Norsk PEN event in Oslo focused on restoring democracy in Turkey

All stakeholders must join forces in restoring democracy, the rule of law and democratic principles in Turkey, participants said at a panel discussion held in Oslo by Norsk PEN, Norwegian division of PEN International, a leading organisation for writers and freedom of expression. 

Among the speakers are Abdullah Bozkurt, President of the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF); an advocacy group that monitors rights violations in Turkey, Seher Aydar, board member of Solidaritet med Kurdistan and deputy representative for Rødt at the Parliament and Joakim Parslow, associate professor of Middle East Studies in the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo. 

The panel, titled as “The persecuted and the situation in Turkey”, was moderated by PEN International’s Vice-President Eugene Schoulgin, who is also a member of Norwegian PEN’s Turkey Group. The event was held on Thursday at Literaturhuset in Oslo. 

Lamenting on fissures, divisions and fragmentation among persecuted opposition groups in Turkey,  Bozkurt told “the story in Turkey is not just about members of the Gulen movement, Kurds, Alevis, liberals or leftists. They were collectively oppressed, yet Erdoğan regime masterfully exploit divisions and deepen the fragmentation to pit them against each other. These groups, collectively or individually at one time or another, were made scapegoats for shortcoming in the governance instead of accountability”’ he added.  

Then main challenge is that Erdoğan has been creating a new country in his own image which is based on ultranationalist and political Islamist values. We all have to challenge that transformation, Bozkurt underlined. 

“Turkey does not care about the international law and acts as a non-rational non-state actor that may be described as a rogue state which engages in abductions abroad which is quite unprecedented, he said.

Mentioning that purges have really taken a toll on civil servants in Turkey where more than 150 thousand civil servants and tens of thousands officers have been dismissed so far, Bozkurt said “Erdoğan government is firing pro-NATO officers in the army and pro-EU bureaucrats in state mechanism and replacing them with those who are anti-Western and pro-Iran and pro-Russia figures”

Aydar underlined the clampdown on leading figures in Kurdish political movement and stressed the important role of the women in democracy.

Claiming Erdoğan transformed Turkey from a semi-parliamentary system to a super presidential system, Professor Parslow said “We have no other choice than continuing to insist on freedom of speech”. He also suggested being realistic about forward-looking expectation on Turkey and added “We have the knowledge that there are legitimate grievances on every side of the Turkish society including Islamists, Kemalist or Kurds. Revenge is not the solution to these grievances.”

Norsk Pen has been closely monitoring Turkey for a long time. Its Turkey group including senior authors and journalists, has been visiting Turkey regularly in order to support defendants in freedom of press and freedom of speech trials. Norsk Pen has published Turkey reports in recent years.

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from SCF