Mehmet Tarhan, a Turkish gay activist and conscientious objector, has won major improvements in his prison conditions following a 28-day hunger strike and an international protest campaign by gay and anti-war groups worldwide – but he remains in detention following his refusal to be conscripted into the Turkish army.

“The armed forces of Turkey are currently engaged in a brutal, dirty war against the Kurdish minority – often involving massacres, torture and detention without trial”, said Peter Tatchell of the gay rights group OutRage!, which is backing Mr Tarhan’s refusal of military service.

“We support Mehmet’s refusal to serve in the homophobic Turkish army and his refusal to fight an unjust war against the Kurdish people. His defiance of the Turkish military authorities is heroic and inspirational.

“Mehmet is in grave danger. Opponents of the Turkish armed forces are often tortured and sometimes murdered.

“It is important that Mehmet Tarhan and his supporters know that people are organising internationally to protect his life and to support his right to conscientious objection,” said Mr Tatchell.

We urge people to write letters or postcards to:

Mehmet Tarhan, 5. Piyade Egitim Tugayi, Askeri Cezaevi, Temeltepe –
Sivas, Turkey

Mr Tarhan been detained since 8 April 2005 in the military prison of Sivas (eastern Turkey), where he has been brutally attacked many, many times, with the collusion of the military and prison authorities.
(  http://www.refusingtokill.net/Turkey/ReleaseMehmet.htm ).

When Mr Tarhan appeared before a military court on 9 June, the judge released him – a great victory for him and the international solidarity movement that is supporting him.

But the military authorities immediately detained him again, in open violation of international law. They sent him back to Sivas military prison. He now faces another trial on 12 July.

International support is urgently needed now, to insist that all the charges against Mr Tarhan be dropped and that he be released immediately from jail.

Mr Tarhan went on a 28-day hunger-strike in protest against his treatment in prison, and on 21 June won his demands: a cell of his own to protect him from abuse by other prisoners, to receive his mail regularly, access to books, to make his own tea, a TV, and an examination by civilian physicians who visited him and declared him in good health. The necessary treatment following his hunger strike has now begun.1

So far there have been protest letters to the Turkish authorities from Peter Tatchell of the gay rights group OutRage!, and from groups in Argentina, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland and US.

Stephen Funk, a gay man who was the first US soldier to publicly refuse to serve in Iraq, wrote to the Turkish government ( http://www.refusingtokill.net/Turkey/MehmetFunkLetter.htm ).

There have been demonstrations in Frankfurt and Athens.

Many organizations have lobbied Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and many MEPs have declared their support, including UK Green MEP, Caroline Lucas.

Given the negotiations for Turkey’s entry into the European Union, MEPs’ intervention is proving crucial in securing Mr Tarhan’s safety.

In Turkey there have been marches for Mr Tarhan on Harbiye military and Incirlik air bases; banners, flyers and chanting at May day rallies in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Malatya; readings from his prison letter at the Izmir anti-militarism festival; letter writing campaigns; press conferences/demonstrations; and support in the court itself. Many organizations are involved: antimilitarists, lesbian & gay, women’s and human rights groups, anarchists.

Mr Tarhan is one of an immense, hidden number of draft evaders – around 350,000 – many also refusing to serve in Turkey’s dirty war against the Kurdish people.

Footnotes:

1 War Resisters International, CO-alert, 22 June 2005
2 Quaker Council for European Affairs: The Right to Conscientious
Objection in Europe: A Review of the Current Situation, 2005.