Diyarbakır (Ku:Amed) Bar Association's 49th Elective General Assembly meeting, which will last for 2 days, started. After the reading of the activity reports, plaques were given to lawyers who have completed 25 years in the profession. The first plaque was given to Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

DEM Party MP Serhat Eren, who also received a plaque, said, “The other name of democracy, justice and human rights struggle is the Amed Bar Association. It has been subjected to a lot of pressure because it defends the Kurdish people, its language, culture and history. Tahir Elçi was murdered for this reason. Despite these pressures, attacks, investigations, lawsuits, arrests and exile, the Amed Bar Association did not and will not compromise its struggling identity.”

Ayla Akat Ata, one of the politicians who received a plaque, said, “It is a privilege and sacrifice to be a member of this bar association.”

Speaking on behalf of the Women's Rights Centre of the Amed Bar Association, lawyer Canan Talay said, “We, who struggle for women's rights, also have to fight against discrimination that is deeply rooted in institutions. We want sexist practices to end completely at the Bar Association. As women, we demand an environment where our knowledge and skills are not questioned and sexist attitudes cannot take hold.”

Gizem Miran, Co-Chair of the Amed Branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), said: “The country's administration has taken on a completely oppressive and fascist form with the one-man regime. As a result, the pressure against the defence, as well as the whole society, has increased both through judicial harassment and economic and social exploitation tools. The regime under which the country's administration has been transformed continues to be the ‘perpetrator’ of hundreds of crimes committed against workers, labourers, oppressed and all others, especially Kurds and women. The Sur and Cizre processes, massacres of women and judicial harassment are the most prominent examples of this.”

Gizem Miran said, “With this change in the law on execution, unfortunately, violations of rights in prisons are increasing along with many other issues. While the right of sick prisoners to access to health care is prevented, isolation and severe isolation are imposed on all prisoners through various practices, such as restrictions on the right to chat, communication penalties, restrictions on the right to visit. The most severe example of this is being applied to Mr Abdullah Öcalan, Mr Hamili Yıldırım, Mr Ömer Hayri Konar and Mr Veysi Aktaş in İmralı Island Prison."

Noting that no news has been received from Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and his 3 fellow prisoners for 43 months, Gizem Miran said, “İmralı has been turned into a place ruled by an extraordinary regime where a state of absolute incommunicado prevails and the law is abolished, where bans on lawyer and family visits and appeal processes are carried out unlawfully. The severe isolation against Mr Öcalan and these policies, which have no legal explanation, are closely linked to the problems mentioned above. The state's approach to the Kurdish question is its approach to the island of Imrali. We demand the construction of a democratic, peaceful social structure, the implementation of the law, and the recognition of legal and constitutional rights.”