Arrested Diyarbakır Co-Mayor Mızraklı, Öztürkoğlu granted freedom of thought award

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The 18th Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Awards will be granted in a ceremony to be held at the Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Branch at 7 p.m. today (July 27).

While this year's theme has been "Joint Struggle for Human Rights, Democracy and Peace, Justice for Everyone," the Award Commission set up by the İHD, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) and Belge Publishing have decided to grant the 18th Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Awards to Dr. Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı and and human rights defender Gönül Öztürkoğlu.

Removed from office and replaced with a trustee by the Ministry of Interior on August 19, 2019, dismissed Diyarbakır Metropolitan Co-Mayor Mızraklı has been arrested since October 2019.

In its statement about the awards, the İHD has said, "We set the 2019 theme as 'Respect for Human Rights and Return to the Law." Unfortunately, the picture has got much darker today, there has remained no law to return to."

'There are those still struggling'

In its statement, the İHD has said, "In these days when the law has been obviously replaced by arbitrariness and the one-person authoritarian system is gradually getting more established, we witness that whoever says stop to political massacres, enforced disappearances, occupational homicides and feminicides and demands justice is punished."

Underlining that the pandemic has aggravated the existing injustice and violations of rights in the country, especially in terms of healthcare, work life and income distribution, the İHD has noted that "the government has turned the outbreak into an opportunity to enforce its policies of oppression."

"For these reasons, we have set this year's theme as 'Joint Struggle for Human Rights, Democracy and Peace, Justice for Everyone'."

"The process has two facts," the İHD has said: "One of them is an intense pressure and violations of rights and the other one is, despite all this gradually deepening and widening pressure on the entire society, those who want peace and justice, those who write and convey the truths, those who want to keep people alive and want to have a free and fraternal life as well as their struggle, objections and insisting demands for that end."

"In other words, on the one side, there is atrocity and, on the other, there is resistance. And those who resist write history. We greet the ones who do not stay silent with respect," the İHD has concluded its statement.

About Gönül Öztürkoğlu

Human rights defender.

She has been the Executive Board Member of the İHD Malatya Branch since 2013. She has been the Malatya Branch Chair since 2016. She has made significant contributions to the struggle for human rights in Malatya.

She was arrested on November 27, 2018 over her activities at the İHD. Serving 4 months in Elazığ Closed Prison, she was released on March 22, 2019. Her trial ended on December 18. She was sentenced to 6 years, 3 months. Her file still awaits examination by the court of appeals.

About Dr. Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı

Physician and politician. He was elected mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the local elections on March 31, 2019. He was dismissed from his post on August 19, 2019, and was replaced with a trustee. Mızraklı served as an MP from the HDP between June 2018 and March 2019.

He held various positions at the Diyarbakır Chamber of Medicine, including the chairpersonship. He is the founding chairperson and a board member of the Mesopotamia Foundation. He was born in 1963 in Siverek, Urfa in southeastern Turkey. He is currently held at Bünyan Prison in Kayseri.

About Ayşenur Zarakolu Awards

After human rights defender and publisher Ayşenur Zarakolu lost her life in 2002, the İHD İstanbul Branch has been granting Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Award since 2003 to people and organizations who face oppression in terms of human rights, democracy and peace in general, in freedom of thought and expression in particular and do not keep silent and continue to give people hope despite these oppressions.

Previous laureates of the award were as follows:

Ayşe Çelik (in the name of everyone who says, "Don't let children die, don't let mothers cry"), Selahattin Demirtaş (in the name of all arrested MPs and elected), Onur Hamzaoğlu (in the name of physicians arrested and oppressed for demanding peace), Murat Sabuncu (in the name of oppressed journalists), Sezin Uçar (in the name of arrested lawyers), Boğaziçi University students (in the name of all arrested students), Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspaper (in the name of closed newspaper and media organizations), Hasan Ceylan (in the name of all arrested and oppressed human rights defenders).

The 17th Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Awards were granted in a "Respect to Human Rights and Return to Law"-themed ceremony organized by the Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Branch at Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center in Şişli on May 9, 2019. Last year's awards were granted togranted to Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) Chair and forensic science expert Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı, journalist and writer Ayşe Düzkan and rights defender and businessperson Osman Kavala.

(AS/SD)