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One month ban for socialist newspaper Yuruyus

April 4th, 2008

Istanbul No.12 Serious Crimes Court on March 30, 2008 declared that the No. 145 issue of the weekly “March for Independence, Democracy and Socialism” dated March 30, 2008 was confiscated, its sale and distribution banned and publication was forbidden for a month.
This is the statement the magazine issued about this on April 2, 2008:

”Yuruyus confiscated, its publication halted

A MADE-UP ACCUSATION AND AN ILLEGAL PUNISHMENT!

A decision was taken to confiscate our magazine “March for Independence, Democracy and Socialism”, No. 145, because of an article on page nine. Its sale and distribution is banned.
As if this were not enough, publication of the magazine has been stopped for a month, by the same decision.

So what was our crime?

According to the charge and the decision, it was the classic one: “Making propaganda for a terror organisation”.
We were punished according to the “Struggle Against Terrorism” law though we are only a magazine, and do not have tanks, guns or bombs!

The organisation mentioned in the decision is the DHKP-C.

HOW DID WE MAKE “propaganda for a terror organisation”?
To answer this question, here is what was published on page nine.

***

THEY LIVE ON IN OUR ONGOING STRUGGLE ON THE ROAD OF KIZILDERE!

They were leaders, cadres and supporters of the revolutionary movement. The oligarchy wanted to execute Deniz Gezmis and his friends. They could not stand by and let it happen. Executing Deniz and his supporters would be a blow to the prestige of the revolution. To continue the armed struggle against the March 12 junta and defend the revolutionary prestige they abducted three British agents from the radar base at Unye and sought to exchange them for Deniz and his friends. Those who carried out the action were eight revolutionaries from the THKP-C (People’s Liberation Party-Front of Turkey) and two from the THKO (People’s Liberation Army of Turkey, the organisation of Deniz Gezmis), together with their hostages they went to Kizildere village in Niksar district, Tokat province, where they were surrounded. Ten leaders and fighters were martyred after fighting to the last breath.

Mahir CAYAN: with his writings, actions, life and immortal Kizildere resistance, the THKP-C leader who continues to light up our road on the road of revolution that he laid down. He was born on March 15, 1946 in Samsun. He began the struggle while a pupil in Haydarpasa High School in 1963. The following year he started to develop his leadership mission while a student in the Political Science Faculty (SBF) in Ankara. He took his place as a leading revolutionary in the Intellectual Club at the SBF, and in Dev-Genc (Revolutionary Youth). Also the leader who determined the theory of Turkey’s road of revolution. Founder of the THKP-C and Central Committee member.

Sinan Kazim OZUDOGRU: one of the leading cadres of the THKP-C. General Committee member. Born in Sivas province’s Sarkisla district, Ortakoy village in 1947, Sinan Kazim came to Ankara for higher education and took his place in the revolutionary youth struggle. In October 1970 he he became General Secretary of the TDGF (Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey) at the Dev-Genc assembly. He stood Mahir against the March 12 junta and against betrayal, and joined him in Kizildere. Cihan ALPTEKIN: Born in Ardesen, Rize province. One of the leaders of the THKO. For a time a member of the TDGF executive council for the Istanbul area. In July 1969, he was one of the youth leaders who went to Palestinian camps and formed THKO. When a split happened in the THKO, he supported the side that favoured armed struggle.

Hudai ARIKAN: born in Civril, Denizli, in 1946. Was involved in a number of ways in the youth struggle in Ankara and organising Dev-Genc. He was one of the cadres involved in the first efforts to organise the Party and was a member of the THKP General Committee.

Omer AYNA: Born in 1952 in Dicle, Diyarbakir province. A member of the THKO. In the struggle developing in the 1960s, he preferred the side that favoured armed struggle. In Kizildere, he was the second shield comrade from the THKO to take his place as a fighter alongside the Front. (Translator’s note: in the left in Turkey, a “shield comrade is a member of another organisation which is aligned with yours in a common struggle.) Sabahattin KURT: born in Gevas, Van province, 1949. In Ankara’s revolutionary youth movement, he was on the side of the fighters.

Nihat YILMAZ: born in 1937, in Bozdagi village, Fatsa. One of the supporters of the Party-Front in the Black Sea Region. He was part of all the struggles of the people in the area, whether at meetings of hazelnut cultivators or those of tobacco workers.

