URGENT CALL
Let’s protest the police attack and massive arrests in Istanbul
The first hearing against the leaders and activists of the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed (ESP), the newspapers Atilim and Dayanisma, the trade unions Tekstil-Sen and Limter-Is, the radio Ozgur and the Labouring Women’s Association (EKD), who were imprisoned in September in an arbitrary manner, took place today in Istanbul. The police violently attacked the people who gathered in Besiktas/Istanbul for solidarity with the imprisoned journalists, trade unionists, youth and women activists and socialists from ESP. They injured many people and arrested at least 96 people. The international delegates who went to Istanbul to express their solidarity with the September prisoners were also affected by the attack. Many representatives of different organisations are also among those who have been arrested. The attack was protested through a press meeting at the Istanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association and through an action at the Galatasaray Square. Besides, many intellectuals, among them the Vice-Chairman of the International Federation of Human Rights, Akin Birdal, the scientist and writer Haluk Gerger and the writer Hasan Basri Aydin made statements and expressed that these attacks aim at eliminating all democratic rights.
The Turkish state, by attacking today at the people who had gathered in front of the court and by arresting at least 96 people, has exposed once more its fascist character and shown its enmity towards the democratic rights and freedoms.
We Want Freedom Campaign calls upon all democrats and progressive people, socialists and revolutionaries to raise their voice against the state terror in Turkey, to protest these attacks and to demand the immediate release of the arrested.
Send your protest messages to:
Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister: bimer@basbakanlik.gov.tr
Cemil Cicek, Minister of Justice : cemil.cicek@adalet.gov.tr, fkasirga@adalet.gov.tr
Fax: 00 90 312 419 33 70
Abdulkadir Aksu, Minister of Internal Affairs: aaksu@icisleri.gov.tr
Abdullah Gul, Minister of External Affairs: abdullah.gul@tbmm.gov.tr
Police Department of Istanbul: Fax: 0090 212 636 28 71
Please send a copy to: info(at)wewantfreedom.org
We Want Freedom Campaign
13.04.2007
Campaign