Civil Disobedience Demonstration Held for Dr. Gergerlioğlu and Nurcan Baysal

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Initiative Against Thought Crime(!?) spokesperson and musician Şanar Yurdatapan has reported himself to the prosecutor's office after signing and publishing texts considered criminal by Dr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for his social media posts, and journalist Nurcan Baysal, sentenced to 10 months for a news article about the predominantly Kurdish town of Cizre.

Giving a statement in front of the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse yesterday (February 27) Yurdatapan said that the statements in question cannot be considered crimes, but if they are, that he knowingly and willingly shares in the same crime and should receive the same sentence.

Yurdatapan completed the publication process by handing out photocopies of Gergerlioğlu and Baysal's text to passers-by.

What happened?

A lawsuit was filed against Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu at Kocaeli 2nd Heavy Penal Court on charge of engaging in "terror propaganda" through his social media accounts.

He was convicted on February 21, 2018 and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison.

Gergerlioğlu had been dismissed from the medical profession by executive decree on January 7, 2017.

Access had been barred to Nurcan Baysal's 2016 article on T24 titled "Inside the houses in Cizre: 'Hey girls, we dropped by but you weren't in' written on the walls, women's underwear displayed on the floor!..." upon Ankara 6th Peace Court Judge Ali Ramazan Bilgisiçok's ruling.

Baysal had later been sued for "openly degrading the state's soldiers or police force," and sentenced to 10 months in prison in the case concluded on February 20, 2018, while the announcement of the verdict was deferred.

About Initiative Against Thought Crime(!?)

Initiative Against Thought Crime(!?) has been employing this method since author Yaşar Kemal was tried at the State Security Court (DGM) in 1995.

Over 80 thousand peoplehave repeated the words of about 300 "thought criminals" of different views and later reported themselves and faced trial, most notedly in the years 1995-2004.

Regaining activity of late, the Initiative has staged 16 civil disobedience demonstrations using the same method to support teacher Ayşe Çelik, Academics, lawyers from Kuşadası in support of the Academics, and Özgür Gündem newspaper deputy editors-in-chief among others. (EA/PU)