Hrant Dink and 19th January 2007

I do not have access to internet every day. My silence on the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder does not mean that I would have forgotten him. Today is the first time during several days that I can post anything.

Silence about the Armenian genocide is a sign that Turkey is post-genocidal society. The wounds of the genocide can be healed only by discussing it openly.

Turkey should study how Germany handled the Holocaust. Germans are not paralysed by their past.

A genocide affects also the perpetrators and prevents the normal development of their society.

Turks should keep in mind that the Armenian genocide was not committed by the Republic of Turkey. It did not exist 1915. Armenian genocide happened in the Ottoman empire.

About TRT-6

The opening of the Kurdish language television channel TRT-6 has surprised me as much as everyone else. There are many comments about it in internet; I do not refer to them. I just explain two aspects, which I find of importance:

The opening of Kurdish language channel in a state television is a good step. However, it does not mean that there would be now freedom of expression in Turkey or that Kurdish language would be free. Now the state can use Kurdish but not the Kurds. The level of repression of Kurds has lowered from genocide level (linguistic genocide is one form of genocide) to ordinary level of an authoritarian state. This is one-step towards the normalization of situation.

I have not yet watched TRT-6 programmes. If the programmes are same poor quality than other TRT channels, the government's hopes that Kurds could be bought by Turkish soap operas in Kurdish language are in vain. If the state would have done this at the beginning of the 1980s, it might have succeeded. However, resisting three decades towards oppression has changed the Kurdish nation. They are not just Kurdish speaking Turkish citizens; they are different kind of nation than the Turks. They cannot be brainwashed by cheap entertainment programmes the same way as the Turks unfortunately can be.

Secondly, I wonder what the generals think about Erdogan’s election channel and prime minister wishing Happy New Year for his Kurdish-speaking citizens. TRT-6 is a big victory for Erdogan in the fight against the Deep State. The law that students can wear headscarves in universities (despite this law might not yet be followed in practise) is a big step in breaking the Kemalist rule that state and religion are separated; the existence of TRT-6 in practise admits that Turkey is bi-lingual country.

The next step must be that Roj-TV will be legal in Turkey and all writers and journalists, who are in Turkish prisons, must be free immediately. Then it is fair play and TRT can make competition with Roj-TV about the viewers. Now TRT-6 is for its potential audience just one more guard in their prison, one more institution to deny their identity as a nation. By using softer methods than TSK.

Final Call for the Kurdish Mayors

One of the mayors is Ayhan Erkmen from Dagpinar/Kars.
This picture is taken in autumn 2005 in Ani . In the background there is both Turkey (on left) and Armenia and in between river Arpacay.
Ayhan Erkmen is member of the board of the Turkish PEN.
Photo: Kristiina Koivunen


This week’s freedom of expression case:

Suspects : 56 Mayors of Democratic Society Party(DTP).

Court and Date of hearing : Diyarbakir High Criminal Court Num.5, 15 April 2008, at 10:40 am.

Explanation : The case is about a letter sent by 56 mayors of DTP to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Mayors asked Rasmussen that Roj TV not to be shut down.

Remembering Hrant Dink

Thirty people gathered today outside the Turkish embassy in Helsinki to remember Hrant Dink and to put there candles for him.

The weather was as bad as last year. It was stormy, rainy and wind was 21 meter per second. All pictures which I took are bad. But this picture which a friend took of me is good.


LIKE publishing house remembered Hrant Dink by keeping his picture is the sale desk in their book shops in Helsinki. This picture is from their shop in Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

One year from the murder of Hrant Dink and the case is not clear

Turkish people were shocked on the 19th January last year when Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the Armenian magazine Agos, was shot dead in Istanbul. Since the dreadful years of the early 1990s journalists have not been murdered in Turkey despite there has been other political murders.

After the murder of Hrant Dink Turkish people made it clear that they do not accept return to this period of fear. Instead they want reforms. Thousands of people marched in the streets of Istanbul in the day of Dink's funeral. Columnists in daily newspapers demanded that the case must be examined to the deepest bottom. Almost no one believed that seventeen years old Ogün Samast had acted alone.

