(PEN/IFEX) – The following is a 22 October 2002 PEN American Center and PEN USA West press release, followed by an 11 October 2002 PEN letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft: PEN Protests U.S. Treatment of Turkish Rights Champion Writer and Political Scientist Haluk Gerger, Wife Barred Entry on […]
(PEN/IFEX) – The following is a 22 October 2002 PEN American Center and PEN USA West press release, followed by an 11 October 2002 PEN letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft:
PEN Protests U.S. Treatment of Turkish Rights Champion
Writer and Political Scientist Haluk Gerger, Wife Barred Entry on October 1, 2002; PEN Presses for Explanation, Reinstatement of Visa
New York and Los Angeles, October 22, 2002 – PEN American Center and PEN USA West, the two U.S.-based centers of International PEN, today released copies of a letter they have sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft demanding that the State Department re-issue a visa to Haluk Gerger, a prominent Turkish writer and human rights
activist who was denied entry by immigration officials at Newark International Airport on October 1, 2002. In releasing the letter, representatives of both centers of the global writers’ association called the action a troubling example of how aspects of post-9/11 anti-terror legislation appear to undercut positions and values the U.S. has long advanced overseas. PEN also expressed fears that new visa restrictions may affect the free movement of peoples and ideas at a time when open international exchanges are critical to the success of U.S. policy initiatives.
Haluk Gerger is a respected writer and political scientist who was imprisoned twice in Turkey in the 1990s for articles relating to the armed conflict with Turkey’s Kurdish minority. In 1994 and 1995, the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights country reports cited the jailing of Professor Haluk Gerger as an example of how the Turkish government has misused Anti-Terror laws to violate the free speech rights of writers, journalists, publishers, academics, and students. In 1999, with Professor Gerger again under indictment and facing additional jail terms, the United States offered an even more concrete kind of solidarity, issuing Gerger a 10-year visa. But this month, when Gerger and his wife landed at Newark airport for a U.S. visit, he was informed that his visa had been cancelled by the State Department. He was photographed and fingerprinted, and the
couple was forced to return to Europe.
In their joint letter to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General [see below], PEN American Center and PEN USA West note that prior to September 11, 2001, the United States consistently protested the jailing of writers and journalists under anti-terror laws in Turkey and actively sought to preserve their right to seek, receive, and impart information, including their right to travel to the United States. Warning that withdrawing such support could weaken U.S. efforts to promote democratization and human rights around the world, PEN requests a review of the decision to deny Professor Gerger entry into the U.S. and an immediate reinstatement of his visa.
“If we allow the Turkish government to brand Haluk Gerger a terrorist because he has exercised his rights of free expression, then the word ‘terrorist’ has been deprived of all meaning,” said K. Anthony Appiah, Chair of the Freedom to Write Committee of PEN American Center. “Surely
what we need now, above all, is to strengthen the hands of the friends of human rights around the world, not to join with those who would persecute them.”
Aimee Liu, President of PEN USA West, agreed. “Professor Gerger has put not only his professional reputation but his life in jeopardy for championing freedom of speech. The U.S. government’s humiliation of the Gergers is inexplicable and shameful,” she said.
PEN American Center and PEN USA West are two of the largest in a global network of 131 centers around the world that make up International PEN. PEN’s mission is to promote literature and protect free expression whenever writers or their work are threatened. Internationally, PEN defends writers from censorship, harassment, and imprisonment, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, in the United States PEN defends the First Amendment and protects free speech through sign-on letter campaigns, direct appeals to policy makers, participation in lawsuits and intervention in legal cases, awards for First Amendment
defenders, and public events.
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PEN letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft
October 11, 2002
The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State
US Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
FAX: 202-261-8577
The Honorable John Ashcroft
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
FAX: 202-307-6777
Dear Secretary Powell and Mr. Attorney General:
We are writing on behalf of more than 3,500 professional writers who are members of PEN American Center and PEN Center USA, the two U.S.-based centers of International PEN, to express our shock over reports that Turkish journalist, writer and political scientist Dr. Haluk Gerger was recently denied entry to the United States.
According to information we have received from our international colleagues, Dr. Gerger and his wife flew to the United States on October 1, 2002, and presented their passports, complete with U.S. visas issued in 1999 and valid for 10 years, to U.S. officials at Newark Airport. At that moment, Professor Haluk was informed that his visa had been cancelled by the U.S. State Department. With no plausible explanation for his treatment, he was reportedly photographed and fingerprinted, and he and his wife were forced to return to Munich on the immediate outbound flight.
As you must know, Professor Gerger is well known in Turkey for his work as a writer, academic, and human rights activist, and he has earned an international reputation for his courage in challenging restrictions on freedom of expression in Turkey – challenges that earned him two prison
terms in the 1990s. International PEN vigorously protested both sentences, secured under anti-terror laws that the United States and European nations consistently condemned as serving to restrict the Turkish people’s universally-guaranteed right to freedom of expression. PEN was not alone in protesting Professor Gerger’s prison sentences: the U.S. State Department cited his case in discussions of misuse of anti-terror laws in its 1994 and 1995 Country Reports on Human Rights, and issued him a visa in 1999 despite the fact that he was facing trial proceedings in the Ankara State Security Court on yet more charges connected to his statements and writing. In Europe, meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights found that Professor Gerger had been unjustly imprisoned under Turkey’s anti-terror laws.
What was wrong before September 11, 2001 remains wrong today. Nothing can alter the fact that Turkey has used and continues to use overly-broad anti-terror legislation to suppress the opinions and ideas of Professor Gerger and hundreds like him. Before September 11, 2001, the United States
consistently protested such treatment, expressed concern for Professor Gerger and many other writers, journalists, and intellectuals like him, and actively sought to preserve their right to seek, receive, and impart information, up to and including their right to travel to the United States. To withdraw this support now – worse, to reverse course and join in abridging these rights – can only weaken U.S. efforts to promote democratization and human rights around the world.
We therefore respectfully request that your offices conduct thorough reviews of the decision to deny Professor Gerger entry to the United States and take action to renew his visa immediately.
Sincerely,
JOEL CONARROE
President, PEN American Center
AIMEE LIU
President, PEN Center USA
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State
US Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: +202 261 8577
The Honorable John Ashcroft
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Fax: +202 307 6777
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
