One writer all writers at risk

U.S. ally tortures —
Turkey's Government arrested, tortured, annulled acquittal, now sets February 9 retrial of researcher, writer Pinar Selek
Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Pinar Selek was writing about why the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has opted for violence.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle news, Pinar Selek said, “‘I was watching TV and I saw a photo of me. They said that there had been an explosion, a fire in the spice bazaar. […] They said it was a terrorist attack and a young boy said he’d laid the bomb with Pinar Selek. I was watching it and it was total rubbish.’” [The main witness for the prosecution later admitted that his testimony had been obtained under torture.]

In 1998, Writers in Exile reports, Turkish officials arrested Pinar Selek for alleged propaganda for PKK— after a month in custody, Selek realized she was being charged with having committed a terrorist bomb attack on the Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul on behalf of the PKK. She spent two and a half years in prison where she was severely tortured.

“‘They arrested me and took all my documents,” Selek told Deutsche Welle. “‘They started asking me questions about the people I’d been speaking to. I never wrote their names down,’ she said. She knew her reputation as a researcher would be ruined if she did.”

She described in some detail the brutality of police. “‘They hung me on the wall in a Palestinian sling … They passed electroshocks through my brain. They dislocated my shoulder — lots of things. I just told myself, just resist for two minutes, two minutes, two more minutes. That’s how it happened, two minutes at a time.’”

In 2006, after an eight-year trial, Pinar was acquitted. By then, numerous experts had confirmed that the explosion on the Bazaar had been caused not by a bomb, but by a faulty liquid gas bottle. The main witness for the prosecution admitted that his testimony was obtained under torture.

In 2009, Turkey’s Supreme Court annulled the [acquittal] judgment and in February 2010 ordered the Criminal Court to retry the case and impose life imprisonment on Selek, claiming she was a leading member of the outlawed PKK. The senior public prosecutor had concluded that there was no bomb involved in the Bazaar explosion — a person could not have planted it; however, the Court of Appeals in Ankara did not accept the appeal of the senior public prosecutor and is demanding life imprisonment under stiffened conditions for Pinar Selek. The reopening of the lawsuit at Istanbul High Criminal Court number 12, which had given the decision of acquittal in 2008, will take place February 9, 2011.

During the past ten years, Pinar Selek has become an icon of the democracy movement in Turkey. It is obvious, Writers-in-Prison Vice-President Christa Schuenke (following the trial as official observer) writes, “that antidemocratic forces within the Turkish penal jurisdiction are trying to use their influence in order to gag a courageous writer.”

The Turkish writer and sociologist is a scholar in the Writers-in-Exile program of German P.E.N. She is a passionate advocate for the rights of different kinds of minorities such as socially disadvantaged children. She also defends the civil rights of ethnic minorities like Kurds and Armenians.

A recent psychological assessment of Selek reveals she is suffering from post-traumatic stress. She told Deutsche Welle that, with the trial coming up, “the anxiety she felt during the torture comes back to her like an echo.”

Sources and notes

Pinar Selek needs public support — to demand immediate dismissal of the trial — not only in her own country but also all over the world. christaschuenke 'at' mac.com.

“Appeal for Pinar Selek,” (Christa Schuenke Vice President of P.E.N. Germany in charge of Writers-in-Exile), http://www.pen-deutschland.de/htm/aktuelles/pinar-selek,aufruf-english.php 

On April, 20, 2010, Yasemin Öz, board member of the Feminist Cooperative Amargi in Istanbul, wrote to P.E.N. Germany, “‘Pinar Selek is a prominent writer and feminist, peace activist in Turkey. Pinar Selek is one of the frontier members of our organization. For years, members of our organization are trying to support Pinar and making campaigns in and abroad to avoid this unjust trial against Pinar. During all these years, we received support from many people and organizations in and abroad. With this support, we hope the justice will come in the end.’” http://www.pen-deutschland.de/htm/aktuelles/pinar-selek,aufruf-english.php

“Turkish human rights activist Pinar Selek faces third trial — Pinar Selek, a writer living in Berlin, faces her third trial in Turkey. She is accused of planting a bomb and killing seven people. Observers, however, say the trial is politically motivated; Pinar Selek's third trial is slated to begin on February 9, after over a decade of legal proceedings” (Author: Natalia Dannenberg, Editor: Kate Bowen) February 2, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14809844,00.html

Writers in Exile Network

Writers from other countries enrich and invigorate the cultures that take them in.

A project of International P.E.N., the Writers in Exile Network formed in response to the growing number of writers fleeing persecution. The Network works on behalf of writers who have been forced into exile and provides personal and professional information and guidance to help writers integrate into a safe country. The Network’s goals are to help writers to establish themselves in their new environment and to resume their careers. [International P.E.N. Writers in Exile Network Statement of Intent, Adopted at the International P.E.N. Congress, Moscow, May 2000], http://www.pen-deutschland.de/htm/en/e_wie_network.php

P.E.N. (originally Poets, Essayists and Novelists) is an international NGO based in London, England, and founded in that country in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers worldwide. International P.E.N. today includes a variety of writers including journalists and historians.
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