There were speculations in Turkish mass media that the murder was arranged by a Trabson network. Trabson is a town by the Black Sea. There were doubts about the involvement of Jitem, the intelligence service of the gendarmerie. Some pictures in internet upset Turkish people. In one of them Dink's murderer Samast hold Turkish flag and posed with policemen who were smiling. In another picture Veli Kücük, a previous chairman of Jitem, was with Alparslan Arslan, who murdered the top judge in Ankara one and half years ago.

But police came to the conclusion that a group of friends murdered Dink on their own initiative.

When there is any scandal connected to the state, first the Turkish mass media demands proper survey about the case, but usually the processing then cools down without any results.

So it happened also with the murder of Hrant Dink. In January 2007 it was the main news topic for several days in Turkish mass media. But when the trial against Samast and his "friends" started in July, the main stream newspapers made about it only small stories.

"We are all Armenians" slogans were forgotten quickly. But similar white caps as shooter Samast had used became popular in the streets of Turkish towns. This is a sign of anti-Armenian feelings.

Veli Kücük, the ex-chief of jandarma, felt so insulted about the implications targeted to him that he filed a court case against the family of Hrant Dink and their advocate and demanded 5500 euro compensation from them. This trial started in September in Istanbul.

Due to his articles in Agos magazine Hrant Dink had been accused by Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. This article criminalises denigration of Turkishness. During two and half years 120 Turkish intellectuals have got a prison sentence due to this article. All prosecutions have not led to a verdict. For example prosecutor removed the trial of Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk.

The trial against Hrant Dink continued still two months after his death.
Only a few days before his death Hrant Dink had contacted the governor of Istanbul and told about the death threats he had received. He did not get any help. Now the situation is different. The state has arranged bodyguards for twenty journalists and writers. Orhan Pamuk is one of them.

This is only the first step in solving the problems of freedom of expression in Turkey. The most important issue is reform or abolition of Article 301. Also the European Union demands this.
During the anniversary of Hrant Dink's murder Turkish politicians have remembered the issue. Justice minister Mehmet Ali Sahin told at the end of December about innovations coming soon. But they are very small, for example the phrase "Turkishness" is to be replaced by "the state of the Republic of Turkey". But the change of a few words does not solve this problem.

And by the way, in addition to Article 301 there are at least fourteen other laws which give tools for the authorities to limit the freedom of expression. If Article 301 will be abolished, the present restrictions may not continue by using the other laws.

Trials in Turkey this week

I friend sent this information from Turkey, thanks! I forward it to Sahmaran's readers.

As more than 100 people have been on trial under TPC article 301 since 1 June 2005, 22 people have been on trial during July-September 2007 period. Among them the late chief editor of AGOS weekly Hrant Dink who was assasinated, and Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk, and many other journalist, writer and academic.

This week's '301' victims are journalist Hacı Boğatekin, publisher Ahmet Önal and writer Murat Çoskun. Boğatekin is charged over his article published in "Fırat Gerger" newspaper, Önal and Coşkun are charged over the book "Language of Suffering".

"Freedom of Expression" Trials of this week:

Accused : Haci Bogatekin
Court and Date of Hearing : Gerger Criminal Court of First Instance, 06 November 2007 at 10:00 am
Introduction : Journalist Boğatekin is charged with ¨openly insulting the state¨ over and anonymous article published ¨Gerger Fırat Newspaper¨. The article wrote ¨State made a mistake. Where and When?. Yesterday in the East and South East, and then in İstanbul. In Maraş and Sivas. Today in Trabzon, Mersin and the south east.

Accused : Muzaffer Erdogdu on behalf of Pencere Publishers, Ahmet Guner, Taner Akcam
Court and Date of Hearing : Ankara 6th Legal Court of First Instance, 08 November 2007 at 09:35 am
Introduction : Republic People Party (CHP) MP Şükrü Elekdağ opened a case over the book “Treatment of Armenians in Ottoman Empire, 95-96” against the publisher Muzaffer Erdogdu, the translator Ahmet Guner and the historian Taner Akçam whose article was published in the book. Elekdağ claimed 20.000 Turkish Liras of compensation.

