Mehmet Tarhan jailed for four years

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Monday August 15, 2005 03:25

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Turkey jails conscientious objector already freed by a previous court

Summary: Another conscientious objector has been jailed in Turkey. War Resisters International full reports can be read at http://www.refusingtokill.net/Turkey/ReleaseMehmet.htm
Please write to Turkish authorities

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A gay anarchist conscientious objector to military service in Turkey has been sentenced to four years in prison. Mehmet Tarhan had been the subject of an international campaign a few months ago when it emerged that he was being subjected to abuse and violence from fellow prisoners either at the instigation of warders or with their acquiescence in the prison in which he was being held.

Mehmet Tarhan had declared his conscientious objection as early as October 2001. The military asked Sivas MIlitary hospital to file a report on his homosexuality which the Turkish authorities look on as an illness that would enable them to discharge him from the military. But in his statement of conscientious ojection he had rejected such an unfit or rotten report saying he perceived it as a sign of the rottenness of the military system itself .

Mehmet Tarhan continued with anti-war activities since then and did not go into hiding. He was arrested on 8 April this year and tansferred to the Military Hospital by force on 20 April when he was stripped and forced to wear a military uniform.
His trial took place on 26 May and was adjourned to 9 June. War Resisters International reported that he had bruises all over his body and clearly could not walk well.

In the military prison in Sivas to which he had been returned, Mehmet Tarhan began a hunger strike . On 10 June the military judge ordered his release. The authorities however responded to this by assigning him back to his military unit and then inevitably back to prison because of his continued conscientious objection.

He remained on hunger strike until 21 June when the prison authorities acceded to his demands for equal treatment.
Finally on 11 August, WRI reported that Mehmet Tarhan had been sentenced to four years in prison.
There will be an appeal.

You are asked to write to Turkey, General Staff gnkur@tsk.mil.tr
to the Presidency of the Turkish Republic cumhurbaskanligi@tccb.gov.tr
or to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rte@akparti.org.tr
or to Minister of the Interior Abdulkadir Aksu aaksu@icisleri.gov.tr
or to Minister for Justice Cemil Çiçek cemilcicek@adalet.gov.tr
or to Sivas Military Prison fax

Please send copies of any letter you may write to: http://www.refusingtokill.net/Turkey/ReleaseMehmet.htm

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Comments (6 of 6)

Oops! Copies to:

Mon Aug 15, 2005 10:05

The email address for copies is: payday@paydaynet.org
Also copies to: info@wri-irg.org please

Comment from Payday

by Giorgio Giandomenici - Payday

Tue Aug 16, 2005 18:12

payday at paydaynet dot org

PO Box 287 London NW6 5QU

+44 20 7209 4751

Thanks for publishing news about Mehmet Tarhan. It is crucial that his case gets international prominence.

The Global Women’s Strike in Ireland has alerted us that Justin Morahan’s article could be confusing: the website www.refusingtokill.net, where we publicise refuseniks’ and their supporters’ campaigns, including Mehmet Tarhan’s, is Payday’s, not War Resisters International’s.

Yours for refusing to kill,

Giorgio Giandomenici
(Payday, an international network of men working with the Global Women’s Strike)

Just in case...

by anti-militarist

Tue Aug 16, 2005 18:41

...anyone thinks everything is rosy here.

"The investigation centred on claims that a soldier was locked into a locker and made to eat food off the floor."

Soldiers' group outlines bullying concerns
(From RTE, 16 August 2005 16:39)

PDFORRA made its comments after it was revealed that two people have been disciplined by military law arising out of an investigation into allegations of bullying of recruits at McKee Barracks in Dublin last year.

To clarify

Wed Aug 17, 2005 03:34

On 11 August I received two accounts of the sentence of Mehmet Tarhan, one on the Internet by WRI http://www.wri-irg.org/news/alerts/, the other by e-mail from Payday which included a WRI contact e-mail as well as the payday one Both accounts confirmed that Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to four years. Hence the inclusion of both WRI and payday contacts. The association of the payday website with WRI was a mistake. Sorry for that.

The reported horrific bullying of soldiers in the Irish Army is indeed to be deplored. It deserves a full news report on Indymedia Ireland.
While deplorable and needing urgent redress, it is of a slightly different genre to the imprisonment of a conscientious objector. We can complain of many things in Ireland but at least our Government does not have conscription and doesn't jail conscientious objectors. However, some young people go into the Army out of financial necessity and so might be considered to some extent as "soldiers by necessity". They, like all other recruits, deserve the protection of the State while they are in there.

Bodies such as armies, police forces, schools, hospitals, sport and other clubs, various scout organisations and prisons are among those where bullying flourishes. This is partly because the people in these institutions or organisations are under the control - sometimes the absolute control - of others. To complain can bring reprisals.

I have tonight sent a copy of the Box and Interview Method for countering bullying in schools http://www.peacepeople.com/links to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces. cf also Stop Bullying in Irish Schools: http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70874&results_offset=240

Embassy of Turkey in Ireland e-mail address

Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:57

The Turkish Embassy 11 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
turkembassy@eircom.net

Mehmet Tarhan's statement at his trial

Tue Aug 23, 2005 11:21

"Sivas

By declaring my conscientous objection on October 27 2001, I stated that I would not perform military service, that I would not take part in any army or similar hierarchical organization and that I would not serve in the dissemination of militarist culture into social life.

Since that date, especially taking into consideration the war frenzy that the world has been swept into since September 11, I become more confident with each passing day that I have made a right decision. Because the terror attacks and the ongoing atrocious wars everywhere in the world, including the land we live in, demonstrate that a way of life that excludes violence in its entirety is the only humane solution.

Since armies are the tools for using legitimized violence, they are one of the most important obstacles before a world devoid of violence. This is because militaries owe their existence, their power and sustainability to wars and to the probability of wars. And militaries are, by nature, institutions that produce wars.

For the military, there is no such thing as a state of peace. The periods where there is no armed conflict, are merely intervals where they try to universalize the tyranny they impose onto the society, that is, a time period devoted to preparation for war and fighting against the implementation of peace.

As the ruling classes’ apparatus of violence, the military diffuses the culture of obedience through military service. The individual who becomes accustomed to taking orders and obeying without questions, not only loses her/his independence but becomes an enemy to the idea of independence. What differentiates a human being from a machine or a well-trained dog is that her/his acts stem from his/her individual will. So obeying without asking any questions, is far from being humane, to say the least. Expecting unconditional obedience from someone is equivalent to asking her/him to abandon his/her humanity.

Because I find it important to lead a humane life and as an indispensible precondition of this I feel that all humans should lead a humane life, I declare once again that I will never take orders and I will never give orders. I believe that discrimination and violence are crimes of humanity and in the name of avoiding to commit this crime, I am determined to not be a part of the military which is an apparatus of violence based on hierarchy that imposes such hierarchical constructions over the society, I am determined to disobey, and refuse to be transformed into a murder machine by taking a training of dying and killing.

I find it tragicomical and protest that, in this building that is placed inside a military barracks, persons who carry military ranks see themselves as having the right to make statements regarding my destiny according to laws that bind them alone. I want the restriction on my freedom to end immediately."

For further information and protest letter see Payday's website http://www.refusingtokill.net/Turkey/ReleaseMehmet.htm

Payday is a network of men working with Global Womens Strike

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Mehmet Tarhan jailed for four years

Comments (6 of 6)