Following the prosecution, which opened on General Staff’s application, a court case was opened against Journalist Perihan MAGDEN. She was charged with 318 Turkish Penal Code (TCK), “alienating people from the army” since she stated that “Conscientious Objection is a Human Right”. Such an implementation in a country, which has argument about being a democratic country, is a violation of both “Freedom of Expression” that is guaranteed by the Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and principle of “Judicial Independence” that is guaranteed by the Article 6 of the Convention.
Human Rights Association (IHD) regards right of “Conscientious Objection” as “Freedom of Conscience” that is mentioned in the Article 9 of the ECHR. Moreover, IHD accepts “Conscientious Objection” as a human right. People, who have different opinions on such issue, are very normal in a democratic society. Therefore; any evaluations, which are about “Conscientious Objection”, should be accepted in the frame of “Freedom of Expression”. Turkey is not unfamiliar with implementation that is; preventing unfavoured opinions by means of judiciary. However; same-similar implementations after many changes, which carried out to guarantee rights-freedoms, in Law and Constitution are a matter of concern. The issue of penal prosecution, which opened on General Staff’s (highest institute of armed forces) application, brings matter of “judicial independence” up to agenda.
We state that IHD considers the court case against Perihan MAGDEN as the violation of Freedom of Expression. We will follow the process of the court cases.
HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION