The lockdown and curfew restrictions that started with the COVID-19 pandemic have been instrumentalized for the brutal repression and prevention of peaceful protests. Watch for Water and Conscience activists have been fined with an amount more than 500k Turkish Liras for not leaving their post despite the curfew. 

Rosa Women’s Association leads a struggle against all forms of violence against women. Since May 2020 its executives and members have experienced multiple police raids, after which they were taken under custody and arrested. They are now facing trial with the allegation that they are “members of an armed terrorist organization”.  

Rosa Women’s Association was founded on December 29, 2018 in Diyarbakir as a civil society organization. It is one of the few NGOs in the region that specifically focuses its activities on women’s rights. 

Hasan Ceyhan, always on the forefront for peace, is a risk-taking and a determined advocate for safeguarding the right to live for many civilians. Having made a public conversation possible about the mass graves in Bitlis, Ceyhan was arrested while he was the president of the Bitlis branch of Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği, ‘İHD’) as well as the Bitlis representative for Amnesty International.

The pressure and intimidation on lawyers in Turkey are increasingly detrimental to the ‘right to defend’. Among the top risks lawyers run are their right to defend being ignored and disrespected in and out of court halls, mass detentions and arrests, investigations and intimidation for legal bar associations, lawyers being penalized for their clients. Lately, we saw another mass detention happening on March 12 of this year.

Dr. Ömer Melik, the president of Urfa Medical Association, and its secretary general, Dr. Osman Yüksekyayla, have been detained and now are facing trial based on the association’s posts on social media regarding Covid-19. All the posts mentioned in the investigation were concerned with protecting the public and health personnel in the fight with the pandemic.

Büşra Demir is an attorney-at-law from Şırnak and is on the board of directors of Şırnak Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD). There were four investigations launched against her for the press statements issued and reports drafted on rights violations by İHD. Three of these investigations were closed following decisions of non-prosecution. Under the remaining investigation, where she is accused of being a member of an armed group and making organizational propaganda, she has given her statement.

Journalist Erol Önderoğlu, the Turkish Representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has been arrested and put on trial for participating in the solidarity campaign for the newspaper Özgür Gündem.  He was eventually acquitted. Currently, this case is pending appeal. Önderoğlu also got acquitted from another case regarding his prosecution for participating in an action of solidarity with the petitioners of the “We will not be a Party to This Crime” (Bu Suça Ortak Olmayacağız) manifesto. 

Bahadır Altan, a former pilot, has lost his job twice for his unionizing efforts and letting out information that concerns the public. He was detained during the protests against the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant as well as the demonstrations organized to show solidarity with the workers of the 3rd Istanbul Airport. There is also an action for compensation against him because of a speech he made in 2019 regarding an Atlas Jet plane crash in Isparta back in 2007.

Selahattin Güvenç, the founder and president of Akdeniz Göç-Der (forced to close under a decree law in 2016) and Çukurova Göç-Der (founded in 2019) has been arrested and detained multiple times. Güvenç passed away on February 14, 2022, while there were two ongoing lawsuits against him. The president of Çukurova Göç-Der (Migration Association) Selahattin Güvenç was born in Palu, Elazığ in 1956. He has been actively involved in student associations since middle school. He became a government employee and started working as a laboratory technician.

Kemal Aytaç, an attorney-at-law, member of Istanbul Bar Association and Çağdaş Avukatlar Grubu (Contemporary Lawyers Group), has been called in numerous times to give a statement on the basis of his alleged active role in Justice Watch (Adalet Nöbeti), which started back in 2017; and a lawsuit has been filed against him.