Friday, March 13, 2009

Turkey: Another wave of state terror on socialists:60 arrested in 6 cities

Socialist organisations in Turkey which are continuously under the state terror have been raided again.

As a result of office and house raids by the Turkish police, about 60 people have been arrested and arrest warrants have been issued for many others. The ESP (Socialist Platform of the Oppressed),BEKSAV (Foundation of Science, Education, Aesthetic, Culture and Art Researches), SGD (SocialistYouth Association), EKD (Labouring Women's Association) and Limter-Is (Dockyard Workers'Union) had been the target of such repression also on September 21, 2006 and tens of their leaders and activists were arrested and imprisoned.

On March 10 early in the morning, the police raided the offices of socialist organisations and the houses of their activists simultaneously in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antakya and Mersin.

In Istanbul, the police raided the central office of the ESP and confiscated the hard disks, laptops and many other materials in the office.

At 5:30 in the morning, the police raided the office of the Gunes Agency in Aksaray, Istanbul, where the technical preparation o the newspaper Atilim is carried out, has been raided by the police. A laptop,two hard disks, 46 CDs, letters from the political prisoners and personal notes in the office have been confiscated and Cetin Poyraz has been arrested. At the house raids, Figen Yuksekdag, editor of the newspaper Atilim as well as Onder Oner and Muharrem Demirkiran, correspondents of the newspaper,have been arrested.

The names of the arrested in Istanbul at the police raids on many houses are as follows:

Haci Orman (Head of the Executive Committee of BEKSAV and the chief editor of the review Sanatve Hayat)
Alp Altinors (Among the coordinators of the Academy of Marxist Sciences “Nazim Hikmet”)
Munevver Iltemur (Executive Committee member of the EKD)
Ozan Emre Ozyilmaz (President of the SGDF), Serap Unal (member of the SGD),
Ali Tektas (Executive Committee member of the students' union Genc-Sen)
Yusuf Demir, Kurtulus Sarıkaya, Erhan Calparmak, Hasan Cagin, Irfan Gercek, Zelal Armutlu, Asur
Isbilir, Bulent Kapar, Abbas Duman, Tarik Tepeli, Yuksel Bulut, Yesim Sonmez, Hızır Uzundag,
Hatice Aydemir, Sevilay Atesci and Hasan Ozan from the ESP.

It was learnt that also the house of Cem Dinc, General President of the dockyard workers' union Limter-Is, was raided and his laptop was confiscated, but Dinc was not arrested due to the fact that he was at at home.

The names of the arrested in Ankara as a result of police raids on the office of the ESP and on houses are as follows:

Alihan Alhan, representative of the ESP in Ankara, Cebrail Dogan, Serdar Cimen, Savas Bulut and Sercan Ustundas, activists of the ESP and journalist Hasan Cosar who was arrested in September 2006 and set free a short time ago from prison.

In Antakya, the police arrested Muhsin Cobanoglu, the candidate of the united platform of the revolutionary, democratic and Kurdish patriotic forces for the municipal elections on March 29.Gokben Keskin and Ilker Tatlipinar have also been arrested in the same city.

In Adana
, 13 activists of the ESP have been arrested at house raids. The names of the arrested are as follows:

Hulya Gercek, the representative of the ESP in Adana, Yasemin Tugcu, Baris Cipan, Mehmet Genc, Seval Gundogdu, Halil Gögercin, Burcu Ciplak, Murat Piskinbas, Sabahattin Piskinbas, Celal Mezarci, Ibrahim Yapici, Gulay Turk and Ersin Bilgili.

In Mersin
, Hacer Kocak, Erden Fesli, Esat Suner, Seher Kilisli, Deniz Melih Ozsen have been arrested.

In Izmir, Serife Ozbay form the SGD is under police arrest.
Figen Yuksekdas, editor of the newspaper Atilim, Hasan Cagin, Irfan Gercek, Hatice Aydemir and Sevilay Atesci, activists of the ESP, have been set free on the same day. The others are still under arrest, where they are banned to see their lawyers through a secrecy bench on the case and the lawyers are not informed on the legal pretext of the raids and arrests due to the same reason.

www.we wantfreedom.org info@w ewantfreedom.org

We Want Freedom Campaign
Web: www.wewantfreedom.org
E-mail: info@wewantfreedom.org

Call for International Solidarity

Protests have been raised in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan against the police raids and arrests.Socialist organisations which have exposed to such repression waves and imprisonments for many times before cry out once more the slogan “You are not strong enough to defeat us!”

Just as the previous attacks, this repression wave will neither be able to make the socialists give up their fight for revolution and socialism. The socialist were able to fight back the repression wave of September 8-21, 2006 with the power they got from the working class and labourers as well as from the solidarity raised by the revolutionary and progressive forces inside and outside the country. They will fight back this wave of repression as well and they will continue their march towards the
revolution.

We Want Freedom Campaign calls upon all progressive, revolutionary and communist forces to show solidarity with the arrested socialists and to protest the Turkish state.

Please send your protest letters to the addresses below:

President of the Republic Abdullah Gul: cumhurbaskanlıgı@tccb.gov.tr

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan: hiliskiler@basbakanlık.gov.tr,
bimer@basbakanlık.gov.tr

Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Sahin: buro.mehmetalisahin@başbakanlık.gov.tr

Minister of Internal Affairs Besir Atalay: besir.atalay@icisleri.gov.tr

Please send a copy of your protest letters and solidarity messages to: info@wewantfreedom.org

Long live revolution, long live socialism!

Long live the international solidarity!

We Want Freedom Campaign

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