‘We Do Not Recognise the Gezi Park Decisions’- Aslı Erdoğan marches for human rights in Berlin
Today in Berlin, the prominent writer and former ICORN Resident Aslı Erdoğan is marching in a bid for justice, democracy, and human rights in Turkey, following philanthropist Osman Kavala’s life sentence in connection to the Gezi Park Protests.
Additionally, seven other activists were accused of assisting Kavala in ‘attempting to overthrow the government by force’ in the Gezi Park Protests and received 18-year sentences. This comes as part of the Turkish authorities’ increased crackdown on civil liberties over the last ten years of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule. The Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul merely acted as a spark the largest anti-government protest movement Turkey has ever seen and involved millions of people around the country. The ‘We Do Not Recognise the Gezi Park Decisions’ march in Berlin will demand concrete action on both the recent court rulings and the increasingly worsening human rights situation in Turkey, more widely.
Aslı Erdoğan says: ‘After all, this is not only the tragedy of Kavala and the dozen others convicted on Monday, but millions of people suffering from brutal displays of power.’
Starting from the Federal Chancellery and the Bundestag at 11 am on May 4, 2022, the demonstration will move on to the EU Headquarters and finish at the Turkish Embassy in Berlin in solidarity with democratic forces in Turkey. Aslı,together with distinguished Turkish and German public figures, such as Deniz Yücel, Peter Steudtner, Zehra Doğan and Can Dündar, will be joined by many others to take on Berlin’s streets. Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders representatives will also be present. The demonstrators will be carrying a reproduction of a Silivri prison cell, modelled on the largest prison in Europe, and symbolising the repressive regime of President Erdoğan’s Turkey. The Silivri cell was designed with the help of Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin.
Aslı Erdoğan is an author, human rights activist, and quantum physicist from Turkey. She was the ICORN resident in Krakow, Poland between 2015 and 2016, following which she returned to her homeland. Working as columnist and stand-in-editor to the Turkish newspaper, Özgür Gündem, Erdoğan was imprisoned during the failed coup d’état in 2016. Although her case remains open in the Turkish justice system, Aslı escaped prison and became the ICORN resident in Frankfurt, Germany between 2017 and 2018. To read more about her, please visit her resident profile on our website.
