Aggravated Torment of Advanced Democracy
Bü?ra Ersanl?
Radikal daily, June 10, 2012
From the very first moment I was taken into custody on October 28, 2011, I knew that the real accusation against me was my membership in the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) Assembly and the party activities carried out during the time spared from my full-time work at the university. As the participation of BDP’s women in politics and their success in local governments increasingly grew, the ‘anger’ that this situation gave rise to struck back in the form of defamation against me.
The main idea concerning my person in Folder 50 of the so-called “KCK” indictment and case file is allegedly my carrying out – as a “leading figure” – PKK instructions, as well as those of Abdullah Öcalan cited in his interview notes, and my “great efforts” in this regard. In fact, we need to think of this as BDP instead of PKK, because there is no evidence of my PKK membership/leadership. In any case, such evidence would be impossible to find. The notes I have taken in dozens and hundreds of meetings (academy and party are not even of equal weight here, since the academic field covers a great part of my life) have been reshuffled to put forward ‘matchless’ opinions.
For example, the notes with regard to the Öcalan interviews, most of which I have not read and did not even receive at my internet address, have been listed one after the other as containing “proposals” concerning the new constitutional and democratisation reform process. Since I am also in the BDP Constitutional Commission for the drawing up of the new constitution, this would mean that I receive instructions. Therefore, if there is an interview of Öcalan in which he speaks about democracy, then I and all of us will have to fervently defend an organic and totalitarian police state in order to get out of prison.
This is out of the question!
So this means that the BDP should wait in prison. Until we (the government) make sure that their local governments and the democratization process are both placed under a new postmodern techno-tutelage. The police say, “It has been noted that you have been in and out of the country time and again between 2000-2012” and they conclude that “you have been active abroad within the framework of your activities within the PKK terrorist organization and KCK/TM” (Folder 50, p. 14). Apparently there is no need to check all the letters of authorization I obtained from Marmara University, since what my activities are is so obvious to them.
So the indictment reaches the following conclusion in document no. 390-391: “…it is evident that there is an effort to show that the Kurdish people are right in their demands, therefore, in a way she considers that the PKK/Kongra-Gel terrorist organization is also right.” Gosh! You are being made out to be a “leader” and at the same time you consider, in a way, that they are right. Who knows what would happen if you fully considered them to be right?
One of the telephone conversations referred to is that with Baki Gül who had invited me to Roj TV to talk about the importance of the Labour, Freedom and Democracy Block. I answer him by saying, “I would like to come, but I can’t.” And he says, “Next time, then.” My answer to Baki, who invited me many times and whom I met only on the phone, is “Hopefully Baki, hopefully”. The conclusion drawn from this: “It has been borne out that activities were undertaken to prepare a so-called ‘democratic constitution’ under the leadership of the BDP, that symposia were organized within this framework with the participation of various circles and that Bü?ra Ersanl? openly declared through her words ‘Hopefully Baki, hopefully’ that she wished to take part knowingly and intentionally in the so-called democratic constitution activities in line with the instructions of Abdullah Öcalan and high-level members of the organization.” (Folder 50, pp. 365-366).
That I would have been involved in activities for a constitution ‘of words’ (“a so-called democratic constitution”) whereas a constitution ‘of deeds’ was in the making, that I have supported the Labour, Freedom and Democracy Block, that by saying “hopefully, hopefully” I ruined everything and have been in prison for 8 months, that I have been registered in the prison records as a member of an armed terrorist organization, only to have been later “promoted” to leadership by the indictment, all of this must be one of the saddest examples of humour in Turkey. Indeed the evidential material for these “crimes” is provided in the words “hopefully, hopefully”. There you have it, the path leading to the aggravated torment of advanced democracy.
The part concerning my person in the 2400-page indictment consists of 27 pages. The totality of Folder 50 of the 582-page case file, of which I have classified 400 pages, is about me. First of all, all of this can be clearly seen within the context of freedom of expression. What do these contain? I divided them into two groups. The first one is of a “predominantly academic” nature, the second one consists of “telephone conversations, official and also very personal notes.”
Predominantly academic content
1- The documents and notes of the October 18, 2011 meeting, within the framework of my counseling in TESEV’s (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation) decentralisation project, among which the chapter of the Spanish Constitution related to decentralisation (85 pages)
2- The final draft of a joint article which was published in the Journal of South East Europe in February 2011. The translated version has been published in Turkish by ?leti?im Publishing House (36 pages)
3- An excerpt from the paper I presented at the international meeting organised by E?itim-Sen (Symposium on Mother Tongue, on May 30-31, 2009) (5 pages)
4- An excerpt from an article in English which had been submitted to me in my capacity as jury member, to be published in the Journal of Academic Studies edited by Dr. Ali Bayram (7 pages)
5- An MA thesis on Eurasianism (written by Ebru Eren), submitted to Koç University’s Department of International Relations, for which I took part as a member of the thesis jury (5 pages)
6- A paper presented in a Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly meeting on Multiculturalism, held in Mersin in 2001 (it does not belong to me) (16 pages)
7- Various meetings on local government and Constitutional issues – academic meetings and those organized by BDP – which I attended between 2005 and 2011 (37 pages)
8- The program and documents of KA-DER’s (Association for the Support of Women Candidates) Politics School of Tunceli (10 pages)
Telephone conversations, official and also very personal notes
1- 21 selected telephone conversations, some repeatedly mentioned three or five times (87 pages)
2- Museum and trip notes in Berlin during my visit to my niece Y?ld?z Göney in August 2010 and notes about private life and their photocopies (15 pages)
3- The list of addresses/names listed in my mobile phone’s SIM card (15 pages)
4- Documents concerning the prolongation of detention, a letter of attorney and an objection petition by one of my lawyers (19 pages)
5- Mobile Phone SIM cards of two persons (they do not belong to me) (9 pages)
6- Two irrelevant telephone conversations, allegedly found on my computer’s hard disk. They belong to people named Zeynep and Sava? (11 pages)
7- Reports about “arrest” and “seizure” (18 pages)
8- Records of Forensic Medicine examination reports (16 pages)
These two separate groups I have classified consist of almost 400 pages.
The remaining 182 pages include the following
– Telephone conversations (21 items verbatim)
– My hand-written notes, the document numbers assigned to them and content analyses accompanied by the ‘matchless’ accusation perspective linking them all to “PKK instructions”
– Questions asked by the Police
– Texts of some BDP Party Assembly meetings and missions
It is clear that there is a great effort in the KCK indictment and Folder 50 of the case file to accuse me in a hateful tone as if I were an enemy, based totally on the findings and comments of the police. Thus, not only has my intellectual and academic freedom been totally violated, but the reshuffling of dozens of meeting notes quoted out of context, constitutes an insult to my profession and to myself. How such a feeling of enmity -which I myself do not have despite the great injustice inflicted upon me- has been built up in the opinions expressed in the indictment, remains a mystery.
buy diflucan online canadapurchase diflucancost of doxycycline without insurancecheap doxycycline ukbuy zyban canada zyban price generic orlistat ukxenical free shippingzoloft prescription cost100mg of zoloft for anxietystromectol lice treatmentStromectol 3 mg tabletsprednisone 20mg for salePrednisone natural alternativearimidex online bestellenAnastrozole generic cost