Skip to content
Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Kurdish Centre for Human Rights

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme

  • Home
  • About us
    • Status
    • Activities
  • Reports
    • Iran
    • Iraq
    • Syria
    • Turkey
  • OHCHR
    • KCHR
  • News
    • Press Releases
    • Women
    • Children
    • Prisons
    • War Crimes
  • Contact
  • Fr
  • Toggle search form

Constitutional Court clears 9 academics who signed peace appeal

Posted on July 27, 2019August 4, 2019 By admin

The Constitutional Court in Turkey has ruled that the freedom of expression of 9 academics who appealed for peace in the country has been violated.

The nine academics, Füsun Üstel, İbrahim Garip, Yasemin Gülsüm Acar, Ayda Rona Aylin Altınay Cingöz, Melda Tunçay, İzzeddin Önder, Canan Özbey, Nazlı Ökten Gülsoy and Zübeyde Gaye Çankaya Eksen, had been convicted on charges of “making propaganda for an illegal organisation” because they signed a peace petition in 2016.

Now the Costitutional Court has ruled that this conviction violated their right to freedom of expression.

In concrete terms this would mean that academics can no longer be convicted, the restriction of the freedom to travel is therefore invalid, and academics can also obtain passports. Likewise previous convictions yet must be revoked and the dismissed academics must start their work again. It remains to be seen how quickly these decisions are implemented.

The petition for peace was launched on 11 January 2016 and called for a restart to peace negotiations between the PKK and the government, criticizing military operations in the majority Kurdish south-east regions of Turkey. A total of 2,212 academics signed it.

Over 700 have been charged with “making propaganda for an illegal organization”, with several convicted and sentenced to up to three years in jail.

On 3 March 2019, a regional appeals court confirmed one year and three months prison sentence of one of the signatories, Professor Zübeyde Füsun Üstel. She was released from prison on 22 July following a court decision suspending the execution of her sentence pending an appeal. She is one of the applicants in the case the Constitutional Court decided upon on 26 July 2019.

Hundreds of the signatories were also arbitrarily dismissed or forced to resign from their jobs at various public and private universities in Turkey.

Of those dismissed, 406 are also banned from public service for life as they were discharged through executive decrees issued during the two-year state of emergency for unspecified “links to terrorist organizations.

News, Turkey

Post navigation

Previous Post: Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyer: Time is up, isolation is continuing!
Next Post: 3 August: Call for an International Day of Action against Feminicide

More Related Articles

UN urge Iraq to halt mass executions Iraq
Balance of Turkish invasion attacks Iraq
UN Commissioner: Turkey hinders our investigations in the South East News
Ill prisoners are dying Prisons
Lawyer Demir says no legal ground for most trials of co-mayors News
Turkey’s weapon against resistant people: Water News

About us

The Kurdish Center for Human Rights was established in Geneva in 2000, according to the Suisse civil law. In response to the genocide, war crimes and human rights violations occurring across the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria.

The KCHR, as a non-profit organization of social utility, was born from the need to  inform the European and Swiss people and the OHCHR on human rights violations against the Kurds via seminars and other dialogue platforms and to attend their meetings; to establish a dialogue with NGO’s, civil movements, associations, government and civil institutions.. Read More….

Contact

Centre Kurde des Droits de l’Homme
Kurdish Center for Human Rights

15, Rue des Savoises, 1205 Genève – Suisse
Tel :+41 (0)22 328 1984
Email: info@kurd-chr.ch / kurd.chr.geneve@gmail.com
Web : http://www.kurd-chr.ch

Compte : Post Finance – CENTRE KURDE
IBAN: CH40 0900 0000 17763911 5

Recent Posts

  • Regarding Turkish State’s and Iraq’s attacks to Maxmur Refugee Camp
  • Istanbul murder of street musician racially motivated, says Kurdish politician
  • (no title)
  • International groups demand release of Kurdish journalists, lawyers, party officials
  • HRW calls on Turkey to free, end harassment of journalists, party officials, lawyers

Search

September 2023
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Jun    

Information

  • Regarding Turkish State’s and Iraq’s attacks to Maxmur Refugee Camp
  • Istanbul murder of street musician racially motivated, says Kurdish politician
  • International groups demand release of Kurdish journalists, lawyers, party officials
  • HRW calls on Turkey to free, end harassment of journalists, party officials, lawyers

Archives

Copyright © 2023 Kurdish Centre for Human Rights.

Powered by PressBook Green WordPress theme