Category: Europe

Appeal to Turkish Justice Minister to end trial of God-denying pianist

Appeal to Turkish Justice Minister to end trial of God-denying pianist

February 17, 2013 by Norman Lebrecht

Fazil Say is due back in court tomorrow to face charges of religious defamation – blasphemy, in other words – for avowing his right to be an atheist on Twitter. The following letter has been posted tonight by British musicians and writers:

Minister of Justice
06669 Kizil
Ankara
Turkey

17 February 2013

Dear Minister

We are joining with English PEN to protest the charges against our fellow composer, musician and writer Fazıl Say.

On 18 February 2013, celebrated pianist, composer and writer Fazıl Say will appear in court for the second time for comments posted on the social networking service Twitter.

Say has been charged with religious defamation under Article 216/3 of the Turkish Penal Code in response to a series of messages posted on Twitter, including one which simply states ‘I am an atheist and I am proud to be able to say this so comfortably’. He has also been charged under Article 218 of the Turkish Penal Code, which increases sentences by half for offences committed ‘via press or broadcast’. Say denies the charges.

The charges are in violation of Say’s right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Turkey is a signatory. Even those who are usually critical of Say have voiced concerns over this case, which they believe could be damaging to Turkey’s international reputation.

Say first appeared in court in Istanbul on 18 October 2012, where his lawyers demanded his immediate acquittal. The acquittal call was rejected and the case adjourned until 18 February 2013. He faces up to 18 months in prison if found guilty.

Fazıl Say is gravely concerned about the negative impact a prison sentence would have on his career as the country’s leading classical composer and an internationally renowned pianist. Furthermore, he has suggested that he would consider moving abroad as a result of the ‘growing culture of intolerance’ in Turkey.

As fellow composers, musicians and writers who cherish both creative freedom and the right to free expression we strongly urge you to drop all charges against Fazıl Say immediately and unconditionally.

Yours sincerely

Thomas Adès

Alan Ayckbourn

William Boyd

Brian Eno

Moris Farhi

Michael Frayn

Maureen Freely

Roland Gift

David Hare

Charles Hazlewood

Eva Hoffman

Hanif Kureishi

Ian McEwan

Kamila Shamsie

Gillian Slovo

Ahdaf Soueif

Salil Tripathi

February 18, 2013
Feast of St Paul in Istanbul

The Catholic Bishop in Istanbul, Mgr Louis Pelatre, with Malta’s Consul General in Istanbul Reuben Gauci.

The Consulate General of Malta in Istanbul celebrated the feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck on February 10 at the Franciscan Catholic church of St Anthony of Padua, located in Istiklal Caddesi, a famous avenue in the city of Istanbul.

Consul General of Malta in Istanbul Reuben Gauci, accompanied by his family, attended Mass at St Anthony of Padua church, which was celebrated by the Catholic Bishop of Istanbul, Mgr Louis Pelatre.

Mass was also attended by Maltese citizens and people of Maltese descent living in Turkey. A delegation from the AK Party, currently in government in Turkey, was also present.

After Mass, Mr Gauci invited Beyoglu mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan to open an exhibition on the veneration of St Paul in Malta. Mr Gauci said St Paul was born in the city of Tarsus, which today can be found in the Turkish Republic. He added that in Malta St Paul was regarded as a spiritual father of faith and that his shipwreck was celebrated with great piety.

The director of the Franciscan Catholic church of St Anthony, Fr Iulian Pista, OFM Conv., was also among the guests.

The exhibition will remain open for the next two weeks.

via Feast of St Paul in Istanbul – timesofmalta.com.

February 18, 2013
Turkey complains only 7 terrorists extradited from Europe in past 5 years

Baku-APA. European countries have extradited only seven terrorism suspects to Turkey in the past five years, a senior Turkish security official said on Saturday, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.

National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General Muammer Türker said while speaking at an international symposium on terrorism in southern Turkish province of Antalya that Turkey expects more support from European countries in its fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), complaining that only seven wanted terrorists were extradited by European countries to Turkey in the past five years.

Speaking at the session titled “Terror: EU and Turkey Perspective” Türker underlined that the balance between security and freedom was highly critical.

