Pinar Selek is a Franco-Turkish sociologist and feminist activist. A
victim of repression by the Turkish state following her politicalcommitments, this article focuses on her ongoing trial, as well as other
cases illustrating the authoritarian policies of Erdogan's government.
Next month, we will publish her interview for Alternative libertaire. 27
years old. Five trials. Four acquittals, two life sentences, and an
international arrest warrant. The next hearing will take place on
October 21 in Istanbul. Pinar Selek's trial has become a textbook case
of judicial repression by the Turkish state. In fact, this trial has
become inseparable from the Kurdish question.
Because Pinar Selek conducted an oral investigation into the Kurdish
diaspora in the late 1990s, she was imprisoned and tortured. Her
research materials were confiscated. At the same time, a gas leak caused
an explosion in the spice market. The Turkish government described the
accident as an attack, attributing it to the Kurdish Workers' Party
(PKK), and Pinar Selek was accused of contributing to it. We await the
Turkish court's next decision. The PKK has burned its weapons, and it
seems Turkey wants dialogue. Pinar Selek's full acquittal-if it happens,
are illusions really allowed?-could take on a new symbol, that of a step
towards "reconciliation" as the bombs continue to rain down.
The battlefields in which Pinar Selek is involved are not limited to the
Kurdish question. Or, rather, the Kurdish question is not limited to a
single battlefield. We cannot talk about the "Kurdish problem" without
mentioning counterterrorism policies: armed and judicial repression,
cultural invisibility, and the destruction of living spaces and nature.
The repression of the Kurdish minority reflects the repression of all
minorities-Armenian, LGBTI, and others-as well as academics and
political opponents.
Examples abound, such as the "Gezi Seven," convicted for organizing
protests against the closure of Gezi Park in 2013, or the "Kobane
Convicts," who participated in demonstrations in support of the city of
Kobane in Kurdistan. Added to this are hundreds of individual examples,
such as Meral Simsek, a Kurdish author convicted of propaganda in 2021,
or Tuna Altinel, a research professor at Lyon 2 University who was
deprived of his passport and imprisoned in Turkey in 2019. Indeed, Pinar
Selek's trial is inseparable from the issue of Turkey's democratization.
Following the attempted coup against Erdogan in 2016, a state of
emergency was declared, leading to tens of thousands of arrests and over
a hundred thousand people dismissed or suspended. That same year, the
Academic Peace Movement published a petition calling for an end to the
war and persecution, as well as against repression and censorship. Since
then, they've been keeping score: based solely on the petition, more
than 500 academics have been dismissed or forced to resign.
The trial of Pinar Selek is inseparable from the repression of the fight
against terrorism: a state of emergency, security panic, and the
construction of an ultra-nationalist public. Fortunately, in France,
we're not too concerned, are we?
Elfie (UCL Grenoble)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Repression-par-l-Etat-turc-Le-symbole-Pinar-Selek
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