Accused : Ahmet Onal, Murat Coskun
Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 2nd. Criminal Court of First İnstance, 08 November 2007 at 10:15 am
Introduction : Writer Murat Coskun and owner of Peri publishing house Ahmet Onal stand trial for Murat Coskun´s book ¨The language of suffering: Woman¨

Happy Bayram to journalists in Turkey!

Bayramı Kutlu Olsun!

Twenty three journalists celebrate Bayram in Turkish prisons. The journalists are:

1- İbrahim Çiçek (Atılım Gazetesi), Tekirdağ No 2 F Type Prison
2- Sedat Şenoğlu (Atılım Gazetesi), Edirne No 1 F Type Prison
3- Füsun Erdoğan (Özgür Radyo), Gebze Special Type Prison, Gebze/Kocaeli
4- Hasan Coşar (Atılım Gazetesi), Sincan F Type Prison, Ankara
5- Ziya Ulusoy (Atılım Gazetesi), Tekirdağ No 1 F Type Prison
6- Bayram Namaz (Atılım Gazetesi), Edirne No 1 F Type Prison
7- Hatice Duman (Atılım Gazetesi), Gebze Special Type Prison, Gebze/Kocaeli
8- Suat Kolca (Özgür Halk ve Genç Bakış), Edirne F Type Special Prison
9- Yaşar Duman (Özgür Halk ve Genç Bakış), Edirne F Type Closed Prison
10- Selahattin Sumeli (Özgür Halk ve Genç Bakış), Edirne F Type Closed Prison
11- Mahmut Bozdağ (Özgür Halk ve Genç Bakış), Edirne F Type Closed Prison
12- Cem Şahin (Özgür Halk ve Genç Bakış), Tekirdağ No 2 F Type Prison
13- Kemal Aydeniz (Odak Dergisi), Bayrampaşa Prison
14- Erol Zavar (Odak Dergisi), Sincan F Type Prison, Ankara
15- Mustafa Gök (Ekmek ve Adalet Dergisi), Sincan F Type Prison, Ankara
16- Barış Açıkel (İşçi Köylü Gazetesi), Kandıra No 1 F Type Prison, Kocaeli
17- Behdin Tunç (DİHA), Diyarbakır D Type Prison
18- Faysal Tunç (DİHA), Diyarbakır D Type Prison
19- Sabri Adanır (Gündem Gazetesi), Diyarbakır E Type Prison
20- Mehmet Karaaslan (Gündem Gazetesi), Mersin E Type Prison
21- Ali Buluş (DİHA), Mersin E Type Prison
22- Sami Gök (Alınteri Gazetesi), Sincan F Type Prison, Ankara
23- Hüseyin Habip Taşkın (Güney Dergisi, Sosyalist Mezopotamya dergisi and Çoban Ateşi gazetesi), Manisa Prison

Remembering Anna Politkovskaja

Yesterday was the birthday of Vladimir Putin. Maybe you remember what birthday present he got last year....

Journalist Anna Politkovskaja was murdered in Moscow the 7th October 2006.

The Finnish PEN arranged a candle ceremony in front on the Russian Embassy in Helsinki on Sunday the 7th October 2007. These pictures are from there. (Last February we left candles in front of the Turkish Embassy for the memory of Hrant Dink.)

The Russian Embassy in Helsinki. We had to stay on the other side of the street like in February when we met outside the Turkish Embassy.

The woman holding Anna's picture is MP Heidi Hautala.

Busy week at Turkish courts

Trials against journalists and writers and other issues related to freedom of expression. Thanks for the friends who sent me this information from Turkey.
* * *
Accused :Erdal Dogan

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 4th Legal Court of First Instance – 18 September 2007 at 09:37 am

Introduction : Retired general Veli Küçük filed a suit against the lawyer of Hrant Dink over him saying ¨Hrant was feeling nerves about Küçük¨. Küçük, claime 10 thousand lira compansation. The case is handled by Beyoğlu primary court.
* * *
Accused : Umur Hozatli

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 09:00 am

Introduction : The case is against writer and director Umur Hozatlı over his article published in ¨Ülkede Özgür Gündem¨ daily. Hozatlı wrote ¨Turkish Police Organisation has a reputation of intimidating people without distinguishing between criminals and the innocent, working for petty personal interest¨. Hozatlı is charged with ¨insulting the police¨.
* * *
Accused : Umur Hozatli, Nurettin Akalp

