For drawing attention the situation of imprisoned journalists in Turkey, Frankfurt Painters Association, with the initiative by International Journalists, has made the portraits of imprisoned journalists in Silivri Jail.
Within the scope of the project painters who painted the portraits of 39 journalists detained in Silivri, sent the letter to the Turkish authorities and international authorities in which they called for the release of the imprisoned journalists.
The letter emphasized that at least one convict died, especially during the corona virus pandemic. Ahmet Altan’s statement “I am 70 years old and in prison. As a person who knows how to sit under water and be on the target of death better than most of you, I want to tell you (…) I write these while waiting for a fast attack of the epidemic that killed people of my age in a prison cell. I am not optimistic for myself, but optimistic about the humanity that I am a part of. ” was also included.
The painters published their wroks for the journalists who have lost their lives or are imprisoned, from the website they have established under the name of Wahrheitskämpfer (Truth Warrior).
You can also visit http://wahrheitskaempfer.de/ to sign the letter and support the arrested journalists in their freedom and to see the portraits.
The full text of the letter:
OPEN LETTER
To the Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President of the Parliament Mustafa Şentop, the Turkish Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül, the Turkish Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu, the Federal Foreign Office Germany, the EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
We are artists from all over the world and draw murdered and imprisoned journalists to commemorate them.
We show our portraits in an online exhibition and worldwide in a traveling exhibition:
www.wahrheitskaempfer.de We are
supported by people who are also committed to freedom of expression and the press . Journalist: women must be able to practice their profession unhindered.
We are currently worried about 39 journalists .
They are detained in the Silivri prison in Turkey . The corona virus has spread widely there. According to official information, 82 inmates have already been infected, one of them has died. (As of May 22, 2020)
While violent criminals were released from a corona amnesty, journalists must remain in detention.
The journalist Ahmet Altan writes from his cell in Silivri:
“I am 70 years old and I am in prison. I know better than most of you what it is like to sit on the ocean floor and be targeted for death. (…) I am writing this while waiting in a prison cell for the violent attack of a virus that kills people my age. I’m not optimistic about myself, but I’m optimistic about humanity, of which I belong. ”
We ask that you release the following journalists immediately so that they are not left at the mercy of the virus:
Mustafa Erkan Acar – Faruk Akkan – Tuncay Akkoyun – Ahmet Altan – Hüseyin Aydın – Mehmet Baransu – Osman Çalık – Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu – Yakup Çetin – Mutlu Çölgeçen– Habip Güler – Nuh Gönültaş- Mahmut Gülecan – Ercan Gün – Serkan Sedat Güray – Yılmaz Kahraman- Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu – Hidayet Karaca – Bayram Kaya – Abdullah Kılıç – Seyid Kılıç – Muhammed Sait Kuloğlu – Ali Kuş – Ahmet Memiş – Ali Özparun- Erdal Şen – Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş – Emre Soncan Yakup Şimşek – Ufuk Şanlı – Ünal Tanık – Mümtazer Türköne – Mustafa Ünal – Oğuz Usluer – Cuma Ulus – Fevzi Yazıcı – Aykut Yıldır- Hüdaverdi Yıldırım
The fate of the journalists is very important to us. We hope for your support and look forward to your comments.
Sincerely
The list of the people who first signed the letter is:
First signatory: Erkan Pehlivan (journalist), Dr. Thomas Ormond (administrative lawyer), Klaus Hass, Gerda Weigel- Greilich (city councilor Gießen), Astrid Eibelshäuser (city councilor Gießen), Jo Weinert (retired teacher), Ursa Baur-Weigand (gynecologist), Cornelia Rost (retired journalist), Dipl.geogr. Ilse Törner (geographer), Hartmut Dietrich (graduate biologist), Nadine Cromme, Christine Weiss (teacher), Werner Reith (retired senior study director), Hartmut Trettin (graduate engineer), Mechthild Koch (social worker), Eddi Hüneke formerly WISE GUYS ( Musician), Rita zum Winkel (headmistress), Sigrid Schwerdtner, Gerd Bezner, Jürgen Pirrong, Gisela Behrens-Gutberlet (general practitioner), Prof. Dr. Dr. Christoph Nix (theater director), Lukas Eisenbeis, Wolf D. Schreiber (freelancer), Maximilian Würtz, Sandra Werse-Schmidt (educator), Prof. Dr. Reimund Schmidt-De Caluwe (university lecturer), Fritz Giersbach (artist), Achim Ripperger (freelance artist), Angelika Wey Bomhard (graphic designer), Adil Dimirci (journalist), Hava Ucar (student of law), Stefanie Fritz (teacher), Dr. Johannes Rudnick (doctor), Monika Rudnick, Kerstin Pfeiffer (teacher), Dr. Klaus Jürgen Rupp (project manager), Luise Michele Gantzer (lawyer), Clara Schuster (artist), Hedda Hansen (retired special teacher), Dorothea Weber (graphic designer), Reinhard Wehber, Helen Centner (graduate translator, opera singer), Jörg Wiemann (children – und Jugendarzt), Lutz Hiestermann, Wilfried Deiss (doctor), Ulrike Rein (employee), Sigrid Bruns (political director), Anja Willmann (project manager), Tuba Güven, Freia Anders (historian) Monika Höchtl, Walter Bien, (employee) , Prof. em. Dr. Adalbert Evers, Dr. med. Gertraud Evers (psychotherapist), Andreas zum Winkel (teacher), Sebastian Lustnauer (diploma psychologist), Jesko von Schwichow (editor), Barbara Erbe (journalist), Rita Woll (diploma psychologist), Karla Katja Leisen, chairman of kunstLich eV (theater teacher), Jenny Mülich (senior manager of social services), Klaus Weißgerber (pastor), Peter Dillmann (teacher), Sabine Wolters (youth education officer), Matthias Weidenhagen (pastor), Johannes Blum-Seebach (pastor, Ev. Prison Counseling), Teodora Woelk (specialist for Psychotherapeutic Medicine), Debbie Patterson, Dr. Eckart Schneider (physicist), Birgit Koch, chair of GEW Hessen (trade union for education and science), Prof. em. Dr. Adelheid Sievert, Edgar A. Langer (cinema operator), Sylvia Grohmann, (pastor),
Resource: http://wahrheitskaempfer.de/