Turkey

A new domestic security bill giving draconian powers to the police has recently been put into force in Turkey. Expanding police power enormously and granting the police some extrajudicial authority, the bill does not allow citizens appropriate measures with which to protect themselves from abuse of this power.

A military court in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas has sentenced conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, to 15 months in jail. The verdict was transformed to a fine of 9,000 Turkish Liras, for “failing to obey orders.” Mehmet is appealing the verdict Mehmet's struggle against the Turkish military has been running for over a decade.

The verdict disregards a previous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in which they found on a violation of article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and in addition of article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman treatment) of the Convention. The Court ruled that the heavy criminal sanctions imposed on those who did not comply with compulsory military service did not strike a proper balance between the general interest of society and that of conscientious objectors.

In recent years, Turkey has repeatedly abused the rights of protesters with the weaponised use of tear gas at demonstrations. But despite human rights concerns, South Korea has authorised a huge shipment of tear gas to Turkey. On 10 February, Ban Tear Gas Initiative (Turkey), Campaign Against Arms Trade (UK), War Resisters' International and World Without War (South Korea) carried out actions in Seoul, Istanbul and London to stop the shipment!

3rd December 2014

For enquiries please contact Ms. Hülya Uçpinar  or Mr. Davut Erkan (c/o info@wri-irg.org)

Turkey is the last country in the Council of Europe area to recognise conscientious objection to military service. Conscientious objectors face the possibility of a life-long cycle of prosecutions and imprisonment, and a situation of “civil death” which excludes them from the normal social, cultural and economic life.

WRI has welcomed VİCDANİ RET DERNEĞİ (VR-DER) -  the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey - as an associate member. You can find their details on the list of affiliates here.

Please note that there are many websites that can send texts online, so it is not necessary to have a fax machine yourself.

TO THE 5TH ARMY CORPS MİLİTARY COURT JUDGESHIP

ÇORLU – TEKİRDAĞ

SUBJECT: Conscientious objector on trial Ali Fikri Işık

Your Honour,

Ali Fikri Işık, who is on trial based on three charges in two trials at your court and in which you will probably announce the verdict on October 22, is a conscientious objector. Since his very first trial session he has repeatedly stated that he is a conscientious objector. Furthermore, he is also a founding member of the Conscientious Objectors Association, where he is currently a member of board.

WRI has welcomed VİCDANİ RET DERNEĞİ (VR-DER) -  the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey - as an associate member.

You can find their details on the list of affiliates here.

This weekend VR-DER issued the below statement, on the situation in Kobane, and the Turkish government's response to ISIS

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Conscientious Objection Association: We have neither a second nor a life to give to war!

The authorities initiated a “peace process” after the Turkish state and military conducted a thirty-year-old war which left thousands of casualties. The process was conceptualized as a step towards constructive dialogue with the Kurdish movement. However, the state did not abandon its long lived habit of providing peace with its arms, tanks and bombs. Families lost their children and funerals never stopped although a ceasefire was announced and armed groups left the Turkish borders.

Following a meeting in Cyprus of conscientious objector and war refuser movements in the Eastern Mediterranean region at the end of January, when CO in Cyprus Murat Kanatlı (and co-organiser of the meeting in Nicosia) was imprisoned for ten days in February, solidarity actions took place in Turkey, Greece and Israel (by Druze Palestinian objectors). In Athens, activists were temporarily detained for their protest at the Turkish embassy. Watch a video of activists in Istanbul here.

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December saw 45 Kurdish men and women in Turkey declaring their conscientious objection 'in order to remember the 34 young men killed in the Roboski massacre two years ago', through the Roboski Conscientious Objection and Amed (Diyarbakir) Conscientious Objection Initiatives. The death of 34 young men occurred at the Turkish-Iraqi border, when two Turkish F16 jets fired at a group of villagers, claiming to act on information that PKK (Kurdish Workers' Party) militants were crossing the border. Faruk Encü, making a statement in the name of the Roboski Conscientious Objection Initiative, said “Here we are calling once again on those village-guards that have been made into a part of this militarist process, to those who are sending those close to them and their children to do military service, and to those people who are part of this war-making machine to make a few cents. Reject taking up arms for a sexist structure that has his turned this region into a graveyard of peoples, and if you have already taken up arms immediately correct this wrong.

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Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu

Militarism has a long history in Turkey. It is therefore surprising that there are very few studies in the Social Sciences and in Education on how the militarisation of young people has operated. With a few exceptions, social scientists have remained silent when it comes to questioning the military and the way militarism has been instilled in young people, one generation after another.

Militarism after the Ottoman Empire

Last month, a panel debate was held in London on the title Conscientious Objectors to Form Association in Turkey.

Turkey's conscientious objectors founded their first association on May 18, during the week of International Conscientious Objectors Day. The association will be open to all who refuse the compulsory military drafting for religious, moral or political reason, activists said.

The Turkish state continues to repeatedly punish COs, who face what's known as 'civil death', being at constant risk of re-imprisonment, unable to register a child, leave the country, and facing many other discriminations.