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoğlu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 09:00 am

Introduction : 12 September is a good day to kill a boy in Diyarbakır (meaning Fevzi Abık). Good kids of 12 September coup have become known under the names of ¨TİT¨, ¨JİT¨ or JİTEM¨. Hozatlı is charged with insulting the security forces.
* * *
Accused : Yilmaz Celik

Court and Date of Hearing : Ankara 11th High Criminal Court, 19 September 2007 at 09:15 am

Introduction : The case is opened against Yılmaz Çelik, Hizb-ut Tahrir´s Turkey rep. with the charge of ¨being an executive member of a terrorist organisation¨. Despite the fact that in the records of the security department there has not been any violent act by the organisation, prosecution defined the organisation as a terrorist group. Çelik´s sending postcards to some people with that signature during Ramadan was one of the justifications of the charge.
* * *
Accused : Siman Kara

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 09:30 am

Introduction : The case is against journalist Sinan Kara over his report criticising the army published in ¨Ülkede Özgür Gündem¨ daily. He is charged with ¨insulting the military organisation of the state through press¨.
* * *
Accused : Ahmet Alper Gormus

Court and Date of Hearing : Bakırköy 2nd Criminal Court of Fisrt Instance, 19 September 2007 at 09:30 am

Introduction : A case was opened against the chief editor of Nokta magazine Alper Görmüş with the charge of insulting and slandering against the former commander of the Navy Özden Örnek. Nokta published diaries claimed to belong to Örnek. Magazine reports qouting the diaries argued that there were military coup plans in 2004. Görmüş faces imprionment upto 6 years and 8 months.
* * *
Accused : Ahmet Onal

Court and Date of Hearing : İstanbul 11th High Criminal Court, 19 September 2007 at 09:50 am

Introduction : Istanbul 11th High Criminal Court referred the case to Kadikoy
Criminal Court of First Instance. The case against Onal under TPC article 220 will be continued under Fighting Terror Law article 7. Article 7 carries 5 years prison sentence and fines for “propagandating terrorism.”
* * *
Accused : Halil Savda

Court and Date of Hearing : Istanbul 1st Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 10:00 am

Introduction : Savda has been charged with “alieanating people from military service” over reading out a press release insupport of the two Israeli soldiers Amir Paster and Itzik Shabbat who were imprisoned for 28 days over refusing to take part in operations against civilians in Lebanon.
* * *
Accused : Irfan Ucar, Hasan Bayar

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 10:00 am

Introduction : The case was opened against journalists İrfan Uçar and the responsible editor of Gündem daily Hasan Bayar over an article ¨number 301¨ by Uçar published on 13 December 2005 dated issue of the paper. The complainant is Ministry of Justice. Uçar and Bayar are charged with humiliating the government, the justice system, police and the military forces of the state.
* * *
Accused : Sinan Kara

Court and Date of Hearing : Beyoglu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 19 September 2007 at 10:00 am

Introduction : The case is over an article by Sinan Kara published in the website www.memleketinsesi.com on 25 January 2005. Kara wrote Datça´s district administrator (kaymakam) Savaş Tuncer turned a blind eye to and favoured the smuggling of historical artifacts.
* * *
Accused : Serpil Koksal, Ibrahim Kizartici, Sevket Murat Dusen

Court and Date of Hearing : Ankara 4th Criminal Court of First Instance, 20 September 2007 at 09:45 am

Introduction : Serpil Köksal from Conscientious Objection Working Group, İbrahim Kızartıcı carrying a placard “Don’t be a soldier” and Şevket Murat were arrested as they demonstrated in front of Human Rights Statue on 12 April 2007 demanding the release of conscientious objector Halil Savda. Ankara Security Department filed a complaints against them which led to a case. They are charged with “alienating people from military service.
* * *
Accused : İbrahim Guclu, Neval Barlas, Enis Mazhar Tayman

Court and Date of Hearing : Bagcilar 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, 20 September 2007 at 10:25 am

Introduction : The case is against reporter of Tempo magazine Enis Mazhar Tayman and responsibe editor Neval Barlas over an interview with former vice president of Rights and Freedoms Party (Hak-Par) İbrahim Güçlü who is also the spokeperson of Diyarbakır KURD-DER association.

