Freedom of speech stands trial in Turkey

"Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance."

This was the slogan chanted in the streets of Istanbul and numerous other cities in Turkey, when the Gezi Park protests erupted 7 years ago. The main square of Istanbul remained occupied for weeks. Peaceful protesters went on the streets to ensure that one of the remaining green spaces of the mega city, which is populated by some 15 million people, was not destroyed in the framework of an urban development plan.

But it turned into something much more. From today’s perspective, the protests mark a crucial moment for Turkish social and political history. Turkish "free-speech lawyer", Veysel Ok, described the events as the "greatest non-violent civil protests of history", in an interview with DW. "The protesters were peaceful. There was only police violence. It was a civil protest, which had begun with environmental concerns."

Merve Tahiroglu, the Turkey Program Coordinator at POMED (Project on Middle East Democracy) in Washington, described the Gezi protests as a "spontaneous popular uprising" and "a powerful exhibition of genuine popular opposition to Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism".

"The 2013 Gezi protests marked the first major popular show of opposition to Erdogan’s now 17-year, uninterrupted rule."

The rule of law

Today, Gezi has stood trial. Public personalities; lawyers, architects, actors, authors, activists, business people, were accused of attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey. One of the 746 complainants is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey.

All of the defendants were today acquitted. The only imprisoned defendant, Osman Kavala, businessman, is also going to be released. Ok told DW: "Kavala should have been released not today, but long before."

According to Tahiroglu, the Gezi case has been "a prime example of the breakdown of rule of law". "The entire prosecution has made a mockery of Turkey’s justice system by charging defendants on absurd and fictitious claims based on a conspiracy theory and denying defendants due process and fair trial rights."

Coup attempt or civil protest?

Ok told DW that there’s a major difference of opinion between the society and government with regard to the protests. "The government sees the protests as a coup attempt. Whereas the public at large considers it as a civil protest."

One of the accused, Mücella Yapıcı, an architect by profession, said in her defense statement earlier today: "Gezi is the honor of the society. The Gezi resistance cannot be judged. It has no organisation, no funding, no leader. It’s your decision. I come to the end of my words by standing in awe of the 8 kids who lost their lives and my friends who lost their eyes (because of the police violence)."

Memet Ali Alabora, a well-known Turkish actor residing in Wales, is one of the defendants of the process. In an exclusive interview with DW Turkish, he said that the indictment is "not even surreal, but hyperreal". "There’s nothing in the indictment which can be considered as a criminal act."

Alabora also describes the Gezi Park protests as "unique". "There are moments, in which, we, as those, who believe that another world is possible, see that another world is actually possible. Gezi was one of them."

"It’s a political process, not a legal one"

Veysel Ok is the Vice President of the Media and Law Studies Assocation (MLSA). He also worked as the lawyer of German journalist Deniz Yücel, whilst he was imprisoned in Turkey. Ok pointed out that the attitude of the court towards the defendants gives the impression that it’s a political process. According to him this was a process, where civil society, the right to civil protest and the freedom of speech stood trial.

Tahiroglu, who also worked as a research analyst at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense for Democracies, opined that the Gezi process demonstrated the arbitrariness of Turkish justice:

"The trial will only strengthen the climate of fear that Turkey’s civil and political opposition has been under for years. The message to the Turkish people is clear: In Erdogan's Turkey, dissent is not just intolerable, it can be illegal—and used to lock up citizens for life. Every day that political detainees like Kavala spend behind bars, other pro-democratic activists in Turkey feel that they, too, could be locked up unjustly anytime."