Turkey Regional Action Network
April 2011
(1) Turkey Blog
Amnesty USA website has three informative
blog articles on updated Turkey’s human
rights issues. They are written by two
Turkey Country Specialists: Dr. William
Jones and Dr. Howard Eissenstat.
The High Cost of Following Your Conscience
in Turkey:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/the-
high-cost-of-following-your-conscience-in-
turkey/
Turkish Troubles: Freedom of Expression
Endangered in Turkey:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/turkish-
troubles-freedom-of-expression-
endangered-in-turkey/
A Turkish Spring? Freedom to Decide,
Freedom to Remember:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/a-
turkish-spring-freedom-to-decide-freedom-
to-remember/
tvw tvwtvw tvw
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(2) Demand the Unconditional Release
of a Conscience Objector,
Halil Savda!
International Conscientious Objectors Day
May 15.
As our March newsletter indicated, Halil
Savda, a human rights defender, has been
sentenced under Article 318 of the Turkish
Penal Code for “alienating the public from
military service” has been confirmed by the
Supreme Court of Appeals. This is the end
of the process in Turkey, and he will serve
100 days in prison.
Amnesty International needs your help with
a petition writing campaign to demand
Savda’s safety and immediate and
unconditional release and to protect his
right to freedom of expression leading up to
International Conscientious Objectors
Day on May 15.
Until he was declared “unfit” for military
service in 2008, Halil Savda was repeatedly
prosecuted and detained in military prison
for his refusal to perform military service in
Turkey for total seventeen months over five
years. Savda still faces ongoing harassment
and imprisonment by the Turkish authorities
for his activities defending the rights of
other conscientious objectors in Turkey
where there is no civilian alternative.
As a human rights defender, Savda has
written articles, given interviews in a
number of newspapers and given public
speeches at protests and meetings against
compulsory military service on many
occasions. He is also the registered owner
of the Savaş Karşıtları (War Resisters)
website in Turkey.
In an interview with the UK newspaper the
Guardian in April 2009, he stated: “Through
my rejection to military service, I said ‘no’
to the conflict that has been going on
between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)
and the Turkish armed forces for the last 25
years. I sent the message to the people of
Turkey not to join the army or the guerrillas
through my conscientious objection. While
strengthening my search for freedom
through my conscientious objection, I gave
the message that security of life can only be
realized through detaching violence from it.
I believe that we need to go beyond
violence and that a culture of non-violence
should flourish.”
Savda has received the 100-day
imprisonment under Article 318 of the
Turkish Penal Code for publically supporting
a conscientious objector, Enver Aydemir,
who was been detained from 2009 to 2010
for refusing to carry out compulsory military
service. Amnesty International is also
concerned about his safety in prison
particularly because use of torture and
other ill treatment by law enforcement
officials and prison guards are common in
Turkey’s prisons. Savda has told Amnesty
International that while detained in 2007,
he was ill-treated, including being kicked
and hit by four officers, having a dirty cloth
shoved in his mouth, kept naked for three
days in a room without chairs or a bed and
forced to sleep on a concrete floor without
even a blanket. These incidents have never
been properly investigated.
Savda faces yet another criminal charges
under Article 318. The other incident took
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place in August 2006, when Savda was
arrested after he gave a public statement in
support of two Israeli conscientious
objectors, Itzik Shabbat and Amir Paster, at
a press conference outside the Israeli
embassy in Istanbul. Itzik Shabbat and Amir
Paster were refusing to participate in the
34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah in
southern Lebanon. Savda has been
sentenced to five months in prison. His case
was reviewed on January 24, 2011 and is
still pending.
Amnesty International (AI) has long been
critical of Article 318, calling the Turkish
authority to immediately repeal. AI has long
concerned with the increasing pattern of
judicial harassment of human rights
defenders and journalists amongst others.
AI considers Article 318 a direct and
unlawful limitation of the right to freedom
of expression resulting in unfair
prosecutions in cases such as Savda’s.
Furthermore, Article 318 is in breach of
Article 10 of the European Convention of
Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), which provide the right to
freedom of expression, conscience and
religion to which Turkey is a signatory.
PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in
Turkish or your own language:
• Asking the authorities to ensure that
Halil Savda is free to continue publishing
articles and making public speeches in
support of conscientious objectors,
without fear of prosecution or
intimidation.
• Expressing concern that in the past Halil
Savda has been repeatedly arrested,
charged and imprisoned for being a
conscientious objector.
• Noting that Halil Savda's two convictions
under Article 318 of the Turkish Penal
Code for allegedly “alienating the people
from the institution of military service,”
 represent a violation of Article 10 of the
European Convention of Human Rights
(ECHR) and Article 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Turkey
is a signatory.
• Urging the authorities to immediately
repeal Article 318 of the Turkish Penal
Code because it is breach of the
European Convention of Human Rights
(ECHR) and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
• Urging the authorities to stop
immediately the prosecutions of
conscientious objectors and to introduce
an alternative civilian service for
conscientious objectors, in line with
European and international standards
and recommendations.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO:
Ministry of Justice
Sadullah Ergin
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90 312 419 3370
Salutation: Dear Minister
Send copies to:
Turkish Ambassador to the U.S.
Ambassador Namik Tan
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
2525 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 202-612-6744
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Other resources:
Public Statement. Turkey: Human Rights
Defender Halil Savda Faces Imprisonment
Again in Turkey (March 14, 2011. AI Index:
EUR44/002/2011)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EU
R44/002/2011/en
Public Statement. Peaceful Protesters
Convicted for ‘Alienating the Public from
Military Service’ in Turkey (June 21, 2010.
AI Index: EUR 44/016/2010)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EU
R44/016/2010/en
Public Statement. Conscientious Objection is
a Human Right not a Personal Disorder
(June 10, 2010. AI Index: EUR
44/013/2010)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EU
R44/013/2010/en
Public Statement. Enver Aydemir released
(June 10, 2010. AI Index EUR44/012/2010)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EU
R44/012/2010/en
A Conscientious Objector in Turkey (April
16, 2009. The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/
16/turkey-human-rights
Public Statement. Alleged ill-treatment of
conscientious objector by military personnel
must be investigated (February 8, 2007. AI
Index: EUR 44/004/2007)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/E
UR44/004/2007/en/5d8fe1ae-d3b3-11dd-
a329-2f46302a8cc6/eur440042007en.pdf