Repression of Ecotopia camp & 30 arrested at die-in in Turkey

Urgent call for sol­i­dar­i­ty, please for­ward wýde­ly

Shock­ing repres­sion in Turkey!

Greens, envi­ron­men­tal­ists, peace and nature sup­port­ers, and NGO’s from all over the World gath­ered on the 9th of August to join the 20th inter­na­tion­al Eco­topia gath­er­ing being held at Sarikum nature reserve in Sinop, Turkey. Eco­topia gath­er­ings pro­mote sus­tain­able ways of liv­ing, har­mo­ny with nature, and dis­cuss social jus­tice issues. This year, Eco­topia has sup­port­ed local anti-nuclear groups, raised con­scious­ness of nuclear issues and pro­mot­ed alter­na­tive ener­gy sources. How­ev­er, for the last week, local police have been exert­ing supres­sion on the camp by mak­ing reg­u­lar vis­its, and fol­low­ing and intim­i­dat­ing par­tic­i­pants out­side of the camp.

On Wednes­day 20th August, 6 inter­na­tion­als and 5 Turk­ish peo­ple were placed under cus­tody while stag­ing a peace­ful vig­il out­side the Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency (TAEK) in Sinop. Police have also shown supres­sion towards locals of Gerze town who approached the Eco­topia camp to request sol­i­dar­i­ty against the Ther­mal Coal Plant planned for con­struc­tion in their town. Today, the 22nd August, approx­i­mate­ly 10 armed offi­cers, ordered by the gov­er­nor of Sinop, raid­ed the Eco­topia camp to threat­en force­ful evic­tion if the sýte was not emp­tied with­in 3 hours. In sum­ma­ry, 2 days before our legal per­mit for he site ends, it has been force­ful­ly demand­ed that we shut down activ­i­ties imme­di­ate­ly.

In Turkey, where democ­ra­cy is regress­ing, the author­i­ties do not tol­er­ate the advo­ca­cy of their peo­ple to lýve a safe, sus­tain­able and healthy life. In addi­tion, author­i­ties in the Turk­ish state and Sinop (where it it planned to build one nuclear tech­nol­o­gy cen­tre and 3 Ther­mal Coal plants) are dýs­turbed by the increas­ing local atten­tion on these projects, and are reluc­tant to allow peo­ple’s aware­ness and knowl­edge to grow inde­pen­dent­ly. As par­tic­i­pants rep­re­sent­ing more than 30 coun­tries, we are ask­ing for your sol­i­dar­i­ty, and request you to send the fol­low­ing text to the Turk­ish author­i­ties using the con­tact infor­ma­tion giv­en below.

For a nuclear-free world and a more demo­c­ra­t­ic Turkey, let’s block the phones and fax­es of the Turk­ish author­i­ties!

Eco­topia 2008 par­tic­i­pants

EYFA (Euro­pean Youth For Action)

SINYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði)

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To whom it may con­cern,

We have been informed that the Eco­topia meet­ing being held at Sarikum nature reserve in Sinop, which was announced and received approval of its per­mit many months ago, is now under­go­ing a peri­od of intense police sup­pres­sion. This event is legit­i­mate and legal, and we are demand­ing that the pres­sure is released. We will keep our­selves informed on how this sit­u­a­tion devel­ops and will fol­low up on this request if nec­es­sary.

Name/organization:

Coun­try:

Sig­na­ture:

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CONTACTS:

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Ýçiþ­leri Bakan­lýðý (Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs)
Tele­fon: +90 (312 )425 72 14
Fax: + 90 (312) 418 12 60
e‑mail: basin@icisleri.gov.tr

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Sinop Valil­iði ( Gov­ern­er­ship of Sinop)
Tel : 0(368) 261 15 00 -
Fax: 0368 261 15 02 — 261 55 05 -
e‑mail: valilik@sinop.gov.tr, webmaster@sinop.gov.tr

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LÜTFEN ÇEVRENÝZE DAÐITINIZ…

Acil Dayanýþ­ma Çaðrýsý – 22 Aðus­tos 2008, Sinop

Dünyanýn dört bir yanýn­dan yeþiller, çevre­cil­er, doða ve barýþ yan­lýlarý ve çeþitli örgütler olarak bu yýl 20.‘si yapýlan “Ulus­lararasý Eko­topya Buluþma“mýzý gerçek­leþtirmek üzere 9 Aðus­tos’­ta Sinop Sarýkum’­da top­landýk. Bu yýl Eko­topy­a’nýn amacý yer­el anti-nük­leer guru­plar­la dayanýþ­ma saðla­mak, yenilenebilir ener­ji kay­naklarý ve sosyal adalet konu­larý üzerinde bil­inç art­týr­mak­tý. Bu etkin­lik doðay­la uyum­lu ve sürdüre­bilir bir yaþam hay­al­im­izi kýsacasý ‘eko­topy­amýzý’ kamp deney­im­imizde somut­laþtýrdýðýmýz, ekolo­jik bir yaþamýn mümkün olduðunu gördüðümüz, gös­ter­diðimiz, her katýlanýn evine bam­baþ­ka biri olarak döndüðü, her sene tekrar­lanan 15 gün­lük ortak düþümüz, ütopy­amýzdý. Ancak özel­lik­le son bir haf­tadýr aralýk­sýz devam eden polis ve jan­dar­ma baskýsý bu düþü bir kabusa çevir­di.

