Bring The Junta to Justice

The “Seventy-eighters Initiative”, urging for the prosecution of the leaders of the September 12, 1980 military coup brings together more than 30 groups, including labor unions, left-wing political parties and professional chambers in a rally in front of the Ankara Radio, the first state office taken over during the coup.

The rally is expected to start with a “Democracy Announcement” vis-à-vis that of the junta’s announcement of blanketing the whole country under martial law from the Ankara Radio.

"Under the temporary 15th Article of the Constitution, these leaders of the coup who darkened Turkish history for all of us, can not be prosecuted. We still feel the effects of the coup under the 12 September Constitution and we want to remind the country of the tyranny of the 12 September coup," told Rusen Sümbüloglu spokesperson for the “Seventy-eighters Initiative” bianet.

The initiative comprises of the victims of the military rule, most of whom have entered political activity in the year 1978, hence the “Seventy-eighters Initiative”.

Although the coup leaders in Argentina, Greece and Chile have been prosecuted and brought to justice after the turn of these countries to democracy, Turkey is yet ruled under the same Constitution introduced by the military rule, which in spite of later amendments still provides legal immunity for the military command who organized the coup.

According to the Ministry of Justice figures, after the 1980 coup, 650 thousand people were arrested. 98,404 people were prosecuted in military courts and 21,764 people were sentenced for a total of millions of years.

According to the fact and figures provided in “12 September Chart” by “Seventy-eighters Initiative”:

* 1 million people were arrested. 1 million 683 thousand people were filed by the police. In 210 thousand separate cases, 230 thousand people were prosecuted. Almost 100 thousand people were prosecuted under charges of affiliation with “illegal organizations”. The prosecutors indicted 7 thousand people for death penalty, 517 of whom were sentenced to life. 259 of these files were sent to the Parliament for approval, 50 of whom were actually executed.

* Erdal Eren who was 17 at the time of his “crime”, although the law prohibits execution of those under 18, was executed as the military court insisted that he should be charged as an adult. Thousands of people received the life sentence.

* 30 thousand people had to go into exile. 14 thousand people lost their Turkish citizenship. 380 thousand people were denied their passports. 30 thousand people lost their jobs since they were deemed 'objectionable'.

* 117 people were proved to have died under torture. Hundreds of people, who lost their lives under torture, were kept officially unrecorded. Thousands of people were handicapped after being subjected to torture and thousands of others suffered serious psychological problems.

* 14 people lost their lives during hunger strikes to protest treatment in prisons. More than ten people burned themselves to death, protesting the prison conditions across the country.

* 300 journalists were attacked. Three journalists were killed. Prosecutors asked for a total of 4000 years of imprisonment for journalists. 303 separate cases were brought against 13 big newspapers.

* Journalists received a total of 3 thousand 315 years and 6 months of prison sentences. Newspapers were banned from publication for 300 days. 49 tons of newspapers, magazines and books were destroyed for being 'objectionable'. 23 thousand 667 associations had to stop their activities. 937 films were banned for being 'objectionable.'