Recommendation 938
(1982)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 4865, report of the Political Affairs Committee. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 12 March 1982.
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Alarmed by the recent arrests, especially of Mr Orhan Apaydin, President of the Istanbul Bar Association ;
2. Emphasising that Mr Apaydin had worked with the Council of Europe on several occasions and in various capacities, and had contributed personally to making the European Convention on Human Rights better known in his country, notably by organising a Round Table discussion in Istanbul ;
3. Recalling that the Parliamentary Assembly's delegation which visited Turkey between 7 and 14 January 1982 held a working meeting under Mr Apaydin's chairmanship at the headquarters of the Istanbul Bar Association ;
4. Considering that Mr Apaydin had agreed to defend the leaders of the DISK trade union confederation at their trial in which the military prosecutor had already asked for fifty-two death sentences ;
5. Noting that Mr Apaydin declared on his arrest that "the purpose of this measure is to hamstring the defence at all political trials in Turkey" ;
6. Likewise, concerned by the arrest of the wife of the former mayor of Istanbul, together with several lawyers ; equally concerned by the continued detention of Mr Kaçar, a former member of the Parliamentary Assembly ;
8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
8.1 find out at once from the Turkish Government the exact circumstances of the arrests and the legal proceedings instituted against Mr Apaydin and those charged with him, as well as against Mr Kaçar ;
8.2 try to secure their release, and take such other measures as the situation demands, should there be any doubt about the legality of those proceedings and their conformity with the European Convention on Human Rights.
