Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Garo Paylan to visit HDP jailed lawmaker, presidential candidate Selahettin Demirtas

By

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. Ethnic Armenian lawmaker of Turkey’s Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Garo Paylan announced that he is going to visit party’s candidate for the president, jailed lawmaker Selahettin Demirtas on May 15, reports Armenpress.

Paylan said on Twitter that he has applied to the Turkish justice ministry with the request to meet with Demirtas 18 months ago, but only now the minister provided him permission to visit Demirtas.

Garo Paylan said he is ready to convey all greetings, proposals and messages to the presidential candidate.

Selahattin Demirtaş is jailed since 2016 pending proceedings over terror related charges. The jailed lawmaker faces up to 142 years imprisonment if found guilty on terror related charges.

Turkey will have both presidential and parliamentary snap elections on June 24. The country will transition into a presidential system from its current parliamentary system after the elections.

 

250,000 activists sign petition to back jailed Turkish journalists: Amnesty

By

Amnesty International says tens of thousands of activists worldwide have signed an online petition calling for the release of around 120 journalists detained in Turkey following the abortive July 2016 military coup.

In a Wednesday report, the UK-based rights group said top journalists, cartoonists and world-renowned artists are among the signatories to the petition, which also wants the Ankara government to stop the “ruthless crackdown on freedom of expression” in the country.

The #FreeTurkeyMedia campaign has gathered some 250,000 signatures since February, the report said.

“A large swathe of Turkey’s independent journalists are languishing behind bars, held for months on end without charge or trial, or facing prosecution on the basis of vague anti-terrorism laws,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty.

“Today our thoughts are with all journalists who are imprisoned or facing threats and reprisals, but our particular focus is on Turkey where free expression is being ruthlessly muzzled. We call on Turkey’s authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all journalists jailed simply for doing their job,” he added.

The report comes as protests are planned in different world cities on Wednesday to mark World Press Freedom Day.

Since the failed coup last summer, Ankara has closed down at least 156 media outlets, while an estimated 2,500 journalists and other media workers have lost their jobs.

Many of the journalists and cartoonists behind bars in Turkey stand accused of terrorism offences due to the online posts and cartoons or opinion pieces critical of the government.

As part of a wider post-coup clampdown, around 47,000 people have been remanded in prison and more than 100,000 public sector employees summarily dismissed in Turkey.

The Amnesty report also criticized Turkey’s post-coup state of emergency, which allows lengthy periods of pre-trial detention.

“Charges leveled against media workers are often trumped up, sometimes patently absurd or wholly lacking any evidence of an actual criminal offence,” the report added.

According to the 2017 World Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in April, Turkey has descended into an authoritarian government under Erdogan and is currently “the world’s biggest prison for media professionals.”

Azerbaijani Soccer Player Jailed In High-Profile Journalist Killing Case

By

Azeri soccer jailed

Azerbaijani midfielder Cavid Huseynov plays in the Euro 2016 qualifying match against Croatia in Osijek on October 14, 2014.

By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service

May 31, 2016

BAKU — A top Azerbaijani soccer player has been sentenced to four years in jail in connection with the high-profile beating death of a journalist.

A district court in Baku on May 31 found Cavid Huseynov guilty of failing to warn authorities of the planned attack on Rasim Aliyev.

The court then sentenced Huseynov, who plays for Qabala FK and has represented Azerbaijan as well.

Huseynov has denied any wrongdoing.

Aliyev, 30, died in a Baku hospital on August 9, 2015, after being beaten the previous day.

The journalist said while in hospital that he was attacked by Huseynov’s supporters in retaliation for criticism of Huseynov that Aliyev posted on his Facebook page.

Huseynov was not among the attackers.

In April, five men were found guilty of beating Aliyev to death. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from nine to 13 years.

Turkish nationalist politician jailed over ‘hunting for Armenians’ remarks

By

artk.thumbA Turkish nationalist politician has been jailed over controversial remarks suggesting “hunting for Armenians” after a concert last year by a renowned Armenian pianist in the ancient city of Ani in the eastern province of Kars, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Garo Paylan had filed a lawsuit against Tolga Adıgüzel, the Kars provincial head of the “Idealist Hearths” (Ülkü Ocakları), which has organic ties to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), after Adıgüzel suggested “going out to hunt Armenians in the streets of Kars” as a counter-move after the concert.

The Kars third criminal court of first instance initially sentenced Adıgüzel to six months in prison, along with a pecuniary punishment of 11,240 Turkish Liras on May 25 on charges of “overtly insulting some segments of the public based on difference of social class, race, religion, sect, sexuality or region.” The court then increased the sentence to seven months and fifteen days as the crime was committed via the media, which carries a heavier sentence.

Paylan described the court ruling as “hopeful” both for Armenians and for all parts of society in Turkey that believe in social peace and justice, vowing to fight against “all kinds of racist remarks and hate speech.”

