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Ankara Tries Turkish Cypriot Journalist for Criticizing Turkey

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Cyprus’ capital of Nicosia is divided by a UN-patrolled demilitarized “buffer zone,” between a free, southern section, and a northern section occupied by Turkey’s army. (Image source: Jpatokal/Wikimedia Commons)

by Uzay Bulut,

  • “The atrocities of the Turkish army included wholesale and repeated rapes of women of all ages, systematic torture, savage and humiliating treatment of hundreds of people, including children, women and pensioners during their detention by the Turkish forces, as well as looting and robbery on an extensive scale, by Turkish troops and Turkish Cypriots.” — The Cyprus Federation of America.
  • “You are hostile. Hostile to everything that is good, beautiful and right… You are not protesters, you are terrorists. You hit, broke, destroyed and attempted to murder us. You call that a protest? You are like the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and jihadist marauders who carry out beheadings in Syria.” — Şener Levent, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-language daily newspaperAfrika in Cyprus, who is being tried by Turkey for two articles he recently wrote.
  • In an attempt to change the demographic structure of the area, thousands of illegal settlers have been brought from Turkey to the occupied part and around 43,000 Turkish occupation troops have been stationed there.
  • Turkey does not want any of its crimes against the island to be exposed — particularly by Turkish Cypriots. It appears that what is once again being targeted in these lawsuits against Afrika is not only Levent’s courageous journalism but also the freedom and sovereignty of Cyprus.

A veteran journalist in Europe’s last divided city, Nicosia, has been targeted and intimidated by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for criticizing Turkey’s actions in Cyprus and elsewhere in the region.

Şener Levent, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-language daily newspaper, Afrika, in Cyprus, has been charged with crimes by Turkish prosecutors in Ankara. The charges concern the January 21 front page of the newspaper, which criticized Turkey’s invasion of the Syrian city of Afrin as well as an article by Levent about a violent mob action against his newspaper on January 22.

Afrika, which has a left-wing political stance, is located in the occupied northern section of Nicosia and covers news related to Cyprus, Turkey and the wider region. The initial version of Afrika was the newspaper Avrupa (“Europe”), established in 1997 and printed for 4 years before Afrika replaced it.

The paper has been especially critical of Turkey’s occupation of the island, and various crimes the Turkish military has committed there.

As a result of the Turkish invasion in 1974, Nicosia, the capital of the Republic of Cyprus, remains divided, with the northern part occupied and controlled by the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” or the “TRNC”, recognized only by Turkey. The free, southern section of the city is governed by the Republic of Cyprus. The two parts of the city are separated by a UN-patrolled demilitarized “buffer zone.”

Because of its reporting, Afrika has become used to attacks and intimidation from pro-Turkish mobs and faced dozens of court summonses from Turkish Cypriot authorities. Previous court summonses were carried out by authorities in Turkish-occupied Cyprus; these recent ones are ordered by the Turkish government in Ankara. Levent has also been jailed for allegedly undermining the authorities in Turkish-occupied Cyprus and released after protests.

Yet, the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum that officially increased the powers of President Erdogan, coupled with Erdogan’s reelection as president on June 24, as well as Turkey’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, seem to have escalated pressures against Levent and his newspaper. In an interview with Gatestone, Levent said:

“For the first time in our history, Ankara is putting us on trial. I am not a citizen of Turkey. But the police came to my office on behalf of Ankara to inform me of the criminal charges against me and the impending trial and requested that I should raise a defense. I said I will not, for I have not committed a crime. And I rejected the accusations.”

Turkish authorities refer to the brutal Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 as “a peace operation” and have code-named Turkey’s 2018 military intervention in Afrin “Operation Olive Branch”. Afrika, however, in its headline denounced the Afrin offensive, calling it “a campaign of invasion by Turkey.” Levent also wrote a column drawing parallels between Turkey’s invasion of Afrin and Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus.

Outraged by Afrika’s reporting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked it as “a shabby newspaper” and called on his “brothers from northern Cyprus… to give the required response.”

On January 22, Erdogan supporters in Cyprus attacked the newspaper’s building. They removed and destroyed the newspaper’s sign and replaced it with a Turkish flag, then raided and plundered the offices inside.

