Letter of protest to the European Parliament form the magazine "Yasadigimiz Vatan" in protest of their closure by the Turkish police.
December 28, 2001 Dear member of the European Parliament.... The door of a publishing house in Turkey was sealed up in the most illegal manner ever yet seen. With the illegal decision of the governor of Istanbul, the door of the Anadolu Publishing house and the workplace where the technical service of our magazine functions was sealed up. This incident is the latest example of how easily unlawfulness and illegality can be committed by the state in Turkey. 1- There can be no excuse for illegality: Just think; you go the technical service in the morning to print your magazine, you start to work and policemen who lean on your door say, "We are going to seal this place up, there's a decision by the governor, evacuate this place immediately". Again, by decision of the governor they made the threat, "Otherwise, we will get you out by force". They sealed up the door and went ahead. Without any warning or communication; without saying, "you do not have this document, get it in order within such and such a time", they came, sealed it up and went away. Which law, which rule was this based on? 2- Our magazine has all its documents in order: because the governor office didn't find any excuse of that type to act, it then says "it is unclear what work is being done on these premises". AN ABSOLUTE LIE! At the workplace that has been sealed the Anadolu Publishing House as well as a commercial firm are functioning. Anadolu Publishing House is a commercial institution which is also used by our magazine for its technical work. It is also possible to find its published books on the market. It is a legal company. Our magazine has been doing its technical work there from April 23, 2001. And from the same date we published in our register that Anadolu Publishing House is our technical service. This is also known to the Istanbul governor's office. The illegality also lies in the ignorance of these known facts. While they say "It is not clear what they are doing there", both the governor and the police know what work we are doing. They even know it very well from their raids, their 24-hour supervision in front of the administration and technical bureau of our magazine and finally from their raid on Human Rights Day, the 10th of December, when they used axes. The whole of Turkey knows what work we do. The governor's office demands something that doesn't exist even under official laws, saying "We weren't informed about this workplace". They tell lies. The governor is lying, just as the whole world knows that the government in Turkey utters falsehoods. No publishing institution is obliged to apply to the governor to establish a technical service. The Anadolu Publishing House, which is responsible for our technical service, has made the necessary applications to all the relevant places. For commercial reasons it is also doing the technical work for our magazine. Illegally, the governor wants to say "I HAVE SAID IT, SO IT HAS TO BE." That's how the laws in Turkey function. Even if the constitutions change, this reality does not. 3- The governor's office knows well what it's doing: The governor's office is aware of its own illegality and unlawfulness and is doing it deliberately. The aim; to hinder our activity during the stage of making legal objections. It is aware that we are going to sustain material and moral damages during this time. With that kind of act, they try to legitimise and popularise the idea that a governor can seal up any place whenever he wants to. If you say that you're on the side of law, democracy and the freedom of thought and expression; we appeal to you to show concern, and to ask the government of Turkey what right it had to close the technical service of the "Yasadigimiz Vatan" magazine and the Anadolu Publishing House in Istanbul/Sisli. The Magazine "Yasadigimiz Vatan"
