MrZine Monthly Review:
Eren Buğlalılar writes about the statistics of detainees, arrests, under the claims of terrorism, and refers to a report prepared by the Progressive Lawyers Association [Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği] whereby hundreds of students are arrested. We also learn from Buğlalılar that this Association too was raided by the police and 33 lawyers member of this association were arrested.
"A new epidemic has broken out in Turkey. It's called "terrorism." This ideologically transmitted disease (ITD) appears to be extremely infectious. Otherwise how can we explain the large and growing number of terrorists in the country?
The Associated Press carried out a survey on terrorism convictions in the world. The figures are worrying. According to the findings of the survey, [...] Turkey alone accounted for one third of the world total. A rough estimate shows the size of the epidemic of terrorism in Turkey: of every 5,500 Turkish citizens, one is a terrorist.
Thanks to the efforts of the government, Turkey managed to break another record in prison population statistics. The total number of convicts and pre-trial detainees in Turkey reached 121,000 in 2010, an all-time high. Just nine years ago, when the Justice and Development Party first came into power, that number was 60,000. Did you notice something strange about the political party held up as the "model" of democracy for the "Arab Spring"?
There is another interesting point. Terrorism, oddly, is very widespread among intellectuals in Turkey. According to a report prepared by the Progressive Lawyers' Association of Turkey, there are around 500 university students who are currently under arrest and charged with terrorism. Evidence? Public prosecutors' indictments are full of symptoms of terrorism: participating in May Day celebrations, protesting the government on various occasions, and, worst of all, keeping the books of Lenin, Stalin, and Che Guevara at home. . . As if that is not enough, even a professor of law, Büşra Ersanlı, and a publisher, Ragıp Zarakolu, were recently discovered to be infected with terrorism. Alas!
By the way, the Progressive Lawyers' Association might not be the best institution from which to learn facts about terrorism. Because last month police forces raided the houses of more than 40 members of this association and the court said it suspected that 33 of its lawyers might be infected with terrorism. They were arrested. The International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights condemned their arrests. It was the biggest wave of arrests of lawyers in the history of the Republic of Turkey. Even in the years of military coups, in 1971 and 1980, we didn't face anything comparable."
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