Supreme Court Quashed Verdict for Acquittal of Kurdish Singer

The Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber quashed the Malatya High Criminal Court's verdict for the acquittal of Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç. Thereupon, Tunç presented his defence against the reversal of judgement at the Istanbul High Criminal Court on 28 December 2010. He stated, "I believe that the previous decision for my acquittal given by the local court was appropriate and right. Therefore, I request not to follow the Court of Appeals' decision to quash the verdict but to uphold the previous decision. I reiterate my defence previously presented".

The artist's lawyer Ercan Kanar announced to present the actual speech of defence before the High Criminal Court of Malatya (south-eastern Turkey). "The previous decision regarding my client given by the Malatya 3^rd High Criminal Court was appropriate according to the procedures and the law", Kanar declared.

Kanar described the decision of the Court of Appeals as "contrary to the law and doctrine" and requested to hold on to the decision of the local court.

Tunç was tried and later on acquitted of charges of "spreading propaganda for the [illegal] Maoist Communist Party" (MKP) on the grounds of a concert at the 2^nd Nazımiye Düzgün Baba Festival on 12 August 2006. The file was forwarded to the Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber upon the objection of the prosecutor. The Supreme Court quashed the previous verdict and decided to re-try the case.

The Chief Prosecutor had alleged Tunç of "making propaganda for an illegal terrorist organization" by referring to the "memory of the 17'ers" (17 people who died in a military operation against the MKP in 2004). The investigation document mentioned concert visitors chanting slogans such as "Dersim [former name of the Tunceli province] is proud of you" which was evaluated as an alleged "act of supporting crime".

"I knew most of the killed MKP members from my childhood"

In his statement given to the Istanbul Prosecution during the investigation, Tunç had stated that his speech at the concert was to be seen in the context of his thoughts on the Turkish peoples to live in peace.  "I knew most of the MKP members killed in the Mercan Valley in 2004 from my childhood. Nobody can expect me to remain indifferent and silent on this issue. I made a song about this massacre against unarmed, defenceless people, a song that condemns this incident and fully expresses humane feelings. Taking this song as the starting point, it is unacceptable to try to accuse me of assisting and accommodating an illegal organization", Tunç had claimed.

"We wanted to sing songs of peace"

During the actual concert, Tunç said, "We have to overcome and destroy the fears imposed on us. There are armed conflicts in our country, people die - we have to take a stance against that and get rid of our fears. We want to sing songs of peace freely on our ground without fear and worries. Therefore, the clashes have to be brought to an end and all of us have to do whatever we can. Let us altogether say no to war". Tunç's speech was followed by his performance of a song called "No to war". (EÖ/VK)