Turkey: Publisher Ragip Zarakolu fined; Writer Mehmet Güler receives suspended sentence

On 10 March 2011, English PEN’s Honorary Member publisher and free expression activist Ragip Zarakolu was sentenced to a fine, and author Mehmet Güler to a 15-month suspended prison term. The two were convicted of spreading propaganda seen to support the banned Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), following the publication of Mehmet Güler’s book The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds Without a State.

We are troubled by the sentences against Zarakolu and Güler which contravene international standards safeguarding the right to freedom of expression, and which come at a time when the number of arrests of writers and journalists seems to be on the increase. This pattern is particularly disturbing as it follows a period where there was an apparent easing of pressure on journalists, with fewer arrests, trials and convictions. PEN is concerned at what appears to be a reversal of the past positive trend.

Zarakolu is 62 years old and has been fighting for freedom of expression in Turkey for over 30 years, publishing books on issues such as minority and human rights. As one of the 50 writers chosen to represent the struggle for freedom of expression since 1960 for PEN Internatioanal’s Writers in Prison Committee’s 50th Anniversary Campaign – Because Writers Speak Their Minds -  Zarakolu’s case is emblematic of the ongoing struggles many writers, publishers and freedom of expression and human rights activists in Turkey continue to face.
 
TAKE ACTION
 
Please send appeals to the Turkish authorities:

- Welcoming the news that Ragip Zarakolu and Mehmet Güler have not received prison terms;
- Expressing concern that their convictions are in breach of Turkey’s commitments under both Article 19 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights;
- Urging the Turkish government to review all relevant laws with a view to bringing them into accord with international human rights standards, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and European Convention on Human Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory.
 
Send to:
 
Mr Sadullah Ergin
Minister of Justice
06669 Kizilay
Ankara
Turkey
Fax: 00 90 312 419 3370
 
Please also send copies of your appeal letters to the Turkish ambassador in the UK:

His Excellency Mr. Ünal Çeviköz
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
43 Belgrave Square,
London
SW1X 8PA
Fax: 020 7393 9213
Email: ucevikoz@mfa.gov.tr

Finally, please do let English PEN know if you send letters of appeal by emailing cat@englishpen.org