The Hrant Dink Society
(Supported by Nor Serount Cultural Association – UK and Armenia Solidarity)
c/o The Temple of Peace, Cardiff
eilian@talktalk.net
07718982732

Hrant Dink Day in the UK Parliament on 19th January 2010

Hrant Dink Day was marked in London with a solemn gathering outside the
Turkish Embassy at 1p.m. and a three hour sequence of well attended
meetings in The House of Commons and the House of Lords, where "Friends
of Belge" was launched. Sponsors of the events were Nia Griffith MP, Dr.
Bob Spink MP and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff. Speakers included the
Istanbul publisher Ragip Zarakolu, the genocide scholar Desmond
Fernandes, Ruth Barnett from the Holocaust Educational Trust, Professor
Khatchatur I. Pilikian, the historian Vardan Tadevossian, Kasim Agpak
from FEDBIR – the Kurdish Federation, Haci Ozdemir from the
International Committee Against Disappearances (British Section) and
Saad Tokatly from Iraqi Christians in the UK.

Ragip Zarokulu spoke about Hrant: "We had dreams together for a
different Turkey, we had dreams together for a different world". He went
on to describe the philosophy underpinning the Turkish ‘deep state’, in
which the ‘minorities’ are viewed as interior enemies and a permanent
threat to national security. This idea is described in the National
Security Document, referred to as the "Red Book", which goes on to state
that it is the army’s responsibility to fight against this "threat".
This concept of the minorities being interior enemies has deep roots in
Turkey going back to 1915. Ragip emphasised the manner in which "the
Turkish State has a double structure, the open structure of the state
apparatus and the ‘deep structure’ which is hidden. The ‘deep’ part in
1915 comprised the special committees who organised the mass killings
during the Genocide. Hrant was open about the reality of the Genocide,
and encouraged Armenians in Turkey, for the first time since the
founding of the Republic, to speak openly about their Armenian identity.
He wanted to show Armenian identity to Turkish society as a base for
peaceful co-existence. [But] even though the Turkish State well knew
that Hrant’s life became endangered from the time that" he was placed
"on a ‘black-list’, they made no effort to prevent his murder. By
killing Hrant, they were killing themselves. Nothing can be the same
again after Hrant’s murder. Turkey has to change or face ending in a
much worse situation".

Ruth Barnett from the Holocaust Educational Trust presented a moving
account of "The shared Jewish and Armenian experience". Desmond
Fernandes observed the manner in which "it is clear that there is a
crisis in Turkey as far as human rights are concerned – human rights,
here, in an individual and collective sense as far as ‘Others’ –
‘Armenians’, ‘Kurds’, ‘Assyrians’, ‘Greeks’, ‘Roma’, ‘Turkish or Kurdish
Alevi’ or ‘Christian Others’, ‘human rights campaigners’, ‘people from
the targeted left’, ‘trade unionist and student Others asking for
collective bargaining rights’, ‘publishers and journalists working on
topics relating to the deep state and/or the plight and acknowledged
identity of the Other in Turkey’ – are concerned. One can,
unfortunately, observe that the spectre – and the reality – of genocide
remains, as defined by Raphael Lemkin, the UN Genocide Convention and by
several distinguished genocide scholars". He also detailed specific
genocidal concerns that had been raised by Abdullah Ocalan, Theoharis
Kekis and KCK Executive Council members Bozan Tekin and Cemil Bayik, and
the frightening dimensions of lynch campaigns against targeted ‘Others’
as well as the ‘Cage Operation Action Plan’ which "was supposedly worked
out as a coup plan by the Naval Forces, targeting non-Muslims"
(Onderoglu). Disturbingly, he noted that several state initiatives seem
to have been designed to politically derail any lasting or meaningful
peace processes with the KCK(Koma Civaken Kurdistan)-PKK (which had
initiated a cease-fire and peace process), or with the Democratic
Society Party (DTP), the mass based pro-Kurdish party which was
constitutionally closed down in December 2009, with criminal proceedings
initiated against its sitting members of parliament. People even from
the newly formed but mass based pro-Kurdish BDP (Peace and Democracy
Party), as well as sitting and former Kurdish mayors and human rights
campaigners were being targeted in a scandalous manner.

