, Agri, Muş, Amed, Şirnak, Batman, Dersim, Bitlis, Idir, Antep, Kars, Siirt, Bingöl, Urfa, Mersin, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bursa, Bolu, Denizli, Edirne, Eskişehir, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kastamonu, Kocaeli, Manisa, Muğla and Zonguldak.