Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan, Peace process

The important reports reveal destruction, damage and detentions in southeast

Today we received three important new reports about the physical destruction and humanitarian situation in North Kurdistan, the Southeast of the Republic of Turkey.

First, a new and important report of the Union of Southeastern Anatolia Region (GABB) on the damage in the cities which were faced with a curfew by the Turkish Government in the last half year. This report has been prepared by a large number of people in
different provinces.
Download the GABB Regional Damage Assessment Report

There is secondly an overview about the arrested, detained, dismissed and warrented co-mayors of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the main member party of the HDP.
Download the GABB list of mayors dismissed, imprisoned and prosecuted since July 2015

Finally you can find a short information about the situation of the displaced people of the old city of Amed (Diyarbakir).
Download the DPP Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality

KCK trials

Report from the latest hearing of the trial of Ocalan’s lawyers

Tony Fisher, member of the Law Society’s Human Rights Committee, has written a report after observing the most recent hearing in the case of Abdullah Ocalan’s lawyers, who were arrested in November 2011 following simultaneous police raids across several Turkish cities. The arrest of these 45 lawyers, all of them members of Ocalan’s legal team, formed part of the so-called ‘KCK operations’, in which over 8,000 people have been arrested for alleged membership to the Kurdistan Communities Union, the KCK. 

Read a statement from Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and all the lawyers who observed the trial

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Political prisoners, War crimes

3rd International Law Symposium this weekend in Istanbul

On 28-29 September, the 3rd International Law Symposium will be held in the Küçükarmutlu area of Istanbul. This year’s theme is uprisings, and ‘being a revolutionary lawyers in the struggle for bread, justice and freedom’. Download a copy of the flyer here.

“LAWYERS ARE CONGREGATING TO TALK ABOUT JUSTICE

Lawyers are coming together for the third time.

Which lawyers? Lawyers of workers, of ghettos, of favelas and barrios, of serves without any land to their name, of students without any financial aids, of women who were attacked and violated, of natives, of massacred revolutionists, of patriots, of those in captivity, of the poor, the ignored and those who are held in disregard and
those who are being tried to erased out of existence in masses.

Lawyers of billions, who – had they gotten together themselves, instead those who speak for them – could decimate their common enemies.

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KCK trials, Kurdish community, Peace process, Political prisoners

PANEL DISCUSSION: Anti-terror Legislation and the Obstruction of Justice

Please find below information on our next  meeting, which is free and open to the public. All welcome!

Anti-terror Legislation and the Obstruction of Justice

The Implications of Mass Trials in Turkey for the Peace Process with the Kurds

Wednesday 9 October 2013, 6.30pm

Venue: Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC2A (closest tube Holborn)

Chair: Prof Bill Bowring School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London; President of the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); International Secretary of the Haldane Society and Founder and Chair of the International Steering Committee, of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC).

Panelists: Margaret Owen OBE, barrister/Door tenant, 9 Bedford Row Chambers; Bronwen Jones, barrister, Tooks Chambers; Tony Fisher, solicitor and Law Society Human Rights Committee member; Hugo Charlton, barrister, 1 Grays Inn Square Chambers; Ali Has, solicitor/advocate and member of the Law Society Human Rights Committee International Action Team; Mark Jones, barrister, St Ives Chambers.

Organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH)

Find the event on Facebook

Register here

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Freedom of expression, Kurdish media

EFJ writes to EU commissioner condemning Turkey media arrests

The President of the European Federation of Journalists, which for over a year has been running the Set journalists free in Turkey campaign, recently sent a letter to the Commissioner for EU Enlargement, Stefan Fule, with an urgent call for action to end media clampdowns in Turkey.

You can read the letter below, and here is a response written by Stefan Fule, available to download (pdf).

TO:
Commissioner Štefan Füle
DG Enlargement
European Commission

Re: Urgent Call for Action to End Media Clampdown in Turkey

18 June 2013

Dear Commissioner Füle,

We are writing as Presidents of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest organisation representing more than 600.000 journalists and its regional group, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) to bring to your attention the serious developments for our colleagues in Turkey.

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Conflict resolution, Freedom of expression, Political prisoners

Lawyers’ associations rally around arrested colleagues in Istanbul

After the arrests on Tuesday of at least 47 lawyers at Caglayan Court in Istanbul who were issuing a statement regarding the Gezi Park protests, the European Association for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC); and the Law Society of England and Wales have all issued statements in support of their colleagues.

