The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your intervention in the following situation in Turkey.
Images
Turkish police have detained the head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Sebnem Korur Fincanci, for allegedly "spreading terrorist group propaganda", the state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday.
The Ankara chief prosecutor's office as saying a request had been made to a civil court for the termination of her role as head of the association and for the selection of a new chairperson, the news agency reported.
Having acted as the Chairman of the Van-Hakkari Medical Chamber during 2020-2022, Hüseyin Yaviç, the current physician in charge of applications at the Van Representative Office of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, is also a relative of a victim of police brutality. He was charged with creating propaganda for an illegal organization because he attended Newroz celebrations in 2006. He was given 10 months in prison but the sentencing was delayed. He is currently facing two separate trials for defiance of Law no. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations.
Social services specialist Bilal Yıldız has been working for the Istanbul Representative Office of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) since 2015. He offers consultancy services of treatment, rehabilitation, and well-being to torture victims and their close ones. He has co-signed many reports by the Foundation including the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers Report (2021). Specializing in the field of immigrant and refugee rights, Yıldız also worked for the Migration Monitoring Association (GÖÇİZDER) in 2016.
Images
Prosecutors are investigating Şebnem Korur-Fincancı, head of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) because of her remarks on the allegations of a chemical attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
Korur-Fincancı, a forensic physician by profession, had commented for the pro-Kurdish Medya Haber TV on a video allegedly showing two PKK members suffering from a chemical attack.
Images
This case is of grave importance — not just on an individual level but for the future of rule of law and human rights in Turkey and across Europe.
Five years to the day have passed since the businessman and patron of the arts Osman Kavala was arrested at Istanbul airport. Kavala has been in custody ever since, although the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly called for his immediate release.
Engagement at the level of civil society must not be a crime. It is therefore high time for Turkey to finally meet its international obligations and release Osman Kavala. #FreeKavala
The process that resulted in the 18-year imprisonment sentencing of filmmaker, documentarian, advertiser, and former Anadolu Kültür employee Mine Özerden started when she became involved in the Taksim Platform formed in opposition to the pedestrianization project of Taksim Square in 2012.
Images
Memorial, a rights organization outlawed by the Kremlin last year, has spent decades trying to force Russia to come to terms with its totalitarian past — and, in the process, illuminated the crimes of its ever more repressive present.
Images