Hands Across the Divide: Drop the Case!
25 journalists and trade unionists are being tried for showing solidarity to the schoolteacher Nilgun Orhon who was suspended from teaching due to an article she wrote in opposition newspaper "Avrupa" (now called "Afrika").
Among those being tried are three members of Hands Across the Divide who are in the management committee for the northern part: Sevgul Uludag, Gulay Kaser and Cemaliye Volkan.
While Turkish Cypriot members of Hands Across the Divide closed their mouths with black tape and demonstrated their protest at the repression on freedom of expression in the north, Greek Cypriot members of the NGO did a similar protest on the "Green Line" dividing Cyprus.
They stood at Ledra Palace barricade in divided Nicosia in order to express their anger and tied their mouths with black scarves to show their protest. They expressed their solidarity with a statement that they distributed.
Representatives from the Cyprus communist party AKEL, trade unions PEO and SEK, as well as Cyprus Journalists Union were also at Ledra Palace check-point to extend their solidarity.
The statement called for dropping of the charges against the journalists and trade unionists and asked the world and the EU not to sit back and just watch.
Meanwhile before the court began This Country is Ours Platform consisting of 42 NGOs in the north staged a protest where they laid a black wreath at the office of the Attorney General.
The courtroom did not fit the 25 journalists and trade unionists on trial so they had to be moved to a bigger courtroom. The case will continue on the 17th of January 2003.
Below is the Hands Across the Divide press release.
Guilty!
Cemilaye Volkan, Gulay Kaser, Sevgul Uludag
What have the above three women got in common? They are all being tried together with 22 other trade unionists and journalists in the north of Cyprus for those most evil of crimes... Trade Union solidarity and media reporting.
25 trade unionists and journalists, among them the above three women, who are members of the management committee of the Cypriot bicommunal women's NGO "HANDS ACROSS THE DIVIDE", stand trial on 21 of November for the 'crimes' of showing solidarity to Nilgun Orhon, the school teacher who was suspended because of an article in the "Avrupa" newspaper, and demanding that she be given back her job, while the journalists will be taken to court for reporting about the protest
These 25 persons are being victimised, for claiming the right to be able to decide for themselves, for the right to express themselves and report freely. They are being victimized for raising their free voices.
It is inconceivable that, in the first decade of the new millennium, these most basic of human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, are being so flagrantly violated.
In Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights dating back to 1948 it is stated that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".
It is impossible for the world, including the EU, to stand back and allow this tragic farce to continue; it is even more impossible for the rest of Cyprus - especially now after the Anan Plan - to stand idle and watch.
Responding to this call, we, the participants in this gathering organized by HANDS ACROSS THE DIVIDE, on Thursday, 21 November 2002, at 9.00 am, at the Ledra Palace check point, declare our condemnation and protest at this ridiculous attempt to silence the free voices in the north of our country and show our solidarity with the 25. We call for the immediate termination of the trial proceedings and suspension of the criminal prosecution against the 25 trade unionists and journalists. (NM)