Ahmet Türk: We face the same injustice as the one during September 12 coup

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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The first session of the 8th hearing of the Kobanî trial was held at the Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court yesterday (December 20).

In the trial over the "October 6-8, 2014 Kobanî protests", there are 108 defendants, 21 arrested, including former HDP Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) former Co-Chair Sebahat Tuncel and HDP Central Executive Board members.

At yesterday's session, the politicians arrested in the Ankara Sincan Prison, where the hearing took place, were present in the courtroom while HDP's former Spokesperson Günay Kubilay did not attend the hearing. The politicians arrested in other prisons attended the hearing via video conference by using the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS).

At the previous hearing, a warrant was issued against the dismissed Metropolitan Mayor of Mardin Ahmet Türk. Upon this warrant, Türk attended the hearing from Mardin via the SEGBİS system.

Speaking at the hearing, Türk said, "We have faced injustice in these processes. I went through September 12 [military coup in 1980]. We face the same injustice despite the 50 years that have passed since then."

Taking the floor in the first half of the session, lawyer Ali Bozan criticized the attitude of the court board. "We, as the defense, demand the conditions where the act of trial can proceed," he said, calling on the court board "to be open to dialogue" with the defense and "this dialogue to be reflected in the interim rulings" to be handed out by the court board.

"We and our clients demand that we are not threatened in an unlawful manner," said lawyer Ali Bozan.

'I am on trial because I am Kurdish'

Following the recess, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) former Co-Chair Sebahat Tuncel took the floor. Drawing attention to the hardships that she faced in preparing her defense and the problems that prisoners encounter in prison, Tuncel said that the massacre in Şırnak's Roboski happened because the massacre in Maraş in the 1990s was not faced with.

"As these were not faced with, other massacres were committed. The Uludere, the Roboski happened. Massacres happened once again in prisons. If we forget the history of massacres in Turkey, we cannot handle it. But as long as the quests for facing the past continue, democracy cannot be ensured in the country," said Tuncel, commemorating the ones who died in the Operation Return to Life in prisons on December 19, 2000.

"But the problems faced by captives are still in place today. People are still losing their lives in prison," Tuncel protested further.

Referring to their current prison conditions, Sebahat Tuncel stated, "None of the applications or requests for rights and freedoms that we make end in our favor. Just as the ones outside have the freedom of assembly, demonstration and expression, the ones inside also have the right to raise their voices against the wrong policies of the state."

Noting that there are "racist trials at courts", she said, "You may say you don't do it, but I am on trial because I am Kurdish. In Turkey, the rulings on Kurds, women, laborers are unfortunately racist rulings."

Sebahat Tuncel also referred to the killing of HDP's Deniz Poyraz in the HDP İzmir office in an armed attack: "While this trial was ongoing, a young friend of ours, Deniz Poyraz, was massacred."

'To make the ones they cannot kill miserable...'

In the second half of the session, HDP's arrested former Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ took the floor and started speaking by commemorating late Garibe Gezer, who suspiciously lost her life in an alleged suicide the Kandıra Prison in Kocaeli a few months after she announced that she had been sexually assaulted and subjected to systematic torture in prison.

Yüksekdağ said that "the death of Garibe Gezer is a very concrete, open and clear picture of the inhumanity of the justice and prison system in Turkey." She raised concerns that "four deceased bodies were taken out of prisons over the past week and three of them were ill prisoners."

Defining this situation as a "murder and massacre", Figen Yüksekdağ then moved on to talk about the Kobanî trial.

"Not a single word in this indictment is about me but I am talking about this indictment," she said, noting, "This case is the case of making the ones whom they cannot kill miserable." Arguing that "they are trying to kill the people in this case as well," Yüksekdağ briefly added:

"You brought Ahmet Türk just two hours ago. You made him leave his sickbed. Ahmet Türk was brought to court by force.

"The prosecutor is trampling upon the order given to him, he is hurling threats. 'Bring him by force.' A pressure is exerted by hinting at arrest, people are made to leave their sickbed and brought here."

She also protested the "threat of bringing by force" against Aysel Tuğluk, a politician and ill prisoner arrested as part of the Kobanî case.

'Garibe's death is a feminicide'

After Figen Yüksekdağ, dismissed Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Gültan Kışanak also referred to the death of Garibe Gezer in prison.

"Garibe did not bow down, she did not bow down to atrocity. We are a witness to this atrocity. Her passing is a feminicide," she said, underlining that "it is a murder, be that a suicide or a killing by others."

"If a woman comes up in a place where such traditional methods are so prevalent and says that she was harassed and raped and nothing is done about it, everyone, primarily the government, Justice Ministry, prosecutor and prison administration is responsible for this."

Kışanak said that "prisons have turned into a system where the ones whom they cannot kill are made miserable."

One of the most significant points is the perception of the enemy that has been created. They may believe in other values than yours. Why an enemy? Everyone has started seeing each other as enemies. I want to trust the wardens here but I cannot do so because of the perception of the enemy that has been created. Captives are the victims of this country's perception of hostility, its system of hostility. All of these are responsible for Garibe Gezer's death.

The trial will continue today (December 21).

(AÖ/SD)