Levent penned another article on February 1, calling out those who targeted the newspaper. He wrote, in part:

“My pen is persistent. Even I can’t make it stop. Do you think your stones, your Sultan, or your slogans of takbir [‘Allah is the greatest’] can? You are hostile. Hostile to everything that is good, beautiful and right.

“You are not protesters, you are terrorists. You are like the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and jihadist marauders who carry out beheadings in Syria.

“You came here in 1974. We still have not been able to even find our [Cypriot] missing people after you cut off their ears and threw them in wells. The women and young girls that you raped continue their lives with the shame [of what you did to them]… From what hell and how did you come to my country [Cyprus], which smells of jasmine and lemon? Buzz off. You will go back! You will go back just like you came.”

The result: Criminal cases have been filed by prosecutors in Ankara against Levent and the paper’s director, Ali Osman, for “offences including plotting mischief and insulting and degrading Turkey,” Levent said.

“We are also being tried for a cartoon about Erdogan printed in our newspaper. I don’t even know who the cartoonist is. I found it on the social media and published it with the caption that reads ‘no comment’. But we are investigated for that, too.”

Levent’s first hearing was held in Nicosia in June and the second one is scheduled to take place there on September 20. About 30 to 40 “expert witnesses” will testify against him in court, he said.

Physical threats to Afrika are also nothing new. “Our printing plant was bombed twice — in 2000 and 2001,” Levent told Gatestone. “The perpetrators have not been found yet. Some hitmen from Turkey also fired bullets at our building twice in 2001.”

Levent said that he has recently filed a lawsuit against Erdogan for “inciting violence against Afrika” prior to the January 22 mob attack.

“For the last 20 years, hundreds of court cases have been filed against me due to my writings. These cases requested up to 5,000 years prison sentence for me in total.

“Most of those have dropped due to a lack of grounds for legal action. I won some of them but was convicted for others. For example, in 2002, I was sentenced to 6 months in prison and was jailed for two months. Then the High Court decided that I should be released, ruling that monetary fines rather than imprisonment should be given in media trials. There are also other cases that are ongoing.

“I have been exposed to all kinds of pressure and violence. The only thing they have not done yet is kill me.”

Levent, as a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, says he will run as a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election and that EU institutions and Greek Cypriot journalists in Cyprus have been very supportive of Afrika.

In response to the pressures, the government in non-occupied Cyprus has reached out to the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) asking them to step in and defend the freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou wrote in a statement that the European Parliament was “closely monitoring the case.” The European Commission also told Cyprus News Agency that it was aware that criminal proceedings had been initiated in Turkey against Levent, Osman and Afrika.

In the meanwhile, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, has urged Turkish authorities to drop the lawsuits against Levent and Osman:

“The Representative recalled that the Nicosia-based newspaper Afrika has been under significant pressure for an extensive period of time… and stressed that violence and intimidation of journalists is unacceptable.”

So far, there has been no response from Erdogan’s government.

The Cyprus Federation of America describes the actions of Turkey’s military in Cyprus during and after the 1974 invasion:

“The atrocities of the Turkish army included wholesale and repeated rapes of women of all ages, systematic torture, savage and humiliating treatment of hundreds of people, including children, women and pensioners during their detention by the Turkish forces, as well as looting and robbery on an extensive scale, by Turkish troops and Turkish Cypriots.”

Since 1974, in an attempt to change the demographic structure of the island, thousands of illegal settlers have been brought from Turkey to the occupied part of Cyprus, and around 43,000 Turkish occupation troops have been stationed there.

In the 21st century, Cyprus, a member state of the European Union, continues to be occupied by a NATO member and EU hopeful, Turkey, which does not want any of its crimes against the island to be exposed — particularly by Turkish Cypriots.

It appears that what is once again being targeted in these court actions against Afrika is not only Levent’s courageous journalism but also the freedom and sovereignty of Cyprus.

Uzay Bulut, a journalist from Turkey, She is currently based in Washington D.C.

