16 February 2021
JOURNALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY ARE NOT CRIMES:
İHD’s Co-Chairperson Emire Eren Keskin Did Not Commit a Crime
In 2016 an investigation was launched into İHD’s Co-Chairperson Attorney Emire Eren Keskin on the grounds that in 2014 and 2015 she served as the editor-in-chief of the daily Özgür Gündem which was a part of the tradition of the Kurdish free press and was closed down by the emergency decree no. 675 on 29 November 2016. The İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court delivered its judgment yesterday on 15 February 2021 in the Özgür Gündem main case, which was initiated in 2016 within the scope of the same investigation against a total of 9 intellectuals, authors, journalists and human rights defenders including Atty. Keskin. In its judgment no. 2020/51, the İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court with special powers to try offenses within the Anti-Terrorism Code (ATC) sentenced the managing editor of the daily İnan Kızılkaya, its then editor-in-chief Emire Eren Keskin, and its publisher Kemal Sancılı to 6 years and 3 months imprisonment individually for membership in an illegal armed organization. The court also sentenced the other editor-in-chief of the daily, Bilir Kaya, to 1 year 3 months imprisonment under Article 7 § 2 of the ATC for disseminating propaganda of an illegal armed organization. While the trial was pending within the scope of this case, other defendants, namely Aslı Erdoğan, Ayşe Necmiye Alpay and Bilge Aykut Contepe were acquitted of the charges in question on 14 February 2020 while a separation of files decision was delivered for Filiz Koçali and Ragıp Zarakolu, for whom there were pending arrest warrants. Eren Keskin, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Sancılı and Zana Bilir Kaya -among the other defendants with a separation of files decision- were granted an extension for their defense and the trial was finalized with imprisonment sentences on 15 February 2021. The sentenced defendants’ lawyers appealed the judgment.
The “editor-in-chief on call” campaign was launched on 3 May 2016 by intellectuals, authors, artists, human rights defenders, journalists and activists because of the crackdown on daily Özgür Gündem including investigations and trials. The campaign ended on 7 August 2016. 49 out of 56 editors-in-chief on call who participated in the campaign faced investigations, while 11 of these ended up in non-prosecution decisions, 38 became lawsuits. 38 editors-in-chief on call stood trial for violating Article 7 § 2 of the ATC (disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization) and Article 6 § 2 of the ATC (printing and publishing declarations or statements of terrorist organizations) before heavy penal courts in İstanbul. Murat Çelikkan and Ayşe Düzkan who were sentenced to 18 months in prison within the scope of these cases were imprisoned for a couple of months. Editors-in-chief Erol Önderoğlu, Ahmet Nesin and Şebnem Korur Financı were, too, detained on 20 June 2016 and imprisoned for 10 days. This case is still pending. Most of the imprisonment sentences and fines delivered within the scope of these cases were deferred but they are pending before the Court of Cassation due to an amendment introduced to Article 7 § 2 of the ATC through Law No. 7188 and due to the fact that appeals became available for such cases.
Journalist Hüseyin Aykol, who served as the editor-in-chief of the daily Özgür Gündem during the same time as Eren Keskin, faced about 60 investigations and lawsuits because he was in Ankara. Mr. Aykol, who was imprisoned for the enforcement of the finalized sentences against him, was released in October 2019 because his files were transferred to the Court of Cassation as Law No. 7188 went into force. Mr. Aykol is working as a journalist under the threat of imprisonment.
It is clear that even acting in solidarity with the daily Özgür Gündem was assessed to constitute a crime on its own and Turkey’s prominent intellectuals were imprisoned and are still being subjected to judicial harassment.
İHD’s Co-Chairperson Emire Eren Keskin acted as the symbolic editor-in-chief in 2014 and 2015 in order to stand in solidarity with the daily. Investigations and lawsuits against the daily Özgür Gündem, which had not been launched during the peace and resolution process, were initiated in 2016 following the fall of the peace process and virtually became the symbol of how freedom of expression was being sentenced in Turkey. If statements and publications, which were not considered offenses in a specific conjuncture, are now regarded as offenses as the circumstances change, then freedom of expression is not guaranteed in that country. What has been happening in Turkey boils down to this. Rights in Turkey are exercised to the extent that the political power allows and their exercise is punished through the judiciary when it does not.
The European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) issued an “opinion on the measures provided in recent emergency decree laws with respect to the freedom of the media” in Turkey on 24 February 2017 (Opinion No. 872/2016) and pointed out that the prevalent use of the ATC and Articles 220 and 314 of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) against journalists, human rights defenders and opposition politicians constituted a clear violation of freedom of expression. Yet Turkey maintained its judicial practice on this matter. Turkey has only recently introduced an amendment to Article 7 § 2 of the ATC through the first judicial package, which was adopted by Law No. 7188, putting forth that criticism and publications aiming to inform the public could not be regarded to constitute an offense and made appeals available before the Court of Cassation for imprisonment sentences delivered within the scope of freedom of expression. However, as is seen in the Özgür Gündem main case, whether an act constituted a criminal offence was arbitrarily assessed and designated while the court delivered imprisonment sentences under membership in an illegal armed organization although it had nothing to do with the case whatsoever insinuating that freedom of expression supposedly did not cover the case at hand. The Venice Commission, in fact, had clearly expressed the state of affairs in 2017.
Moreover, the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey provides an extensive account of the ways in which freedom of expression has been punished in Turkey.
Under Article 90 of its very own Constitution, Turkey is obligated to abide by the ECHR and comply with pilot judgments delivered by the ECtHR, the jurisdiction of which it has recognized within the scope of the convention. Yet it does not even comply with judgments that are directly about persons -as is seen in the cases of Demirtaş v. Turkey and Kavala v. Turkey. Such state of affairs reveals the fact that Turkey is committed to human rights mechanisms merely in appearance and is not willing to fulfill its obligations set forth by these mechanisms.
It is not a coincidence that the main Özgür Gündem case took place on such a significant date in Kurdish history as 15 February. The political power has shown through the judiciary that it would not allow Kurds to work in the civilian democratic field and freedom of expression as well and would continue to sustain its official ideology by even punishing human rights defenders working for the rights of Kurdish people if need be. This is quite alarming and dangerous.
The international public should see the authoritarian regime in Turkey and fulfill its responsibility to facilitate Turkey’s evolution to a regime based on democracy and human rights values.
Consequently, Emire Eren Keskin is a prominent human rights defender well-known and respected in Turkey and the world. Eren Keskin exercised her right to freedom of expression in solidarity with Özgür Gündem. The other individuals sentenced to imprisonment are journalists. Human rights advocacy and journalism are not crimes. İHD will continue to fight for justice in order for this sentence to be quashed at the appeals stage.
Human Rights Association