Judicial Independence & Access to Justice

Since July 2016, the 96-year old Republic of Turkey, under the rule of its President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan1 , has gained the fame of a Country where fundamental rights and liberties are trampled: in the last five years, more than 300 journalists, party co-chairs and tens of elected mayors of HDP (the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party), thousands of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, the head of the dissolved association of judges (YARSAV) and President of Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) as well as more than 263,000, including academicians, writers and free minds, have been detained upon the allegation of terrorism-related charges.