(WAN/IFEX) – In an 11 February 2002 letter to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed their serious concern at the prosecution of publisher and editor Fatih Tas. According to reports, Tas, owner and editor of the Istanbul-based Aram Publishing Company, is due to appear in court on 13 February […]
(WAN/IFEX) – In an 11 February 2002 letter to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed their serious concern at the prosecution of publisher and editor Fatih Tas.
According to reports, Tas, owner and editor of the Istanbul-based Aram Publishing Company, is due to appear in court on 13 February on charges of publishing “propaganda against the indivisible unity of the country, nation and State of the Republic of Turkey”. The charges relate to the publication of a lecture given by American linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky on 4 March 2001 in Toledo, Ohio. The lecture was entitled “Prospects for Peace in the Middle East” and Chomsky criticised the United States government for its support of alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by Turkey against its Kurdish minority.
In September, Aram Publishing Company, a publishing house known for its support of Kurdish human rights issues, published a translated collection of Chomsky’s essays and lectures under the title “American Interventionism”. The collection included the transcript of the Toledo lecture.
The indictment quotes two passages from the Toledo lecture: first, Chomsky’s description of Turkey’s treatment of the Kurds as “one of the most severe human rights atrocities of the 1990s” and, second, his remark that the Kurds “have been miserably oppressed throughout the whole history of the modern Turkish state but things changed in 1984. In 1984, the Turkish government launched a major war in the Southeast against the Kurdish population…tens of thousands of people killed, two or three million refugees, massive ethnic cleansing with some 3,500 villages destroyed.”
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the prime minister:
– reminding him that Tas’s prosecution is a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Turkey is a party. The covenant states: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print”
– calling on him to ensure that Tas’s prosecution is halted immediately and that all charges against him are dropped
– urging him to do everything in his power to ensure that Turkey fully respects its international obligations to freedom of expression
Appeals To
The Right Honourable Bulent Ecevit
Prime Minister
Ankara, Turkey
c/o HE Consulate General in France
Email: tcparbsk@worldnet.fr
Please copy appeals to WAN.
