In October 2024, more than 30,000 lawyers representing the remote bar voted among approximately 64,066 registered lawyers to elect a new president. They elected a former member of parliament from the Republican People's Party (CHP, social democrats), the main Turkish opposition force, a lawyer and professor of constitutional law, who criticized the previous leadership of the bar for not speaking out sufficiently against the Turkish government. 

In December 2024, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the Istanbul Bar Association because it criticised the targeted killing of the kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin killed near Kobani (Kobanê) in northeast Syria by a Turkish drone that directly targeted the vehicle they were travelling in. calling the incident a breach of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions the Istanbul Bar Association also urged the authorities to launch an immediate investigation and hold those responsible to account. In addition, a member of the board Ferit Epozdemir, was arrested. Bar President Ibrahim Kaboglu, newly elected in October 2024, warned that undermining the defense threatens justice and said solemnly that such an attack constitutes a threat a serious threat to the independence of legal institutions, the presumption of innocence and freedom of expression. Lawyers rallied at the Istanbul Courthouse in support with the Bar Association. The Istanbul Bar Association on Jan. 30 held a press conference in front of the Istanbul Courthouse for its detained board member, lawyer Ferit Epozdemir. Bar President Ibrahim Kaboglu has denounced the arrest of board member Ferit Epözdemir, calling it part of a wave of "arbitrary detentions." .

The Istanbul Bar Association’s executive board was dismissed on March 21, 2025 on grounds of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” and “publicly spreading false information”. Even before the decision of the Turkish courts, on the morning of March 21, 2025, the jury of the Ludovic Trarieux Prize 2025 meeting in Berlin, awarded its special mention:  "BAR OF THE YEAR"   awarded to a bar association for its commitment to the independence of Lawyers, its exemplary struggle for the Rule of Law and the suffering endured in the defense of Human Rights. 

unanimously by the voters, 

To the ISTAMBUL BAR ASSOCIATION.