Brief protest held for slain lawyer during Istanbul Bar Association assembly

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

A group of protestors carrying posters of Diyarbakır Bar Association’s former head who was killed in an armed clash in November 2015 took the stage and held a brief demonstration while the Istanbul Bar Association head Ümit Kocasakal was delivering a speech during a general assembly.

The small group of lawyers began their demonstration while Kocasakal was about to deliver his speech, chanting “Tahir Elçi is our pride.”

Elçi, a human rights activist and head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association at the time of his murder, was killed during clashes between police and unknown perpetrators on Nov. 28, 2015.

Elçi and accompanying lawyers had just finished issuing a press statement to condemn Special Forces teams for damaging the base of Diyarbakır’s famous Four-Legged Minaret when gunshots rang out.

After the brief interruption of his speech, the protestors left the stage and yielding the floor back to Kocasakal.

The two-day assembly will proceed with five candidates running to be the term head of the association. In this year’s race, Kocasakal who has been undertaking the presidency for six years has announced that he was not going to run and this decision was not political.