World-renowned Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan and the Yereven State Chamber Choir gave a concert at Ani, on the Turkish border with Armenia, on June 21, 2015.

After the concert, Adıgüzel issued a press statement “strongly” condemning the performance, questioning its “aims,” and accusing its supporters of “treason.”

“Should we go out for hunting for Armenians in the streets of Kars? Can we give a concert at a place that they consider holy, or march our janissary band?” he had said.

Turkey: Jailed Turkish journalists freed after top court ruled their rights violated

By

241610Two prominent Turkish journalists from a leading opposition newspaper have been freed in the early hours of Friday after Turkey‘s top court ruled that their detentions had violated their rights.

A large group of supporters greeted Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dündar and the paper’s Ankara representative, Erdem Gül, as they emerged from a van after being freed from Silivri prison on the outskirts of İstanbul.

The arrest of journalists last November drew international condemnation and revived concern about media freedom in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

They were detained after the publication of video footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency helping send weapons to Syria.

“We think the Constitutional Court’s ruling is a historic one,” Dündar told reporters outside the prison, next to their friends and families. “This verdict has cleared the way not only for us but for all of our colleagues and freedom of press and expression,” he said. He also said his release on Friday would be “a present” on Erdoğan’s 62nd birthday.

The two were charged with intentionally aiding an armed terrorist organization and publishing material in violation of state security. Cumhuriyet published photos, videos and a report last May that it said showed intelligence officials transporting arms to Syria in trucks in 2014.

Dündar also said the Wait for Hope vigil in front of Silivri Prison where he was held — which initially was started to show solidarity with him, Gül and other imprisoned journalists — should be continued, and that they would follow the fight of their imprisoned colleagues until the end. Saying that their case is about freedom of the press, Dündar vowed to fight for humanity, for press freedom and for freedom of expression until the Silivri Prison “turns into a museum,” as it is the prison where most of Turkey’s imprisoned journalists are kept.

Washington: Bono honors jailed Azerbaijani rights activist for seeking the truth (video)

By

200581U2 frontman Bono delivered a speech at the Washington Oxi Day Foundation’s Fifth Annual Celebration, hailing Leyla Yunus, an Azerbaijani human rights activist who was sentenced to 8.5 years in jail for speaking out on the deplorable situation of human rights in Azerbaijan.

On 28 April 2014, Arif Yunus and his wife Leyla were detained at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport on their way to Doha, Qatar over allegation of spying for Armenia.

On August 13, 2015, the Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced Leyla Yunus to 8 years and 6 months in prison and her husband, Arif Yunus, to 7 years in prison.

“This is a moment to talk about peace as an action. It’s not wishful thinking. Creating peace is a gift to make as well as to receive. Azerbaijan is a beautiful country, run by an ugly dictator, who puts his own people, your people, our people behind bars for the crime of expressing an opinion and seeking justice. What a crime,” the singer noted.

Speaking about the plight of the human rights advocate who remains imprisoned in Azerbaijan, Bono said Leila wants peace and reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. She wants truth from a dictator, who loves to lie, he said.

“So, what Leila seeks should not be seen as anything other than fundamental right. And yet she is viewed as a traitor and is, as we speak, jailed. We, in this room, all know the free speech and expression are the building blocks of peace. People’s rights are still denied for so many people around the world. Leila, you are on the right side of history. Thanks for your courage,” Bono concluded, expressing hope to ever be useful to Leyla.

Astronaut, Senator and American hero, John Glenn, and the husband of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh, joined other world leaders lauding the people of Greece in their courageous fight against Hitler’s Axis Forces and the Holocaust and celebrating those who today exhibit the same kind of Oxi Day valor. This was all part of the Washington Oxi Day Foundation‘s Fifth Annual Celebration on October 28, the 75th anniversary of that historic moment that changed the trajectory of the Second World War.

Armenian Journalist Sends Open Letter To Jailed Azerbaijani Activist

By

By RFE/RL’s Armenian Service

November 27, 2014

w268_r1A leading Armenian journalist has voiced concern over the fate of Leyla Yunus, a prominent human rights activist imprisoned in Azerbaijan, amid reports about Yunus’s deteriorating health.

Laura Baghdasarian, who heads a research center at a Yerevan-based nongovernmental organization, published an open letter condemning the persecution of her 58-year-old colleague with whom she carried out different regional media programs for years.

Baghdasarian told RFE/RL she had chosen not to speak out for quite a long time as she feared that support and sympathy from Yerevan would only aggravate the situation of Yunus, who, along with her husband Arif, was arrested in Baku last summer on charges of high treason and espionage in favor of Armenia.

Yunus is a fierce critic of Azerbaijan’s poor rights record.

Lawyer Elcin Qambarov said earlier this week that a detention center doctor who examined Yunus recently said she suffers from advanced liver disease and a high blood-sugar level.