Jailed Ragıp Zarakolu: Turkey Engages in"Collective Lynching"
hetq
10:56, November 4, 2011
Publisher and human rights activist Ragıp Zarakolu, recently arrested
in Turkey on terrorism-related charges, has sent his first letter
from the Metris prison where he is being held.
Zarakolu writes that, "My arrest and the accusation of membership of
an illegal organization are parts of a campaign aiming to intimidate
all intellectuals and democrats of Turkey and particularly to deprive
the Kurds of any support."
He says that when the police raided his house only a few books were
confiscated as "evidence" linking him to any outlawed organization. A
few of the books dealt with Armenian history and the 1915 Genocide.
"During my interrogation, they did not ask any question about the
organization of which I was accused of being a member. They questioned
me only about the books that I wrote or edited for publication, the
public meetings where I spoke or attended. I think that everybody
should jointly react against this campaign of arrests that turns into
a collective lynching. These illegal practices should be stopped,"
Zarakolu writes in his letter from prison.
hetq
10:56, November 4, 2011
Publisher and human rights activist Ragıp Zarakolu, recently arrested
in Turkey on terrorism-related charges, has sent his first letter
from the Metris prison where he is being held.
Zarakolu writes that, "My arrest and the accusation of membership of
an illegal organization are parts of a campaign aiming to intimidate
all intellectuals and democrats of Turkey and particularly to deprive
the Kurds of any support."
He says that when the police raided his house only a few books were
confiscated as "evidence" linking him to any outlawed organization. A
few of the books dealt with Armenian history and the 1915 Genocide.
"During my interrogation, they did not ask any question about the
organization of which I was accused of being a member. They questioned
me only about the books that I wrote or edited for publication, the
public meetings where I spoke or attended. I think that everybody
should jointly react against this campaign of arrests that turns into
a collective lynching. These illegal practices should be stopped,"
Zarakolu writes in his letter from prison.