Today (on 1 November 2011) Ragıp Zarakolu, the Human Rights Association’s Honour Board Member and Büşra Ersanlı, Lecturer at the Marmara University (Istanbul) Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations, were arrested on charges of “being a member of an illegal organisation -Koma Ciwaken Kurdistan-Kurdistan Communities League /Assembly of Turkey (KCK/TM), the KCK is the intend to organize the Kurdish people as an umbrella organization that includes Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)” under Article 314 of TPC by İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 14.
They had been detained with 48 people –mostly members and executives of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)- on 28 October 2011 when police raided on the BDP’s various offices in Istanbul Province, including the BDP’s Istanbul Politics Academy.
We think that Ragıp Zarakolu, who has been the chairperson of the Committee of Freedom of Publishing of the Publishers Union of Turkey, became a target of the authorities after he had been awarded by the founders of the Armenian Human Rights Association with the Hakop Meghapart Medal of Honour Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded for his contribution to the publication of the Armenian history, culture and literature in Turkey.
Büşra Ersanlı, a member of the Constitution Committee and the Party Assembly of the BDP was arrested in connection with the lecture she had performed in BDP’s Istanbul Politics Academy.
This is not only an attack on the freedom of organisation and of expression but also on the attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish Issue.
We are seriously concerned with the physical and psychological integrity of the pre-trial detainees that were arrested on 1 November 2011. The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Zarakolu, Ersanlı and others and put an end to any kind of harassment – including at the judicial level against them.
Human Rights Association (IHD)
Chairperson
Öztürk Türkdoğan