Reacting to today’s raids and searches in the houses and offices of many lawyers in the context of the “KCK operation”, lawyers said that; “These operations have no legal basis. The government want to intimidate the whole society.”

As raids and operations continue in 16 cities, and the number of detentions increases, lawyers stood up against the repression of their colleagues.

Eren Keskin: The state has lost it

“We have nothing more to say” said lawyer Eren Keskin to summarize the events and added that; “This operation is the evidence of the madness of the state’s mind. We went through hard times in 1990’s but the current events are the most incredible repression all sections of the society have experienced so far. Everybody is restless and waiting to be arrested. Everybody has the bag ready. There is no legal ground for this operation against lawyers. This is an attack targeting the public.”

Abdulbaki Boða: Bells are tolling for Turkey

Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul Branch Chair Abdulbaki Boða underlined that an operation targeting lawyers would aim to leave the public without defense. Boða pointed out that this was a very dangerous situation in terms of Turkey’s democratic legal system.

Kemal Aytaç: Society is being intimidated

Saying that what is going on is an intimidation, lawyer Kemal Aytaç said that: “This is an unacceptable operation against the society and against those who call for law and democracy. However, those in power insist on using this violence. The operation was obviously a consequence of the disclosure of a list of people to be arrested. Lawyers will stand up to this prevarication by the political circle as it aims to isolate lawyers from the society.”