Johannesburg. 7 March 2013. Global civil society network, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is alarmed at the rise in incidents of judicial harassment of Turkish civil society activists and media professionals for dissenting against government policies.
- Judicial harassment of writers and advocates has reached crisis point in Turkey. Mass raids have been carried out against government critics under the guise of catching individuals with suspected links to banned organisations. Fourteen lawyers belonging to the Progressive Lawyers’ Association or Cagdas Hukukcular Dernegi (CHD), a non-profit organization providing legal support to victims of rights violations, particularly police violence, were among 85 persons arrested from the 18-21 January 2013 alone. A few days later on 24 January, four Ankara lawyers, Ms Filiz Kalaycı, Mr Hasan Anlar, Mr Halil İbrahim Vargün and Mr Murat Vargün, who had been under investigation since 2009 for their human rights activities, received jail sentences ranging from 6 years and 3 months, to seven and a half years. They were charged with membership of “an armed, illegal organization,” namely the Koma Ciwaken Kurdistan – KCK (Union of Communities in Kurdistan), under the notorious “catch all” Article 314 of the Penal Code.
- The on-going campaign against civil society also coincides with the sentencing to life imprisonment of Pinar Selek, prominent feminist author who has conducted extensive research on the treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish and Armenian minorities. Pinar Selek, who is currently in exile, had her November 2012 acquittal on terrorism charges overturned on 24 January 2013. Additionally, eleven journalists were also imprisoned in the month of January 2013 on charges of belonging to the banned Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). Evidence presented against them in court was not disclosed to their lawyers.
- Turkey reportedly has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of imprisoned journalists in the world. Six members of PEN Turkey, a writers’ association, are currently being investigated for “insulting the state” for calling the prosecution of a musician a “fascist development.” Broadly worded provisions of Article 301 of the Penal Code, commonly called the “insult” law, are frequently used to silence outspoken journalists.
CIVICUS urges the Turkish Government to uphold its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by: (i) immediately halting the on-going campaign against dissenters and civil society members, (ii) instituting a review of over-broad provisions of the anti-terrorism law and the penal code which impede the freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and (iii) protecting the independence of the criminal justice system.
Charlotte Allan, Policy and Advocacy Officer at CIVICUS said:
“Public prosecutors are becoming increasingly brazen in their use of Turkey’s Anti-Terrorism Law and the Penal Code against individuals whose opinions the state dislikes. This is starting to freeze the activities of large sections of civil society who are fearful that they may be next.”
Notes to editors:
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global alliance of civil society. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the primary objectives of CIVICUS is to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are challenged.