* Photo: Direnişler Meclisi (Assembly for Resistances)
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The concert calling on the authorities to "revoke the Statutory Decrees" has been banned by the Şişli District Governorship in İstanbul.
The concert was organized by the Assembly for Resistances (Direnişler Meclisi) platform at Şişli Cemil Candaş Hall in İstanbul on November 23 (Saturday). The concert was to be held with the slogan "Revoke the Statutory Decrees, Close the State of Emergency Commission."
As announced by the organizers, the event would be attended by several people including Grup Yorum music band members, Pelin Batu, Orhan Aydın, Ekrem Ataer, İbrahim Karaca and Mehmet Esatoğlu. The District Governorship of Şişli has announced that the concert will not be permitted.
While the district governorship has sent the decision of cancellation to Şişli Municipality, the Assembly for Resistances has released a statement about the issue. Some highlights from the statement are as follows:
'Bans should be overcome'
"Since discharges with Statutory Decrees started, almost 100 of our people have taken their own lives due to the depression and despair they fell into or at construction sites or in similar jobs. We know that this situation is not the fate, but a result of policies of oppression and we know that these problems can be prevented if stand in unity and solidarity.
"We organized a solidarity concert at Şişli Cemil Candaş Hall on November 23 to come together with everyone demanding peace, raise our demands 'to revoke the Statutory Decrees and close the State of Emergency Commission' and to get strength with our artist friends.
"However, we have been informed that it has been banned by the Şişli Security and district governorship without any legal grounds.
"We have the shared conviction that these bans imposed on arts, artists, theater plays, artists and concerts for a long time now and this repressive mindset need to be overcome somehow." (HA/SD)