Amnesty accuses Ankara of creating ‘climate of fear’ after coup attempt

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Amnesty accuses Ankara

Amnesty accuses Ankara

Amnesty International has accused the Turkish government of creating a “suffocating climate of fear” across the country and launching a campaign of repression against human rights activists after a botched coup to topple Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan in 2016.

In a report published on Thursday, the London-based rights group lambasted the Turkish authorities’ alleged attacks on rights activists and their “abusive” use of the criminal justice system.

It said the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial had been “decimated” under a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup on July 15, 2016.

“Under the cloak of the state of emergency, Turkish authorities have deliberately and methodically set about dismantling civil society, locking up human rights defenders, shutting down organizations and creating a suffocating climate of fear,” Amnesty’s Europe director, Gauri van Gulik, said in a statement.

The rights group also said the seventh extension of the emergency law — approved by the Turkish parliament last week — further undermined the country’s “once vibrant independent civil society.”

During the botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of President Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed over a course of two days.

US Embassy in Ankara to be temporarily closed due to security threats

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US Embassy in Ankara

US Embassy in Ankara

The Embassy of the United States in Ankara will be closed to visitors on March 5 due to the security threat.

A statement about it was published by the press service of the American diplomatic mission,according to Voiceofpeopletoday.com.

“The embassy in Ankara informs US citizens that the US Embassy in Ankara will be closed to visitors on March 5, 2018 because of a security threat,” the diplomats said.

The statement that at the time of closure of the institution, only emergency services will be available.

ARF Participates in HDP’s Third Congress in Ankara

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ANKARA, Turkey (A.W.)—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) participated in the third congress of Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)—the second-largest opposition party represented in the Turkish Parliament—on Sunday.

Despite most of its leadership being jailed by Turkish authorities, over 32,000 HDP members and guests participated in the congress, entitled “We Will Win—No Matter What!”

Khajag Mgrdichian, a member of the ARF’s International Secretariat, represented the 128-year-old Armenian party.

Armenian member of Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan was elected on the executive that chaired the congress, which was attended by representatives of a number of invited political parties from France, Greece, Norway, Iraq, Germany, Ireland, and the Basque Country.

According to the ARF’s office of public relations, the ARF decided to participate in the congress to stand in solidarity with HDP, in its tireless work in regards to freedom and justice in Turkey. “The HDP leadership greatly appreciated the participation of all the political parties from abroad—including the ARF’s,” wrote a part of the statement released by the ARF.

The ARF’s office of public relations reported that the congress took place in an environment of jubilance, song, and dance. Armenian patriotic songs were also played throughout the congress.

“One of the most significant moments [of the congress] was when the messages of imprisoned [HDP] Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag were read,” said the statement.

Former Member of Parliament Sezai Temelli, 54, was voted by party delegates to replace Demirtas while Pervin Buldan, 50, was elected to replace Yuksekdag as Co-Chair.

This was the first time the ARF was represented at an HDP congress, though the party had previously met with representatives of its predecessor party—the Peace and Democracy Party of Turkey (BDP). On Oct. 29, 2013,  a delegation of the BDP, headed by then Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas, visited the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Washington office and met with a delegation headed by ARF Bureau member Hagop Der Khatchadourian.

The following month, a high-level meeting between delegations representing the ARF and BDP of Turkey was held in Istanbul on Nov. 12, 2013 . This was the first time since 1923 that an official ARF delegation visited Istanbul. Less than three weeks later, an ARF Youth delegation participated in the BDP’s first youth congress.

Turkey: Police attack on United Public-Business members in Ankara

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Police did not allow members of the United Public-Business Confederation who wanted to make a press statement about OHAL and KCC in Sakarya Street, Ankara. President Mehmet Balice, who made a statement after the police intervention in front of the union, said, “It is unthinkable that these Decentralization Laws are compatible with a state of law.”

Chairman of the United Confederation of Public-Business Confederation Mehmet Fish and the members, OHAL and KHK’lara press release to gather on the street in Sakarya. The police, who did not allow the unionists to explain, interfered with the group and removed it from the area.

