CO alert: Osman Murat Ulke, Turkey

Osman Murat Ulke, the Turkish war resister who burnt his military papers on 1 september last year, is on hunger strike in solitary confinement in Mamak military prison, Ankara, as Peace News goes to press. Osman has refused to wear military uniform and now is confined in a dark cell, 1 metre by 2 metres, without a bed.

Turkey has thousands of draft evaders. Osman is emphatic that he is not one of them. He is a conscientious objector, refusing military service to activate the self-will of individuals against a war machine which clearly has no conscience.

It is because he is an objector that he answered a summons to the police station in Izmir on 7 October. This summons came over a year after the warrant was issued for his arrest under article 155 of the Turkish penal code alienating the people from the military. This carries a maximum of two years imprisonment.

The president of Savas Karsitlari Dernegi (SKD war resisters association) in Izmir, Osman is a steadfast pacifist who has declared "no coercive measure can make me wear a uniform".

As a group that opposes all militarism, SKD is established on a firm basis of nonviolence from which it seeks to transform the existing and widespread alienation from the military and especially from the war in the south-east into a potent force for peace. The Turkish authorities, however, have been careful not to give publicity to anyone refusing military service. Rather than charge objectors with refusing to serve, they prefer to invoke article 155, issuing a warning to anybody who dares discuss military service.

Osman was one of four Turkish anti-militarists accused under article 155 following a press conference where he acted as an interpreter in May 1994. In August 1995, the other three were sentenced to between two months and four months in prison. Osman was acquitted, but was escorted directly to the recruiting office where he was ordered to join a regiment. Instead, he called another press conference and burnt his military papers.

Following this public declaration of objection, others in Izmir SKD made public declarations of objection. No action was taken until this October.

After his arrest, Osman was transferred first to a civilian prison in Ankara and then to Mamak military prison. He began his hunger strike on Tuesday, 15 october, because he was being held in isolation from other prisoners. The prison authorities did not want to hold Osman with prisoners who were soldiers imprisoned for breaching military regulations. The prison court has punished his hunger strike by sentencing him to five days in solitary confinement, initially not even offering him the sugared water normally given to hunger strikers. On Monday or Tuesday, 22 or 23 october, the prison authorities faced a choice between relenting about isolating Osman, and sentencing him to a further period of solitary confinement.

War Resisters International issued an electronic mail alert immediately on learning of Ossi's detention, and within days there had been protests in many countries, including from the Argentinian nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel. The Turkish government, however, is well used to international condemnation for its human rights violations and for the dirty war in the south-east.

factfile

While media attention has focused on battles between rival Kurdish groups in Iraq, the Turkish army has mounted repeated raids into Iraq with the aim of establishing a 12-mile cordon sanitaire into Iraqi territory.

Apart from the USA, Turkey has the largest army in NATO, over 800,000, about a third of whom are deployed in the war in the south-east (Kurdistan is a banned word in Turkey). This is augmented by around 30,000 "village guards", Kurdish units imposed on villages in the emergency area. (Villages that refuse this protection face evacuation and destruction: hundreds of Kurdish villages have been evacuated.)

In April last year, Turkish soldiers posed for photographs holding the decapitated heads of people they had recently killed, and standing beside their mutilated bodies. In January some of these photos were published in the international press.

The Turkish constitution does not recognise the existence of its 15-million strong Kurdish population, most of whom do not live in the south-east, nor guarantee their group rights.

Turkey remains one of the world's most repressive states, with hundreds of prisoners of conscience, widespread torture, disappearances and extra-judicial executions by members of the security forces. There is heavy censorship, especially against any hint of separatism and against any criticism of militarism. The Turkish army depends on conscription and there is no provision for conscientious objection. Not surprisingly, Turkey has many draft evaders - two years ago the government itself estimated 250,000. Those who are caught are taken straight into military service.

Osman Murat Ulke's statement

In view of my deepest convictions and way of life, it is impossible for me to take part in military service or any other compulsory service. Furthermore I refuse to acknowledge any kind of hierarchical authority. In my opinion the army is the clearest form of institutional power, which makes it a personal enemy I seek to combat and destroy. This is why I consider conscientious objection as the first step on the path I have to follow to preserve my self-esteem. Turkey is based on an authoritarian culture that pervades all dimensions of life at work, in the private sphere, and especially strongly the political arena. It is therefore not surprising that a large part of the population turns a blind eye to the war that Turkey is currently waging and continue in their way of life. The myth perpetuated about the role of soldiers as protectors of their country and fellow citizens from the outside enemy has turned them into one of the most commonly used instruments of oppression in their own country. I cannot say how big a difference I and those who think like me can make, but I do know that no coercive measure will ever force me to become a soldier.