Limit state authority, says chief of bars’ union

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

In his first ever press conference in his current post, Metin Feyzioğlu, the newly selected president of the Union of Turkey’s Bar Associations (TBB), has drawn attention to the need to limit the state’s authorities in order to expand space for rights and freedoms.

Feyzioğlu underlined the importance of the separation of powers in a state governed by the rule of law at the press conference on May 30.

“Today we are experiencing a process through which universities keep silent, attempts are being made to silence democratic mass organizations and unions, journalists are being thrown into dungeons, innocent student protests are being clamped down on with violence, Taksim Gezi Park is being turned into a field of war that needs to be seized, and the highest number of attorneys in the history of the Republic [of Turkey] are being thrown into dungeons,” he said.