BÝA, Turkey
March 10 2006
The Zarakolu Price Goes to Info-Turk Editors
The Istanbul IHD has decided to attribute the Ayse Zarakolu Price for
Freedom of Thought (2006) to Info-Turk editors Özgüden and Tugsavul
along with Kisanak, Yilmaz and Karaca. The price award ceremony took
place on the International Women Day.
BIA News Center
10/03/2006
BÝA (Istanbul) – The Istanbul Section of the Human Rights Association
of Turkey (IHD) has decided to attribute the Ayse Zarakolu Price for
Freedom of Thought (2006) to Info-Turk editors Özgüden and Tugsavul
along with Kisanak, Yilmaz and Karaca. The price award ceremony took
place in Istanbul on the International Women Day.
Since Özgüden and Tugsavul cannot enter their country because of
legal proceedings, publisher and human rights defender Ragip Zarakolu
came to Brussels on February 24, 2006, and announced the IHD’s
decision at the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX)
General Meeting held at the International Press Center. Later on, he
presented Özgüden and Tugsavul the price.
IHD’s press release
Ayse Nur Zarakolu, publisher and co-founder of IHD association, was a
determined defender of human rights. She always had a clear and net
standing against militarism and taboos defined as “red points” by the
militarist system. Because of this standing, she was tried,
imprisoned and subjected to various menaces. So, she became one of
the vanguards of the fight for the freedom of thought and expression.
Even at the time when the simple word “Kurd” was banned, she did not
hesitate to publish Sociologist Ismail Besikci’s book entitled
“Kurdistan, an Inter-States Colony.” She published the works
revealing the suffer and problems of the Non-Moslim minorities. She
also started debate on the question of “Armenian Genocide” which
still remains as a taboo in Turkey.
Ayse chose what is difficult, not the easy one. Since her death, as
the Istanbul Section of the Human Rights Association, we attribute
The Price of Freedom of Thought and Expression in the name of Ayse
Nur Zarakolu.
This year we elected five persons who choose what is difficult and
fight for years against militarism.
Today, when one speaks of “freedom of thought”, Article 301 of the
Turkish Penal Code comes to mind. Adopted in a racist point of view,
this article privileges as a crime only the insult to the Turkish
identity while they are many people belonging to different ethnic
identities. To be tried under this article, it is enough to speak of
“red points.”
Dogan Özgüden and Inci Özgüden-Tugsavul are two journalists who fight
for many years against military coups and militarist policies. With
their review Ant, they always criticized the militarist tendencies in
the name of the left-wing movement of Turkey.
With the Info-Turk Agency that they founded in exile, they put in
question many subjects considered taboos in Turkey. They took a clear
position against anti-semitism and opened debate of the question of
Armenian Genocide. Still there is always an arrest warrant against
Dogan Özgüden under Article 301 for having criticized putschist
generals.
Zülküf Kisanak was sentenced according to the same article because of
his book “Lost Villages – How the Heritage of Thousands Years was
destroyed?”
Seferi Yilmaz, after the sabotage of the counter-guerrila forces
against a bookshop in Semdinli, played the principal role in the
identification of these forces. So, he encouraged all those who fight
for a pacific solution to the Kurdish Question.
As for Emin Karaca, he was arrested at the 1971 military coup. After
his release in 1974, he continued his journalist work. He was
condemned again because of an article that he translated on the
Gladio and the Susurluk Scandal. He keeps a net position on the
subject of Armenian taboo. Recently, he was sentenced under Article
301 for having criticized putschist generals.
As the defenders of human rights, we consider vital the fight against
militarism and the taboos that it invented. The fights in this field
should never be forgotten.
We are sure that if Ayse had heard the names elected for the price in
her name, she would stand up and applaud them by all heart.
The Istanbul Section of the Human Rights Association of Turkey
Dogan Özgüden and Inci Tugsavul
Dogan Özgüden, 70, began journalism career in 1952 in Izmir. After
having worked at the newspapers Ege Günesi, Sabah Postasi, Milliyet
and Öncü in Izmir, Gece Postasi and Sosyal Adalet in Istanbul, he
directed as chief editor and main editorial writer of the most
important left-wing daily Aksam (1964-66).
Inci Tugsavul-Özgüden, 65, began journalism career in 1961 in Ankara
at the daily Hür Vatan and the weekly Kim, later worked at the
dailies Hareket (1962-63) and Aksam (1963-66).
They founded and directed the socialist review Ant and the Ant
Publishing House (1967-71). Both were accused more than 50 times of
having committed “crime of opinion” in the articles that they wrote
or published. Threatened by a total of more than 300-year
imprisonment, they had to leave Turkey after the military coup of
1971.
In Europe they organized the Democratic Resistance of Turkey with
other opponents in exile in order to mobilize European public opinion
against the Junta’s repressive regime.
Since 1974, they edit in Brussels the Info-Turk Agency which informs
the world opinion of the situation of human rights in Turkey
() and lead the Sun Workshops (Ateliers du
Soleil), a multicultural permanent education organization
().
Along with more than 200 other opponents of the regime in exile, they
were deprived of their Turkish nationality in 1982 because of their
criticisms against the military junta. Although this decision was
annulled after ten years, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has declined
to give them a written guarantee that they would not be indicted or
imprisoned for the accusations that the same ministry communicated
earlier to the European Human Rights Commission.
On the contrary, more than 30 years after the military coup, Turkish
Justice indicted Dogan Özgüden for insulting army chiefs because of
his article criticizing putschist generals. The tribunal ordered his
arrest at the checkpoint if he returns to Turkey in order to judge
him.
One of the former leading members of the Journalists’ Association of
Turkey (TGC), the Journalists’ Trade Union (TGS) and the Ethical
Council of the Press (BSD) in Turkey, Dogan Özgüden is now a member
of the Association of Professional Journalists of Belgium (AGJPB),
the Brussels Center of Intercultural Actions (CBAI), the Human Rights
League of Belgium (LDDH) and the Movement Against Racism and
Xenophobia (MRAX).
He is author of many books and studies, mainly On Fascism (1965,
Istanbul), On Capitalism (1966, Istanbul), File on Turkey (1972,
France), Turkey, Fascism and Resistance (1973, The Netherlands; 2006,
Belgium), Mass media and Turkish Migrants (1983), The Portrait of
Turkish Migration (1984), Black Book on the Militarist “Democracy” in
Turkey (1986), Extreme Right in Turkey (1988).
Former member of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey (TGC) and the
Journalists’ Trade Union (TGS ), Inci Tugsavul-Özgüden is now member
of the International Press Association (API) in Brussels. She is the
author of the Introduction to the Classical Music (1965, Istanbul)
and Turkish Women (1991, Brussels). (YE)