Abstract: Academicians focused on “Access to justice” topic in Turkey during the 2000’s, as a result of European Union accession process, the judicial, legislative and administrative systems in Turkey underwent a series of reforms in the last decade. On the other hand, many citizens in Turkey today are still unable to claim their basic rights and access available services because of financial inadequacy and lack of knowledge. This review is aimed to manifest the current situation in access to criminal legal aid specifically in Istanbul that reflects Turkey as the most populated and developed city of the country. To achieve this, legal framework of legal aid in Turkey and the procedure of legal aid provided by the bar association have been summarized and additionally researches regarding the general overview of access to legal aid in criminal matters in Istanbul and the Istanbul Bar Association’s Annual Report have been discussed. Due to the lack of regional and annual data of legal aid statistics, conducting a specific questionnaire severally for each district is recommended for further researches.