Singer Tunc Detained for “Statement”

Two years ago, singer Ferhat Tunc made a speech during a concert in the Nazimiye district of Tunceli, eastern Turkey.

In the early morning hours of Thursday (21 February), he was forcibly taken into custody with the justification that he has not yet given a statement concerning the investigation into that speech.

The Malatya Chief Public Prosecution had started an investigation after the concert on 12 August 2006, accusing the singer of “spreading Maoist Communist Party propaganda.”

"Dissident identity is being targeted" 

The Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) has condemned the police for taking Tunc into custody, saying that there was no legal justification for it: “It is clear that the custody has been used in order to target Ferhat Tunc’s dissident identity, and in order to put pressure on his use of rights and freedoms.”

Tunc is accused of “spreading propaganda of an illegal terrorist organization” in a song dedicated to the memory of “the 17”, members of the Maoist Communist Party who had been killed in the Mercan Valley (in Tunceli province) in 2004. The fact that members of the audience chanted "Dersim [the old name for Tunceli] is proud of you" has been interpreted as proof for his crime.

Giving a statement at the Istanbul Public Prosecution, Tunc said that his speech at the first concert was expressing his opinion that the people of Turkey should coexist peacefully. As for the "17", he said that he had known most of them since their childhood, and that he was not able to ignore the event. When he had expressed his feelings about the gravity of the event in his song, he had not aimed at spreading propaganda.

"Say no to war" 

Tunc had said at the concert, "We have to overcome and destroy the fears that are imposed on us. There are conflicts in our country, there are deaths. In order to oppose them, we first have to overcome our fears. We want to sing our peace songs on our own land, without fear, without worry. For that to happen, the conflict has to end and we have to work towards that with all our efforts. Let us all say no to war." Then he sang his song entitled "No to war".

Tunc is also being tried for being part of a human rights delegation which freed private Coskun Kirandi after he had been kidnapped by the PKK. He has also received death threats by a group calling itself the "Turkish Revenge Brigade" (TIT). (EÖ/AG)