Önce, Sinop’­ta­ki Türkiye Atom Ener­jisi Kuru­mu (TAEK) önünde 20 Agus­tos Çarþam­ba günü nük­leer ener­jiyle ilgili olarak hak­lý bil­gilendirmek amacýy­la yap­týðýmýz barýþçýl bir eylem sýrasýn­da 6 yabancý uyruk­lu, 5 TC vatan­daþý, 11 arkadaþýmýz gözaltý­na alýndý. Ardýn­dan bizlere destek olmak için gelen ve yaþadýk­larý bölgede kurul­masý düþünülen ter­mik santrale karþý ses­leri­ni daha fazla duyura­bilmek için bizler­den destek bekleyen Gerze halký sadece biz­im­le görüþtüðü için jan­dar­manýn baskýlarý­na maruz kaldý. Son olarak da bugün bölge jan­dar­masýn­dan gelen yak­laþýk on kiþi­lik grup, hemen kamp alanýný terk etmem­iz gerek­tiði­ni, aksi halde zor kul­la­narak kam­pý daðý­ta­cak­larýný söyledil­er. Öze­tle izn­i­mizin bitme­sine iki gün kala etkin­liðimiz tehditler­le engel­len­m­eye çalýþýl­mak­tadýr.

Demokrasinin giderek ger­ilediði Türkiye’de, bugün otoritelerin artýk yaþamýn savunul­masý­na dahi taham­mülü kalmamýþtýr. Yine görülmek­te­dir ki üç ter­mik ve bir nük­leer teknolo­ji merkezi kurul­masý plan­lanan Sinop’­ta etk­ili güçler ve TC devleti Sinop halkýnýn uyanýþýn­dan ve fes­ti­val­im­ize giderek artan ilgisin­den rahat­sýz olmak­tadýr. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti hiçbir biçimde örgütlü ve bil­inçli bir toplum iste­memek­te, giderek bir polis devle­tine dönüþmek­te­dir. Yak­laþýk 30 ülke­den Eko­topy­a’nýn katýlým­cýsý bireyler olarak bizler, bu baskýlarýn giderek art­masýn­dan endiþe duyuy­oruz.

Siz­leri de aþaðý­da­ki hazýr met­ni kuru­munuz ya da ken­di­niz adý­na, iletiþim bil­gi­leri­ni verdiðimiz Türk kurum­larý­na gön­der­erek biz­im­le dayanýþ­maya çaðýrýy­oruz.

Dünyamýzýn gele­ceði ve daha özgür bir Türkiye için bakan­lýðýn ve Sinop valil­iðinin fak­slarýný kil­itleye­lim!

Eko­topya 2008 Katýlým­cýlarý

EYFA (Euro­pean Youth For Action)

SÝNYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði)

Sayýn Yetk­ili;

Aylar öncesin­den Türk otoriteler­ine ve Sinop Halký­na duyu­ru­lan “Eko­topya Buluþ­masýnýn” Jan­dar­ma baskýsýy­la engel­len­mek istendiði­ni haber almýþ bulun­mak­tayýz. Bütünüyle yasal ve meþru olan etkin­lik üzerinde­ki baskýlarýn ortadan kalk­masýný talep ediy­oruz. Aksi halde ulusal ve ulus­lararasý kamuoyu olarak olayýn takipçisi ola­caðýmýzý bildirmek ister­iz.

Ýsim / Kurum :

Ülke:

Ýmza:

ÝLETÝÞÝM BÝLGÝLERÝ:

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Ýçiþ­leri Bakan­lýðý:
Tele­fon: +90 (312 )425 72 14
Faks: + 90 (312) 418 12 60
E‑posta: basin@icisleri.gov.tr

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Sinop Valil­iði
Tel : 0(368) 261 15 00 -
Faks: 0368 261 15 02 — 261 55 05 -
e‑posta: valilik@sinop.gov.tr , webmaster@sinop.gov.tr

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30 arrest­ed at die-in dur­ing envi­ron­men­tal gath­er­ing Eco­topia in Turkey

Sinop (Turkey), 23rd of August. This after­noon, Turk­ish police arrest­ed 30 for­eign­ers from at least 18 coun­tries and 3 Turk­ish cit­i­zens who took part in a peace­ful “die-in” action in front of the Sinop province Governor‘s res­i­dence in Sinop.

On request of the Ger­man Embassy the Sinop Police Head­quar­ters claimed that nobody was tak­en under cus­tody.

The protests are direct­ed against the plans to build a Nuclear Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre in the Sinop region. Par­tic­i­pants are mem­bers of envi­ron­men­tal­ist move­ments world­wide. They want to draw atten­tion to the fact that nuclear ener­gy is dan­ger­ous, pol­lut­ing and expen­sive. Instead of invest­ing in nuclear tech­nol­o­gy, Turkey should use its great poten­tial for solar and wind pow­er, as well as increas­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy.

