The Stockholm Center for Freedom reports that two international legal organizations—Lawyers for Lawyers and the Law Society of England and Wales—have called on Turkish authorities to release three attorneys detained ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. In a joint statement, the groups said the detention of Semra Demir, Kürşat Bafra, and Doğa İncesu appeared …
Human Rights Watch reports that Turkish police arrested at least 209 people in Ankara in overnight raids on June 22–23, 2026, ahead of the NATO summit scheduled there for July 7–8. Those detained included political activists, lawyers, an academic, and a journalist known as a prominent LGBT rights advocate. Authorities cited efforts to counter “terrorist …
On June 17, 2026, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the 2025 Commission report on Türkiye that delivers one of its most forceful indictments to date of the Turkish judiciary’s role in dismantling the rule of law. The text condemns the harassment and prosecution of defense lawyers for their professional work, naming the continued …
A European Parliament report set for a vote on June 17, 2026 calls on the EU to consider targeted human rights sanctions against Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek over his role in politically sensitive prosecutions, including investigations targeting İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and other opposition figures from the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Drafted as the …
A Turkish appeals court has annulled the 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), removing party leader Özgür Özel and the current administration from office as an interim measure and reinstating former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. The ruling by the 36th Civil Chamber …
On April 30, 2026, an Istanbul court granted conditional release to 15 of the more than 400 defendants prosecuted alongside jailed Istanbul mayor and CHP opposition figure Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has now been detained for over a year and faces 142 charges with a potential cumulative sentence of up to 2,430 years. Several of the …
On April 28, 2026, Turkish Minute reported that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is seeking up to two years in prison for prominent legal scholar and penal code author İzzet Özgenç — a former legal adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — over twelve 2023 social media posts directed at former Court of Appeals …
JURIST reports in April 2026 that UN special rapporteurs publicly urged Türkiye to halt the criminalization of human rights defenders and lawyers, citing seven incidents in the past year in which members or counsel of the Human Rights Association (İHD) were investigated, arrested, or jailed under Türkiye’s broadly drafted anti-terrorism law. The experts called for …
UN human rights experts issued a formal statement on March 31, 2026, urging Turkey to stop criminalizing human rights defenders and lawyers, with particular concern focused on members of the Human Rights Association (İHD). Several İHD members have faced serious legal consequences under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws. One member was convicted for providing small financial …
On March 23, 2026, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights heard a new case brought by the prominent Turkish rights defender Osman Kavala, who has been held continuously in pretrial detention since October 2017 — despite multiple binding ECHR judgments ordering his release. The case represents the latest chapter in a …