Halil Savda - Conscientious Objection in Turkey

Conscientious Objection in Turkey

The issue of conscientious objection is a highly debated and controversial issue in Turkey. Turkey and Azerbaijan are the only two member of the Council of Europe that still refuse to recognize conscientious objection. Although Article 24.1 of the 1982 Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of conscience, it does not extend to the right to conscientious objection to military service. In 1991, the Turkish Constitutional Court explicitly ruled that the freedom of conscience mentioned in Article 24 does not include the right to conscientious objection to military service. Article 63 of the Turkish Military Penal Code punishes conscientious objectors for avoiding military service. Furthermore, Article 318 allows these individuals to be punished up to 2 years if they attract media attention or publish articles about their refusal to perform military service.

Despite Turkey’s position on conscientious objection, a small number of individuals have publicly refused to perform military service for non-religious, pacifist reasons. The first known conscientious objector in Turkey was Osman Murat Ulke, a Turkish citizen who grew up in Germany and returned to Turkey. In 1995 he publicly declared that he was a conscientious objector and refused to perform military service. Ulke has been continuously subjected to recurring punishments related to his conscientious objector status. Since Ulke, dozens of others have followed. Between 1995 and 2004 approximately 40 men openly declared themselves as conscientious objectors, mostly by making a public statement or giving media interviews about their reasons for refusing military service. Among the most notable, aside from Halil Savda, are Mehmet Tarhan and Perihan Magden. Mehmet Tarhan, a gay anarchist and conscientious objector, was imprisoned for refusing military service in Turkey. He was sentenced to four years in a military prison but was unexpectedly released in March 2006. Journalist Perihan Magden was tried by a Turkish court for supporting Tarhan and advocating conscientious objection as a human right; but later, she was acquitted.