Turkey: Arbitrary detention and acts of ill-treatment against Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen

The Observatory has been informed about the arbitrary detention and acts of ill-treatment against Messrs. Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen, students at Boğaziçi University, in Istanbul, and participants in the “Boğaziçi Resistance Movement”, a student mobilisation that calls for academic freedom and peacefully protests against the appointment of rectors by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan¹.

On January 7, 2022, Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen will appear before the İstanbul 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance for the first hearing in their case. They are facing charges of “not complying with orders by the security forces for the dispersal of an unlawful demonstration” (article 32 of the Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations), “deprivation of liberty”, “preventing public duty” and “hijacking or seizing transport vehicles” (articles 109, 265 and 223 of the Criminal Code, respectively) in connection with their participation in a peaceful protest in front of the Boğaziçi University rectorate building on October 5, 2021. At the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal, Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen remained detained in high-security Silivri Prison, in Istanbul, where they have been denied correspondence with their relatives. Since the beginning of his detention, Ersin Berke Gök has not been provided with food compatible with his diet.

On October 5, 2021, Ersin Berke Gök, Caner Perit Özen and a group of eight other Boğaziçi University students were battered by university security guards as they were peacefully delivering a statement in front of the rectorate building. They were subsequently arrested by police officers and taken to the İstanbul Police Station. Three of them were released with judicial control measures, pending investigation.

On the same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan labelled the protesting students as “terrorists who infiltrated universities” in his speech delivered at the 2021-2022 Higher Education Academic Year Opening Ceremony. Moreover, rector Naci İnci submitted a complaint against the students before the prosecutor’s office on charges of “threat”, “insult”, “damage to property”, “preventing public duty” (articles 106, 151 and 265 of the Criminal Code, respectively) and “violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations”.

On October 6, 2021, Ersin Berke Gök, Caner Perit Özen and five other students were taken to the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse for interrogation at the prosecutor’s office. While four of them were released with judicial control measures, Ersin Berke Gök, Caner Perit Özen and another student were referred to the Istanbul 9th Magistrate Judgeship. Messrs. Gök and Özen were placed in solitary confinement in Metris Prison, in Istanbul, on charges of “preventing public duty” and “not complying with orders by the security forces for the dispersal of an unlawful demonstration”, and the third student was released with judicial control measures.

On October 26, 2021, Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen were transferred to Silivri Prison. On November 26, 2021, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor formally indicted them on charges of “not complying with orders by the security forces for the dispersal of an unlawful demonstration”, “deprivation of liberty”, “preventing public duty” and “hijacking or seizure of transport vehicles”.

The Observatory strongly condemns the arbitrary detention and judicial harassment of Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen as well as the ongoing violations of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly documented by the Observatory in the report “A Perpetual Emergency: Attacks on Freedom of Assembly in Turkey and Repercussions for Civil Society”.

The Observatory urges the authorities of Turkey to immediately and unconditionally release Ersin Berke Gök and Caner Perit Özen, and put an end to all acts of harassment -including at the judicial level- against them and all participants in the “Boğaziçi Resistance Movement”.