Kasim Agpak spoke powerfully about the nature of state terror in Turkey
and the murder and significance of Hrant Dink’s assassination. Vardan
Tadevossian’s presentation emphasised the nature of the ongoing genocide
of Armenians and the extent of destruction of Armenia’s heritage. Saad
Tokatly examined the "Consequences of the Genocide for Assyrians in
Turkey and Iraq" and "The current problems of Assyrians and other Middle
East Christians".

With the launch of ‘Friends of Belge’ [Please refer to the launch appeal
– below], Ragip Zarakolu explained the context in which publishers like
Belge – together with writers and journalists – were still being subject
to criminalisation, targeting and intimidation. In answering questions
from the floor, it became all too evident that Article 301 was – and is
– still being used to curb freedom of expression, despite denials by
certain Turkish officials in this matter. Haci Ozdemir from the
International Committee Against Disappearances (British Section)
detailed the extensive manner in which ongoing Turkish state terror and
criminalisation of writers, journalists and publishers is evident. He
also explained the relevance of holding the International Committee
Against Disappearances’ international conference in London in May this
year.

Professor Khatchatur I. Pilikian’s moving presentation (""Problems with
the terms from Holocaust to Genocide") and conclusion provided much food
for thought:

Poor old Raphael Lemkin! Latter-day sophists are trying to ‘by-pass’
him, particularly now that concepts such as Democracy, Socialism,
Freedom, Human Rights, and what not, are made to lose their essential
meanings, nay even are made to ‘act’ as their antinomies in real life
through their post-modernist, neo-con and neo-liberal abuse. Yes, even
language is experiencing a collateral damage indeed. To top it all, the
recent and most popular President of the USA since J.F. Kennedy, Barak
Obama, chose to use the Armenian term Medz Yeghern=3DBig Crime in his
April 24, 2009 commemorative speech in remembrance of the Genocide of
the Armenians, without ever mentioning the word Genocide, let alone its
modern and precise Armenian equivalence: Tseghsbanoutyoun.

When addressing the American Armenian voters during his presidential
campaigns, the word the distinguished Senator Barak Obama always used,
was Genocide. Naturally, he got most of the American Armenian votes.
[But] as President of USA, Barak Obama chose to ‘balkanise’ Lemkin’s
coinage of the word, singling out one of its national culture dictated
pre-Lemkinian usage, as if unwittingly emulating Prof Haim Bresheeth’s
advice, … thus avoiding the word Genocide. The question remains: Why
President Obama’s archaic choice?

Although the answer is not hard to decipher from the history of the
last century, our turbulent times too will soon teach us new lessons,
granted we are willing to learn and act upon it. As the Preamble of the
Verdict of the prestigious Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal of April 16th
1984 concludes: "Indeed, acknowledging genocide itself is a fundamental
means of struggling against genocide. The acknowledgement is itself an
affirmation of the right of a people under international law to a
safeguarded existence". Let’s pray to God to let this grace of
acknowledgement befall our brethren and sisters of denial, including
those among our own UK Parliamentarians.

For further details of the meetings and presentations, contact Eilian
Williams at: eilian@talktalk.net

or tel: 0771 8982732.