Gulan: Virtual Kurdistan

The text in Kurdish.

I write this column one day before the elections in Turkey, and it is published one day after them. What a condition to write a column! You will hear my comments about Turkey's elections next week.

I follow Turkey's elections and the tension in the boarder of Iraq and Turkey in almost real time - from internet and satellite televisions. And so do millions other people. Kurds in Europe and Kurdistan and their friends. They get information from their own perspective, not from an Arab or Turkish view.

Last week I wrote that at the time of the Sèvres Treaty the perspectives of most local Kurdish leaders did not go beyond the own lands. This is understandable. Travelling and getting information from the outside world is not easy in a mountainous country. Even if the aghas had been in Bagdad, Constantinopole or Tehran, most of their people had hardly been in the neighbour village. The development of national identity is different process among mountain people than in the plain lands. The Scottish people is a good example of this. But now this process happens among the Kurds faster than the same process earlier among other nations.
Internet is different to traditional mass media in many ways. It is faster and it reaches whole the world. But it is also interactive and connects people to each other. Readers can send comments to articles. Other readers continue the discussion. There are hundreds of Kurdish internet pages and discussions groups. The world's largest nation without a country has found a forum for communication which suits to their distribution around the world. Kurds build now virtual Kurdistan.

Internet is easy to use. Here in Europe it is not expensive and we have electricity all the time. Now the virtual Kurdish community wonders whether Iraq will be divided into three parts. Can the problems in Southeast Turkey be solved if Kurdish DTP party gets seats in the parliament? Which group arranged last week the twin bombing in Kirkuk?

Last decade thousands of villages were destroyed both in South Kurdistan and North Kurdistan. People were deported to slums of big cities. It took years before the world knew what atrocities were happening. Nowadays such things can not any more be hidden. In Turkey three provinces are under the state of emergency rule (OHAL) but there are every day reports in internet about things which happen there.

Distributing information to all parts of Kurdistan is just the first step in the process. Commenting it quickly is the second step. This makes internet unique. Readers get information from many sources. They compare it and make their own conclusions. Many people write their opinions to internet. There are many different ways to do it. Some people write with their name, other are anonymous. Many associations and people have their own internet pages, others send comments.

The oppressors of the Kurds try to stop this communication. They hack Kurdish internet pages. Turkey banned for a while the popular You Tube where everyone can distribute videos. But it seems that Kurds are always one step ahead the ones who try to close their pages. They are very creative to find new ways to use internet for the Kurdish national movement. Virtual Kurdistan develops quickly. Later these ideas will be used also in real Kurdistan.

Gulan: Trial in Istanbul and bomb in Beytüssebap

The text in Kurdish.

Thousands of people protested on the streets of the Turkish cities after the murder of Hrant Dink last January. He was the chief editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos. The shock united Turkish people for a while. There was mutual will to discuss the wounds of the past. But it lasted very short time.

Now, half a year later, eighteen people suspected of Dink's murder go to court in Istanbul. Their trial started last Monday, the second July. But Turkish media has lost interest on the murder case.

After Hrant Dink's murder there was in Turkey demands to abolish Article 301 of the Penal code. It is the biggest obstacle for freedom of speech in Turkey. But also these speeches have vanished in the ultra nationalist heat.

Once again it has happened same thing than so many times earlier, for example after the Semdinli bomb attack: when activities of the Deep State have become evident people have first demanded to find information. But case after case, public discussion has ended after some weeks. Also the Semdinli trial went just like this. For example the removal of prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya just before the trial got very little attention both in Turkey and abroad.

The Semdinli trial ended to prison sentence of two JITEM agents. JITEM is the intelligence service of the gendarmerie. Amnesty International commented the decision that "Court convicted two, but questions remained unanswered". Here is in nutshell the key question also of the Hrant Dink's murder trial. It is not enough that seventeen years old Ogun Samast and other suspected persons are punished for their crime. Dink's lawyers assert that there was a big and organized group behind the eighteen suspects and they had links to members of the police and gendarmerie forces. It is the right of Turkish people that all this will be public.

