Sentencing of Pinar Selek : call for solidarity for her and « all the victims of the Turkish authorities ».

Fran­co-Tur­kish resear­cher and acti­vist Pinar Selek, who has been living in exile since 2009, has come under rene­wed attack from Tur­key. Soli­da­ri­ty com­mit­tees are mobi­li­sing to sup­port her and are cal­ling on the French govern­ment to back her.

The Tur­kish state is conti­nuing its per­se­cu­tion of Pinar Selek, a socio­lo­gist and wri­ter, envi­ron­men­ta­list, femi­nist and anti-mili­ta­rist acti­vist from Tur­key.
On 21 June 2022, the Tur­kish state news agen­cy announ­ced that the Tur­kish Supreme Court had over­tur­ned Pinar Selek’s fourth acquit­tal, han­ded down on 19 Decem­ber 2014 by the Istan­bul Cri­mi­nal Court.

Pre­vious­ly, Pinar Selek had actual­ly appea­red in three cri­mi­nal pro­cee­dings, all of which found her inno­cent, throu­ghout the 25 years of poli­ti­co-judi­cial per­se­cu­tion she conti­nues to endure. After impri­so­ning and tor­tu­ring her for her socio­lo­gi­cal research on the Kurds, the Tur­kish autho­ri­ties deci­ded to make her a « ter­ro­rist » by fabri­ca­ting the evi­dence nee­ded to prove, against all the evi­dence, that an attack on the Istan­bul spice mar­ket took place in 1998 (seven dead and more than a hun­dred inju­red), when eve­ry­thing esta­bli­shed that the explo­sion had been cau­sed acci­den­tal­ly.

Six months after the press announ­ced the annulment of the acquit­tal, the Supreme Court’s deci­sion was final­ly noti­fied to Pinar Selek’s lawyers on 6 Janua­ry 2023 by the Istan­bul Assize Court.

Increa­sed vio­lence by the Tur­kish autho­ri­ties Pinar Selek is the sub­ject of an inter­na­tio­nal arrest war­rant reques­ting her imme­diate impri­son­ment. This deci­sion has been taken by the Istan­bul Cri­mi­nal Court even before the judges of this court have given their ver­dict at the first hea­ring, sche­du­led for 31 March 2023.
These mea­sures, which are absurd from a legal point of view and par­ti­cu­lar­ly serious in their scope and conse­quences for Pinar Selek, have been taken against a back­drop of res­tric­tions on free­doms and an increase in vio­lence by the Tur­kish autho­ri­ties against all mino­ri­ties and poli­ti­cal oppo­nents, in par­ti­cu­lar the Kurds, both in Tur­key and in other coun­tries. The for­th­co­ming elec­tions in Tur­key (inclu­ding the pre­si­den­tial elec­tion in June 2023) are an ideal oppor­tu­ni­ty for poli­ti­cal diver­sion and mani­pu­la­tion.

The col­lec­tives in soli­da­ri­ty with Pinar Selek refuse to allow the wri­ter and socio­lo­gist to be held hos­tage once again to an ini­qui­tous poli­cy that has resul­ted in a veri­table judi­cial farce. They also refuse to allow her to become a col­la­te­ral vic­tim of the poli­cy of com­pla­cen­cy of Euro­pean coun­tries towards the autho­ri­ta­rian and repres­sive regime in Tur­key.

French natio­na­li­ty is not enough to pro­tect her.

They call on all mem­bers of par­lia­ment and poli­ti­cians who have shown their sup­port for Pinar Selek in recent months to urge the govern­ment to pro­vide her with all the secu­ri­ty and pro­tec­tion that the French state owes to one of its com­pa­triots.

Pinar Selek’s French natio­na­li­ty is not enough to pro­tect her.Backed by the sup­port of a large num­ber of lea­ding figures from the worlds of research, intel­lec­tual life and culture, the col­lec­tives in soli­da­ri­ty with Pinar Selek are rene­wing their request to the Pre­sident of the Repu­blic for firm and uncon­di­tio­nal sup­port, as well as an offi­cial pro­test to the Tur­kish autho­ri­ties. Final­ly, they call on Pinar Selek’s friends, artists, aca­de­mics and acti­vists to redouble their efforts, to extend their mobi­li­sa­tions in sup­port of all the vic­tims of the Tur­kish govern­ment and to pre­pare large dele­ga­tions to tra­vel to Istan­bul on 31 March to demand truth and jus­tice for Pinar Selek.

Euro­pean Coor­di­na­tion of Col­lec­tives in Soli­da­ri­ty with Pinar Selek