Convictions in Gezi trial protested in the US

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The convictions in the Gezi retrial have been protested in the US cities of New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

Gathering under the name of "Gezi North America", the groups have said, "Gezi is hope; hope cannot be put on trial."

At the final hearing of the Gezi retrial on April 25, the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court sentenced Osman Kavala to aggravated life imprisonment and Mücella Yapıcı, Çiğdem Mater, Hakan Altınay, Mine Özerden, Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman, Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi to 18 years in prison.

CLICK - Who are the eight convicts of the Gezi case?

The first protest demonstration in the US was held in New York's Upper West Side on April 30. Having prepared banners before the demonstration, the protestors marched while chanting the slogans "Gezi cannot be put on trial", "We do not accept" and "We defend Gezi". The second protest demonstration was held in Washington Square Park on May 1.

*New York

The protest demonstration of the Bostonbol group, which was established during the Gezi protests in support of the Gezi, took place at the campus of the MIT University on May 1. Protesting the convictions with the slogans "Gezi is hope, hope cannot be put on trial or convicted," the protestors exchanged opinions at a forum afterwards.

*Boston

In Los Angeles, protestors met in front of the Federal Building on May 1. They marched while holding banners that read, "Freedom to nature, city and prisoners", "Gezi cannot be put on trial" and "We defend Gezi".

*Los Angeles

'We are outraged'

Saying, "We defend Gezi", the Gezi North America Group have made the following statement during their protests:

"As dissidents living in North America with close ties to Turkey, we are familiar with injustice and brazen disregard for the rule of law. Yet, we are outraged at the Gezi trial verdict, delivered on April 25, 2022, which marks a milestone in Turkey's descent into utter lawlessness and the regime's relentless attacks on every dissident voice.

"A Turkish court sentenced Osman Kavala, a well-known philanthropist, to life in prison without parole for 'attempting to overthrow the government,' under the laughable allegation of orchestrating and funding the 2013 Gezi protests. Kavala's sentence came after he had already spent over 4 years in solitary confinement in a Turkish prison.

'Politically motivated'

"The other defendants of the case: Mücella Yapıcı, Çiğdem Mater, Hakan Altınay, Can Atalay, Mine Özerden, Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi, and Tayfun Kahraman, all well-known public figures and activists, were sentenced to 18 years for aiding in an attempt to overthrow the government through the Gezi movement. Those present were arrested on the spot and sent to prison.

"Despite being acquitted twice over the last eight years, the Gezi defendants were convicted by a politically motivated bench on the third time their case was brought to court. The trial has been a saga of unlawful practices, baseless accusations, and unjust acts of punishment directed at those who had become prominent faces during the protests. Not a single one of the allegations brought against the defendants, based on nothing other than wild conspiracy theories, has been proven in the court.

"The lack of evidence did not stop the court from delivering this outrageous verdict. Indeed, one judge among the three presiding objected to the verdict by stating that the only evidence the court case referred to were illegally collected phone taps, which were not enough for the conviction. In his dissenting statement, the judge highlighted that given the lack of any concrete, believable, and clear evidence, all defendants should be acquitted.

'A decentralized uprising'

"At every step of the legal process, a whole set of procedural rules have been broken, resulting in this unjust verdict. The European Court of Human Rights declared Kavala's detention unlawful, and Turkey's failure to comply with the ECHR's decision brought it to the verge of expulsion from the Council of Europe. International legal verdicts have been ineffective, because the bench and the prosecutors were not appointed to this case to deliver justice, but to make an example out of the few before the eyes of the millions who had filled the streets in democratic protest, to suppress all dissident voices in the country.

"Gezi was everything the Turkish regime feared the most: a spontaneous, decentralized uprising across the country against police violence, economic injustice, and undemocratic policies, sparked by the attempted removal of trees at İstanbul's Gezi Park to make way for a mall in Taksim Square. We were all in Gezi then, and we continue to stand with Gezi now.

Call from the group

"We call on everyone to support our friends imprisoned under false charges! We call you to assemble in public squares across North America with banners and posters! Share your photos on social media using hashtags #GeziyiSavunuyoruz #DefendingGezi #HepimizGezideydik #GeziYargılanamaz and mentioning @defendinggezi, @taksimdayanisma and @gezisavunmasi." (AÖ/SD)