Further detentions of human rights activists

In an urgent appeal the Human Rights Association (IHD) stated

Ms. Vetha Aydın, President of Siirt Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD), and Mr. Abdullah Gürgen, Board Member of Siirt Branch of IHD, were detained in the early hours of 16 March 2010 in Siirt, a city located in the southeast of Turkey. Following the detention of Vetha Aydın and Abdullah Gürgen, the police raided the Siirt Branch of IHD. From 05.35 am to 08:30 am, the branch was searched by the police. During the search, all membership registration forms were taped to the camera. Police officers confiscated a hard disk, some files and CD's. Moreover, some letters sent by prisoners regarding violations were confiscated.

Background

As stated in Today's Zaman of 17 March 2010 a total of 14 people were detained in an operation in the province of Siirt against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCKUnion of Communities in Kurdistan ), an organization that allegedly functions as the urban arm of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKKKurdish Workers' Party ).

Among the suspects are Peace and Democracy Party (BDPPeace and Democracy Party ) provincial head Sıdık Taş, the Human Rights Association’s (İHD) Siirt branch head, Vetha Aydın, provincial council member Belkıza Epözdemir and Tüm Bel-Sen branch head Ferit Epözdemir, and several administrators from various unions and associations.

History

Detentions against alleged members of Koma Ciwaken Kurdistan (Union of Kurdish Communities KCK), presumed to belong to the illegal Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) have continued since 14 April 2009. The prosecution headed by the prosecutor's office in Diyabakir maintains that in April 2006 the PKK reportedly decided to organize a Turkey Coordination, later named as Turkey Assembly (Türkiye Meclisi, shortened as KCK/TMKCK Par lament Turkey ).

Mainly members and executives of the (meanwhile banned) Party of Democratic Society DTP (information on the ban of the DTP can be found in the German under Zum Verbot der Partei Demokratische Gesellschaft) have been detained on charges of forming the KCK/TM. Trade unionists have also been among the detainees (see the special report More than 20 Trade Unionists Arrested in and around Izmir of June 2009). In several cases human rights activists, mostly members or executives of the Human Rights Association (HR) have also been detained, arrested and put on trial.

Imprisoned human rights activists

The human rights activists on trial include:

• Mr. Hasan Anlar (IHD Deputy Secretary General), Ms. Filiz Kalayci (IHD Executive Board Member), Mr. Halil İbrahim Vargün (IHD Former Treasurer), Mr. Murat Vargün (Member of the IHD), all detained on 12 May 2009 in Ankara. They were released on 15 May 2009. On appeal of the prosecution Ms. Kalayci was arrested on 25 May 2009. Filiz Kalayci was released after the second hearing on 28 January 2010. The trial is continuing.
• Ms. Yuksel Mutlu, spokesperson of the Turkey Peace Assembly and member of the Honorary Board of the Human Rights Association (IHD), and 21 administrators and members of the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESKConfederation of Trade Union in the Public Sector ), were released on Saturday, 21 November 2009. They had been in prison since 1 June 2009.
• Mr. Muharrem Erbey, deputy chair of the HRAHuman Rights Association and chair of the Diyarbakir branch of the HRA was detained on 24 December 2010 (see the urgent call of the DTFDemocratic Turkey Forum in German at Eilaktion der TIHV zur Festnahme von Muharrem Erbey. He is still in prison.

Letter of Muharrem Erbey

The DTF publishes excerpts from the letter. (Link to the complete text)

Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:00

At 4:50 am on December 24, 2009 Thursday, the police broke into my house and private legal office, searched my car, and raided the Diyarbakir Office of the Human Rights Association (HRA) which I chair seizing twelve hard discs, compact discs, digital versatile discs, books and other documents that belonged to the HRA. I was denied a right to call my lawyer and was forcibly taken to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to testify. At the Prosecutor’s Office, myself and the mayors and executives of the Peace and Democracy Party, who were detained on the same day as part of a coordinated detention “operation”, were subjected to degrading treatment, which aimed at our individual and institutional dignities through practices such as exposure to the press and the public in handcuffs.

I was interrogated in relation the activities and projects that I carried out in legal civic platforms such as the HRA and in international meetings, as if they had been criminal acts. I testified to having committed to all of the attributed acts and assured the Prosecutor that I would maintain my work on these grounds following my release.