Chairman Mehmet Fish, who came to the front of the union building, explained the press statement here. Mehmet Fish criticized the KHKs and said:

“We do not think these KHKs are in conformity with a state of law and we do not accept that the political power is going to step back on the existing Constitution or the KHKs which are clearly against the international law and we do not accept the administration and transfer of the Assembly authorities with the KHK. We invite the political power to abandon these misapplications and call on our laborers and citizens to fight against these KHKs as well “

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/ankara-da-birlesik-kamu-is-uyelerine-polis-saldirisi-197947.html

Armenian MFA: Ankara goes the opposite direction

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YEREVAN. – Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations.

“The December 14th comments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations is yet another flagrant example of distortion of the letter and spirit of the Zürich Protocols of 2009.

Our position on President Sargsyan’s initiative to normalize relations with Turkey was expressed in the well-known approach to normalize relations without preconditions. Based on this common understanding with the Turkish side we launched the negotiation process and reached agreements.

It is well known that right after the signing of the Protocols Ankara backtracked from the agreements. Turkey not only has rejected to ratify those Protocols, but has returned to the same language of preconditions that it had used before the launch of the process. The last statement of the Turkish MFA goes in the same direction.

Ankara doesn’t shy away to voice once again its preconditions, linking the Armenian-Turkish relations to the the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement in favor of Azerbaijan, at the same time making redundant reference to the UN Security Council resolutions, which have nothing to do with the negotiation process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. It is well known, that there is no single word on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or any precondition in the Protocols. By returning once again to the language of preconditions following the signing of Protocols, Turkey has opposed to the international community, which has always supported the normalization of the Armenian Turkish relations without preconditions and continues to do so now.

The Turkish side refused to ratify the Protocols and intentionally moved the whole process to the stalemate. This was the very reason that compelled Armenia to suspend the ratification procedure, while staying in the normalization process, and this was duly acknowledged and welcomed by the leaders of different countries

It is obvious that even today, years after signing of the Protocols, Ankara is not ready yet to normalize the Armenian-Turkish relations.

It does not come as a surprise that the Turkish authorities stick to stereotyped approaches and are trying to voice fabricated allegations. For more than a century the leadership of that country denies the Armenian Genocide. Is it easier to take the sin for the century-old great crime committed in the Ottoman Empire by continuously denying it, instead of recognizing it and thus rendering an important service to its own people, to the future of the region and to the prevention of future genocides?

Ankara goes the opposite direction. The statement of the MFA of Turkey claims that allegedly the efforts to recognize the Armenian Genocide are morally and legally incorrect and ill-intentioned. It turns out that Turkey preaches morality to France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Uruguay, Belgium, Greece and to dozens of other countries, which have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

It is ironic that Turkey, one of the most notorious countries of the world in restricting freedom of expression, tries to justify the genocide denialism on the grounds of freedom of expression.

It has always been clear for different world capitals both after the signing of the Protocols and today that the ball is on the Turkish court, that Armenia has done everything possible for the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Ankara’s inability to accept this and other realities consolidates the sense throughout the world that Turkey and the international community speak in different languages.

We would like to reiterate that this is the very reason why the President of Armenia declared at the UN General Assembly that since the Protocols continuously lack any positive progress towards their implementation, in the spring of 2018 Armenia will declare them null and void.”

American Muslim Brotherhood Turn to Ankara

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U.S. Islamist organizations have turned to the Turkish regime for collaboration and support. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

by Samantha Mandeles and Samuel Westrop

  • In general, lawful Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood work to insert themselves into Western society, exploiting liberal, democratic bodies to promote their own illiberal and anti-democratic ideology.
  • Whether co-opting Western democracies to silence its critics, or funding American Islamist organizations with long histories of extremism and ties to terror, the Turkish regime is now a crucial component of the global Islamist threat.

For the past few years, the international Muslim Brotherhood has found a welcoming home in Ankara in the face of opposition from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Consequently, U.S. Islamist organizations have also turned to the Turkish regime for collaboration and support.

On September 18th, a Washington, D.C.- based organization, the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC), hosted an event in New York City with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “US-based Muslim Brotherhood supporters have a busy week coming up,” the Middle East analyst Eric Trager noted. “They’re hanging with Erdogan on Monday, protesting Sisi on Wednesday.”

Organizers of the TASC event included Ahmed Shehata, a lobbyist for the Muslim Brotherhood who has also worked for Islamic Relief and the Muslim American Society — two prominent Islamist groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Arab Emirates in 2014.

