Writer Cezmi Ersöz who is facing three years in prison for “alienating people from military service” will appear before court at the 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance of Beyoğlu, Istanbul on October 30.

A lawsuit was filed against Ersöz for his article titled “Askerliğin Dönüşü Güzeldir” (Coming back from the army is beautiful), which appeared in periodical Leman on September 5, 2007.

The reason for the lawsuit was the following passage:

“Army was the hell for the naïve young people. If I live long enough, I would like to write a novel out of this savagery…Friends who have gone to the army out of helplessness, do not feel bad, if you can at least come back from there with optimistic thoughts about this society - yes, optimistic – then you may realize that this is and will be a much better society without its military and you will console yourself with this thought.” 

Ersoy: If I am on trial then it is because of a misunderstanding

In addition to Ersöz, the trial of transsexual singer Bülent Ersoy will also appear before court on the same day. Ersoy is accused of alienating people from military service through her words during a TV program, where she said if she had a son she would not send him to fight in the Northern Iraq operations.

In the last hearing of her trial, Ersoy had defended her words by saying, “If asking for solution rather than death is treason or alienating people from military service, then this is a problem of understanding. I am here because I was misunderstood.”

“I simply showed my reaction to a comment by another speaker regarding the death of our sons. I had no intention of committing crime. There is nothing criminal in what I said anyways.”

The court ended the hearing with the decision to wait for the statements of some of the complainants. The trial will continue on October 30.

What does the law say?

According to article 318 of the Turkish Penal Code, “(1) Anyone caught encouraging or suggesting alienation of people from the military service or does propaganda towards this goal will be sentenced to prison from six months to two years. (2) If this act is done through media then the sentence will be doubled.” (EÖ/EÜ/TB)