ATIK | Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe | AHM-ATIK News Center
LONDON | 10 – 08 – 2010 | Each and every part of the regime seems to have sworn to plague the life of the Kurds and the defenders of brotherhood of peoples on the base of equality and freedom out, after the fiasco of the “democratization” attempts of the party in power, the Party of Justice and Development.
The banning of the Kurdish party, the Party of Democratic Society; the broadcasted imprisonment of the elected local representatives of Kurds; cases opened against Kurdish elementary school students on charges of “adherence to terrorist organization”; the implacable persecution of Kurdish magazines and papers; the spreading of a mentality which treats each and every Kurd as a “potential terrorist”… are alarming signs which signify that the country is heading towards a new –and graver, we fear, than those lived before- hell…
And these signs show that the target is not the PKK –as claimed on every occasion by those who govern- but the rights of Kurds to exist as they are: Kurds… The last of these signs is the charge brought by the attorney general of Istanbul against Dr. Ismail Besikci, on the account of “PKK propaganda”, for his article entitled “The rights of the nations to self-determination and the Kurds” published in the magazine of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers….
The attorney general of Istanbul claims that “Ismail Hoca” (as he is popularly known within the progressist circles) is “propagating the PKK cause” in his following lines: “The Kurds have been fighting for freedom, for a free land for the last 200 years; and they are paying the price… Syria, Iran and Turkey are dominating over the Kurds with an iron hand… The states that dominate over the Kurds were always able to unite their political, ideological, diplomatic and military powers against them. It is obvious that this common control does not create justice but is a constant violation of it. In these conditions, resistance against opression is a legitimate right…”
The absurdity of accusing someone whose open and acute criticism against the leadership of the PKK on charges of “PKK propaganda” aside, the fact that such a case has been opened, demonstrates concretely the threat against the freedom and expression of thought in Turkey. What the attorney general demands to be penalized is not “PKK propaganda” but the freedom of thought and expression; and this demonstrates clearly, once again, how willing the ruling class is to violate the limited frame of rights and liberties it has agreed to accept.
We, the signers of this petition are certain that it is not possible to lock up the brilliant mind and pen of Dr. Besikci under menaces of imprisonment. He already has spent 17 years of his life in prison, and will willingly venture another 17, for the sake of telling what he holds to be the truth.
Our rebellion is against the calcified reflexes of this regime, whose immediate reaction is to imprison those who do not agree with its dogmas, those divergent voices, whenever it feels itself in trouble… Against the unceasing recounting of the same horror tales by the rulers, while the “prisoners of consciousness” have reached the fifth generation in this country… Against the incompetent despotism of the non-discussion of every alternative proposition for the accumulated problems of this country…
For this reason, we announce that we proudfully espouse each and every word, each and every sentence of Dr. Beşikçi for which he is being tried, and that we will be with him and with the barrister Zeycan Balcı Şimşek, the editor of the magazine, for their first hearing on July 28th, 2010, on 09.10 a.m. in the 11th High Criminal Court of İstanbul, and throughout the following hearings.
The Ankara Initiative for the Freedom of Thought
Fikret Başkaya, Sibel Özbudun, Temel Demirer, Sait Çetinoğlu, Mahmut Konuk, Mustafa Kahya, Fatime Akalın, Pınar Ömeroğlu, Serdar Koçman, Ragıp Zarakolu, Attila Tuygan, Ayşe Günaysu, Cemil Gündoğan, Faruk Arhan, Altan Açıkdilli, Bawer Çakır, Necati Abay, Leman Yurtsever,Baskın Oran, Recep Maraşlı, Emrah Cilasun, Ulvi Bacıoğlu, Mehmet Özer,
