7 Students Detained for Reading Out Secularism Statement Released

Click to read the article in Kurdish / Turkish

Detained for reading out a statement at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir calling for secularism, which was shown as a ground for arrest of People’s House members Hamit Dışkaya and Ayşegül Başar, seven students have been released.

The Student Collectives member students had read out People’s House’s secularism statement at Dokuz Çemeler Campus yesterday (January 4) and said “we as university students are also signatories of this statement”.

Beaten by private security personnel and taken out of the cafeteria, the seven students were then beaten and taken into custody by police.

Kept at İzmir Security Directorate, the students were released today on January 5.

What had happened?

Community Center members Hamit Dışkaya and Ayşegül Başar have been arrested by İstanbul 14th Criminal Court of Judgeship for making a call for secularity in coffeehouses in Okmeydanı district of İstanbul following the attack in Reina nightclub in Ortaköy during new year celebrations.

Deniz Özbilgin, an attorney representing Başar and Dışkaya stated that the community center members were arrested on charge of "inciting people to hate and hostility" regulated in Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The call Ayşegül Başar and Hamit Dışkaya made in Okmeydanı is as follows:

"These are people who are trying to make our lives miserable with their massacres. But enough is enough. We are not going to allow ISIS members and jihadist gangs in our neighbourhood anymore. It's enough. There is a flag which we need to unfurl against bigotry. That is the flag of secularism. Secularism, freedom, fraternity mean the struggle for humane life. We urge everybody to be a soldier of this struggle and to call bigots, fascists and presidential system lovers to account. Thank you for listening". (BK/TK)