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Human Rights Association (İHD) Secretary General Osman İşçi has been awarded 2017 Human Rights Award by the Austrian League of Human Rights.
Osman İşçi couldn’t attend the ceremony organized with Human Rights Film Festival in Vienna on December 9. There is an international travel ban imposed on İşçi.
Speaking to bianet, İşçi said, “They gave the award to me but in fact, this is award granted to human rights movement. This is an award given to the İHD in particular and to the Academics for Peace and anyone who struggle for rights in general”.
“This award also demonstrates that the situation of rights in Turkey is monitored by international rights movement as well. Our struggle for rights movement being seen makes us stronger. We know that the situation of Academics for Peace and human rights in general have been observed”.
He was discharged, the trial continues
Peace declaration signee Osman İşçi from the Academics for Peace describes himself as an “İHD laborer”: “I have been in the İHD Headquarters for 12 years and now I am serving as Secretary General”.
He was discharged from Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University through Statutory Decree No. 689 dated April 30, 2017.
İşçi was arrested as part of the operation launched under the name of “KCK” (Kurdistan Communities Union) in Ankara. Arrested in 2012, İşçi was a research fellow at Hacettepe University at that time. İşçi was arrested on July 28, 2012 and released on April 10, 2013.
“Crackdown on rights defenders increases in parallel with violence”
Osman İşçi explained that the trial in which KESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions) executives and members have still been tried:
“The case was sent to the Constitutional Court when special courts were closed and halted de facto. However, it recommenced in October.
“The trial was held on October 25, 2017. The next hearing is on January 21, 2018. The long-standing situation in the Constitutional Court was in the period of the peace process*. The conditions in the country to discuss peace affect the judicial process as well.
“Reopening the case falls on the time when dose of violence has increased. Physical violence and judicial pressure on the rights defenders is closely related with the climate of the country”.
About Osman İşçi He has been working at the Human Rights Association Headquarters since 2006. He is now the Secretary General of the İHD. He is also EuroMed Rights Executive Board member. He was arrested as part of the operation launched under the name of "KCK" into KESK executives and members as he was a research fellow at the Department of English Language and Literature at Hacettepe University. He stayed in prison for eight months. The trial continues. His dissertation subject was about how the Northern Ireland conflict and violence affected and was reflected in poetry. He signed the peace declaration along with many academics in January 2016. He is an academics from the Academics for Peace. |
(AS/TK)
* Solution process was a peace process which aimed to resolve the long-running Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present). The conflict has been ongoing since 1984 and resulted in some 40,000–100,000 mortal casualties. Though there was a unilateral cease-fire between 1999 and 2004, the sides failed to gain understanding and the conflict became increasingly violent. The 2013 truce was working until September 2014; the truce fully collapsed in July 2015, in the wake of June 7 general elections in which the AKP lost its majority in the parliament.