Last year, following Turkish claims of an attempted coup against the regime, a TASC rally in support of Erdogan outside the White House included Shehata and a number of prominent American Islamist leaders, such as Nihad Awad, the Executive Director of the terror-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). As the Investigative Project on Terrorism notes, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party subsequently sent a delegation to the United States to hold meetings with senior CAIR officials. Since then, Awad has continued to meet with representatives of the Turkish regime.

 

Such partnerships are not new. Since a coalition of U.S. Islamist organizations travelled to Turkey in 2014, prominent American Islamic groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood have become some of Erdogan’s staunchest advocates in America.

In 2014, the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) featured three regime-linked speakers, including Erdogan’s senior advisor, Ibrahim Kalin. ISNA, a Muslim Brotherhood front , was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.

Also in 2014, Turkish regime official Mehmet Görmez recorded a video message for America’s largest Islamic conference, organized jointly by two prominent Islamist organizations: the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America (MAS-ICNA). In his message, Görmez announced the completion of a Turkish-funded mosque in Maryland, the Diyanet Center of America.

The MAS-ICNA conference that year was funded by the “Turkish-backed” American Zakat Foundation. In return, MAS-ICNA announced that the “Turkish presidency, agencies, several NGOs, state-media TRT World and Daily Sabah will organize events during the summit in Chicago, while President Erdoğan’s daughter … will attend the summit as guest of honor.”

The Turkish regime and U.S. Islamist organizations have looked out for one another. Erdogan has denounced American attempts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. And in 2015, U.S. Islamist groups, including CAIR, released a statement opposing recognizing the slaughter of Armenians organized by Turkey in 1915 as a genocide.

Turkey’s intolerance for its critics is whitewashed by American Islamist groups. At the 2016 MAS-ICNA conference, Erdoğan’s daughter defended the regime’s purges – managing both to justify and deny mass-arrests of journalists. Prominent American Islamist operatives and clerics praised her speech.

In general, lawful Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood work to insert themselves into Western society, exploiting liberal, democratic bodies to promote their own illiberal and anti-democratic ideology.

Proving itself to be a natural ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey makes use of this same deception: on September 18, Erdogan’s office demanded that NATO prevent a critic of the Turkish regime from speaking at a NATO Parliamentary Assembly conference organized by the Middle East Forum. When the dissident appeared anyway, the Turkish delegation interrupted proceedings and then stormed out.

Whether co-opting Western democracies to silence its critics, or funding American Islamist organizations with long histories of extremism and ties to terror, the Turkish regime is now a crucial component of the global Islamist threat. The West must recognize this, and work to counteract both.

Sam Westrop and Samantha Mandeles are based at Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11041/american-islamists-turn-to-ankara

Ankara mayor slams German Green party leader for ‘treachery’ #ArmenianGenocide

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Mayor Melih Gokcek has accused German politician Cem Özdemir of being an “Armenian servant” and traitor. Özdemir, the son of Turkish immigrants, has been highly critical of the government in Ankara.

The diplomatic row between Turkey and Germany took an unexpected turn on Friday evening, when the bullish mayor of Ankara called out the leader of the German Green party, describing him as an “Armenian servant.”

“Sit tight! You Armenian servant,” Melih Gokcek (pictured above) wrote on both his English and Turkish Twitter accounts, above a picture of German politician Cem Özdemir, himself of Turkish heritage.

“Can/Cem in the race for treachery,” reads the picture of Özdemir accompanying the tweet. Özedemir has long been a critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially since last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey and the president’s authoritarian crackdown in response to it.

Can is likely a reference to Can Dundar, a left-wing Turkish journalist who fled to Germany amid ongoing government repression of opposition voices in the media.

‘Artificial’ earthquakes, anti-Semitic tweets

Gokcek is an active social media user and has often used Twitter as a platform to excoriate his political opponents. He has also courted controversy for calling a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coasts of Greece and Turkey in June an “artificial” attack coordinated by “foreign powers.”

He had earlier said that a similar earthquake earlier in the year was artificially triggered in order to manipulate Turkey’s economy.

