Helin Bölek and İbrahim Gökçek are two musicians, members of the folk music Group Yorum, in Turkey. Turkish government does not like the music they play nor their theme about more democracy, human rights, human dignity, freedom, brother and sisterhood of all peoples. These are considered a threat to the AKP government’s policies and existence.

Turkish government is doing everything in its power to stop the Group Yorum from spreading the message of freedom and solidarity between Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian and other people.

Group Yorum concerts are banned by the governors due to, they say, “security reasons.” The music teaching and performance studio of these musicians are constantly raided by the police and literally destroyed. Their musical instruments are broken, book shelves brought down, doors and windows smashed, books torn and thrown on the floor by the cops who come to “search” the music studios. Whoever is in the studio, teachers, students, guests are beaten, detained and taken to the police station for no reason at all. Even cultural events like film screenings at İdil Cultural Center, the music and arts center for Group Yorum, are not immune as the Turkish police have raided them during showings as well.

Turkish government tries silencing the musicians
The last attempt of the government was to arrest the musicians for a trumped up, fake, charge of “organizing and managing an illegal organization.” Facing this obviously ridiculous charge, the musicians decided to fight back with all they had left, their own lives.

The musicians decided to go on a hunger strike that later turned into a “death-fast” that has now entered a critical stage where the lives of the musicians are in grave and imminent danger.

The group members on the death-fast are protesting the constant attacks of the government on their group, their music studios and the unjust and very biased sham trial the government is holding to persecute them.

The 7 group members were brought to the latest trial on February 13th where the members stated before the trial, “We are resisting to be able to sing our songs freely. Our cultural music center has been raided more than 10 times and our instruments were all broken. They got a warrant for our friends with the permission to shoot on sight. Our concerts are banned nearly everywhere. They have opened multiple cases against us in courts. We are aware of our mission in current Turkey. We are the symbol of art for the people with dignity and honor. We are not stepping back from a struggle that we are right in the middle of. Our members Helin and Ibrahim were captured with fake evidence”

The trial was observed by opposition National Assembly representatives from HDP party and other peoples’ musicians and artists and theater actors.

The attorneys for the musicians rejected the judges for their bias and aggressive behavior against the musicians. However, this request was rejected by the very same judges who were being rejected. Turkey has been accused even by the European justices of having abandoned the rule of law and not having unbiased justice system. Even the high court chief justice in Turkey complained recently that the public had lost trust in the justice system in Turkey. The government stacks the courts with “friendly” judges who only take orders from the government or rule for the benefit of the rulers.

The witnesses who testified against the group members and accused them of illegal activities had come forward later and admitted that they had lied under pressure from the government officials. However, the judges and the prosecutor refused to consider the case even after the key witnesses retracted their statements.

When a journalist like Canan Coşkun who exposed the farce of the witnesses had an investigation case opened against her in the court of law by the Turkish authorities.

Musicians’ defense on Feb 13th trial
In his defense in the February 13th session of the trial İbrahim Gökçek said, “I am on my 242nd day of my death-fast. All I want is justice. I want to live as a peoples’ musician. We received the charges only few days ago that was over a thousand pages. How could we read or refute this long document in few days? We could not prepare our defense. However, I am still here. I don’t know if I will be able to come back to this court again. I don’t even know if my friends who came to observe the court hearing will ever see me again. I could die or left injured for the rest of my life. I could lose my memory permanently.”

As he testified sitting because he did not have the strength to stand up, Ibrahim continued what his music group had experienced during their concerts, “I have been a music laborer for the last 15 years. We are doing our craft the same way peoples’ poets and musicians like Pir Sultan Abdal did hundreds of years ago. I have never been a clown for the palaces. I have written songs, I play the bass guitar. I have performed in more than 60 cities and towns, I’ve been to European countries to perform. More than hundreds of thousands have listened to me.

“We were performing at Hatay Samandağı, on July 15th in 2016 (the day the so-called, staged, coup against the government took place. Ed. Note). Suddenly those police who were surrounding us and ordering not to sing our songs disappeared, they simply withdrew suddenly. A lynching campaign started against Group Yorum on 2017. The current AKP government used the excuse of the Fethullah Gülen coup attempt and started to attack all opposition including us. The İdil Cultural Center that is registered under my name has been raided by the cops 12 times. How could they destroy the musical instruments? They even broke the keys of the piano. They broke our guitars one by one. They beat up Bergül Varan like scalping, left her bold by pulling off her hair. What kind of hatred is this? These were all done because we kept on singing.”

The charges against İbrahim Gökçek includes the “proof” of his membership in an illegal organization because he refuses to eat and is on a hunger strike.

The court in the trial on Feb13th decided to keep all members, except one, under arrest while the trial lasted.

Group members released for medical conditions but their homes raided by the police
On February 23rd, after the medical professionals reported that due to health conditions Group Yorum member İbrahim Gökçek could not be kept under detention, he was released while the trial continued.
Since the trial is a held in a kangaroo court with fake charges put together with false witnessed who later admitted to lying under oath against the defendants under pressure from the government officials, İbrahim Gökçek and Helin Bölek who are still on trial did not end their death-fast. Their protest against the pressures of the Turkish government to silence them continues. They moved to their home and continued their death-fast under the care of their families and friends. Their home was raided last night by the Turkish police.

The police, with their guns drawn, raided the home where two musicians in their death beds are at 2:30AM in the morning. Everybody who were at home, taking care of the musicians, and the families of the musicians were handcuffed and forced to face the wall while the police raided and destroyed everything they could find in the 2 hours they occupied the home.

The group members were then taken forcefully from their beds into ambulances but the police refused to say where they had been taken. The lawyers for the Group Yorum members went to the police department that conducted and abducted the musicians but the officials insisted they had no idea where the musicians could be. Only after visiting each and every hospital in the region, the lawyers found the two death-fast patients.

The group member Helin had previously signed a statement that she was refusing to be fed forcibly. If they are forced to be fed to end their death-fast without proper medical assistance their lives could be in danger.

The lawyers, friends and families are asking for support and to be present in the Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi where the musicians are currently kept as patients.

Sendika.org News (M.B.)