DECLARATION OF SUPPORT FROM LAWYERS TO ACADEMICIANS

As advocates of life, rights and freedoms; as the lawyers of this land;

We hereby promise that we will stand with the people who were killed, lost their loved ones, had their rights and freedoms taken away, the babies and children who couldn’t survive the massacre, the “Teacher Ayşe”s, honorable and conscientious academicians who demand peace and anyone and everyone who defends life; in Şırnak and Ankara, Diyarbakır and İstanbul, Reyhanlı, Gazi, Suruç, Sultanahmet and unfortunately maybe somewhere else tomorrow.

We hereby promise that will be shoulder to shoulder with them in the courthouses and the streets, and that we will continue our legal struggle until all these crimes committed against our people are accounted for.

We are indeed saying, “Children are dying, do not stay silent.” We are saying “Curfews in effect for weeks on end, condemning people to hunger and thirst, bombing residential areas, cemetaries and places of worship with tanks, helicopters and planes is a systemic policy of massacre and deportation and is a crime against humanity.”

We want the crimes against humanity - committed against Kurds in cities like Mardin, Diyarbakır and Şırnak, against Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Germans, and members of all the peoples in Reyhanlı, Gazi, Sultanahmet and Ankara - to be seen and known.

 We remind the President, Minister of Justice, Minister of Education, Minister of Health and the Council of Higher Education that threats and insults to academicians who call for “an end to war, that children not be killed”, to education workers who go on strike, to health workers who uphold their duty in the framework of the Hippocratic oath and to everyone who demands peace do in fact constitute crimes.

Fascist-racist propaganda and hate speech are crimes and they need to be punished. We are warning the prosecutors and the Minister of Justice so that freedom of speech, actions of unions, the duty to preserve life and the demands for peace not be criminalized and the judicial mechanism not be employed as the guillotine of the political power.

By saying “We will not be party to this crime”, we declare that we adopt the petition text as is, we will take legal actions against threats against academicians and we will be their advocate in every step of the way.

We the undersigned advocates and lawyers repeat that we join the voices of every person that declares they won’t be accessories to massacres, and that we will be honored to volunteer as lawyers for every person who is targeted by armed attacks and oppression and suppression policies that are carried out by the media and/or the judiciary.

Dear colleagues; you can sign the declaration by sending a mail to ortakoluyoruz@gmail.com , please define the bar association that you are member of.

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