BEFORE THE STATE OF EMERGENCY One important incident was a 1993 operation carried out against lawyers carried (long before AKP came to power).23 In this Diyarbakır-based operation, nearly 30 lawyers, amongst them Tahir Elçi, were taken into custody on the grounds that they were “linked to terrorist organisations.”24 The lawyers were subjected to severe torture. Their lawsuit was brought before the ECtHR and the Judgment in the Case of Tahir Elçi and Others / Turkey25 became a crucial document in the fight against torture. Epere volest quossumquam ex ex enecestiatur aboratiist ipsam excernatem laborum sitectur aut dolupta dunt facidest ene coriasim. The pressure on defence has become Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Tahir Elçi, both more apparent every year under the rule former Presidents of Diyarbakır Bar Association, on a business trip of the AKP. One may recall how disturbed abroad Turkey. the executive was by speeches of high judicial representatives and presidents of bar associations during the opening ceremonies of judicial years or the anniversaries of the establishment of high courts. Higher judicial bodies became less critical of the executive following judiciary transformations, which took place between 2002 and 2016 through work done by an alliance of the AKP and Gülen Movement. Instead, criticism started to be raised by the defence, namely by bar associations at these ceremonies. Subsequently, the government began not inviting representatives of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) to these kinds of ceremonies. Reciprocal recriminations ensued and this tension reached a point at which the government directly intervened in bar associations (Details regarding this situation, which continues to be a relevant issue at present, are provided on page 24). But another dimension to the tension between the government and defence emerged in the meantime. The defence, i.e. lawyers, began to be directly and systematically accused and even arrested, either individually or collectively. 23 The AKP first came to power as a result of the 2002 general elections and has been ever since. 24 Türkiye’de 90’lardan Bugüne Avukatların Durumu (Hukuk Politik): https://www.hukukpolitik.com.tr/2020/02/20/ turkiyede-90lardan-bugune-avukatlarin-durumu/ 25 Elçi and others v. Turkey ECHR, 23145/93 and 25091/94 16 A DEFENSELESS DEFENSE B E F O R E T H E S TAT E O F E M E R G E N C Y 17