There are frightening signs that Turkey is turning back to the dark times of early 1990s. One example is the bomb which was found in Beytüssebap before it exploded. Beytüssebap is in Sirnak province, forty kilometre from Iraqi boarder. Its mayor Faik Dursun is from the Kurdish DTP party. Like last decade, Sirnak province is now state of emergency region.

Early morning last Tuesday, the third July, someone called Faik Dursun to tell him that there was a suspicious package on the road. Dursun called the special prosecutor. A couple of police came, went onto the roof of a nearby house and shot into the package with their guns. This caused the package to explode, which made a big crater in the ground and broke the windows of several nearby houses. Faik Dursun says this was an assassination attempt against him because the bomb was located on the road which he uses every morning when going to work to the municipality house.

During 1990-04 sixty four Kurdish politicians from HEP and DEP parties were murdered in Turkey. After a period of democratic and peaceful development Turkish people should not accept the return of political murders and other atrocities. The first step to prevent it is to find out the truth of the past crimes. This must happen in the murder trial of Hrant Dink, in Beytüssebap and in many other places.

Journalists in Turkish prisons

Journalists in Turkish prisons:

Source: http://www.info-turk.be

Ibrahim Cicek, Atilim, F-type prison, Tekirdag

Sedat Senoglu, Atilim, F-type prison, Edirne

Füsun Erdoğan, Özgür Radio, special prison, Gebze

Emin Orhan, Atilim, F-type prison N°2, Tekirdag

Hasan Coşar, Atilim, F-type prison, Sincan

Ziya Ulusoy, Atilim, F-type prison, Tekirdag

Bayram Namaz, Atilim, F-type prison N°1, Edirne

Hatice Duman, Atilim, special prison, Gebze

Suat Kolca, Özgür Halk et Genç Bakis, F-type prison, Edirne

Yasar Duman, Özgür Halk et Genç Bakis, F-type prison, Edirne

Selahaddin Sumeli, Özgür Halk et Genç Bakis, F-type prison, Edirne

Mahmut Bozdag, Özgür Halk et Genç Bakis, F-type prison, Edirne

Cem Sahin, Özgür Halk et Genç Bakis, F-type prison, Tekirdag

Sinan Kara, Egenin Sesi, prison of Batman

Kemal Aydeniz, Odak, prison of Bayrampasa, Istanbul

Erol Zavar, Odak, F-type prison, Sincan

Mustafa Gök, Ekmek ve Adalet, F-type prison, Sincan

Baris Acikel, Isci Köylü, F-type prison N°1, Kandira

Halil Dinç, Özgür Radio, F-type prison N°2, Tekirdag

Sinan Gerçek, F-type prison N°2, Tekirdag

Özge Kelekçi, Atilim, special prison, Gebze

Mustafa Naci Toper, Atilim, D-type prison, Diyarbakir

Mehmet Güzel, Atilim, E-type prison, Gaziantep

Serdal Işik, Atilim, D-type prison, Diyarbakir

Behdin Tunç, DIHA News Agency, prison of Sirnak

Faysal Tunç, DIHA News Agency, prison of Sirnak

Sabri Adanır, Gündem, prison of Sirnak

Mehmet Karaaslan, Gündem, prison of Mersin

Ali Buluş, DIHA News Agency, prison of Sirnak

For more information look at the BIA press report from Turkey:

http://www.bianet.org/index_eng_root.htm

Van University Student Association YÖDER needs help

I got an e-mail from Van University Student Association YÖDER:

"Some 40 students, members of Van 100th Year University Students' Association (YÖDER), were detained during house raids conducted on 5 March in Van..... Van Security Director Mehmet Salih Kesmez announced that the students were detained for throwing molotov cocktail to a shop."

2004 YÖDER started a campaign to improve the position of Kurdish language in Turkey. Since that more than two thousand students have been target for police investigation because of "separatism". 700 of them have been punished. 135 of them got YÖK-punishment (Yüksek Ögretim Kurulu, the Higher Committee for Education) which means that they are thrown away from Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi in Van and they can never apply to any university in Turkey, not even to the private ones.