—————————————- –

The Launch of ‘The Friends of Belge’ – An Appeal for Solidarity

As ‘Friends of Belge’, we aim to provide whatever international
solidarity and financial and moral support we can offer Ragip Zarakolu
and Belge Press. ‘Friends of Belge’ will issue regular press releases
and e-bulletins to members alerting ‘friends’, concerned members of the
public, human rights and freedom of expression campaigners,
organisations, MP’s and MEP’s about the ongoing nature of court cases
against Belge and other publishers in Turkey facing similar problems. We
invite you to become a ‘Friend of Belge’ by emailing us – at
friendsofbelge@gmail.com – and informing us of your interest in becoming
a member. There is no fee for membership. If you are able to contribute
in any financial manner towards the solidarity fund, please can you make
payments to the following account:

For UK based Friends: "Friends of Belge Publishing Account", Sort code
40- 16-02, Acc. Number: 11568922

or send a cheque made out to "Friends of Belge Publishing" to "Friends
of Belge Publishing", 7 Nant Ffynnon, Nant Peris, Gwynedd LL55 4UG.

For non-UK based Friends: "Friends of Belge Publishing Account",
International Bank Account Number (IBAN): GB64MIDL40160211568922

Swift Code/Branch Identifier Code MIDLGB2123R

All proceeds go to supporting Belge Press. No sums of money are diverted
in any manner towards those running ‘Friends of Belge’. For any further
information, or to request becoming a ‘Friend’ and/or to receive free
e-mail updates, please contact us at: friendsofbelge@gmail.com or via
Eilian Williams (tel: 07718982732). We hope you will join and support us
in this initiative.

Background

Ragip Zarakolu, the publisher of Belge – alongside the late Hrant Dink
and Gülcin Cayligil – was the recipient of Turkey’s Journalists’
Society’s (TGC’s) Press Freedom Prize in 2007. He also received the
International Publishers Association’s 2008 Freedom to Publish Prize for
his exemplary courage in upholding freedom to publish and has been the
recipient of other awards such as the NOVIB/PEN 2003 Free Expression
Award. In 2007, Ragip also "participated in the 7th Biennial Meeting of
the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), hosted by the
University of Sarajevo’s Institute for Research into Crimes against
Humanity and International Law" and received the "IAGS Award . for
Outstanding Contributions to the Battle against Deniers of the Armenian
Genocide and All Denials of Genocides" (The Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute, 12 July 2007).

Ragip and Belge Press have been subject to targeting in ongoing court
cases in Turkey that clearly breach internationally recognised rights of
free expression. In November 2009, for example, Ragip and writer N.
Mehmet Güler, as defendants, were absurdly "facing prison sentences"
based upon the dialogue of a character in a novel. "Publisher Ragip
Zarakolu stated in … [the 19 November 2009] hearing: ‘As the chairman
of the Committee of Freedom of Expression and Publishing and as a
publisher, I cannot do censorship". Zarakolu is [being] tried …
because of the book More difficult decisions than death (‘Ölümden
Zor Kararlar’) published by Belge Publishing in March [2009] … [The]
defendants are facing prison sentences based on article 7/2 of the
Anti-Terror Law (TMY) because characters of the book are called ‘Siti’,
‘Sabri’ and ‘Siyar’. Zarakolu has been chairman of the Turkey Publishers
Association (TYB) Committee for Freedom of Publishing for 15 years. He
stated: ‘The novel plays in [a] historical period Turkey lived through.
There are similar examples in world literature. Ernest Hemingway’s For
Whom the Bell Tolls, for instance, deals with the Spanish civil war …’
… President Judge Zafer Baskurt reviewed the file and decided to
postpone the case till 25th March 2010. Zarakolu stated that the
pressure ‘has come as far as prosecuting the heroes of a novel’. The
publisher said to Bianet: "This trial is like a present for my 40th year
in journalism" … Istanbul Public Prosecutor Hikmet Usta based his
indictment of 22 May on dialogue in the novel" (BIA, Erol Önderoglu,
20 November 2009).

