Mehmet Tarhan (below), now on 32nd day of hunger strike in military prison
 

LONDON, October 31, 2005   –  News was released today that gay Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan  was brutally assaulted by guards at Sivas military prison on Friday September 30 when he refused to have his hair cut.  Ali Düler, a prisoner who came to his aid, was also assaulted. 

Mr Tarhan described the assault::

“Today, at 3pm non-commissioned officer Hilmi Savluk [prison warden], accompanied by three or four guards, told me that my hair was to be cut.  Then seven or eight people using force and torture cut my hair and beard but they could not cut my moustache.

“Also a friend [Ali Düler] from the ward faced a harsh intervention from the guards. 

“After the hair cut torture, there is pain in my head, in both my hands, in my left arm because they stood on it, pain in my left foot, injuries and bruises on my arm and legs.  I cannot turn my neck around because of pain in my face and neck.”

Mehmet Tarhan has been on hunger strike since then – a month ago. Today, he is in his 32^nd day of the hunger strike.

Four years ago, Mr Tarhan declared his total conscientious objection to all wars and to any alternative to military service.  He refused to be discharged from the military on the basis of his homosexuality, which the Turkish authorities view as an illness, saying this is “an expression of the rottenness of the militarist system itself.”

In order to certify men as gay the “rotten” military authority requires not only a physical examination by doctors but also a photo or a video of applicants being sexually penetrated.  The person applying for exemption as a gay man has to be the one penetrated – the one penetrating is not classified as gay by the military!

Since April 8 this year, Mr Tarhan has been detained at Sivas military prison.  On August 10 he was sentenced to four years imprisonment on two charges of “insubordination before the unit” (article 88 of the Military Criminal Code).  Even after he has served his sentence he will face mock release, and another cycle of detention, torture and trial.  He is appealing his conviction.

This is not the first time Mr Tarhan has suffered prison violence: in May 2005, other prisoners who were encouraged by prison staff beat him.  After a 28-day hunger strike in protest against that and other abuse, he won many of his demands, including the right to have a cell of his own to ensure his protection.  However, he has since been regularly put in isolation by the prison authorities, because he refuses to act as a soldier and obey arbitrary and illegal orders.

Mr Tarhan’s fight for recognition of his right to conscientious objection is supported by various human rights, lesbian, gay and other organisations in many countries, as well as by MEPs.  Payday and Wages Due Lesbians have been campaigning in Europe and in the United States to free Mr Tarhan.  Gay human rights organisation Outrage! is also campaigning on Mr Tarhan’s behalf.

The organisations are all asking that emails of protest be sent to the Turkish authorities, the European Union, Members of the European Parliament or the Turkish Ambassador in your country.  An exhaustive list of email addresses, together with a “model letter” can be found here.

■  Turkey is currently negotiating with the European Union for membership.

Mehmet Tarhan’s Statement to the Court  at his Trial in August

“By declaring my conscientous objection on October 27 2001, I stated that I would not perform military service, that I would not take part in any army or similar hierarchical organization and that I would not serve in the dissemination of militarist culture into social life.

“Since that date, especially taking into consideration the war frenzy that the world has been swept into since September 11, I become more confident with each passing day that I have made a right decision. Because the terror attacks and the ongoing atrocious wars everywhere in the world, including the land we live in, demonstrate that a way of life that excludes violence in its entirety is the only humane solution.

“Since armies are the tools for using legitimized violence, they are one of the most important obstacles before a world devoid of violence. This is because militaries owe their existence, their power and sustainability to wars and to the probability of wars. And militaries are, by nature, institutions that produce wars.

“For the military, there is no such thing as a state of peace. The periods where there is no armed conflict, are merely intervals where they try to universalize the tyranny they impose onto the society, that is, a time period devoted to preparation for war and fighting against the implementation of peace.

“As the ruling classes’ apparatus of violence, the military diffuses the culture of obedience through military service. The individual who becomes accustomed to taking orders and obeying without questions, not only loses her/his independence but becomes an enemy to the idea of independence. What differentiates a human being from a machine or a well-trained dog is that her/his acts stem from his/her individual will. So obeying without asking any questions, is far from being humane, to say the least. Expecting unconditional obedience from someone is equivalent to asking her/him to abandon his/her humanity.

“Because I find it important to lead a humane life and as an indispensible precondition of this I feel that all humans should lead a humane life, I declare once again that I will never take orders and I will never give orders. I believe that discrimination and violence are crimes of humanity and in the name of avoiding to commit this crime, I am determined to not be a part of the military which is an apparatus of violence based on hierarchy that imposes such hierarchical constructions  over the society, I am determined to disobey, and refuse to be transformed into a murder machine by taking a training of dying and killing.

“I find it tragicomical and protest that, in this building that is placed inside a military barracks, persons who carry military ranks see themselves as having the right to make statements regarding my destiny according to laws that bind them alone. I want the restriction on my freedom to end immediately.”

From the UK Gay News Archive:

Gay Jailed and Beaten In Turkish Military Prison.  Imprisoned Turkish gay activist and conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan is being violently abused in the military jail at Sivas in eastern Turkey, reports David Allison of the gay rights group OutRage! (June 1, 2005)

Imprisoned Gay Turk Hunger Striker Wins Concessions.  Mehmet Tarhan, a Turkish gay activist and conscientious objector, has won major improvements in his prison conditions following a 28-day hunger strike and an international protest campaign by gay and anti-war groups worldwide – but he remains in detention following his refusal to be conscripted into the Turkish army. (July 6, 2005)

LINKS

Paydaynet (Refusing to Kill) website

Wages Due Lesbians website

Please note that the Outrage! website has technical difficulties are is currently not available.