Students in Van urgently need contacts abroad to other student associations. If any reader of this blog can help YÖDER, please write to me and I forward the message to them. You can write also in English, there are people in YÖDER who can English. If you read this later than spring 2007 (when I write this message) it is still important to get in touch with YÖDER.

My e-mail address is: k_kristiina@hotmail.com

Such false prosecutions are not a new thing in Turkey. For example DIHA (Dicle Haber Ajansi) correspondent Rodja Kizgin was arrested in Bingöl due to similar claims. After being many months in prison she was released. Some activists told me last time when I was in Turkey that they look all time carefully after their bags. They are afraid that Jitem agents will secretly place some weapons to their bags and then call for police.

Gulan: "YouTube" and the battle about internet

http://www.gulan-media.com/h627/g37.pdf

There has been no progress in Turkey in amending Article 301. It limits freedom of expression as it makes it criminal “to insult Turkishness”. Instead the development has gone to the opposite way. The eight March an Istanbul court banned Internet page “YouTube” claiming that it insults the memory of Kemal Atatürk. Turk Telecom cut immediately access from Turkey to this web page.

“YouTube” is a web page where people can put anonymously videos and music about any topic they want. Turkish court banned “YouTube” because there was one program about Atatürk what it did not like. The decision caused abroad lots of protests. “YouTube” page removed the Atatürk piece which had caused the problem. Then the court in Istanbul removed the ban. Now “YouTube” is open again in Turkey.

What do we learn from this episode? Turkey does not want to increase freedom of mass media. Instead it tries to bring Turkish censorship also to other countries. With poor results, “YouTube” was closed only two days.

Internet has provided a forum for discussion across boarders and censorships. It builds global civil society as it gives people a channel to get in touch with each others in a cheap and effective way. “YouTube” is just one example but it is a good example. It has about 3800 videos and other programs where Saddam Hussein is mentioned. Information about Kemal Atatürk is available in one thousand programs in “YouTube“. There are also nine videos about Jalal Talabani but nothing about Masoud Barzani.

Internet gives opportunity for anonymous discussion. For example American soldiers explain in many chat pages their frustration for being in Iraq. Turkish soldiers criticize their government for the battles in Southeast Turkey. In neither of these cases the soldiers could tell their experiences and opinions with their real names. This is very valuable. Such inside information is not available in the mass media in America or Turkey. In both countries governments want to give an image that the situation is under their control. Chat pages are discussion groups in internet where people can write their opinions without telling their real names.

For the Kurdish movement in Turkey Internet has been for years a channel to distribute and receive information despite the state’s policy of censorship. The state aims now to censor internet the same way as the traditional mass media. This happens also in other countries which oppress freedom of expression, like China. Microsoft and other companies in electronic media have double moral. First they sell to internet users software. Then they sell to authoritarian governments equipment to hinder the use of programs what they have sold to their other clients.

Turkey has managed to cut access from Turkey to many Kurdish web pages, like Kurdishinfo.com, Kurdmedia.com and Netkurd.com. This is of course frustrating to Kurds but I am sure they will found new ways to distribute information. Many examples show that people in the Kurdish movement in every part of Kurdistan are very creative. In Turkey Kurdish activists are always one step ahead the state censorship system in creating new methods. When the state finds out a way to close one activity something new is already going on.

http://www.youtube.com

Gulan: Article 301 and European Union

http://www.gulan-media.com/h624/g43.pdf

The murder of Hrant Dink last January started active public discussion in Turkey about amending or abandoning Article 301 of the Penal Code. This article makes it illegal to insult Turkishness. The article prevents public discussions and the development of civil society.
Amending the Article 301 is the corner stone whether the development in Turkey turns towards democracy or increase of militarism.

I met European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn in Helsinki at the beginning of February with Jukka Mallinen. He is the chairman of the Finnish PEN and I am the Turkey coordinator of it. PEN is international writers’ association.

In the meeting we explained commissioner Rehn our worry about the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey. I told Mr Rehn about my deportation in Turkey and my ban to enter there.

European Union has followed carefully but quietly recent developments in Turkey, like the making tighter of the Anti-Terror Law 3713 last July.