As Vercihan Ziflioglu noted in a 9th December 2009 article entitled
‘Fictional characters from book on trial in Turkey’: "Fictional
characters are being put on trial again in Turkey. Ölümden Zor
Kararlar (Decisions Tougher than Death), a novel by N. Mehmet Güler
that was published through Belge International Publishing last March,
has become the focus of a criminal case … Author Güler and publisher
Zarakolu are standing trial at the Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes. The
novel was added to the list of banned books in June and copies have been
recalled from the market . Many writers and translators have been put on
trial in recent years under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The
first example of imaginary characters standing trial occurred with Elif
Safak’s novel, The Bastard of Istanbul. Safak stood trial for ‘insulting
Turkishness’ through an Armenian character in her novel and was
acquitted … ‘The trial turned out to be like a present for my 40th
anniversary in journalism’, said Zarakolu, who is a found[ing member] of
a human rights association and won many national and international
prizes for journalism. ‘Over 50 cases have been opened against me…",
he said. ‘Should the writer be free in his [or her] thoughts or should
he [or she] serve the principles of the state and militarism?’ He
compared current conditions to living in the era of Sultan Abduülhamit
and noted that the ‘oppressor mentality’ must be overcome …"

Previously, cases were initiated against Ragip and Belge for publishing
Prof. Dr. Dora Sakayan’s Garabed Hacheryan’s Izmir Journal: An Armenian
Doctor’s Experiences and George Jerjian’s The truth will set us
free/Armenians and Turks Reconciled. As Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, Chairman
of the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee, had observed at the time:
"Ragip Zarakolu has been subjected to a series of long, time-consuming
and expensive court hearings … The conduct of the trial in itself has
begun to take the form of harassment and punishment against the
defendant for daring to produce works that touch on sensitive issues"
(IPA/IFEX, 14 December 2007).

As BIA News noted in 2002, "whole print-runs of dozens of … books" at
Belge had previously been "confiscated and in 1995 the offices of
[publishing] house Belge (‘The Document’)", run by Ragip and the late
Ayse Zarakolu, "were fire-bombed. Run from a basement in Istanbul, Belge
published pioneering books acknowledging the Kurds’ very existence and
historical works on the atrocities in the early years of the twentieth
century against the Ottoman Empire’s large Armenian minority Armenians –
and on the Greeks … The publication in the early 1990’s of the poems
of Medhi Zana in Kurdish was enough to bring charges of separatist
propaganda under the draconian anti-terrorism law. In 1997, [Belge]
published in Turkish Wie teuer ist die Freiheit (How expensive Freedom
Is), a collection of articles and reports by German journalist Lissy
Schmidt, who had been killed three years earlier on assignment in the
Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The book was banned and confiscated by
the government, while [Ayse] Zarakolu and the book’s two translators
were sent for trial …

"In 1977, [the late Ayse] and Ragip set up Belge with the mission of
‘striking down taboos’ and ‘investigating the rights of minorities’ …
In 1990 [Belge] published a work by Ismail Besikci, a sociologist who
was the first academic to work on … the Kurdish question and about the
Kurdish people in Turkey and who was imprisoned for 15 years for his
books. [Ayse] Zarakolu became the first publisher imprisoned under
Turkey’s 1991 anti-terror law when she was jailed for five months for
printing another book by Besikci in 1993. ‘I am here today since thought
has been deemed a "crime", indeed a terrorist crime’, she wrote from her
prison cell. ‘Like writers, publishers are also preparing their
suitcases not for new studies and works but for prison … As long as
people cannot express their identities and their views, they are not
really free," she wrote just before her arrest in 1994. ‘We believe in
what we are doing. Despite fines and possible future prison sentences,
we at Belge will continue to give suppressed voices a chance to be
heard. If we persist, we will win’".

Belge has also faced court cases for publishing Vahakn Dadrian’s
Genocide as a Problem of National and International Law. Other published
books have included Migirdich Armen’s Heghnar’s Fountain, Franz Werfel’s
Forty Days in Musa Dagh, Tessa Hoffman’s Talaat Pasha Trials in Berlin,
David Gaunt’s Massacres, Resistance, Protectors (about the Assyrian
Genocide) in Turkish (Katliamlar, Direnis, Koruyucular), Avetis
Ahoranian’s The Fedayees, Peter Balakian’s Black Dog of Fate and the
Turkish translation of Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story. A book on the
history of the Turkish Communist Party, published in 1982, "was banned
and later burned by the generals as a threat to social order and Ragip’s
wife was brought to trial" (BBC News, 12 April 2008). Targeting has
taken on many forms: Ayse was "denied a passport between 1993 and 1998
(it was returned the day after she had been due to fly to Germany to
pick up an award at the Frankfurt Book Fair)" (Bianet, 15 February
2002). Ragip "was banned from travelling outside the country between
1971 and 1991" (Kemal Ozmen, Bianet, 18 January 2005).

