Serbesti Magazine Confiscated

Turkish court ordered the confiscation of the 8th issue of the Serbesti magazine on August 27. The court said that the magazine "disseminated separatist propaganda aimed at dividing the wholeness of the Turkish Republic, country and nation."

Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu is the owner and director of Serbesti, which is a political opinion magazine.

Three articles caused the decision to confiscate

Three articles, Editor's "Kurdistan Perspective," "Iraq Scenarios and Last Test of Pan-Turkism from Southern Kurdistan," on pages 10-17, and "Kurdistan Federal Republic Interlocutory Constitution," on pages 74-77, caused the court's decision to confiscate the magazine.

The publication committee of the magazine criticized the court's decision to confiscate the magazine. In a statement titled, "Turkish State's Censoring Mentality Continues," the committee said:

* Serbesti magazine, which is on a different note than all-political parties, cannot escape the pressures of the State Security Court. Serbesti only publishes scientific articles on Kurds and Kurdistan that have intellectual value.

"We temporarily halted publishing because of pressures"

* All eight issues of the magazine have been confiscated. Okcuoglu has been taken to court. And now, the Fall 2002 issue, the eighth issue of the magazine has been confiscated with the court's usual reasons (disseminating separatist propaganda).

* Because the magazine was confiscated every time it was published, and because its distribution was prevented, we have to temporarily halt publishing.

"The legal regulations are a huge deception"

* On the one hand, Turkish officials are trying to deceive the world by declaring the legal reforms parliament has passed as a step towards democratization; on the other hand, they paralyze the publication of a magazine like Serbesti. Words like "Kurd," and "Kurdistan" are seen as threats to the "country's indivisible wholeness with its nation."

* What can we do? There is a Kurdistan geography the sun shines on every day, and Kurdish people who live on that geography unfortunately with all their problems.

* Pretending that these don't exist would not conform at all to today's scientific, ethical, religious or legal measures.

* This is why we condemn Turkish state's censuring mentality and call on the democratic world to be more reactive against this censuring mentality. (BB/EA/NM)