Former NBA star and human rights activist Enes Kanter, Melek Çetinkaya, dismissed judge Kemal Karanfil, relatives of detainees, and thousands of people who had to leave for Europe due to unlawful practices participated in the protest in Strasbourg, France.
The march, which started from the Council of the European Union and continued in front of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), featured symbolic iron bars representing prisons and handcuffed judges to protest unjust detentions in Turkey.
Among the protesters were those calling for freedom for babies in prisons, as well as those who came to support in wheelchairs. People imprisoned for tweeting, teaching, or baking were symbolically shown in cages. Additionally, lawyers entered the cages to illustrate how they lost their freedom while seeking justice.
Melek Çetinkaya, well-known to the public, stated in her announcement that while her son, who was unjustly arrested as a military student, is now released, thousands of innocent people like him are still in prison. She demanded justice for military students and all other victims.
A protester who said he came from Kazakhstan to France for the demonstration stated, ‘We gathered in front of the ECHR to raise a voice against the oppression in Turkey. My wish is for Turkey to attain human rights, justice, and true human values as soon as possible.’
Journalist Nurullah Kaya, a member of the International Journalists Association (IJA), completed his tour in front of the ECHR (Strasbourg) that he started in The Hague to support journalists in prison. Kaya, who pedaled 728 kilometers, called for ‘freedom for journalists.’
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
Participants depicting mothers and babies, lawyers and doctors imprisoned in Turkey’s unlawful process behind iron bars protested the ECHR judges’ ignorance of the massacred judicial system in Turkey by wearing three monkey costumes, and portrayed sleeping judges to protest files kept waiting for many years.
The protesters, chanting slogans and carrying banners in Turkish, French, and English, shouted slogans like ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’, ‘Say stop to oppressors’, ‘Victims are here, where is the court, Victims are here, where is the Council?’
Additionally, at the end of the march, the Peaceful Actions Platform, aiming to make the voice of mass persecution victims in Turkey heard, presented letters expressing their concerns, disappointments, and expectations for justice regarding Turkey’s judicial system to the presidents of the Council of the European Union and the ECHR.