As Jean Rafferty has noted with concern: "Ragip Zarakolu has spent a
total of two years in prison, some of it in isolation. His publishing
house has been firebombed; he has had constant financial struggles, but
still he carries on, not just writing his own articles but publishing
[via Belge] and distributing radical literature by others . In 1977, he
and his wife Ayse set up a publishing house to print the works of
independent thinkers. Their range included classic political theorists
such as Tom Paine and John Stuart Mill . In the 1980’s, after the
military coup by General Kenan Evren, the couple began publishing a
series of works by people who had been in prison. ‘They were writing
their poetry on little pieces of paper, which they sent secretly, sewn
into shirts and other things. Nearly half a million were imprisoned in
five years. A generation of university students stayed there a long
time. With my wife, we thought it was very important to get their voices
to the outside. The military authorities thought all the younger
generation were terrorists but we wanted to show their culture. We
published poetry, novels, stories, reportage. Some of them won awards’.
And some of them were sentenced to death . Ragip Zarakolu and his wife
were watched the whole time, their phones tapped. Many other publishers
were unable to take the pressure. They themselves closed their own
publishing houses and bookshops. Some even burnt books in their own
homes". But Ragip and Ayse continued to publish. "He was arrested in
1982; she was arrested in 1984. She was tortured … Ayse was a
remarkable woman who was tried many times and who won many humanitarian
awards in her lifetime. In 1984, she was arrested because she had given
a job to a student who was wanted by the police. They tortured her to
find out where he was. She refused to tell them … ‘She was a very
courageous woman’, says Ragip. ‘She always succeeded not to go into
depression or helplessness. She felt good because she could do something
against power. She felt solidarity with people suffering’ . The ‘Kurdish
question’ – otherwise known as the genocide of … Kurds – is one of the
most contentious issues in Turkey today. Both Zarakolus had spoken out
openly about it and about the genocide of a million Armenians from 1915
till the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923" (Jean Rafferty,
Norsk PEN – Accessed at: ). In
2004, the European Court of Human Rights "condemned Turkey … for
convicting publisher Ayse Nur Zarakolu for publishing a book about the
murder of journalist Ferhat Tepe" (Reporters Without Borders, 19 August
2007).

English PEN has confirmed that a trial against Ragip and Belge "opened
on 24 September 2003 under article 312 of the Penal Code for publication
of the book 12 Eylul Rejimi Yargilaniyor (The Regime of 12 September on
Trial), edited by Dr Gazi Çaglar. [It was] said to have referred to
the activities of the Turkish forces in South Eastern Turkey as
‘organised genocide’" (English PEN). Owen Bowcott (The Guardian, 13
April 2002) also noted the way in which Ayse Zarakolu was being targeted
by the state even after she passed away: "Two weeks after the death of
this internationally renowned publisher, a letter arrived from No 1
state security court, ordering her to appear at 9am on March 21. ‘We
have opened a case against you, in absentia’, the summons warned. ‘If
you do not come, you will be arrested’. After her son was arrested for
his funeral oration, the trial date arrived. The lawyers assumed their
positions and proceedings began. ‘It was like something out of the pages
of Kafka’, says her widower, Ragip Zarakolu. ‘Everybody was there: the
prosecutor, advocate, judges, correspondents, friends. Only the place of
the accused was empty’ … Zarakolu’s alleged crime involved publication
of a work entitled The Song Of Liberty by Huseyin Turhali, an exiled
Kurdish lawyer. She is also being summonsed from her grave to answer
charges that she published The Culture Of Pontus, an anthropological
study by Omer Assan examining the ancient Greek heritage of the region
around Trabzon on the Black Sea …"

