I have been reduced to silence in Turkey and now, I am a journalist in exile

Necati ABAY
Representative of the Platform for Solidarity with Arrested Journalists (TGDP) in Exile

November 25, 2012

I have been reduced to silence in Turkey and now, I am a journalist in exile.

I will try to maintain my journalism activity, press freedom, freedom of thought and expression struggle at exile conditions as a representative of the Platform for Solidarity with Arrested Journalists (TGDP) spokesmanship of which I have been carrying out since its foundation in February 2004.

You may be one of thousands of witnesses of the struggle that I carry on in the fields of press freedom, freedom of thought and expression, freedom of speaking, protest and organization in Turkey.

I have been in prison for three times as “a hardened criminal of thought” . I stayed at Metris military prison in the period of fascist coup dated September 12, 1980.  I stayed at Gebze Prison in the period of postmodern coup of 1997 and at Tekirdağ F Type Prison in 2003 due to the conspiracy suit that still continues.

I have been forced to make asylum application to Germany by the AKP government at this stage.

I was in Europe due to panels with subject of “press freedom in Turkey”.  I had completed my panels in Germany, Sweden and France. I cancelled my panels in Belgium and the Netherlands and gave up with returning to Turkey when the Supreme Court of Appeal declared its decision on October 15, 2012. I had to make asylum application to Germany.

The state showed the way of either F type prison or the exile. I have been reduced to silence in Turkey.

İstanbul 12^th High Criminal Court sentenced me to imprisonment for 18 years and 9 months with the claim of being the organization director with its decree dated May 4, 2011. My attorney Gülizar Tuncer and me thought that the Supreme Court of Appeal would reverse the judgment of sentence with request of exculpation because I was sentenced due to “opinion but no evidence” as stated in the court decree. In fact, a non-existing proof could not be found. The decree of the court was not a legal decree but a political decision. In spite of that,  9^th Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeal  reversed the judgment in favor of me seemingly since it considered the penalty for 18 years and 9 months much with the decree declared on the date of October 15, 2012 (justified decision has not been declared yet) but it clinched the lawlessness and gave a decree against me by stating that I had to be punished between 10-15 years for organization membership.

The summary of the state’s debate is as follows for me: Shall we punish Necati Abay with 18 years and 9 months or shall we give a punishment between 10-15 years!

My search for the justice for 9 years has been ended with exile in that way.

There are some reasons for which they want to punish me with penal servitude.
I conspiracy was organized before 9 years since I was working as editor and author at Atılım, the newspaper. Atılım is punished once more at me in that way. I was arrested before 9 years when I was working at Atılım and I was released by the court pending my trial. After that, we established the Platform for Solidarity with Arrested Journalists (TGDP) in February 2004 with a group of opponent journalists. I have conducted spokesmanship of TGDP starting from its foundation. TGDP, spokesmanship of which I have been carrying on, has a special role in declaring the fact of arrested journalists, the fact that Turkey is the number one in the world in terms of the number of arrested journalists, the severe problems in fields of press freedom, freedom of thought and expression to the public opinion of the world and Turkey and creation of public opinion. I consider critics bombing of the Prime Minister Erdoğan about TGDP, spokesmanship of which I have been carrying on by giving its name on TV on the date of March 7, 2012 as a reason of the fact that they want to punish me and imposition of exile to me.

Moreover, I was one the persons who made the torturer police chief Sedat Selim Ay who was brought to the post of İstanbul Vice Chief of Police and İstanbul Anti-Terror Branch of in torture lawsuit. In addition, we had applied to European Human Rights Court (EHRC) about the state of Republic of Turkey because of dropping lawsuits of torturers due to prescription and executing torture investigation deficiently as intentional. EHRC sentenced Turkey on the date of April 6, 2010. I was one of the persons who had Turkey sentenced in this lawsuit. One of the reasons that they want to punish me insistently and imposition of exile is these torture suits and That I had torturers sentenced.

Last of all, I should state that I was member of Organization of Journalists without Borders (RSF) on the date of October 19, 2012 when I went to Paris for panels.

I greet all of you with respect and love...

NOTE: You can record my phone number in Germany (0049) 152 13 78 74 41



CONTACT: Necati ABAY, Germany Phone GSM: (0049) 152 13 78 74 41
E-mail: necatiabay@gmail.com,
Blog: http://tutuklugazeteciler.blogspot.com,
Twitter: https://twitter.com/necatiabay
Facebook: http://facebook.com/necati.abay