Now commissioner Rehn makes clear his opinion about the Article 301 in an interview published the 23rd February in Journalisti, the magazine of Union of Journalists in Finland. Rehn says:
“It is clear that in order to ensure freedom of expression Turkey should, without delay amend or rather repeal the notorious article 301.”

I made this interview by e-mail. I asked Mr Rehn:
If Turkey would accept Ankara protocol and solve the problems with Cyprus but article 301 would not be renewed, how Turkey's membership negotiations would continue?

He answered:
”Our shared objective is Turkey’s accession, and this is what we are working for. But there is no automatism: Whether this goal will be attained depends on if Turkey is able to meet all the criteria of accession in the end of the process. Freedom of expression is a necessary condition for that.”

These words sound very nice to everyone who supports the democratization process in Turkey. Thank you commissioner Rehn for meeting representatives of the Finnish PEN and making the e-mail interview.

But I have already the next question: What European Union will do if Turkey does not fulfil these demands and abandon Article 301? The development in Turkey is not going towards the right direction but towards the opposite way. One example is that the trial based on Article 301 against Hrant Dink continues in Istanbul Sisli Primary court No. 2 the 22nd March despite he is dead.

It is clear Turkey can not be member in EU if the level of freedom of expression remains as poor as it is now. But this is not enough. Europe should not just observe quietly the increase of problems in Turkey. Whether Turkey's membership negotiations with EU continue or not Turkey is Europe's neighbour whose growing problems affect it in many ways.

For the memory of Hrant Dink

Some dozens of people gathered today the 19th February in Helsinki in front of the embassy of Turkey. The meeting was arranged by the Finnish PEN and some Finnish peace associations.

The meeting was arranged for the memory of Hrant Dink who was murdered one month ago. Also we wanted to express our solidarity for the Turkish people in their campaign to abandon article 301.

The weather was terrible. Temperature was -9 degrees and there was heavy wind from the sea. Here are some pictures from the meeting. As I was one of the people who arranged the meeting I went there good time in advance. When other people arrived I was freezing so much that it was almost impossible to take any pictures.

Gulan 29th January: Is Turkey turning back to the 1990s?

http://www.gulan-media.com/h620/g31.pdf

Last December European Union put on ice the membership negotiations withTurkey. This is an important turning point in the political development in Turkey. Is the country moving towards democracy and co-operation or nationalism and isolation?
The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was a shock and a worrying sign how the future might be in Turkey. Is Turkey turning back tothe athmosphere of early 1990s when political murders and disappearances of activists were every day life?
Public reaction against the murder of Hrant Dink was strong in Turkey. Everybody condemned it. This is good sign. Despite the majority of Turkish people are not actively working for the abrogation of the militaristic system they neither want to return back to the dark period of last decade. During those days many journalists, especially Kurdish ones, were murdered. Their murderers were never found.

Police caught quikly the shooter of Hrant Dink. This is different than the murders of journalists fifteen years ago. The shooting of Hrant Dink has similar characters than some honour killings where police has caught the murderer in Turkey. Often they have turned out to be boys who are under eighteen and get only a small penalty because of their age.
The big test for Turkey is whether the real forces behind the seventeen years old shooter of Hrant Dink will be found. In Susurluk accident and Semdinli bomb attack there was no in-depth survey about the real forces involved in the scandals. Who had protected Abdullah Catli? Who planned a serie of bomb attacks in Hakkari province in autumn 2005?
We do not know. First Turkish mass media covered eagerly the cases but little by little public discussion about these topics died away. It is easy to predict that the same will happen again. Picture of Dink's murder will remain unclear and the real criminals behind the act will not be in the court.

Still I am hopeful that Turkey will not return back to the dark days of early 1990s. Maybe the Republic of Turkey has not changed from those days but the world around it is different. Also the Kurdish and Armenian communities in Turkey are now much stronger than fifteen years ago. They have lots of contacts abroad. World is following how Turkish police and court solve this murder case. And more than that: how the freedom of expression develops in Turkey. The situation is alarming as long as police stations and courts are places where the limits of journalism are counted. If this is not changing Turkey can say bye-bye to dreams about European Union.