All three statements are available below.

European Association for Democracy and Human Rights

London – Düsseldorf, 12 June 2013
Press release
European Lawyers protest

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KCK trials, Political prisoners

Meetings with Turkish Lawyers in Istanbul – Report by Richard Harvey

Chair of Garden Court International and member of Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Richard Harvey, recently met with lawyers in Turkey to discuss the arrest and imprisonment of dozens of Kurdish and Turkish lawyers on terrorism charges. He has kindly given us permission to reproduce his report into these meetings here.

Further addenda to his report can be downloaded here.

REPORT OF MEETINGS WITH TURKISH LAWYERS

ISTANBUL 24-25 FEBRUARY 2013

BY RICHARD HARVEY[1]

Garden Court Chambers
57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3LJ

INTRODUCTION

  1. Having read many recent reports of mass arrests of lawyers, trade union leaders and other human rights defenders in Turkey, I arranged to meet with a number of lawyers during my recent visit to Istanbul.  I am particularly grateful for the assistance of Mr. Thomas Schmidt, Secretary General of ELDH,[2] to Ms. Adrie van de Streek, Managing Director of L4L,[3] and to Ms. Ayse Bingol for arranging these meetings.
  2. The history of the Turkish government’s targeting of criminal defence lawyers has been well documented by ELDH, L4L, IADL, Haldane and others.  My purpose was to learn about the most recent developments following the mass arrests of 85 human rights defenders, including 15 lawyers, on 18 January 2013.
  3. Continue reading “Meetings with Turkish Lawyers in Istanbul – Report by Richard Harvey” →
Conflict resolution, KCK trials, Political prisoners

Lawyers on Trial in Turkey, meeting report

Lawyers on Trial in Turkey: Implications for Establishing Peace and Justice

Report of the public meeting held in Parliament by David Morgan, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign

4 March 2013

In Turkey today lawyers are being locked up simply for doing their job of representing their clients. The abuse of legality has gone so far that lawyers seeking to represent imprisoned lawyers are themselves being prosecuted. At present more than 50 lawyers in Turkey are in jail, of whom the majority are former members of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan’s legal team.

These and other deeply worrying facts were discussed at a briefing meeting, hosted by Lord Kennedy and chaired by solicitor advocate Ali Has, which was held in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Westminster, on 28 February.

The meeting was organised by Peace in Kurdistan supported by Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH) and CAMPACC and it was addressed by a distinguished panel of human rights lawyers including Michael Mansfield QC, Professor Bill Bowring and Margaret Owen OBE.

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Political prisoners

Trade Union arrests: Egitim Sen Trade Union Central Management Council statement

We will not give in to the AKP arrest system! Our friends who are under arrest must be released!

Turkey wakes up each morning to a new wave of arrests. The AKP is trying to silence and intimidate every opposition voice, all different views, by using repression and arrests.

Today it carried out operations in 28 towns and cities early in the morning, arresting 167 people, among them members of KESK (Confederation of Workers in the Public Sector).

Among those detained are Akman Simsek, member of the board of KESK, as well as his wife Mehtap Simsek. Numerous members and office-holders of our trade union  have been detained, accompanied by the scenarios already known to us. The central office of KESK was visited by the police.

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Political prisoners

Trade Union raids: KESK Statement

This is the text of a statement by our confederation KESK’s management board entitled ‘We will not be silent! We will resist! Repression cannot intimidate us!’.

The AKP’s “advanced democracy ” continues with a daily glut of arrests and imprisonment. But it has always been seen that this allegedly “advanced democracy” was built on hostility to labour and democracy, and like authoritarian and fascist regimes it detains and imprisons its opponents.

We have seen most recently that the AKP shows there is no part of the country where its empire of fear is not determined to cast its shadow. It is quickly dragging Turkey towards the image it has formed of a one-man dictatorship; its aim is to condemn the whole of society to deep silence by putting its opposition-democratic sections through the mangler. For this reason it sees no problem in using illegal imputations to detain and imprison everyone who raises their voice against its empire of fear, be they students, lawyers, trade unionists or journalists. In short, everyone who wants to live a decent life in a democratic country continues to be targeted.

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