Trial Into Çarşı Members Over Attempted Coup Starts Amid Protests

Thirty-five participants in last year's Gezi Park protests, who include several leaders of the Beşiktaş football fan club Çarşı, appeared before a court on accusations of a coup attempt today in İstanbul with protesters demonstrating outside the courthouse.

The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court recently accepted an indictment accusing the 35 people of working to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The indictment seeks aggravated life sentences for the 35 protesters. It also accuses the protesters of “being members of an armed group,” “resisting public officials,” “staging demonstrations in violation of the law” and “possessing unlicensed weapons.”

Some of the protesters were arrested in June of last year but were later released pending trial.

Among the protesters are Çarşı's leaders, including Cem Yakışkan, Erol Özdil and Halil İbrahim Erol. The Çarşı group was recognized as being a formidable force throughout the protests.

The club's fans and other protesters began to gather in front of the İstanbul Courthouse early on Tuesday to show their solidarity with the suspects.

The Gezi Park protests in İstanbul began peacefully in May of last year against a government plan to replace a park in Taksim Square with a replica of an Ottoman-era military barracks. In response to a heavy-handed police crackdown, the protests erupted into violent clashes with police and spread across the country. The demonstrations brought together large groups of protesters who accused then-Prime Minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of growing authoritarian tendencies over his 10 years in power and of attempts to impose his conservative religious values on a country governed by secular laws.

Çarşı responded to the claims of coup plotting in a statement it posted on its official website in September. In the statement, the group made a clear reference to police violence exercised against demonstrators during the Gezi Park protests and claims of corruption and bribery leveled at several members of the government and Erdoğan. “We are happy that we have not been accused of choking kids, young people and the elderly with tear gas for several days and nights; beating some of them to death; and stealing and engaging in corruption.”

During the Gezi Park demonstrations a number of people were killed and thousands injured.

‘Trial blatant misuse of criminal justice system'

Human Rights Watch released a statement on the trial on Tuesday, saying the “prosecution of 35 football fans on coup-plot charges is a blatant misuse of the criminal justice system.”

The statement said the evidence presented in the prosecutor's indictment contains no allegation of activities that either fit the charge of an attempt to overthrow the government or of the other offenses for which the defendants are on trial, such as acting as a criminal gang and resisting the police.

“Charging these Beşiktaş football club fans as enemies of the state for joining a public protest is a ludicrous travesty,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The indictment contains no evidence to support the coup attempt charges and should never have come to court. The prosecutor should immediately indicate that he does not believe the charges should be pursued and ask the court for their acquittal,” she added.

“It is alarming to see that President Erdoğan's characterization of the Gezi protests as an attempt to overthrow the government has been adopted by the prosecutor as the basis of this indictment,” Sinclair-Webb continued. “It reveals a great deal about the enormous pressure being exerted on Turkey's justice system by the government.”

The rights group said the Çarşı trial is one among hundreds of ongoing legal proceedings against thousands of demonstrators who participated in the anti-government protests in cities around the country triggered by the İstanbul Gezi Park sit-in. Some trials have ended in defendants being acquitted while others are continuing. Those still on trial and being charged with terrorism offenses spent up to 10 months in pretrial detention before being freed on bail.

Attending the hearings in İstanbul, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu said nowhere in the world could a group of football fans be tried for attempting to stage a coup. Tanrıkulu said these trials will not be able to hide the corruption of the AK Party government.

The trial began two days after Turkey drew international criticism for the detention of Zaman Editor-in Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and Samanyolu TV group chairman Hidayet Karaca.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)