Turkey: Freedom of Artistic Expression 2015
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Turkey: Freedom of Artistic Expression 2015 Turkey: Freedom of Artistic Expression Update to UN Submission to the Universal Periodic Review June 2014 to May 2015 18 June 2015 Introduction 1. Turkey’s poor record of protection of the right to freedom of expression is well known through the consistent reporting of media freedom and human rights groups over many years. It is a key element in discussions around the country’s adherence to international human rights principles. 2. Until recently, the focus of reports has been on press freedom: appropriately so given the extent of the repression faced by journalists. However, there has been less concentration on the struggle that Turkish artists, in both the performing and visual arts, have faced alongside their colleagues in the media. They too have found themselves arrested, threatened, dismissed from their jobs and banned under the same laws, with similar breaches of the human rights norms to which Turkey is a party. Other forms of censorship are also experienced, such as politically applied film certification bans and denial of government funding. Threats from non-government actors are similarly an everyday aspect of many outspoken artists’ lives. 3. In June 2014, a submission1 was made to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) jointly by the Denmark- based organisation, Freemuse, which advocates against music censorship worldwide and the Turkey-based arts freedom organisations, Siyah Bant,2 and the Initiative for Freedom of Expression3. It highlights key areas of repression faced specifically by artists in Turkey in recent years and the legislation applied against them. It serves to supplement and fill in the gaps left by the mainly media focussed reports presented to the UN. 4. This present document provides an update to the UPR submission, describing events as they affect artistic freedom of expression in Turkey from June 2014 - when the submission was written - to date. It gives details of new judicial cases, dismissals and other censorship. Information was gathered from reports provided by Turkish NGOs and national media. Attacks on Freedom of Artistic Expression – June 2014-May 2015 Anti-Terror Law (TMK ) applied against Kurdish musicians 5. The June 2014 UPR submission refers to the numerous laws applied against artists and creative works in a manner which breach the rights to freedom of expression, association and other guarantees under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Constitution of Turkey. It refers to the view that it is often not the laws themselves 1 Joint stakeholder submission (2014) by Freemuse, Siyah Bant and the Initiative for Freedom of Expression: http://freemuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/UPR-2014-Turkey.pdf 2 For more on Siyah Bant visit http://www.openspace-zkp.org/2013/en/journal.php?j=7&t=47 and www.siyahbant.org 3 Initiative for Freedom of Expression website http://www.antenna-tr.org/ 1 Turkey: Freedom of Artistic Expression 2015 but their implementation that is especially problematic. It is the ambiguous character of these laws that allows for arbitrary, subjective decisions and actions. 6. One example is the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) that has an overly broad definition of what comprises an offence under the law. This has impacted particularly upon those in the Kurdish regions of Turkey where many have been prosecuted with little or no evidence of links to terrorism. Another report, published in November 2014 by the Norwegian Centre of PEN International, Turkey: Freedom of Expression Under a Shadow, states that over 70% of TMK cases applied against writers and journalists relate to their writings and activism around Kurdish issues. 7. Notably in December 2014, one of the heaviest sentences passed against an artist in recent years was that given to the young Kurdish singer, Nûdem Durak4. In December 2014 she was imprisoned to serve a 10.5 year sentence. She was among thousands of Kurdish activists and their supporters arrested through 2009 and 2011 in what is known as the Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Civakên Kurdistan - KCK) case. Established in 2005 by the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan - PKK) with the aim of setting up its own political system in the Kurdish region of south east Turkey, the KCK trials have targeted Kurdish and Turkish civilians with pro-Kurdish sympathies, although many deny links with the PKK. 8. Durak herself was arrested in March 2010. She spent seven months in prison before being freed pending trial, which concluded four years later in December 2014 with her return to jail where she remains detained. According to her lawyer, the only evidence against her are meetings she attended, and workshops she took part in, none of which could be seen as calling for or actually engaging in violence. Her case is similar to that of other KCK defendants, and has led to rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to conclude that many among them are prisoners of conscience. There is good reason to believe that Durak is being targeted for prosecution because of her status as an artist popular among a young audience. 