01 JUNE 2022/TURKISH EMBASSY, LONDON

Dear Friends!

We are once again in front of the Turkish Embassy in London!

We would love to have come here for celebration of Turkey’s EU membership, or of an international success of a Turkish team. But we are here for a reason that shames us all: We are here to protest the human rights violations the Turkish regime has been perpetuating.

We are here to protect the most basic human rights of living free lives, freedom of travelling and the right to have a fair trial.

Today is the anniversary of enforced disappearance of Educationist Orhan Inandi.

On this day last year, Orhan Inandi was forced to get off his car and was forcefully dragged to a van. His wife Reydan Inandi alarmed the world.

Orhan Inandi’s students and many Kyrgyz citisens called for a stop to his possible extradition to Turkey. Believing that he was kept at the Turkish Embassy in Bishkek, many camped around the embassy, protesting and demanding his immediate release.

Some of you were with us in protesting exactly here, in front of the Turkish Embassy.

For more than a month neither the Kyrgyz nor the Turkish authorities said anything about whereabouts of Orhan Inandi despite all calls from the United Nations.

Only after 37 days, the Turkish President stated that the Turkish intelligence had brought him to Turkey.

The Kyrgyz Government, which had previously awarded Inandi with a medal of honour was also complicit in this crime.

Orhan Inandi was tortured. He was forced to become an informer. He declined. His right hand was kept in strappado. He has been in jail for a year now and his right hand is still not fully cured.

Turkey’s Erdogan Regime has already become a mafia regime.

Every other day we hear another story of torture coming from Turkey.

This government kidnapped more than 100 educationists from around the world.

More than that number have forcefully disappeared within Turkey.

Sunay Elmas, Ayhan Oran, Yusuf Bilge Tunc, Gulistan Doku, Hurmuz Diril, Mehmet Bal…

These are only a few of the people who has gone missing for months and even years.

The Turkish Government is doing nothing to find them.

Because the perpetrator is the government.

In Turkey pregnant women, breast feeding mothers, ill and elderly people are arrested every other day.

Innocent girls are tortured under the pretext of investigation.

None of these are acceptable.

We reject all of these illegalities.

Turkish courts are not upholding the country’s laws, constitution and international obligations.

Erdogan has openly declared that he does not recognize the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

In fact, the European Courts decisions on Selahattin Demirtas and Osman Kavala have not been implemented.

How? And why the democratic word does not do anything to stop this?

The compromises given to the dicta regime in Ankara invites for more illegalities.

Today, this regime is asking for extradition of journalists and academics who have sought asylum in Sweden and Finland in return for unblocking these countries’ NATO membership.

Europe: Erdogan takes this courage from the concessions you gave to him as the guardian of Europe’s borders against immigrants.

Our governments are complicit in Erdogan regime’s crimes.

You cannot become truly democratic in London while blinding yourself to the human rights violations in Turkey.

We are a bunch of people here in front of the Turkish embassy – what we are doing is in fact the responsibility of all human rights organizations, of all democratic institutions of the world.

We are asking immediate release of Orhan Inandi and all other victims of enforced disappearances all around the world.

We are asking information on the whereabouts of other missing people who have gone missing while under state custody.

We support the basic human right of living free from arbitrary detention and unnecessary state intervention into one’s life.

We support the right to a fair trial for Orhan Inandi and for all other inmates in Turkish prisons.

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for being with us and supporting this cause today.

Thank you…

DATE: 21 March 2021 &

COMMITTEE: Independent project

PROTEST SPEECH:

Dear Friends!

I welcome you all in the name of Human Rights Solidarity.

Today we are in solidarity with victims of enforced disappearances all over the world.

Today we are here for people who are missing, or are kidnapped.

The Erdogan Regime became the prime perpetrator of enforced disappearances in the world.

We are here today for Yusuf Bilge Tunç who is missing for 673 days!

Where is Yusuf Bilge Tunc?

We are here today for Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit who is missing for 164 days!

We join his daughter to shout: Where is Nursena’s father?

Where is Huseyin Galip?

We are here today for people kidnapped from outside Turkey and are being tortured or tormented in Turkey’s notorious prisons.

We are here today for Selahaddin Gulen.

Selahaddin was kidnapped from Nairobi, Kenya, where he was working as a teacher.

He was forcefully separated from his wife, from his family, from his students.

It is already a month he was brought into Turkey.

We are hearing horrible stories of beating, and torturing.

He was forced to sign witness statements he didn’t write.

We are here today for Orhan Inandi.

