Mehmet Durakoğlu elected head of Istanbul Bar Association

Mehmet Durakoğlu elected head of Istanbul Bar Association

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

Mehmet Durakoğlu, a candidate from the Principle Contemporary Lawyers Group (Önce İlke Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu), was elected as the new head of the Istanbul Bar Association in late Oct. 23 after receiving more than 50 percent of the votes, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.
Durakoğlu received 54.42 percent of the votes, sweeping to victory against the four other candidates.

Some 23,921 out of 36,483 members of the bar voted in 92 ballot boxes in the elections according to the final count.

Durakoğlu received 13,019 votes while Several Ballıkaya Çelik came second with 3,423 votes. Mehmet Sarı from the Rule of Law Platform received 3,040 votes, Ömer Kavili from the Lawyer’s Right Group received 2,740 votes and Ali Rıza Kaplan from the Istanbul Nationalist Lawyers Group received 1,699 votes.

The Board of Istanbul Bar Association, which will be headed by Durakoğlu, is made up of lawyers Necmi Şimşek, Aydeniz A. Tuskan, İsmail Gömlekli, Şahin Erol, Süreyya Turan, Muazzez Yılmaz, Cengiz Yaka, Professor Dr. Serap K. Kiziroğlu, Ali Gürbüz and Hasan Kılıç.

Durakoğlu was the vice president of the Istanbul Bar Association during the terms 2010-2012 and 2012-2014.

He said the Istanbul Bar Association would show its determination and strength like before, in a statement he made after his victory. He also added that they would not be different from the previous administration.

“Some 36,483 members of our bar have the right to vote. Actually this is not a new administration, our dearest head Ümit Kocasakal, gave up early and adopted a particular attitude which could be a model to all politicians and elected people for a long period of time. We will maintain the duty which we have taken from him. No changes will be made on the stance of the Istanbul Bar Association. We want everybody to know this,” he said.