A joint International PEN Writers in Prison Committee and the
International Publishers’ Association June 2008 statement confirmed,
after another trial that Ragip Zarakolu and Belge faced, that:
"Observers believe that Zarakolu is being singled out by the more
conservative elements of the judiciary because of his decades of
struggle for freedom of expression, and particularly his promotion of
minority rights. Throughout his life, Ragip Zarakolu has been subjected
to a series of long, time-consuming and expensive court hearings. The
conduct of the trial in itself took the form of harassment and
punishment against the defendant for daring to produce works, which
touch on sensitive issues such as the Armenian question, Kurdish and
minority rights. The condemnation of Ragip Zarakolu shows that the
recent cosmetic change to Article 301 TPC was not enough to put an end
to freedom of expression trials in Turkey. Turkish legislation … must
be amended or repealed to meet international standards, including the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union".

Ragip’s 2008 acceptance speech for the IPA Freedom to Publish award
noted the following: "A deeply militarist mindset lays deep roots …
Unfortunately, since September 11, 2001, national security state
anti-terror laws have been given even more power in Turkey – indeed, in
many countries – to restrict freedom of expression. Our publishing
house, Belge International Publishing, was targeted under anti-terror
laws when we published books about the Kurdish Question and the Armenian
genocide. Books that critiqued state terror and condemned terrorism were
accused under anti-terror law. The Erdogan government reformed the
anti-terror law in 2004, deleting a clause that controlled the
opposition press. But in 2006 the National Security Council demanded
that the clause be restored in a stricter form. Now the Kurdish and
opposition publications may be silenced for a year waiting for trials to
begin. Their defence lawyers’ rights are restricted. Jailed journalists
are sent to special isolation prisons where they have fewer rights than
‘ordinary’ criminals …".

One of the aims of ‘Friends of Belge’ is to raise a solidarity fund to
support Belge as it continues to be targeted in the ways outlined above.
As Ara Sarafian observed in 2009: Mr. Zarakolu of Belge Press, amongst
other things, "has been persecuted by the state for his involvement with
the Armenian issue. Zarakolu is now facing considerable difficulties
because of the cost of remaining active in Turkey. When you are
prosecuted, your offices bombed, your books banned, or bookstore owners
‘discouraged’ from carrying your books, there are inevitable
consequences. Zarakolu needs financial support to remain afloat"
(Vincent Lima, Armenian Reporter, 1 July 2009). Bjorn Smith-Simonsen,
Chairman of the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee, further confirms that
"Ragip Zarakolu has been subjected to a series of long, time-consuming
and expensive court hearings. [One] case was postponed at least seven
times since the first hearing in March 2005" (IPA/IFEX, 14 December
2007). In April 2008, four members of the European Parliament – Mrs
Koppa, Mr Toubon, Mr Gaubert and Mr Kasoulides – "sent a letter to the
Turkish Minister of Justice, Mr Sahin, in order to inform him of the
Unions concern about the trial developments" facing Ragip Zarakolu and
Belge Press. "The MEP’s mention[ed] that the ‘long, costly and morally
exhausting’ trial" he faced came "from ‘judicial relentlessness’". They
were also "worried about Mr Zarakolu’s ‘physical security’ regarding
‘nationalistic renewal in Turkey’, especially revealed by the ‘murder of
Hrant Dink and the revelations referring to the criminal organization
Ergenekon’. The MEP’s ask[ed] Mr Sahin to ‘abrogate without any delay
the 301 article and similar clauses’ of the Turkish Penal Code and
‘other legislative and statutory texts which are effective in Turkey’.
They also ask[ed] for the cessation of ‘iniquitous prosecutions’"
against Mr Zarakolu (European Armenian Federation, 20 April 2008).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress