A book criticizing the Military Coup
of 12th Septembre 1980 is in the dock

The publication of a book entitled "The September 12th regime in the dock" has been cosidered as a "crime" by the Turkish justice. Accused of having criticized that regime, the director of the Belge (Documentation) Publishing House, Ragip Zarakolu, risks a prison sentence of up to three years.

The first audience of the lawsuit took place on September 24th at the State security Court (DGM) N°3 in Istanbul. Zarakolu is accused by the prosecutor of inciting the population to the hatred and the hostility by virtue of Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code. For the reading of the indictment, the trial was deferred to December 3rd, 2003.

The book prepared to publication by Dr. Gazi Caglar, a member of the teaching body at the University of Hanover, contains the testimonies of a number of Turkish and Kurdish opponents of the September 12th regime before a special international court held in Köln in 1988 to judge this regime.

Among the witnesses were Dogan Özgüden, the chief editor of Info-Türk; writers Server Tanilli, Dursun Akçam [died last week], Ömer Polat, Nihat Behram; trade unionists Yücel Top, Gultekin Gazioglu, Enver Karagöz; lawyers Serafettin Kaya and Turgan Arinir.

At the end of that trial, a jury composed of international personalities had found guilty the September 12th regime of having have violated the liberties and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the international conventions of human rights.

In a press release, the Belge Publishing house declares, "If some ones had to be charged and judged, they should the putschists, not those who revealed their crimes against humanity."

After the first session, Zarakolu declared to the press that the Turkish justice has to judge above all the putschists of September 12th such as the responsibles of the coups in Chile, in Argentina and in Greece.

"Nobody has the right to commit crimes or to immunity. While the bans against the victims of the September 12th regime still continue in the field of public and political rights, the responsibles and torturers of the coup keep their privileged positions. Some of them became members of Parliament or ministers. During the September 12th regime, more than 600 thousand persons were arrested and kept under detention during 90 days, as it was the case in South Africa of the time. 50 persons were executed; thousands of persons were murdered or disappeared. All the political parties, trade unions, associations were forbidden, millions of copies of newspapers and books were confiscated and burnt. Tens of thousands of people were dismissed for political reasons, universities were transformed into military barracks," he said.

Zarakolu concluded his declaration by thanking the prosecutor and the court: "We thank them because they gave us the possibility of reminding the public opinion all these facts. We shall transform this court into a platform where the putschists will finally be judged by their victims. Now Turkey has to show herself as worthy as Argentina, Chile and Greece. Freedom to books, Trial to the putschists!"