We would like to extend our sincere solidarity with our fellow lawyers and legal workers fighting for the rights of all those who have been detained, arrested, and violently attacked for peaceful protest in the last few weeks. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is closely following the situation in Turkey. We are aware of the extent of death, injury, and [...] → Read the full article…
Our thanks goes out to Susan Sarandon, who has offered her generous support to Amnesty’s on-going campaign to protect freedom of expression and assembly and end police violence in Turkey. She has helped support our petition drive through twitter and now has written an open letter calling on others to lend their support as well. In her letter, she writes: [...] → Read the full article…
Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the continuing arbitrary arrests and escalating violence against journalists covering anti-government demonstrations in Turkey. At least eight journalists were briefly arrested yesterday in Istanbul. Violence spread after the police retook Istanbul’s Gezi Park on the evening of 15 June. Media personnel were kept at a distance from the police operation and access to Taksim Square [...] → Read the full article…
ISTANBUL – Everyone who enters Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the heart of nearly 20-day-long protests against the government, will be considered a member or a supporter of a terrorist organization, Turkey’s European Union minister said in a televised interview late last night. “I request our citizens who supported the protests until today kindly to return to their homes,” Egemen Bağış said [...] → Read the full article…
Famous actor Memet Ali Alabora has said he is being threatened by unknown people over his support for the Gezi Park protests, after a Turkish daily showed him as one of the leading figures of “a plan to topple the Turkish Government.” Daily Yeni Şafak claimed on June 10 that a theatre play called “Mi Minor,” allegedly supported by an [...] → Read the full article…
The actions initially referred to as the “Gezi Park Protests” which within a short period of time spread beyond Gezi Park and Istanbul are known to the public. The events first began in Istanbul, and later continued in Ankara, İzmir and many other cities of Turkey with widespread police violence against the protesters. Organizations sensitive to human rights focused during [...] → Read the full article…
Turkish trade unionists banging drums and trailing banners marched into an Istanbul square on Wednesday, joining unprecedented protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan over what they see as his authoritarian rule. Members of more than a dozen unions chanting “Tayyip resign” marched down a major avenue towards Taksim Square. There were similar protests against Erdogan, prime minister for over 10 [...] → Read the full article…
(05.06.2013) The World Medical Association has called on the Turkish authorities to end immediately the excessive use of force against peaceful protestors and to ensure the right to freedom of expression and assembly. It has also called for an independent and impartial investigation into the excessive use of force and for officials found to have ill-treated demonstrators or other members of [...] → Read the full article…
Turkish government networks were hacked on Wednesday, compromising the private information of staffers in PM Tayyip Erdogan’s office, a source in PM’s office confirmed to Reuters. The attack was in support of the ongoing anti-government protests. Staff email accounts were reportedly accessed after a phishing attack, and those affected were cut off from the network, a source said. Anonymous hacked [...] → Read the full article…
Istanbul (CNN) – A district court said it has agreed to hear a case against the rebuilding of historic barracks — a project that has been one of the catalysts for days of protests in the city, Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency reported Friday. The court has ordered a temporary stop on any construction at Taksim Gezi Park, where the government [...] → Read the full article…