Turkey’s counterterrorism law has been harshly criticized for victimizing minors -- there are around 4,000 minors who have allegedly broken this law, some of them facing prison sentences of up to 25 years for throwing stones at security forces. NGOs want Parliament to declare a timetable to address the issue and pass a completed bill to redress the situation before the legislature goes on recess in July. As part of a new campaign that it is hoped will push Parliament to act, NGOs are planning marches to Parliament from each of the 32 Turkish provinces in which minors have been prosecuted under counterterrorism legislation.
As part of the efforts, a symbolic hunger strike will being organized at Taksim Square with the participation of many world-famous writers, activists and intellectuals, including writer and political dissident Chomsky, Slovenian philosopher Zizek, American intellectual Immanuel Wallerstein and human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) President Ingrid Newkirk, Cuban opposition representative Guillermo Farinas, British actress/politician Glenda Jackson, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff and more. Organizers of the hunger strike have also issued invitations to some human rights officials and heads of parliamentary rights commissions and NGOs of some European and North American nations.
In addition, NGOs are planning a sit-in outside Parliament in a bid to draw international attention to the issue and emphasize that it is not just the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), but also the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) from whom the activists are demanding action.
Planned legislative changes in limbo
Last year, civil society groups had presented to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan an eight-article recommendation for comprehensive change to counterterrorism laws that would secure more lenient sentences for minors. In turn, the prime minister had tasked AK Party parliamentary group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdağ with preparing a draft bill, and assigned Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç to follow the process. Bozdağ had announced to the public that the draft would go to the Parliament floor at the end of May, with Interior Minister Beşir Atalay remarking in public statements that “Parliament won’t go to recess until this law passes.” But the positive trend was disturbed when parliamentary Justice Commission President Ahmet İyimaya said that it was highly likely that action on the draft would be postponed until Parliament returns from its recess, due to the legislature’s heavy workload in the month of June. It is this which spurred NGOs to come together under the Callers of Justice for Children (ÇİAÇ) platform planning the hunger strike, sit-in and marches to push for legislative change.