The following issues were raised during my interrogation at the Prosecutor’s Office on charges of being “member of an illegal organization”:

-That I wrote projects for securing funds for training programs and seminars on the prevention of child abuse and promotion of women’s rights; -That I had insulted the (Turkish) State in platforms abroad, such as the Swedish, British and Belgian parliaments and the United Nations; -That I had participated in the “Workshop for a Civil and Democratic Constitution” organized by the Democratic Society Congress with the participation of civil society institutions; -That I had frequently met with Osman Baydemir, the Mayor of Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality whom I work with as his legal consultant and lawyer; -That I had appeared in Roj TV for an interview.

I have to say that I made hundreds of press statements over the last two years, not even a single of which had been made an object of investigation or legal suit.

Accepting the testimony of an undisclosed witness “X” as evidence, the Public Prosecutor reasoned that I had engaged in all these acts on behalf of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and transferred my case to the Investigative Prosecutor’s Office.

Here, the Investigative Prosecutor began his questioning as to the reason why I was entering the cases relating human rights violations as a defense attorney without charging any fee. I testified that as a human rights activist I provided free legal service to persons that apply to the HRA as victims of human rights violations in areas such as torture and maltreatment, right to life, personal security, mine explosions, and the freedom of expression and conscience. Yet the Prosecutor asked for my arrest reasoning that I had acted in the name of the KCK. We were brought into prison around 4:30 am.

Since the year 2000, I have been working with the HRA at different positions as a member and executive. Like all human rights defenders, our job is to research, monitor, document, advocate for the rights of the complainants that apply to us. We do this as voluntary and free service. Since its foundation in 1988, the HRA Diyarbakir Office receives invitations from all around the world for participating in conferences, panels and meetings. We are invited to these platforms to present the situation of human rights in our region with regards to the Kurdish issue, children and women’s rights, social and economic rights, freedom of expression and the more.

I have persistently declared violence and aggression as illegitimate means of pursuing rights struggles, no matter sponsored or carried out by whom. In all different platforms where I represented the HRA, I gave contextual accounts on the situation of human rights in the Kurdish region. A considerable decrease in human rights violations was observed in the Kurdish region between 1999 and 2005, thanks to a period of relative cessation in the intensity of armed conflict. This situation has been reversed since 2006 in parallel with the rise, once again, of armed tension.

The HRA Diyarbakir office has been organizing sit-ins for the past forty nine weeks for the disclosure of 17.500 political murders and mass graves in the Kurdish Region. It is these acts of advocacy for rights and civil disobedience that has incited the brunt of authorities against us. Yet, these politics of repression against the HRA is not new. Since its Foundation in 1986, twenty-two members and executives of the HRA have been murdered by “unidentified” perpetrators, hundreds of them have been tortures and/or arrested. This politics of intimidation have been particularly severe against the executives of the HRA headquarters and those of the Diyarbakir Office; Akin Birdal, a former HRA Chair and the Honorary Vice-Chair of the FIDH, survived an assassination attempt in 1998, successive chairs of the Diyarbakir office have confronted with unremitting campaigns of legal pressure through numerous cases, all which have ended up in acquittal.

The ceiling of the prison ward where I am kept together with three other friends is designed in the shape of a coffin lid, it is extremely humid inside and we have lost touch with nature. Still we do not mind insofar as we carry the hope that this deprivation of our liberty would contribute to the ending of this blood-shed. I take responsibility for all my actions which I did in the name of protecting and promoting human dignity. I shall not refrain from doing what I have done so far, even if it brings me life imprisonment.

There are some nine-hundred of us who are currently in prison. But we are hopeful. Because we do not have any other choice, but to live together. We are sailing in the same ship; either we will wreck or survive the impending catastrophe together. I greet you with all my faith that 2010 will be the year when we open a new page towards light and life together.

Muharrem ERBEY
Vice President, HRA Headquarters
Chair, HRA Diyarbakır Office

D-Type High Security Prison
C-5 /1
Diyarbakir

Remarks on the evidence

In almost all cases related to alleged membership of the KCK/TM the main evidence are bugged telephone conversations about seemingly secret meetings. Again, almost all cases include at least one secret witness. These witnesses are often defendants as well. Their testimony as witness is taken without legal counsel. In court several secret witnesses have rejected their statements alleging that it was taken under threats and duress (compare the news collection for February 2010 (in German).