“The Turk­ish state seems to be very afraid of their cit­i­zens learn­ing how dan­ger­ous nuclear pow­er is. That is why author­i­ties do not tol­er­ate any protest, espe­cial­ly when for­eign­ers are involved. We are seri­ous­ly con­cerned about the denial of free­dom of speech in Turkey.”, says Niklas Hart­mann from Ger­many.

The action took place while the camp is under threat of evic­tion.

—

24.8.2008
22:54h.
The 32 arrest­ed peo­ple are sit­ting at the police sta­tion still. There is no offi­cial state­ment of arrest or cus­tody. When embassies asked for infor­ma­tion on arrestants police actu­al­ly denied to have tak­en peo­ple into cus­tody(…).
The group has been split into small­er groups and tak­en to hos­pi­tal for the com­pul­so­ry check on tor­ture and is now back at the sta­tion. They have been refused access to their lawyer, a cer­ti­fied trans­la­tor and to con­tact their embassy and even access to food and water.
Rumours have it that our lawyer was told by the police that peo­ple did­n’t want to see him.

Peo­ple have been asked to sign papers in Turk­ish with­out trans­la­tion. Before the promised release they will have to see a pros­e­cu­tor, even though they are not for­mal­ly arrest­ed.

23.20h: first group of 6 peo­ple got released, prob­a­bly because they signed the papers. We’ll deal with it now.

To be con­tin­ued…

01:25h.
Every­body fol­lowed by under­cov­er police all the time. Sev­er­al peo­ple picked from the street that had noth­ing to do with the action! Final­ly, nobody has seen the pros­e­cuter, but every­body out now. Police want­ed to deport us from town back to camp site before every­body was released. Sit­u­a­tion was real­ly threat­en­ing. Peo­ple now stay­ing with trade unions. More tomor­row.

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[press release] Police threat­ens Eco­topia camp in Turkey with evic­tion

23.8.2008
In the moment, the par­tic­i­pants of the 20th Eco­topia inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal­ist gath­er­ing at Sarikum nature reserve, Sinop, on the Turk­ish Black Sea coast, are await­ing and prepar­ing for force­ful evic­tion of their camp site by the Jan­dar­ma (Turk­ish Police), which are already present with under­cov­er agents and sev­er­al cars. The 70 par­tic­i­pants from over 30 coun­tries will peace­ful­ly resist this unjus­ti­fied raid. The off­i­cal rea­son for the announced evic­tion was the announce­ment of the inten­tion to take part in the week­ly per­mit­ted press con­fer­ence of the local anti-nuclear ini­tia­tive SÝNYAD (Sinop Nük­leer­siz Kent ve Yaþam Derneði).

Approx­i­mate­ly 10 armed offi­cers, ordered by the gov­er­nor of Sinop, had already raid­ed the camp on Fri­day to threat­en force­ful evic­tion if the site was not emp­tied with­in 3 hours. Lat­er, this dead­line was post­poned to the next morn­ing. Two days before, six par­tic­i­pants of the camp togeth­er with local activists were arrest­ed dur­ing an action in front of the office of the Turk­ish Nuclear Ener­gy Agency (TAEK) in Sinop. After only ten min­utes of spread­ing fly­ers and hold­ing a ban­ner, they were phys­i­cal­ly aggressed by under­cov­er police with­out any pri­or warn­ing. They were held in a police sta­tion for sev­er­al hours and fined for not obey­ing police orders. Police have also shown supres­sion towards locals of Gerze town who approached the Eco­topia gath­er­ing to request sol­i­dar­i­ty against the Ther­mal Coal Plant planned for con­struc­tion in their town.

“We are shocked by the behav­iour of the police and local author­i­ties who did not allow any peace­ful protest to hap­pen. They have also been con­stant­ly threat­en­ing par­tic­i­pants of the camp and deny­ing them, as well as locals, the right to pub­li­cal­ly express their opin­ion. Now they have can­celled the camp just because we announced that we would like to take part in an offi­cial­ly per­mit­ted anti-nuclear protest. This is not what we con­sid­er to be free­dom of speech! ”, says Lenka Kukuro­va, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Euro­pean Youth for Action (EYFA), the net­work that sup­ports the Eco­topia gath­er­ings.

The protests are direct­ed against the plans to build a Nuclear Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre in the Sinop region. The 20th inter­na­tion­al Eco­topia gath­er­ing is tak­ing place in Turkey this year, to sup­port local move­ments to keep Turkey free of nuclear pow­er. Par­tic­i­pants of the camp are mem­bers of envi­ron­men­tal­ist move­ments world­wide. They want to draw atten­tion to the fact that nuclear ener­gy is dan­ger­ous, pol­lut­ing and expen­sive. Instead of invest­ing in nuclear tech­nol­o­gy, Turkey should use its great poten­tial for solar and wind pow­er, as well as increas­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy.

For back­ground info:
http://ecotopiagathering.org
http://www.eyfa.org