Human Rights Defenders and Academics taken into custody in Turkey

Manfred Nowak, Secretary General of EIUC/Global Campus of Human Rights, is very concerned about Turkey’s detention and prosecution of academics, journalists, and civil society activists with links to the Anatolia Culture Association (Anadolu Kültür) and Osman Kavala's case.

One of them is Meltem Aslan who was graduated in our European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation - EMA / Global Campus Europe in 2004 and she is the companion of Murat Çelikkan, a prominent Turkish HRD, who was awarded the 2018 Civil Rights Defender Award.

Our network and community, among many important NGO's and Governments, urge Turkey to respect and ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms, releasing those held arbitrarily and ensuring fair trial guarantees and judicial independence to all involved.

Turkish police have released 10 of the 13 academics and intellectuals detained on Friday, while formally arresting one person for their alleged involvement in the Gezi Park protests of 2013.
The detention of the 13 people, linked with Kavala's NGO Anadolu Kültür, pertain to their alleged involvement in the nationwide Gezi Park protests of 2013, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office said in a press release on the police operation on Friday. The protests, which started as the defense of a park in central Istanbul, grew to encompass a range of progressive and opposition causes.

The European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur Kati Piri protested the detentions on Twitter: "Another brutal assault on Turkish civil society with the arrests of prominent academics and the entire board of Osman Kavala’s Anadolu Kültür,” she said. "Repeated detentions of critical voices and the continued widespread pressure on civil society representatives run counter to the Turkish government’s declared commitment to human rights and to fundamental freedoms and announced reforms in the field of rule of law and judiciary," the statement said. "The EU will continue to raise these serious issues, including at the forthcoming High-Level Political Dialogue on 22 November," it added.

More info:

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org%2fen%2fcase%2fpolice-operation-against-civil-society-and-academics-0

https://ahvalnews.com/gezi-protests/one-arrested-10-released-following-detentions-organising-gezi-protests?fbclid=IwAR3VOTL5HBrKbgv_IIgx0xjtwE5gKSaHif6ohUB7jI6jhrNcITgNwe4gy6Q

#HumanRightsDefenders #GCHumanRightsPress

(Cover pic AFP File - Frontlinedefenders)

One of our alumni, Meltem Aslan (EMA 2004), was one of the human rights defenders arrested in Turkey on Friday. Now released, she is under a travel ban. Please sign this petition to show your solidarity. https://t.co/LvnuK1wuol

— Global Campus Alumni (@GlobCampAlumni) November 20, 2018