9. These charges are consistent with those applied against other KCK defendants, and which has led to NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to conclude that many among them are being penalised for their legitimate and non-violent political activism. Notable cases include the long time minority rights campaigner and publisher, Ragip Zarakolu, acclaimed academic Buşra Ersanlı, and numerous other writers, academics, activists and lawyers, many of whose cases have been subject to intense local and international advocacy in the past four years, and most of whom remain on trial. (It is worth noting in the context of this report that among the charges against politicians also prosecuted for membership of the KCK was their possession of recordings of Kurdish songs.) 10. On a positive note Kurdish singers, Mazlum Yerlikaya and Yekbun Avşar5, on trial for two years, were finally acquitted in March 2015 after a court in Diyarbakir cleared them of charges of propaganda under the TMK for support for an ‘illegal organisation’ for singing a Kurdish song at a Newroz - Kurdish New Year – celebration held by university students in March 2013. Although good news, theirs is just one of many cases taken out against Kurdish artists in recent years, amid concerns that the prolonged nature of these trials, many of which end with acquittals, could serve to chill creative freedom. Defamation – cartoonists, actors and musicians charged for insult to President Erdoğan 11. Defamation is sanctioned under both civil and criminal law in Turkey, with Penal Code Article 125 penalising cases of defamation against a ‘public officer’, and carries prison terms of up to two years. 12. Recep Tayipp Erdoğan, both when he was prime minister and in his present role as President, has been particularly prone to dealing with his detractors through this law. Visual and performing artists have also come under attack in recent months, as have journalists, with cartoonists as particular targets, alongside musicians and actors. The following recent cases have been reported: 4 Freemuse – Turkey: Young Kurdish Singer Imprisoned, 3/05/15 http://freemuse.org/archives/10051 5 Various Kurdish language reports – for an English summary go to http://www.tuerkeiforum.net/enw/index.php?title=26_March_2015_Daily_Human_Rights_Report 2 Turkey: Freedom of Artistic Expression 2015 In March 2015 cartoonists Bahadır Baruter and Özer Aydoğan were each sentenced to 14 months in prison, converted to a fine of TL7,000 [c. €2,500]. They are accused for a caricature published on the cover of the satirical magazine, Penguen, in August 2014 during the Presidential elections and which was accused of having attacked the ‘honour and dignity of [President] Erdoğan’. 6 Sensitivity was clearly at its height at election time. Two weeks before the election itself, musician Kutsal Evcimen sang a song about a donkey titled Satın Eşek Sıpaları, at the Arguvan Folk Festival, and followed it with a short speech. In January this year he found himself under investigation for insult of now President Erdoğan. The song, Evcimen has explained, was written some 30 years earlier, and he denies that there was any element of insult within it.7 Even acquittal does not guarantee an end to prosecutions. Lawyers representing President Erdoğan in a case against cartoonist Musa Kart, who was acquitted in October 2014 of charges of insult in a cartoon published earlier that same year, appealed against the court’s decision and the case against the cartoonist was reopened.8 13. Even those who display images can find themselves before the courtsIn March 2015 it was reported that television series actor, Nazlı Gonca Vuslateri could face trial in Ankara for ‘insult’ to President Erdoğan for having posted a caricature on her Facebook site. According to these reports, she faces up to two years in prison. The caricature had previously been published in a satirical magazine.9 14. Cartoons by non-Turkish artists can also lead to prosecution. In January 2015 the New York Times reported that a mathematics teacher was under investigation for having displayed during a demonstration a cartoon by an American cartoonist, originally published in the newspaper’s international edition in December. The image of a joint of meat on a spit with an image of the Turkish flag being sliced by the President could lead to maximum three year sentence for insult to the Turkish flag. 10 15. The Turkish legal system can be long winded, and often defendants are the last to know that they have been convicted. 16. One example is that of actor and theatre director, Haldun Açıksözlü, who only discovered at an airport in February 2015 as he tried to leave the country for Germany where he was scheduled to perform, that a case launched against him in 2011 had concluded with a fine of TL6,000 [c.