A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #363 - Antipatriarchy - Repression by the Turkish State: The Symbol of Pinar Selek (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Pinar Selek is a Franco-Turkish sociologist and feminist activist. A 
victim of repression by the Turkish state following her political 
commitments, 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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