Women Protest The Bars Womens Commission

Representatives of 18 women organisations have staged a protest against the Women's Commission of the Istanbul Bar Association that was signatory to newspaper advertisements blacklisting Human Rights Association (IHD) former Istanbul branch chair Eren Keskin and turning her into a public target by implying she supported terrorism.

The women demand for the Bar Association to launch a disciplinary action into the Commission and investigate its role in the advertisement that was published by a group of women organisations and political party women's branches in two mass circulation Turkish newspapers.

In a press statement they read out in front of the Bar Association building in Istanbul on June 14 Wednesday, the women organisations asked the Commission "as our lawyers, how can you ignore hundreds of women who are abused and raped in custody, who are subjected to violence originating from the state?.. How will you defend us with this mentality?"

IHD's Leman Yurtsever read the statement authored to remind the Bar Association and its members of their responsibilities and duties. She said Keskin was accused in a lynch campaign and that it was unfortunate that a commission of the Bar Association that upheld the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" was party to this.

Yurtsever said the Bar Association had the duty of standing beside women where their rights were violated and called for lawyers of the commission to explain their action to the public and apologise for what they did.

"To combat those who commit such a serious offence as abuse and rape needs first to accept that this is a crime of humanity. A lawyer who does not have such a mentality cannot defend women who are abused and raped while in custody" she said.

Following the press statement, group representatives submitted a report titled "Sexual Abuse and Rape in Detention" to the association.

"A response to the Very Important Notice"

Meanwhile, 395 women activists in Turkey have issued a statement of solidarity with lawyer Keskin under the headline "A response to a Very Important Notice" referring to the title of the advertisement that blackballed her before the nation.

Their statement said, "As women who have come together on the bases of rejecting violence towards women, we see the text [advert] as violence itself. We invited women and women organisations against violence, discrimination and sexism to fight together and be in solidarity.

Marked as Target

The advertisements subject to protest appeared in the mass circulation Turkish daily Hurriyet and the Cumhuriyet newspapers earlier this month and claimed that while Keskin was head of the IHD Istanbul branch, she used every meeting she attended "to voice the factitious slander of the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party] PKK". The advert also claimed she was involved in activities "to spoil the atmosphere of peace".

Keskin, a lawyer by profession, chaired the IHD Istanbul branch until the end of last month when, following scheduled elections, she was replaced by Hurriyet Sener.

As founder of the "Legal Aid For Victims of Sexual Harassment and Rape Under Detention Project", Keskin was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment this year for "insulting the armed forces" for a speech she made back in Germany in 2002. Though the sentence was later converted to a fine, she said in March that she would rather serve it.

(EZO/KO/II/YE)