News | Hafıza Merkezi

Activities | 7.04.2021

Lessons for Human Rights Defenders: “Shrinking Democratic Space and International Solidarity” Panel Series

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak had reached the level of a global pandemic. While United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on…

Activities, Articles and Translations | 7.04.2021

Digital Rights at the Pendulum of Freedom and Oversight

In these unprecedented times, the Covid-19 pandemic is increasingly being used by many illiberal and autocratic countries as a justification to further restrict democratic space. Turkey is one of the…

Activities | 7.04.2021

Shrinking the space of LGBTI+ rights activism in Poland and Turkey

Statements and Announcements | 22.12.2020

Joint Statement: Bill for the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Violates the Constitution and the Freedom of Association!

The 43-article “Bill for the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”, deliberated at the Justice Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey [GNAT];…

Panel görseli - City, Participation and Activities

Activities | 26.11.2020

Panel: City, Participation and Activism in Turkey and Brazil

Click here to register. The panel City, Participation and Activism will be held online on December 21, Monday at 16.00 (GMT+3). You may watch the live-stream in Turkish and…

Articles and Translations | 19.11.2020

Tahir Elçi trial under police gaze: Even trial monitoring teams were being monitored

The first hearing in the case of Diyarbakır Bar Association President Tahir Elçi, who had been killed in Diyarbakır on November 28, 2015, took place on October 21, 2020. Gülistan Zeren from Hafıza…

Activities | 12.11.2020

Panel: LGBTI+ Rights in Turkey and Poland

Click here to register. The panel LGBTI+ Rights in Turkey and Poland will be held online on November 18, Wednesday at 16.00 (GMT+3). You may join the live-stream in Turkish…

Activities | 30.10.2020

Panel: Digital Rights at the Pendulum of Freedom and Oversight

To register, click here. The panel “Digital Rights at the Pendulum of Freedom and Oversight”, the second of the series “Shrinking Democratic Spaces and International Solidarity”, will be…

Activities | 8.10.2020

Panel: Re-Opening Civic Spaces in Times of Covid-19

Hafıza Merkezi, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights and Netherlands Helsinki Committee kick-start a panel-series titled “Shrinking Democratic Space and International…

Activities | 14.09.2020

Video Series: Shrinking Space # 2 – Right to Defence

The second of the video series #ShrinkingSpaces focuses on the profession of attorneyship and the right to a defence in Turkey, which represent the recent epicenter of government crack down on…

Articles and Translations | 13.08.2020

Galatasaray Square: A recognized memory space

30th of August is commemorated as the international day of the victims of enforced disappearances. The Saturday mothers who have been holding regular vigils for the forcibly disappeared were…

Articles and Translations | 11.08.2020

25 years after Srebrenica: Denial as the final stage of genocide

A genocide survivor prays near the graves of his father and two brothers at the memorial centre near Srebrenica. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters Interview: Özgür Sevgi Göral 25 years have passed…

Articles and Translations | 11.08.2020

“Right wing politicians misrepresent the Istanbul Convention”

The banner says“Stop Istanbul (Convention) for Sovereign Croatia. Wikimedia Commons, Zagreb, March 2018. Interview: Banu Tuna During July and August, Turkey’s possible withdrawal from the Istanbul…

Activities | 29.06.2020

Video Series: ShrinkingSpace # 1 – Pride March

The first of the video series #ShrinkingSpace presents the course of Pride Marches in Turkey from 2013 until now. Seeing marches in a single chronology from 2013 to 2019, the viewer feels both…

Statements and Announcements | 30.04.2020

Targeting and Investigating Organizations That Criticize Hate Speech Against LGBTI+ Must Come to an End

In days when Turkey and the world is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are experiencing extraordinary times with thousands of people are losing their lives every day. Amid such crisis, the…

Statements and Announcements | 18.04.2020

On the 900th day of Osman Kavala’s Detention, We Repeat: Free All the Rights Defenders Now

On 14 April 2020, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Turkey stated that there are overall 17 confirmed coronavirus cases among the prisoners in 5 prisons in Turkey, and 3 of these cases…

Statements and Announcements | 17.04.2020

Call to Release Pre-Trial Detainees in Turkey

This statement calls for reduction of pre-trial detention in Turkey and for the use of alternatives to detention, in order to reduce the danger of outbreaks of the COVID-19 disease, as a safety…

Activities | 9.03.2020

“Memorialize Turkey” website updated!

https://memorializeturkey.com/en/ Being a compilaton of memorialization projects in Turkey, Memorialize Turkey aims to start a dialogue around different forms, scopes and functions of…

Statements and Announcements | 28.02.2020

Press Statement: Osman Kavala Must Be Released Immediately

Osman Kavala, who spent 840 days behind bars based on groundless accusations and unlawful practices, was released following his acquittal in the Gezi Park trial on 18 February 2020. However, he was…

Press | 3.02.2020

Murat Çelikkan: Another Turkish Journalist in Prison for ‘Unspecified Reasons’

This article by Kaya Genç was published in Literary Hub on January 31, 2020. Kırklareli is an unassuming city. It is a big change from Cihangir, the heart of artistic Istanbul, and the…