Lawyers have on Thursday occupy the Bar Association of Istanbul during attorney certificate ceremony. The action was staged to condemn the Bar's silence about the arrests of 36 lawyers. The lawyers were arrested for representing Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Lawyers from “Platform for Freedom of Defense” asked Bar Chair Ümit Kocasakal why no statement has been issued about the latest wave of arrest even though all arrested lawyers are the member of Bar. Lawyers underlined the solidarity they have received from abroad. “Even the Paris Bar Association condemned the arrests", said the lawyers. They then said to the president of the Bar to "Protect your lawyers, do not sleep” and left the meeting hall.

Öcalan's lawyers have been arrested on 23 November within the scope of the so called KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) operation.

This operation has been launched within the context of the state KCK theorem which targets all Kurds including press members, lawyers, intellectuals and BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) members. The accusations against lawyers referring to the fact that they have a connection with an illegal organization and/or convey Öcalan’s instructions to it are actually not something new. In over 100 cases opened against lawyers so far, the state has presented tape recordings of all their meetings with Öcalan as evidence. However, except for two cases, all have ended with the acquittal of lawyers.