Students sentenced to 13 years in prison in Turkey and how it looks through the window of a foreigner
Turkey which is supposed to have taken giant steps towards “ADVANCED” democracy as often worded by the ruling AK PARTY officials has been receiving some truly harsh criticism not only from local opposition but also from foreign press and related opinion leaders abroad.
As a recent undesired event for instance four students were sentenced to between one and 13 years in prison on terror charges after selling tickets for a Women’s Day event (daily Cumhuriyet reported).
Now in a country with a government claiming to have brought advanced democracy we should not be talking about students being jailed for selling tickets (as if they were selling drugs or something).
When harsh criticism is forwarded towards the government they just try to waive the responsibility saying “The judiciary is there to do its job and the government has no right to interfere etc.”. Whereas we clearly recall many cases in the past when the Constitutional Court took decisions not to comply with the like of AK PARTY and the PM did not refrain from using harshest words (to the degree of insult) in criticism of the court.. But now the situation is certainly different and many believe the judicial system re-organized by the government (after the referendum) is doing a job not to confront the party in power.
This being the case although the government does not seem to take into consideration the criticism from oppositon in Turkey, many politicians, authors, opinion leaders etc abroad are aware of this negative development in the country and thankfully do not refrain from sharing their opinions on the internet, written media etc.
For an example we would like to insert a short opinion about such incidents in Turkey by an American citizen strongly connected to this country.
Editor, 06.02.2012
“Turkish Justice”: Still A Scary Thought?
Posted on February 3rd, 2012 by Jenny White
I saw this in today’s Hurriyet. Um, am I missing something? What is the “criminal” aspect here? This isn’t just students picked up by the police for selling tickets to a Women’s Day Event or attending a music concert. This is students SENTENCED to YEARS in jail for selling tickets and listening to music.
It would be great if the Turkish newspapers followed up on their “stories” and gave us some real information. (I didn’t see anything in the Turkish language papers, but maybe I missed it.)
Yes, the ubiquitous “criminal organization law” (indistinguishable from the “terror law”) was again harshly and unjustly applied, as it has been for anyone even remotely in touch with Kurdish issues or organizations, but where is the presumed “terror” in this particular scenario?
Was it the music?
Four students were sentenced to between one and 13 years in prison on terror charges after selling tickets for a Women’s Day event, daily Cumhuriyet reported.
Seven people, four of whom were university students, were arrested for either selling tickets or attending a March 8 event that featured a concert from left-wing band Grup Yorum in the eastern province of Malatya.
One person was released, while the other six were sentenced to terms varying from one to 13 years. The sentenced suspects were held on charges of being members of a criminal organization and conducting propaganda for a criminal organization.
Members of the main opposition party also attended the hearing.