“We should not put aside freedom while working on the issue of security,” he said.

“The most important issue in the fight against terror has to do with eradicating the atmosphere in which terror feeds itself,” he added.

“Turkey has taken important steps in this regard,” Türker noted.

Speaking at the same session, EU’s Counter-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove claimed that certain individuals do not get extradited since concrete evidence is not presented other than just arguing that s/he was a member of a certain organization working against the government.

Turkey has been party to the European Convention on Extradition since 1959 and the European Convention on Suppression of Terrorism since 1980. In addition to these international agreements, Turkey has also ratified the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, but it has been unable to manage the return of a single suspect from Europe. Most of the inmates repatriated to Turkey are those who themselves would prefer to serve their time in Turkish prisons.

Turkey has fought the terrorist PKK since 1984, when it was set up with the goal of establishing an autonomous Kurdish state in east and southeast Turkey. More than 40,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in clashes thus far.

The PKK has been declared a terrorist organization by the international community, including the US and the EU.

Turkey has long criticized the EU for failing to to take the necessary measures to prevent thePKK from operating on their soil.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week lamented the fact that cooperation against terrorism in Europe falls short of expectations.

“The EU, which criticizes us in every field, should put its relations with terror under the spotlight,” Erdoğan said during his Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.

via APA – Turkey complains only 7 terrorists extradited from Europe in past 5 years.

February 17, 2013
France-Turkey student sentenced on terrorism charges

ANKARA: A court in Turkey on Friday sentenced a French-Turkish student to more than five years in prison for “terrorist propaganda” but allowed her to return to France pending an appeal, her lawyer said.

The lawyer, Inayet Aksu, said the court in the northwestern city of Bursa had sentenced Sevil Sevimli, 21, to five years and two months in prison but freed her until her planned appeal and did not require that she stay in Turkey. She will however have to pay 10,000 Turkish lira (around 4,200 euros, $5,600) in bail before she leaves, Aksu said.

The exchange student was arrested after joining a May Day parade in Istanbul and went on trial in September on charges that risked up to 32 years in prison. Aksu said that while she was initially accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, she was only found guilty of disseminating propaganda on behalf of an outlawed group.

Sevimli, who was detained for three months before her release under court supervision in August, is accused of links to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). The far-left extremist group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara this month that killed a Turkish security guard.

Since 1976, the DHKP-C has been behind numerous attacks against the Turkish state that have killed dozens. Sevimli has denied the accusations, calling them “ridiculous”. In November, Aksu told the judge, “Her only fault is to come to Turkey as a student with leftist ideas”.

Born in France to Turkish Kurd parents, Sevimli was completing a final year of studies in Turkey under Erasmus, the inter-European university exchange scheme, at the time of her arrest. Her friends and supporters greeted the news of her imminent return to France, expected Wednesday, with joy.

“It’s first off a huge relief to know that Sevil can leave Turkish territory,” said the head of her school in France, Jean-Luc Mayaud of Lyon-2 University.

via France-Turkey student sentenced on terrorism charges – thenews.com.pk.

February 17, 2013
Germany promises Turkey thorough probe into murders

German parliamentarians inquiring into a neo-Nazi murder series in Germany have invited senior Turkish officials to monitor a major trial opening in Munich in April. Eight of those murdered were of Turkish origin.

A visit to Turkey by the German parliament’s committee of inquiry into ten neo-Nazi murders between 2000 and 2007 has ended also with a pledge by the committee’s chairman Sebastian Edathy that its findings will be published in Turkish as well. And, he said he would ask Munich judges to allow seats to be reserved for top Turkish observers.

On April 17, Munich’s Higher Regional Court is scheduled to begin the trial of Beate Zschäpe and four other suspects on charges including complicity in anti-foreigner murders. It is likely be one of the largest trials in post-war Germany, with 600 witnesses due to testify.

Germany reassures Turkey

The 38-year-old Zschäpe is the sole surviving member of a core neo-Nazi trio that across Germany allegedly murdered nine shop proprietors, including a resident of Greek origin, and subsequently a policewoman.

