A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Ramazan Demir, a lawyer for jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş, to more than 11 years in prison, in a case targeting rights advocates and prisoners’ relatives, convictions that come as Ankara pursues renewed peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish Minute reported.
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court on Wednesday handed down prison sentences to 28 defendants, including lawyers from the Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD) and members of the now-closed Solidarity Association of Prisoners’ Families (TUAD), on charges related to alleged links to the PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, the İstanbul-based Media and Law Studies Association reported.
Demir, a member of the ÖHD and part of Demirtaş’s legal team, was sentenced to 11 years, three months in prison on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “disseminating terrorist propaganda,” according to the court ruling.
Writing on X after the ruling, Demir said, “My sentence was 11 years and three months in prison, without any reduction,” he wrote. “May our people stay safe.”
Human rights groups and defense lawyers have long claimed the case reflects the criminalization of legal work in Kurdish political trials.
For many years rights groups have warned of a systematic crackdown on the legal profession in Turkey as part of a broader effort to suppress political dissent. Lawyers, particularly those representing politically prosecuted individuals or advocating for human rights, have increasingly faced criminal investigations and trials themselves.
“This case is essentially the trial of Kurdish lawyers and the right to a defense,” ÖHD Co-chair Serhat Çakmak said outside the courtroom, accusing the Turkish judicial authorities of punishing professional activities such as prison visits and legal filings.
The court also sentenced several other prominent defendants, including Ayşe Acinikli, another lawyer involved in cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and Mahmut Doğu, who received a 10-year sentence. Eleven defendants were acquitted, while proceedings for some were separated or dropped.
The trial dates back to a 2016 dawn operation in İstanbul targeting lawyers and TUAD officials accused of facilitating communications between prisoners and Kurdish militants.
The first hearing was held on June 22, 2016.
Prosecutors accused the lawyers of relaying information from prisons, facilitating organizational communication and publishing posts on social media while also highlighting applications filed by Demir and Acinikli with the ECtHR.
International observers and bar associations from several European countries monitored the hearings over the years, warning that the prosecution threatened fundamental legal protections.
Demir’s conviction comes amid a fragile new peace initiative between the Turkish government and the PKK. The initiative marks Turkey’s first serious peace efforts with the PKK since talks collapsed in 2015.
The new process began after nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli urged imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in late 2024 to call for an end to the group’s armed campaign. Öcalan followed with a landmark appeal in February, and the PKK announced in May that it would dissolve and lay down its weapons.
Critics say the continuing prosecutions of Kurdish politicians, lawyers and civil society figures risk undermining trust in the reconciliation effort, recalling the collapse of the previous peace attempt in 2015.
Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned since 2016 despite rulings by the ECtHR calling for his release.
Defendants have two weeks to appeal the verdict.
