Turkey

Coalition for Global Peace and Justice (Kuresel BAK)/Conscientious Objection for Peace/Feminist Magazine Uçan Süpürge/Women for Conscientious Objection/International Baran Tursun Foundation/DÖH/DurDe (Say Stop)/KEG

There was a street press declaration on 12th April at 12:30 pm in Galatasaray Square, Taksim, Istanbul.
The press release was prepared by Sevin Okyay who won a pride award in Istanbul movie festival. Also an activist from Conscientious Objection for Peace group made a speech, as did Colin Archer, director of the International Peace Bureau.
The main slogan was “Military spending is damage for humanity” (in Turkish: “Askeri harcamalar, İnsanlığa zarar!”).
The sub messages were: “Military spending is an interest for defense companies and it is a grave for humanity”, “No to arming, yes education”, “no to war, yes to peace; no to bomb yes to job”, “do NOT arm”, “Turkey is second in economic growth, 76th in democratic growth”, “the number of world military spending is 1.731 trillion dollars”, “no one is born as a soldier”.

Global Peace and Justice Coalition

“We had a meeting in İstanbul’s Bilgi University with 50 people. Our speakers were the lecturers Murat Belge and Nurhan Yentürk, university student Nisan Ak, and our member Sengul Cifci.

“Murat Belge, talked about his coming book The Military in Germany, Turkey and Japan. He explained why we have such a strong military tradition in Turkey. He said that the military hegemony was not from the military but from whole society. So fighting against it should be civil society’s responsibility. He finished saying that change for military could from below, from people.

“Nurhan Yenturk explained her report on Turkish state military spending. She prepared a report of military and other sectors and compare them. She said that unfortunately our spending is still higher than even the European Union average. She suggested that our military expenditure should be used for poor people, if this happens there will be less poverty in Turkey. Her report in Turkish is available here and here.

“Nisan Ak talked about the military hegemony of Turkey and why students should do something against it. She explain their student association activities for non-violent protests.

“Sengul Cifci, talked about general situation of the world. That each day wars and military spending is growing.”

More photos available here, with event info here.