Ankara Bar Association

Teacher Semih Özaçka and academic Nuriye Gülmen were arrested on terror charges on May 23, on the 75th day of their hunger strike. The two educators decided to go on hunger strike after they were dismissed from their positions under the state of emergency rule that has been in place since July 2016, right after the failed coup attempt.

A court in Ankara began hearing on Nov. 22 a case into 73 suspects in the most extensive case yet against the Gülenist organization that is widely believed to have been behind the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, with the leader of the group, Fethullah Gülen, being one of the prime suspects.

Ten lawyers appointed for 36 suspects linked to last year's deadly Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bomb attack in Ankara demanded to withdraw from the case on Nov. 7, in the first hearing at the Ankara courthouse, telling the court board they did not wish to work on the case.

Turkey's social security body will not fund cancer treatment medicines for patients diagnosed with lung cancer who have ever had a smoking habit, according to a new regulation that went into effect on Feb. 3.

The Social Security Institution's (SGK) new regulation requires people with lung cancer to pay for their own treatment medicines if they have a smoking habit.

The Justice Ministry is preparing a report for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the situation in southeastern towns where clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) continue to rage under military curfews. 

The growing number of court cases opened against individuals in Turkey on charges of "insulting" the president has prompted several professional chambers of jurists to hold a workshop on the issue, during which they asserted the issue was a "political" one which needed to be fought against through political methods.

An Ankara prosecutor has launched an investigation into Interior Minister Selami Altonok and several public servants for "neglect of duty" over the Oct. 10 suicide bombing in the Turkish capital that took the lives of 102 people. 

A media ban on the investigation into the twin bombings in Ankara on Oct. 10 has been criticized by politicians from the three opposition parties and jurists, while the Ankara Bar Association took legal action against the ban.

The Ankara Bar Association has officially appealed the court ruling that bans media reports on the investigation into the deadly Oct. 10 suicide bombing. 

The appeal was submitted to the 7th Criminal Court of Peace on Oct. 15, Ankara Bar head Hakan Canduran told daily Hürriyet.

A major thoroughfare in Ankara has been closed to vehicular traffic, with concrete blocks having been installed at 28 separate points in order to stop traffic from accessing the road as part of an environmental protection plan.