Artists in Custody

About 140 people were taken into police custody on Monday (13 January) in the scope of an operation against the Union of Kurdish Communities (KCK), an organization affiliated with the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Among the people in custody are also writer and director Mizgin Müjde Arslan and photograph artist and poet Mehmet Özer.

Especially the custodies of Arslan and Özer brought to mind a statement made by Minister of the Interior İdris Naim Şahin on 27 December 2011.

Şahin described the position of some artists as "in the back garden of terrorism" and said that "terrorism can also be supported by poetry, painting and arts". Şahin's statement fuelled criticism in the arts community.

"Is everyone's life at risk now?" questioned actor Deniz Türkali in an interview with bianet, "What can a film-maker have done? Was she taken into custody because she made a film? Or just because she said hello to Ayşe and Fatma? Or because she greeted Ahmet? I do not know what to say".

Arslan's lawyer Bülent Utku announced that the police was going to take his client's statement on Wednesday evening (15 February) and according to the questions to be asked by the police they would be able to understand the situation better. Right now, they had no information at all, Utku stated.

Homes in several provinces were raided in the scope of the KCK operation on 13 February. Women executives of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) and affiliated unions were taken into custody as well as members and Istanbul district executives of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Özer: "Let's go when you are ready"

Selçuk Kozağaçlı, President of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), summarized the raid on the home of his client Özer as follows: "They peacefully searched the house in breach of the procedure and the law. They copied photographs and slides to add them to the depth of the state archives. During all that time, Özer was taking care of his flower pots and plants, watering them. He did not attend to any of the unlawful actions going on at his home or to the record. He said 'Let's go when you are ready'".

Kozağaçlı's statement was part of a press release made by democratic mass organizations on Monday night in Ankara.

ÇHD President Kozağaçlı informed the public that Özer was taken to Istanbul in the context of an investigation carried out by the Istanbul Special Authority Public Deputy Chief Prosecutor. He said that Özer was not allowed to see a lawyer for 24 hours.

"Draft books get us into trouble"

bianet talked to Çınar Livane Özer, the daughter of Mehmet Özer. She remarked that nobody could make 'propaganda for a terrorist organization' just by taking photographs and making pictures.

Özer told bianet, "They took photographs my father took related to important events such as the death fasts and the Sivas massacre. They looked at the book that is going to be printed next week. My father told them that is was going into print next week. They replied, 'We do not take unpublished drafts of books, it brings us into trouble'".

Özer noted that despite the fact that the police officers were very polite during their search their politeness would not change the intent and attitude. "20 years ago, [author] Nazım [Hikmet]'s poems and books were banned but 20 years later the important people of this country recite his poems on a podium. I think that another 20 years later those who are doing this will receive their penalty".

Writer Temel Demirer indicated that everybody in the opposition will be taken into custody now because he is breathing. "This is a state of frenzy. The power is out of its senses. By taking Mehmet Özer as a voice of opposition into custody Ankara wants to intimidate the opposition sectors in the capital", Demirer criticized. (IC/SK/HK)