Orhan Kemal Cengiz is a Turkish lawyer, journalist and human rights activist.
He graduated in law from the University of Ankara in 1993. From 1997 to 1998 he worked in London. He is president and founding member of the Human Rights Agenda Association. He is also a founding member and general secretary of the Civil Society Development Center. [1]
He writes for Today’s Zaman and Radikal . [2] After threats were made to his life in 2008 for his work on the Malatya Bible murder case, he asked for and eventually received a bodyguard. [3] His request was supported by Amnesty International. [4]
In February 2016 he was a speaker at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. [5]
Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is a political prisoner and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Ferit Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.
Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was not signed by Turkey until 2000. As of today, however, Turkey is party to 16 out of 18 international human rights treaties of the United Nations. The issue of human rights is of high importance for the negotiations with the European Union (EU). Acute human rights issues include in particular the status of Kurds in Turkey. The Kurdish–Turkish conflict has caused numerous human rights violations over the years. There is an ongoing debate in the country on the right to life, torture, freedom of expression as well as freedoms of religion, assembly and association.
Ragıp Zarakolu is a Turkish human rights activist and publisher who has long faced legal harassment for publishing books on controversial subjects in Turkey, especially on minority and human rights in Turkey.
Kurdish Hezbollah known in Turkey as Hizbullah, and known among Kurds as Sofîk is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist militant organization, active against Turkey, and the PKK.
Article 301 is an article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish nation, Turkish government institutions, or Turkish national heroes such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It took effect on June 1, 2005, and was introduced as part of a package of penal law reform in the process preceding the opening of negotiations for Turkish membership of the European Union (EU), in order to bring Turkey up to Union standards. The original version of the article made it a crime to "insult Turkishness"; on April 30, 2008, the article was amended to change "Turkishness" into "the Turkish nation". Since this article became law, charges have been brought in more than 60 cases, some of which are high-profile. The Great Jurists Union headed by Kemal Kerinçsiz, a Turkish lawyer, is "behind nearly all of Article 301 trials". Kerinçsiz himself is responsible for forty of the trials, including the high-profile ones.
Radikal was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally considered by the public as a social liberal newspaper. Despite only having a circulation of around 25,000, it was considered one of the most influential Turkish newspapers.
Osman Baydemir is a Turkish politician, lawyer and human rights activist of Kurdish descent. He was the mayor of his home town of Diyarbakır from 2004 to 2014. He was a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and also the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP).
The Turkish Revenge Brigade, also referred as the Turkish Vengeance Brigade, is a militant Turkish nationalist organisation that has used violence against those they perceive as insulting Turkey. In the political violence of the 1970s, TİT gained notoriety during political clashes and is believed to be responsible for over 1,000 deaths during this period. After the military coup of 1980, most of its members were arrested. They were later released and assisted Turkish military intelligence in operations during the Kurdish-Turkish conflict.
The Zirve Publishing House murders, called the missionary massacres by Turkish media, took place on April 18, 2007, in Zirve Publishing House, Malatya, Turkey. Three employees of the Bible publishing house were attacked, tortured, and murdered by five Muslim assailants.
The Human Rights Association is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.
Cengiz is the Turkish form of Genghis, as in Genghis Khan. Notable people with the name include:
The People's Labour Party, sometimes translated as the People's Work Party, was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. It was founded on 7 June 1990 by seven members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly expelled from the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). They were expelled from the SHP for having attended a Kurdish congress organized by the Kurdish Institute in Paris. HEP was led by Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar. It first viewed itself as a party for the whole of Turkey. But that a party represented in the Turkish Parliament openly demanded more rights for the Kurds was new to Turkish politics. Its politicians held speeches in front of audiences of up to 10'000 people in South East Turkey, which was deemed a danger to the public security by the Turkish authorities. In view of the "Kurdish question", the HEP vigorously campaigned for the peoples right for self-determination of the people by means of a federation, referendum or similar kind of solution found by the people. During the Newroz celebrations in March, In June 1991 its president Işıklar declared on its first party congress that several circles tried to brand the party as a Kurdish party, and since the party is a party of the suppressed, and with in this frame work, they are proud of being called a Kurdish party. Some days later he reiterated that they were not uncomfortable with being called a Kurdish Party since it was the Kurds, whose rights were most infringed. After this declaration, several of the Turkish founding members resigned. For the elections of 1991, it formed an alliance with the SHP of Erdal Inönü, and 22 politicians from the HEP entered the parliament with this alliance. The HEP was involved in peace negotiations with the PKK. On 16 April 1993 chairman Ahmet Türk and five other MPs traveled to the Bar Elias in Lebanon, demanding a prolongation of the cease fire declared by the PKK before. The cease-fire was prolonged at a press conference given the same day. Due to the overt promotion of Kurdish cultural and political rights the party was banned by the Constitutional Court in July 1993. The party was succeeded by the Democracy Party (DEP) established in May 1993. In 2002 the European Court of Human Rights granted Feridun Yazar, Ahmet Karataş and Ibrahim Aksoy each 10`000€ and another 10`000€ combined due to the banning of their party.
Diyarbakır Prison is a prison located in Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. It was established in 1980 as an E-type prison by the Ministry of Justice. After the September 12, 1980 Turkish coup d'état, the facility was transferred to military administration and became a Martial Law Military Prison. Control of the prison was returned to the Ministry of Justice on May 8, 1988.
The prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. Dink was a newspaper editor who had written and spoken about the Armenian genocide, and was well known for his efforts for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and his advocacy of human and minority rights in Turkey. At the time of his death, he was on trial for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and "denigrating Turkishness". His murder sparked both massive national protests in Turkey itself as well as widespread international outrage.
Orhan Doğan was a Kurdish human rights lawyer and politician of the Democratic Society Party.
Pınar Selek is a Turkish sociologist, feminist, and author. She is known for her work on the rights of vulnerable communities in Turkey, including women, the poor, street children, sexual minorities, and Kurdish communities. She is the author of several books published in Turkish, German, and French, and is one of the founding editors of Amargi, a Turkish feminist journal. She currently resides in France and became a French citizen in 2017.
Yeni Ülke was a Turkish pro-Kurdish newspaper. It was founded in October 1990 as a weekly newspaper, and in 1993 merged with the daily Özgür Gündem. The motivation for the establishment for the newspaper came mainly from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and PKK members wrote several columns and articles for the newspaper. The newspaper was soon popular and had a wide readership, which reportedly reached 50'000.
The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy is an annual human rights summit sponsored by a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations. Each year, on the eve of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session, activists from around the world meet to raise international awareness of human rights situations.
Ali Sait Çetinoğlu is a Turkish scholar, Professor of the Free University Ankara Independent Initiative, Turkey He was one of the first representatives and coordinators for Turkey at the Amnesty International. His interests include The Young Turks and Kemalism, the Armenian genocide and following actions that targeted 'Other' in Turkey: the anti-Jewish pogroms in Thrace in 1934, the intimidation campaign “Citizen, speak Turkish!” and the mobilisation of work battalions for the 'minorities' during 1941-42. Cetinoglu has published original articles based on research of the National Archives in Turkey.