AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Political scientist, author, and journalist, Dr. Haluk Gerger was imprisoned on 26 January for an article he wrote in 1993 for the now banned Kurdish daily Ozgur Gundem. He was sentenced by the State Security Court to ten months in prison and fined 208 million Turkish lira (approximately US$1,000) under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law, which bans the dissemination of separatist propaganda.

Addressing a press conference organized before Dr. Gerger was incarcerated, Akin Birdal, General Secretary of the Turkish Human Rights Association, said, the writers of civilized countries wait at the entrances to the operas and theaters with tickets in their hands, however writers in Turkey wait at the gates of prisons with verdicts in their hands.

Dr. Gerger is a founding member of the Turkish Human Rights Association. He is an ardent defender of Kurdish rights, although not a Kurd himself. His writings on the issue and his criticism of governmental policies in response to the thirteen-year armed conflict between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces in the southeast of Turkey have previously resulted in heavy fines and prison terms.

Dr. Gerger is among a number of social scientists in Turkey who have been prosecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression. He is a former assistant professor at the University of Ankara, a well-known intellectual, and a respected writer on nuclear weapons strategy. Dr. Gerger was educated at the Paul Nitze School of International Studies (SAIS) of John Hopkins University in Washington, DC, Stockholm University in Sweden, and Hertford College, in Oxford, England.

Following the 1980 military coup, the university system in Turkey was restructured. Dr. Gerger was among hundreds of professors fired from their posts. He has not taught at a university in Turkey since that time. Dr. Gerger was sentenced to 20 months in prison and fined 208,000,000 Turkish lira (approx. US$5,000) for sending a letter in May 1993 to a memorial meeting for three prisoners who were executed in 1972.

According to the recently released U.S. Department of State Human Rights Country Reports for 1997, the Government continued to use the 1991 Anti-Terror Law, with its broad and ambiguous definition of terrorism, to detain both alleged terrorists and others on the charge that their acts, words, or ideas constituted dissemination of separatist propaganda. Prosecutors also used Article 312 of the Criminal Code (incitement to racial or ethnic enmity), Article 159 (insulting the Parliament, army, republic, or judiciary), the law to protect Ataturk (no. 5816), and Article 16 of the Press Law to limit freedom of expression.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists, which in 1997 identified Turkey for the thrid time as the worst offender in the jailing of journalists, wrote a letter of protest to Prime Minister Yilmaz, stating that it believes that Dr. Gerger has been imprisoned for aving carried out his professional duties as a journalist, and the act [to confine him] was a violation of the right to free expression as guaranteed under international law.

The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program honored Dr. Gerger during the 1996 AAAS Annual Meeting in recognition of the contribution he has made, through both action and example, to the promotion and protection of human rights in Turkey.

The petition will be sent to Turkish government officials on February 20. On-line signatures will be added to signatures gathered during the 1998 AAAS annual meeting, which takes place from February 12-16.

The prosecution of Dr. Gerger on the basis of his expression of his views and his political affiliation represents a serious violation of fundamental human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the United Nations without opposition in 1948) guarantees:

• freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 18);
• freedom of expression (Article 19);
• freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association (Article 20); and
• freedom for individuals to take part in the government of their country, directly or through elected representatives (Article 21).

In addition, Turkey was one of the original ratifiers of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which recognizes:

• the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9);
• the right to freedom of expression (Article 10); and
• and the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of association (Article 11).

As a signatory of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Turkey also has agreed to abide by basic principles of human rights incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international documents.

(Sources of information on this case include the Interparliamentary Human Rights Foundation, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, and a personal interview with Dr. Gerger, 1995.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send faxes, telegrams or air mail letters:

• requesting the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Gerger and all other political prisoners imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their opinions; and
• urging the Turkish government to abide by its international obligations by repealing all Turkish legislation that restricts freedom of expression.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

President Suleyman Demirel
Office of the President
Cumhur Baskanligi
06100 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 468 5026


Oltan Sungurlu
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06559 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 417 3954

COPIES SENT TO:

Ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
1714 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036


Ambassador Mark Parris
Embassy of the United States of America
Ataturk Blvd.
PSC 93, Box 5000
Ankara, Turkey
APO AE 09823
Fax: 011 90 312 467 0019

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