Gokcek, who has been mayor of Ankara since 1994, garnered significant criticism in 2014 when he supported an anti-Semitic statement by Turkish singer Yildiz Tilbe, who tweeted “God bless Hitler.”

The mayor’s remarks came on the heels of even stronger words from President Erdogan, who earlier on Friday told Turkish Germans not to vote for Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections in September.

Erdogan tells Turkish Germans to oust Merkel

Erdogan has been increasingly critical of Germany ever since Berlin blocked him from holding campaign rallies in the country ahead of a referendum vote that granted more power to the Turkish president. On Friday, he explicitly told Germany’s Turkish community not to vote for any of the major parties on September 24.

“I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany to not make the mistake of supporting them,” Erdogan said, speaking about Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and its coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD).

He also called Özedmir’s Green party “enemies of Turkey.”

Chancellor Merkel responded immediately, saying that her government would “not stand for any kind of interference” from foreign governments in German elections.

“German voters, including ones with a Turkish background, have a right to vote freely,” the chancellor said, accusing Erdogan of “meddling.”

On top of the war of words, relations between the two NATO allies have been tense over the number of arrests made in Turkey in the wake of the July 2016 failed coup. A number of German nationals, including Die Welt reporter Deniz Yucel, have been detained in Turkey on terrorism charges.

Human rights groups become new target of Erdogan crackdown

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Human rights groups become new targetBy Ali Bayramoglu is an academic and political commentator in Turkey

The Turkish government’s massive crackdown since last year’s attempted coup has targeted not only the putschists, but also the media, Kurdish politicians, as well as leftist, liberal and conservative oppositionists. The latest developments in this crackdown show that the regime is proceeding fast to the lowest point on its path to autocracy.

One particularly alarming omen is the arrest of six human rights activists, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director, following a July 5 police raid on a gathering of civic activists on an Istanbul island. The move indicates that Ankara’s suppression campaign has reached a new phase, turning to local and international human rights groups and civic society.

For Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty, the arrests represented a watershed. “This is a moment of truth for Turkey and for the international community. Leaders around the world must stop biting their tongues and acting as if they can continue business as usual,” he said, slamming the arrests as a “politically motivated persecution that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey.”

The events have already had a chilling effect on civic society. The Citizens Assembly, for instance, postponed a “summer school” with Turkish and Armenian participants in Turkey, while the Berghof Foundation canceled a roundtable on the Kurdish problem.

The arrest of the six activists demonstrates how arbitrariness is increasingly permeating the justice system in Turkey. After the police raid on the meeting, a journalist asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to comment on the calls for the release of the activists during a press conference at the G-20 summit in Germany. Erdogan claimed the purpose of the gathering was to plan subversive activities similar to the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, which Ankara blames on the Fethullah Gulen religious community. “Upon [a tipoff] received by intelligence services, the police carried out the raid and detained those individuals. They [the activists] are calling for what [the putschists] called. And by asking me this question, you, too, are supporting this call,” he said, adding that it was up to the judiciary to decide the fate of the detainees.

Obviously, Erdogan had already made his decision. While passing judgment, proclaiming it to the world and even accusing the journalist who posed the question, he mentioned not the judiciary but the intelligence, which raises myriad questions over the rule of law. How Erdogan’s statement affected the court’s subsequent decision to incarcerate the activists is another serious question.

Now, a brief account of the events that led to the activists’ imprisonment. Back in April, about 30 activists from various associations gathered in the Mediterranean city of Antalya to discuss the human rights violations and political situation in Turkey as part of an initiative by the Human Rights Joint Platform, which brings together a number of leading advocacy groups, including Amnesty International’s Turkey branch. Given the prevailing climate in Turkey, they opined that rights activists could also face prosecution, which would increase the importance of communication between fellow groups and the security of their websites and digital data. They decided to organize a special meeting on the issue. So that was the meeting the police raided. German national Peter Steudtner and Swedish national Ali Gharavi were present as consultants.

