FOREWORD This report was prepared within the scope of a joint project by the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (Eşit Haklar İçin İzleme Derneği – EŞHİD), Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) and Truth Justice Memory Center (Hafıza Merkezi), which aims to increase support for human rights defenders (HRDs) in Turkey. The website “Keep the Volume Up for Rights Defenders in Turkey” (Hak Savunucuları İçin Sessiz Kalma on www.sessizkalma.org), a product of the project, follows developments regarding violations against HRDs. In times when many HRDs —from women’s rights defenders to Academics for Peace, environmental activists to lawyers, and journalists to members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)— have become targets, we want to draw attention to the pressure lawyers face. Lawyers play a crucial role in defending human rights, as they defend those whose rights have been violated or abused, and defend HRDs who have been prosecuted for their legitimate and peaceful work to advance human rights and democracy. It can be seen in Turkey that lawyers are being targeted in connection with the clients they represent. As the focus of this report lies on lawyers – the defenders of defenders – Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) has also provided its expertise in this field. This report was prepared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews and data collection for the report were conducted digitally. This implies some research problems, e.g. not all the intended interviews could be realised. However, reliable data has been obtained from bar associations and lawyer groups under attack. This was complemented by information presented in legal documents, e.g. indictments, rulings and case transcripts, and by critical media articles. More specifically, for this report, which deals with the restrictions targeting the pillar of legal defence, interviews were conducted with lawyers affiliated with the Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Diyarbakır, Van and Adana Bar Associations. The report further draws on the work of the Bar Associations’ Lawyers’ Rights Centres, as well as open sources. This report contains two main sections, one describing the persecution and limitation of rights that lawyers have increasingly been subjected to in Turkey, 4 A DEFENSELESS DEFENSE FOREWORD 5