Intellectuals Condemn Death Threat against Kurdish Politician

Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals initiated a signature campaign to express their protest against the death threat received by OrhanMiroğlu¸ a Kurdish politician and journalist. A person called Toprak Cengiz posted a threatening article on the web site of the People's Defence Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the militant outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In an article entitled "Miroğlu and the rancor" published on 29 November, Cengiz wrote, "If the essence of your words continues like this, we will put into use a line that was drawn with a red pen! Miroğlu will be dead then!"

The text of the campaign starts with condemning the fact that Miroğlu was shown as a target in the article.

"We declare to be against the mentality that tries to silence different and critical thoughts with weapons. We call on all forces that support freedom to take a stand against all sorts of threats to strengthen their efforts for peace", the intellectuals said.

The campaign was signed by the following writers, journalists, academics and artists: Adalet Dinamit, Ahmet Çakmak, Ahmet Dindar, Ahmet İnsel, Akın Atalay, Ali Uçansu, Altan Tan, Aydın Engin, Ayşe Gül Altınay, Aytekin Yılmaz, Baskın Oran, Bircan Yorulmaz, C. Murat Özgünay, Çağatay Anadol, Çiğdem Mater, Dilek Gökçe, Engin Sarı, Enver Sezgin, Erdal Karayazgan, Erdal Yavuz, Ergin Cinmen, Ergun Gümrah, Ferhat Kentel, Fırat Ceweri, Füsun Çeliker, Gençay Gürsoy, Gökçe Tüylüoğlu, Gülnur Aksop, Gündüz Mutluay, Hacer Ansal, Hakan Tahmaz, Hale Akay, Hasan Kuruyazıcı, Hasan Öztoprak, Hülya Gülbahar, Hüseyin Çakır, Işıl Cinmen, İsmail Pırnar, Ludmilla Büyüm, Mebuse Tekay, Melek Ulagay Taylan, Mesut Yeğen, Mithat Sancar, Muhsin Kızılkaya, Murad Ciwan, Murat Paker, Mustafa Aydoğan, Mustafa Erdoğan, Müjgan Arpat, Nazar Büyüm, Nesrin Sungur, Neşe Erdilek, Nuri Ödemiş, Okan Akhan, Orhan Alkaya, Osman Kavala, Oya Baydar, Ömer Faruk, Ömer Laçiner, Ömer Madra, Özlem Dalkıran, Reso Zilan, Semih Kaplanoğlu, Serdar Değirmencioğlu, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Tan Morgül, Tarık Ziya Ekinci, Ümit Fırat, Vecdi Sayar, Yalçın Ergündoğan and Zafer Kıraç.

Habertürk newspaper writer Balçiçek İlter and Radikal newspaper writer Cüneyt Özdemir also called for supporting Mirooğlu in their columns published on Friday (3 December).

Miroğlu had disclosed in his column published on 7 September 2010 that he had received a death threat from an unidentified individual earlier this year. Miroğlu had previously criticized the targeting of civilians in bomb attacks.

Miroğlu was incarcerated in the Diyarbakır Prison in the Kurdish-majority South-East of the country for many years. He got severely injured in the assassination of the Kurdish writer and poet Musa Anter in Diyarbakır on 20 September 1992. Miroğlu was a member of parliament candidate for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in the elections in 2007. (BT/VK)