The police stormed the gathering on its fourth and last day, detaining all participants. Someone had reportedly tipped off the police. That person and the police apparently attributed secretive intentions to issues such as the protection of digital data and encryption. According to press reports, the prosecution reached a similar conclusion at the end of the 12-day detention period. Asking the court to remand the activists in custody, the prosecution wrote, “The suspects have followed the secrecy rules of terrorist organizations and talked about police seizing their phones, preserving the data in those phones, concealing the data even if the phones are seized and preventing the data from being seized by the police or others as well as encryption.”

The prosecution’s opinion may have seemed to be a joke to the activists, but soon it turned into a nightmare. Even worse, no direct link was drawn between the raided meeting and the reasons the prosecution put forward for the arrest of the activists. According to defense lawyer Meric Eyuboglu, “The meeting allegedly constituted a crime, but looking to the reasons put forward to justify the arrests, we don’t see a single word about the meeting.”

What constituted the evidence here was the interpretation of information obtained from the activists’ computers and telephones rather than the content of the meeting they held. According to defense lawyers, one activist was questioned about a telephone call with a person who was being investigated for belonging to the Gulen community, while another was accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after a banned book was found in his home.

In sum, the judicial investigation took for granted the tipoff or the intelligence report that incriminated the activists and embarked on an effort to dig out pieces of information to back it up. In other words, it was not following evidence to uncover a crime, but looking for evidence to suit the accused. As a result, six of the 10 detained activists were jailed pending trial, with some being linked to the PKK, some to a radical leftist group and another to the Gulen community, all considered to be terrorist groups in Turkey.

According to the Sozcu daily, the prosecution argued that “the suspects held a meeting aimed at creating movements that would lead to social chaos in line with the goals of terrorist organizations,” noting that “most of the suspects had links with terrorist organizations and were able to influence society due to their areas of activity.” The prosecution then concluded that the suspects “had acted with a deliberate intention to aid [terrorist groups] and had thus committed the alleged crimes,” demanding that the court jail the activists pending trial.

“Nothing is left to say. The law is finished,” defense lawyer Murat Dincer said in comments on the prosecution’s stance. “Anyone who comes up with such a demand is after something else.”

And what could this “something” be? An effort to vilify human rights groups that struggle against rights violations and reach out to the victims? A move to intimidate anyone who might think of engaging in such activities?

Ozlem Dalkiran, one of the imprisoned activists, was one of my closest co-workers from 2008 to 2015, when I chaired the International Hrant Dink Award Committee, an initiative against violence. From 2001 to 2004, we co-managed a large international project called New Tactics and Strategies in Human Rights. A big symposium, which attracted some 400 rights campaigners from seven continents, was held in Ankara as part of the project, backed by a $400,000 contribution from the Turkish government. Erdogan, then prime minister, and then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul made the opening speeches at the event, hailing human rights defenders and the importance of their work for a new Turkey. The audience, including Dalkiran and myself, greeted the speeches with applause. It was at this gathering when we had met Gharavi. Now he and the others are behind bars for defending human rights. A dramatic reversal, indeed.

Ali Bayramoglu is an academic and political commentator in Turkey. He has produced several publications on minority rights, on the Kurdish issue and on religious and conservative movements in Turkey. Since 1994, he has continuously contributed as a

Turkey: Police detain at least 61 people in Ankara protest

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At least 61 people have been arrested in the Turkish capital after taking part in demonstrations held in support of two teachers arrested as part of the country’s post-coup crackdown.

Turkish police used water cannons and pepper spray to disperse the crowds gathered in Ankara’s Kizilay square on Sunday.

The protest was held in a show of support for Literature professor Nuriye Gulmen, 35, and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca, 28,  who were arrested about two months ago for going on hunger strike after being fired as part of Ankara’s public sector purge following a failed military coup.

The two teachers claimed that their hunger strike was aimed at highlighting the predicament of about 150,000 state employees who have been suspended or fired since the failed putsch.

Turkey witnessed a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, when a faction of the Turkish military declared that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge of the country.

Over the course of some two days, however, the coup was suppressed. Almost 250 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others wounded in the abortive coup.

Since then, Ankara has been engaged in suppressing perceived putschists and sympathizers.

Over 40,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 others sacked or suspended from a wide range of professions over alleged links with the coup attempt.

Critics say President Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to eliminate his opponents.