Currently we find ourselves in an environment in Turkey where
international human rights and constitutional regulations are violated
every day. This also directly affects the right of defence, one of the right
to fundamental principles of the right to a fair trial.
In recent years, emergency decrees, issued during the State of
Emergency period (following the 2016 coup attempt), have continued
to be applied or were eventually enacted into law. A consequence of
this is the gradual shrinking of space for defence to the point of its
near complete removal, despite it being one of the founding elements
of justice. Increasingly, lawyers began to be accused and convicted for
being ‘members of terrorist organisations,’ especially in connection to the
defendants they defended.