Gangland killings were initially blamed but only last year did German police and diverse intelligence agencies admit that they had failed to link the far-right suspects to the murder series. Those failings drew sharp criticism from Turkey, which said trust among millions of residents of Turkish origin in Germany had been shaken. Four senior German security officials also resigned.

The renewed scrutiny of the murder series had followed the discovery in November 2011 of two other dead members of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) after their apparent murder-suicide in the eastern German city of Zwickau. The trio had lived hidden since 1998.

Observer seats reserved for Turkey

Winding up his committee’s trip in Ankara on Friday, Edathy (pictured above) said he would asked the Munich court to reserve seats at the trial opening for Turkey’s ambassador and the head of the Turkish parliament’s human rights committee, Ayhan Sefer Üstün.

DW.DE

German politician ‘sorry’ for missing right-wing evidence

A German ex-politician has apologized for a botched inquiry following a 2004 terrorist attack in Cologne. The investigative committee said the mistake led police away from discovering a right-wing terror organization. (22.11.2012)

Dresden protesters block neo-Nazis

The Turkish committee’s members had also been invited to attend a Berlin hearing of witnesses before his inquiry panel in April, said Edathy who is an interior affairs expert of Germany’s opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Edathy said Turkish cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, had been assured by visiting German inquiry members – across all political party lines – that there was no evidence of a cover-up by German authorities in the wake of the NSU murder spree.

The initial supposition by German authorities that organized crime lay behind the murders was “not professional and not objective,” Edathy added.

Turkey calls for improvements

On Thursday, Turkey’s deputy premier, Bekir Bozdag, who oversees the situation of Turks living abroad, said he hoped the German committee’s findings would include suggestions on investigative improvements and not just clarify the murder series.

Alongside Zschäpe, four other men have been charged with various crimes for allegedly helping the NSU, including Ralf Wohlleben, a formerly prominent far-right party functionary, who is accused of organizing weapons for the trio.

The prosecution case has been complicated by suggestions that some of the four might have been informers for Germany’s security services at the time of the alleged NSU crimes.

Next Monday, German President Joachim Gauck is due to meet in Berlin with relatives of the murder victims.

Steffen Seibert, the main spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met relatives early last year, said Merkel would meet them again in May.

ipj/kms (epd, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

via Germany promises Turkey thorough probe into murders | News | DW.DE | 15.02.2013.

February 16, 2013
Jeremy Corbyn’s Ethnic Racist Narco Terrorist PKK love and Cemaat’s support to his Palestinian Event

Ethnic Racist Narco Terrorist PKK Lover Jeremy Corbyn is going to host an event “Palestine: Road to Freedom” co-organised by UCL Turkish Society. Furthermore The Cemaat (Fetullah Guven Movement) and their student leaders are known to be supporting the event.

Please Comment.

Jeremy Corbyn also participated in Peace in Kurdistan Campaign’s public event at Garden Court Chambers, in which Terrorist PKK’s leader Ocalan’s newly published The Road Map to Negotiations and his proposals for a peaceful transition to a genuine democracy was discussed by a lively panel and audience.

Jeremy Corbyn‘s Ankara visit report . Jill Evans report is created by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign. http://www.jillevans.net/visit_to_ankara_2012.pdf

Jeremy Corbyn‘s attandence as a speaker to Ethnic Racist Narco Terrorist PKK’ s call for Legalization event.

[ “Time for Justice – No to the Ban on Kongra-Gel

A meeting in Parliament called to win support for a ceasefire, dialogue and a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. Also read the statement issued by Peace in Kurdistan and CAMPACC and the report of the meeting (pdf file).

Wednesday 15 November 7.30pm, Committee Room 9, House of Commons, WestminsterHosted by Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Cymru)

Supported by Mark Thomas, Peace in Kurdistan, CAMPACC and Liberation

A keynote speaker will be a representative of Kongra-Gel

Other speakers include:
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Smita Shah (Barrister, Garden Court Chambers)
Ben Hayes (Statewatch)
Desmond Fernandes (Member of the Advisory Council of the EUTCC)
Les Levidow (CAMPACC)
Nick Hildyard (Policy Analyst) ]

Source: http://campacc.org.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=15&cntnt01returnid=93

February 16, 2013