The new lawsuits and the nearly completed trials forced the 13-year-old Initiative Against Thought Crime to restart its “civil disobedience” activities to draw attention to the arrangements against the freedom of expression. They announced their decision yesterday (May 5) at a press release given at Üsküdar Hall of Justice in İstanbul.

Yurdatapan: Peaceful expression of a thought cannot be sued

The individuals who took part in the civil disobedience act signed a proclamation that said they knew the meaning and outcome of what they were doing and signed it with their free will. The initiative spokesperson Şanar Yurdatapan reported their crimes to Üsküdar public prosecutor’s office on behalf of the activists.

Keskin: I hope this activity will help our voice be heard

Keskin, Allınak, Nalcı, Seropyan, Tunç are accused, Ersoy is under investigation

Following the demand by the general staff, the lawyer Keskin was sued for her interview with the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel on June 24, 2006, which was construed as “denigrating the Turkish Armed Forces.”

The former DEP deputy Alınak was sued for being in violation of the 1928 Law of the Acceptance and Application of Turkish Letters, according to Article 222 of the Turkish Penal Code.    

The singer Bülent Ersoy’s words during a television program are under investigation for “alienating people from doing their military service.” The singer Ferhat Tunç is accused for “doing the propaganda of a terrorist organization”.

Civil disobedience again…

Since the beginning of the “civil disobedience” activity at the time when Yaşar Kemal, a famous writer from Turkey, was called to the State Security Court in 1995 for his article published in Der Speigel, more than eighty thousand people have taken part in the “crimes” of the others by giving signatures to seven books and forty-eight booklets. (EÖ/TB)