Fax: Conscientious objector Ali Fikri Işık on trial

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TO THE 5TH ARMY CORPS MİLİTARY COURT JUDGESHIP

ÇORLU – TEKİRDAĞ

SUBJECT: Conscientious objector on trial Ali Fikri Işık

Your Honour,

Ali Fikri Işık, who is on trial based on three charges in two trials at your court and in which you will probably announce the verdict on October 22, is a conscientious objector. Since his very first trial session he has repeatedly stated that he is a conscientious objector. Furthermore, he is also a founding member of the Conscientious Objectors Association, where he is currently a member of board.

Işık objected to enter the military unit and to be subjected to military training according to his conscientious conviction, practicing his freedom of conscience. It is an obvious principle of universal and general penal law: Nobody shall be sentenced for practicing his or her rights

The right to conscientious objection in opposition to conscription, is an application of set of right in relation to “freedom of thought and religion” which is stipulated in international conventions also signed by Turkey. In this context, there is no doubt that Işık made use of a right, transnationally recognized in universal human rights law, when he refused to join the military unit based on his “conscientious convictions”.

Even though the Turkish Parliament disregards the ECHR verdicts and failed to pass a legal regulation to recognize the legal rights of conscientious objectors, your court is under the constitutional obligation to rule in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, namely according to basic human rights.

I ask you for the reasons I stated above, on behalf of public conscience, to rule in favor of rights and liberties, lawfully, superseding unlawful laws, recognizing the existence and relevance of conscientious objection, therefore to acquit conscientious objector Ali Fikri Işık.

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