First Islamic conscientious objector surfaces

Enver Aydemir, dubbed “Turkey’s first Muslim conscientious objector,” was arrested on Dec. 24 as he was preparing to attend the Congress of Conscientious Objectors for Peace at İstanbul’s Boğaziçi University at noon. He was detained in Kabataş after a random police search showed that he hadn’t completed his compulsory military service and therefore had AWOL status. He was first taken to a police station and then to a military station where he was arrested and sent to the Maltepe Military Prison, where his family and lawyers claim he was tortured. Aydemir is 35 and is married with two children.

Aydemir, who is a devout Muslim, refuses to serve in the military not because he would not support a military organization under other conditions, but because he feels the secular Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is anathema to his religious beliefs, making him the first conscientious objector in Turkey who has put forward religious grounds as his reason for not completing his military service. For this, he was severely beaten and tortured, his father says.

Aydemir’s father, Ahmet Aydemir, told Sunday’s Zaman that his son was arrested for the first time in July 2007 and was forcefully taken to a military unit, despite having submitted a petition saying he would not become part of the TSK, whose “elite had hostile behavior toward religion,” and would never become a soldier of the system by serving in the army of a secular country. His sister and mother, who came to visit him at the time, weren’t allowed onto the premises because they refused to remove their headscarves. Only Ahmet Aydemir was allowed to see his son. Aydemir spent four months in jail before being released by a military court with orders to report to his military unit. However, Aydemir did not, and he was taken in again during a random police search in Kabataş on Dec. 24. He was arrested by the Harem 1st Army Corps Military Court and sent to the Maltepe Military Prison, where he refused to don a military uniform, saying he was not a member of the military and could never be due to his religious beliefs.

His resistance was met with insults and a battering. When he continued to resist the uniform, he was bastinadoed. That night, he was left in a cold cell clad only in his underwear. On Dec. 25 he was forced into a uniform and was subjected to insults and beating by a prison official identified by Aydemir’s father as Col. Halil İbrahim Çakır. His left eye is bruised and swollen as a result of this beating. In protest of being forced into uniform, Aydemir went on a hunger strike. However, he was taken to the infirmary and made to go on an IV against his will. All these were registered in complaints filed by his lawyers, who visited him on Dec. 26. On Dec. 28 his lawyer applied to the public prosecutor, demanding a report from the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). However, Aydemir was examined by psychiatrists, not by doctors. On Dec. 29 Aydemir was moved to the Eskişehir Military Prison.

This past week, Ahmet Aydemir applied to the parliamentary Human Rights Commission demanding that the commission make sure that reports confirming torture are obtained from the ATK or a state university hospital; that Aydemir be given the treatment he needs to regain his health; that the torture and maltreatment he is subject to end; and that those responsible for the inhumane treatment of his son be punished.

Ahmet Aydemir says, “You know they were being too hard on him because they were worried he would be an example for other Muslims, that others would follow his path.” However, past incidents indicate that the treatment Aydemir has received is standard for all conscientious objectors. Conscientious objectors such as İsmail Saygı, Mehmet Bal, Mehmet Tarhan Sivas and many others have been systematically tortured in military prisons over the past 20 years.

When the Human Rights Commission might step in is unknown. With its treatment of Aydemir, Turkey is violating various articles against torture in the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as various other international covenants Turkey is signatory to, as well as Articles 94 and 96 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).