Orhan was the general director of Sapat Schools in Kyrgyzstan.

Orhan Inandi has been working in Kyrgyzstan since 1995. He is a citizen of Kyrgyzstan. He dedicated his life to education. He has nothing to do with politics.

Orhan Inandi is recipient of several state awards for his contribution to the reform and development of the Kyrgyz education system.

He has been missing for the last 10 days.

We are afraid that he will meet the same fate with Selehaddin.

We are afraid that he will be flied into Turkey… where he will be tortured…

For the time being, we still have hopes that he is in Kyrgyzstan.

And we are here to call to the Turkish and Kyrgyz authorities alike: Let Orhan Free!

Set him free!

Set him free!

Dear Friends!

Turkey has always been infamous for enforced disappearances.

About 17 thousand Kurds have gone missing during the 40 years long unrest in the South East of Turkey.

You would know the Saturday Mothers, who have been asking for the last 20 years: Where is my son? Where is my daughter?

Some of the Saturday Mothers died while still searching for their children.

We know that!

But something crucial happened since the coup attempt of 2016.

Now the Turkish intelligence agency is proudly declaring that it is kidnapping people.

Turkish embassies are publicly involved in kidnapping operations.

In Kosovo, the six Turkish teachers kidnapped were first brought to the Turkish embassy and the embassy distributed their photographs later on.

The same happened in Moldovo.

And now, we are hearing claims that Orhan Inandi is being kept as captive at the Turkish embassy in Bishkek.

This is in complete defiance of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

This means Turkey is using diplomatic immunity for criminal activity.

This is unacceptable!

This is unacceptable for the victims!

This is unacceptable for the whole world!

This is why we are here today.

We call Turkey to stop silencing the critics of the regime in Ankara.

We call Turkey to stop using its diplomatic missions for criminal activity.

We call Turkey to release Orhan Inandi now! And release all information they have about Orhan and other missing persons immediately!

Dear Friends!

We are here today not because we hate Turkey, or because we want to harm the interests of Turkey.

No!

We are here today because we think the mindset that is ruling over Turkey today is a mafia mindset.

This mindset does not recognize rule of law. This mindset does not honour the conventions Turkey has ratified.

This mindset is dangerous for Turkey and for its people.

The current regime in Turkey has been involved in human piracy.

The current regime in Turkey has been working with mafia, from Venezuela to Colombia.

The current regime in Turkey has been working with paid mercenaries, from Syria to Libya.

By was of protesting here, we do no harm to Turkey’s future.

The real harm, the real danger for Turkey’s future is this untranationalist – mafia coalition that is ruling over Turkey.

Dear Friends,

The President of Kyrgyzstan is in Turkey today.

Yesterday he was hosted by the President of Turkey.

Using this opportunity I want to say a few words to the Kyrgyz statesmen:

We know that you are under immense pressure from Turkey.

We know that Ankara is blackmailing you with all kinds of threats about economic sanctions and cancellation of all deals between the two countries.

We are sure, you are also thinking: Is it worth destroying a working international relationship for the sake of one person? Is it worth doing this just for a few schools?

We are sure, because this is how interest based politics works.

We don’t want Kyrgyzstan to freeze relations with Turkey. We are proud of the friendly relations between the two countries and the peoples of the two countries.

But rest assured!

This mindset ruling over Turkey is a temporary one.

In fact, it became even more aggressive recently, because it also knows that it is already disintegrating.

Don’t invest in temporary realities!

Invest in the future of Turkey.

Invest in the future of Kyrgyzstan.

Invest in education as Orhan Inandi invested his whole life.

Invest in rule of law. Invest in human rights.

Dear Friends,

I want to say a few words to the so-called human rights organizations of the world.

From the moment we realized Orhan has gone missing, we contacted international human rights organizations… begging them to start an emergency appeal… to call for immediate action…

Here is what we understand from what they say to us: They are afraid that if they stood with us, their representatives in Turkey will be harmed.

This is how dictatorships sustain their policies of persecution.

Human rights advocates are great people, precisely because they take the risk of being harmed, for the rights of the others.

Is it too risky to stand with the victim?

With whom else you can stand, if you are a human rights defender?

We would love to be participating in a protest organized by either one of these human rights organizations. But none is here!

That is a shameful failure on their behalf…

Human Rights Watch and Freedom House have publicised yesterday about their concerns for Orhan Inandi’s fate.

We thank for their efforts also. But more could have been done, at an earlier stage.

Dear Friends,

I thank you all for the time, and energy you spared for the victims of enforced disappearances. Thank you…