[istanbul] freedom for mehmet

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Saturday September 03, 2005 19:51

by author

On 11 August 2005, Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, on two charges of "insubordination in front of his unit".
Today, on the 3rd of September, a demonstration against militarism took place in İstanbul around Taksim square.

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On 11 August 2005, Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, on two charges of "insubordination in front of his unit".
He had been arrest in Izmir on 8 April 2005, and has by now been charged twice with "insubordination in front of his unit". Tarhan had been on hunger strike from 25 May to 21 June 2005, to protest against maltreatment and the authorities inability to protect him in prison. He ended his hunger strike after 28 days, after the prison authorities accepted his demands.Tarhan had been briefly released from military prison following a trial session on 9 June 2005, but had been brought back to his military unit, where he was again given a military order, which he refused. This lead to the second charge, and a second trial on 12 July, where the decision was taken to join the two cases.
(see: http://www.wri-irg.org/co/turkcampaign-en.htm )

Today, on the 3rd of September, a demonstration against militarism took place in İstanbul around Taksim square. Around 30 people went with banners and drums trough the streets and shouted slogans in solidarity with Mehmet and against the militaristic turkish state.
The police was present with gas masks, machine guns and bored faces.
At the beginning of the demonstration, the police stopped the small crowd and complaıned about some of the slogans. The slogans were stopped and the demonstration could be contİnued. The demonstrators stopped next to one military base to made speeches for the mainstream media in support for conscientious objectors. One speech was listing up names of conscientious objectors in Turkey. After this a symbolical eating of rice took place. This sharing of rice has the meaning of peace and friendship in turkish tradition.
Some activists from germany, france, slovakia and bulgaria were responding to the appeal for international solidarity and joined the demonstration with two transparents.
The demonstration ended without conflicts.

more backgroundinformation:

Mehmet Tarhan jailed for four years (August 2005)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71530

Infoshop artıcle (May 2005)
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050527105243272

www.istanbul.indymedia.org