Myriad Turks joined the demonstrations in Istanbul by the Freedom for Journalists platform, the Friends of Ahmet and Nedim and the Friends of Mustafa Balbay and Tuncay Ozkan to press for the release of all imprisoned journalists. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Many Balkan and Middle-East countries kowtow to Turkey. Even Greece offered my head on plate to Erdogan, because Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, wrongfully thought it could make him happy! Needless to say, Erdogan was offended by this stupid gesture. Nevertheless, it has destroyed my life. My live was stolen. Now I demand my life back!
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the immediate release of investigative journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, who have completed their first year in detention , and the immediate release of the Oda TV news website's journalists, who have been held for just over a year on a similar terrorism charge.
Turkey's Article 301 outlaws insulting Turkishness. The law is used against Kurds and Armenians, because in the Kemalist vision that shaped the country, there are no Kurds or Armenians. There are only Turks, united in a single vision and a single story. http://venitism.blogspot.com
This impulse is unexceptional, particularly in 20th century nationalism. As empire disintegrated, projecting a single vision became important. In this way, Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide, the Greek genocide, and the Cypriot genocide may be different from Holocaust denial, driven by fierce nationalism alone, rather than the combination of nationalism, classic and modern anti-Semitism and paranoid conspiracism which drove the Holocaust.
But both are driven by distrust of the other, and by seeing diversity and cosmopolitanism as stumbling blocks on the path to perfection. But while the two may differ, there is no difference in the free speech argument on laws covering them. Proscribing speech, whether it confirms or denies historical truths, is an offence to history, a barrier to dialogue and an insult to memory.
A sensitive issue cannot be fully explained in a post, but only in a speech, in that magic eyeball to eyeball contact, baring my soul, and declaring truths that cause shock and awe. That's why I look forward to the invitation of your organization to speak at your conference. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com
The lawyers of Ragip Zarakolu, a publisher and columnist who has been held for more than four months, petitioned the European Court of Human Rights on 27 February. Ozcan Kilic, one of his lawyers, told Reporters Without Borders that they are accusing the authorities of violating articles 3, 5, 10 and 13 of the convention because they interrogated him in a way that was tantamount to mistreatment, imprisoned him without plausible grounds, violated his right to free expression and denied him due process.
Pretrial detention in Turkey is being used as a punishment without trial. Turkey abuses civil liberties under the pretense of shutting down terrorist organizations. Turkey's terrorism laws aren't being used against terrorists. They're used against innocent military officers, journalists, academics, defense lawyers, and ethnic Kurds accused in imaginary pseudoterrorist conspiracies. All charges are attacks on free speech.
These freakish abuses are compounded by the routine manner in which disgusting Turkish judges agree to deny defendants bail. Many of the accused innocents have been in jail for years, some for a decade, as they await trial. This amounts to routine summary punishment of the presumed innocent.
Arrested on 28 October, Zarakolu has yet to be formally charged. During the initial interrogation sessions, he was accused of writing columns for the daily Ozgur Gundem, attending the inauguration of the Istanbul Political Academy, which is linked to the legal pro-Kurd party BDP, and taking "too many" trips abroad, which suggested that he was participating in the activities of outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed separatist organization.
Held in Kocaeli high-security prison (southeast of Istanbul), Zarakolu is now sharing a cell with his son, Deniz Zarakolu, who was arrested in the same investigation on 5 October, and with other detainees. The same prison is being used to hold most of the male journalists and employees of pro-Kurd media such as Omer Celik, Ramazan Pekgoz and Sadik Topaloglu who were arrested during a series of raids on 20 December.
The women arrested in these raids, including Zeynep Kurtay, Nahide Ermis and Semiha Alankus, are being held in Istanbul's Bakirkoy prison. Although they have been detained for more than two months, they are still waiting to know what they are charged with.
Smart words are more effective than smart bombs! Mighty words of a charismatic keynote speaker can transform your people to a new dimension of organizational climate, efficiency, self-actualization, enthusiasm, belonging, and motivation. I would like very much to speak at your conference in order to explain critical points much further. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com
1,000 innocent Turkish bloggers are in jails. 200 innocent Turkish journalists and publishers are in jails, one of the highest incarceration rates for members of the news media in the world. 300 innocent Turkish military officers are also behind bars, wrongfully charged in a series of pseudoplots to topple the government with names such as Ergenekon, Sledgehammer, and Action Plan Against Reactionary Forces. http://venitism.blogspot.com
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