Network of Concerned Historians (NCH)
NETWORK OF CONCERNED HISTORIANS circular no. 67
Available in pdf-format at http//www.concernedhistorians.org/content/ca.html
Dear colleagues,
Amnesty International reports that in Azerbaijan history student Jabbar Savalan is imprisoned for his peaceful political activities. We hope
that you can send the recommended World Wide Appeal (please see below) immediately. Please remember to write in your professional capacity.
With best wishes,
Antoon De Baets
(Network of Concerned Historians)
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL WORLD WIDE APPEAL
31 October 2011
AZERBAIJAN JABBAR SAVALAN
History student Jabbar Savalan is serving a two and-a-half-year prison sentence in Azerbaijan in response to his peaceful anti-government activism. His activities included using the Facebook website to share a newspaper article criticizing Azerbaijan’s President, and calling for an anti-government protest. On the evening of 5 February 2011, Jabbar Savalan was arrested as he returned home from a meeting of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP) in the city of Sumgayit. He was seized without any explanation or being informed of his rights. He was 19 years old at the time. He was interrogated for two days without access to a lawyer. When he eventually met with his lawyer, Jabbar Savalan said that police had slapped and threatened him until he signed a confession. Police claim to have found 0.74g of marijuana in Jabbar Savalan’s outer jacket pocket. Jabbar Savalan says this was planted on him by the police. Subsequent blood tests showed no traces of drugs, and Jabbar Savalan’s family, friends and classmates told Amnesty International he had no history of drug use. Jabbar Savalan was convicted of possessing illegal drugs for personal use on 4 May 2011. His sentence is due to end in August 2013.
Please write to the President, calling for Jabbar Savalan’s immediate and unconditional release from prison. Say that Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, detained for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. Call for an immediate and impartial investigation into the allegations that police planted evidence on Jabbar Savalan.
SEND APPEALS TO
President Ilham Aliyev
Office of the President of Azerbaijan
19 Istiqlaliyyat Street
Baku AZ1066
Azerbaijan
Fax +99 412 4923543
or +99 412 4920625
Salutation Dear President
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Photograph of Jabbar Savalan
http//www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/documents/TheWire/3729_Wire_OctNov_Insert_web.pdf
Source The Wire [Bi-monthly of Amnesty International]
(October/November 2011), 41, no. 5, Insert.
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Network of Concerned Historians (NCH)
NETWORK OF CONCERNED HISTORIANScircular no. 68
Available in pdf-format at
http//www.concernedhistorians.org/content/ca.html
Dear colleagues,
PEN International reports today that on 28 October 2011 Büsra Ersanli and others were arrested in Turkey. Büsra Ersanli is a highly respected professor of political science and a constitutional law expert at Marmara University in Istanbul. She also wrote extensively on the history of Turkish historical writing since the foundation of the Turkish Republic. She was to attend a conference on «Controversial Issues in the History of the Turkish Republic» at Istanbul Bilgi University on 29 October 2011, but she was taken under custody within the framework of the so-called «KCK operation.» Please see below for case details and context. We hope that you can send the recommended urgent appeal immediately. Please remember to write in your professional capacity.
With best wishes,
Antoon De Baets
(Network of Concerned Historians)
***********
PEN INTERNATIONAL (RAPID ACTION NETWORK)
31 October 2011
RAN 56/11
TURKEY WRITER AND ACADEMIC RAGIP ZARAKOLU ARRESTED ALONGSIDE PROFESSOR BÜSRA ERSANLI
The arrest this weekend of publisher Ragip Zarakolu, one of Turkey’s most prominent freedom of expression and minority rights activists and a leading member of PEN Turkey is greeted with alarm and concern by PEN International. Arrested at the same time was Professor Büsra Ersanli, of the faculty of Political Science at Marmara University. The arrests are part of a larger crackdown initiated in 2009 and still ongoing against Kurdish political parties. PEN is concerned that Zarakolu and Ersanli, alongside several other writers and journalists also detained under this crackdown, are held in denial of their rights to peaceful freedom of expression and association. Ragip Zarakolu and Professor Büsra Ersanli were arrested on 28 October 2011. Forty one people had also been arrested around the same time under what is known as the Democratic Society Congress (Koma Civaken Kurdistan; KCK) operation that has been under way since 2009 leading to several hundred, some say over 1,000, arrests and trials. The KCK is seen as its civil/political wing front for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and thus also illegal.
Human rights groups monitoring the operation have reported concerns over a number of areas including lengthy pre-trial detention without bail (some have been held pending trial since the start of the operation in April 2009), that the charges may be politically motivated, and that fair trial standards are being ignored. Trade union and human rights activists, mayors and local politicians are among those arrested.
Among the organizations being linked to the KCK is the Peace and Democracy Party (Baris ve Demokrasi Partisi; BDP). Thirty BDP representatives took their seats in the Turkish parliament on 1 October. The BDP was created after the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was forcibly closed down in 2009 on accusation of affiliation to the PKK. The BDP has made itclear that is not affiliated to the PKK and that it does not influence its political policy. Despite this, BDP and former DTP members have been arrested and harassed. Some activists claim that over 1,000 have been arrested on charges ranging from speaking Kurdish, making statements critical of the government, as well as having links to the KCK.BACKGROUND
Professor Büsra Ersanli is an academic based at Istanbul’s Marmara university’s Faculty of Political Science and International Relations. She is an expert on constitutional law and at the time of her arrest was working with the BDP’s Constitutional Commission.
Ragip Zarakolu is a well known political activist who 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 the Writers in Prison Committee’s 50th Anniversary Campaign—Because Writers Speak Their Minds. In the days running up to his arrest, he had been campaigning for the release of his son, Deniz Zarakolu, who had been arrested three weeks earlier on 7 October, also under the KCK operation. Deniz is a PhD student of political thought and has translated academic works including Thomas Hobbes’ De Cive.Among the early KCK operation arrests was Muharrem Erbey, lawyer and writer, arrested in December 2009 who is still detained, and his trial is underway. Representatives from PEN Centres have observed his trial. PEN is monitoring the cases of several other writers similarly arrested for links to Kurdish political parties.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS
**Expressing alarm at the arrests of Ragip Zarakolu, Professor Büsra Ersanli and Deniz Zarakolu, as well as the continued detention of Muharrem Erbey, and other writers and journalists accused for their affiliation with Kurdish political parties.
**Referring to concerns that the arrests flout international standards protecting the rights to freedom of expression and association as guaranteed by both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human and Democratic Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory.
**Raising concerns that the trial are politically biased and do not conform to fair trial standards, and seeking assurances that these concerns are addressed as a matter of urgency.
SEND APPEALS TO
**Mr Sadullah Ergin
**Minister of Justice
**06669 Kizilay
**Ankara
**Turkey
**Fax 00 90 312 419 3370
Also to the Turkish ambassador in your country.
**Please contact NCH if sending appeals after 30 November 2011**You have received this email, because you are subscribed to our