Ahmet ATASOY: born in 1946 in Sarihalil village, Unye. An organised revolutionary who undertook the struggle in the Black Sea Region villages. During the period when the TIP (Workers’ Party of Turkey) split, he broke from reformism and joined the leadership of the THKP-C.

Ertan SARUHAN: born in 1942 in Beyceli village, Fatsa. One of the local leaders of the struggle in the Black Sea area. He played an active local leadership role in various ways, ranging from organising actions to disseminate propaganda to giving logistical support to guerrillas.

Saffet ALP: one of the THKP-C cadres who organised inside the armed forces. Born in 1949, in Kayseri. At the start he was a leader of the “Armed Forces Proletarian Revolutionary Organisation”, gradually he became one of the cadres of the Party-Front.

We greet and commemorate with respect and devotion our martyrs who carried the banner of liberation on the rough, winding and steep road of revolution. The peoples of Turkey will not forget them!

Once again we here commemorate our martyrs who gave their lives for the independence of the homeland, for the freedom of our people and for socialism. We commemorate them, accepting as martyrs of our revolution revolutionaries, progressives and patriots who gave their lives for independence, democracy and socialism while in the ranks of different political movements. Our struggle is the struggle of all those who gave their lives for these ideals. We have taken the banner from those who today are carrying out the struggle in every area of life, tomorrow we will hand it on to other comrades.

***

Yes, this is what has got us confiscated and banned from sales and distribution for the space of a month..

Yes, this is what they claim is DHKP-C organisation propaganda by us.

As can be seen the article is essentially about 10 revolutionaries killed in Kizildere with brief biographical details.

The page is rounded out with some paragraphs expressing respect for them.

And this is the page that led to our magazine being confiscated.

The Istanbul Republican Prosecutor’s Office requested a confiscation, and a month ban on sale and distribution, and the decision was rendered by the Istanbul 12th Serious Crimes Court. Look at the arbitrariness of the prosecutor and the court:

This is not about the history of the DHKP-C. The page does not tell about martyrs of the DHKP-C, and not one word is connected with the DHKP-C on the page.

But the prosecutor is making things up, and since the court took his claim seriously a punishment was ordered. The prosecutor makes an interpretation, the estimation goes forward and a judgement is rendered in that way.

This is the way magazines can be confiscated in our country. The law works in that way!

The law, interpretations, estimations, but what like behind them is open hostility. This is directed at revolution and revolutionaries.

The prosecutor and judge know well that no “crime” was committed on that page. Where is there mention of the DHKP-C? Where is the organisation propaganda?

They cannot show it. They must be aware themselves that it is an illegal punishment.

It is as though there is a template that is DHKP-C propaganda. This is a “template” that a prosecutor can use on any magazine, and in a trice it is DHKP-C propaganda… What is it that makes a prosecutor, a judge, trample on the law in that way?

When a prosecutor and a judge are so blinded by their own hostility, can it be said to be justice that they represent?

From whom, for what and in whose name do prosecutors and judges arrive at such decisions?

Is this illegality, this putrefaction to defend this system and the filth of this system?

And what a shame for the law and the jurists of such a system!

While the decision against our magazine is illegal in one sense, it is an example of naivete at the same time.

The biographies of the revolutionaries at Kizildere have been described in hundreds of publications and books. There are dozens of books about Kizildere. Scarcely any of them have been confiscated or banned.

If the jurists who arrived at this were to read a little more, they would see that this verdict on banning publishing, sales and instituting arbitrary confiscation is contrary to the law.

We believe that they cannot defend this decision in their own courts. Because it is so rotten, baseless and inconsistent. Just like the system they defend. The law as they practise it is just like the system they defend.

Let us state once again that Yuruyus will not be silenced.

Let those whose eyes are blinded to revolution and revolutionaries by their own hostility, let those who are so bold as to even trample their own laws underfoot know that revolution will continue to be on the agenda of this country and revolutionary will continue to write the truth.

We leave those who defend a system full of corruption and filth and who have reached such a decision against our magazine to sink into their swamp. May they sink to the bottom.

Our people will continue to the voice of revolution, revolutionaries and the truth.

April 2, 2008
March for independence, democracy and socialism

source: www.halkinsesi.tv