No to Compulsory Military
Service Movement was shocked to know that the Turkish Cypriot Conscientious
Objector Murat Kanatli was sentenced to 10 Days in prison for objecting to participate in the
annual compulsory military exercise in the northern part of Cyprus on the basis
of his ideological conscientious objection. Murat Kanatli has been
always a friend of our movement, and was present in Cairo during the trial of
the founder of our movement, Maikel Nabil Sanad, in October 2011. We call for
his immediate release and recognition of his right in conscientious objection
to the military service.
Murat Kanatli had
declared his conscientious objection in 2009, stating that his goal is for the
human resources of war to dry up and that personally he will not participate in
any war, so it is meaningless to participate in any preparation for war. “If
there was a war in Cyprus, I would not take sides. Who are our enemies? Is it
anyone who is on the other side of the barbed wire? Are our enemies the friends
that we drink coffee with every day in Ledra Street?” Since then he has
refused each year to participate in the annual compulsory military exercises in
the northern part of Cyprus. On 14th June 2011 he was summoned to
appear in the Military Court on charges relating to his refusal in 2009. After
numerous postponements, on 8 December 2011 the Military Court accepted the
demand of Murat Kanatli to refer his case to the Constitutional Court, as it
refers to freedom of conscience which is a human right guaranteed by the
constitution.
The Constitutional
Court in its Judgment on 10 October 2013 expressed that opposition to military
service, where it is motivated by a serious and insurmountable conflict between
the obligation to serve in the army and a person's conscience or his deeply and
genuinely held religious or other beliefs required the protection of the human
right to freedom of thought which exists in Article 23 of the Constitution and
is safeguarded in Article 9 of European Convention of Human Rights and Article
18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, the
Constitutional Court went on to state that compulsory military exercises do not
constitute a conflict with the Constitution. The Court added that the duty is
upon the legislator to provide in laws and regulations for alternative service
to military service and when doing so to review the article of the Constitution
that relates the right and duty to homeland to armed service only.
After the decision of
the Constitutional Court the trial of Murat Kanatlı continued at the Military
Court which delivered its judgment last Tuesday, 25Th Feb 2014,
stating that the right to conscientious objection is not regulated in domestic
laws and it only took the constitutional provision on right and duty to homeland to armed service and the relevant
legislation on armed services while disregarding the decisions of the European
Court of Human Rights. The Court went on to state that even if it was going to
give a judgement in the light of the relevant case law of ECtHR, Kanatli was objecting
to serve due to his political beliefs which the Court did not consider to constituting a conviction or belief of
sufficient cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance to attract the
guarantees that are safeguarded in Article 9 of ECHR. Furthermore, the Court
continued to say that as alternative service is not regulated and because of
the existence of the Cyprus conflict the case would fall under the limitation
because it considered the regulation to be necessary in a democratic society in the interests of
public safety. The court handed down a penalty of 500 Turkish liras
or 10 days imprisonment if Kanatli failed to pay the penalty. Upon his refusal
to pay the penalty Kanatli was sent to serve 10 days in prison.
It is important to state that
this decision is solely regarding the refusal to participate in the year 2009.
The cases relating to objection to serve in 2010 and 2011 are still pending.
We would remind the
authorities in the northern part of Cyprus that last September the UN Human
Rights Council adopted without a vote Resolution 24/17, in which it recognises
"that conscientious objection to military service derives from
principles and reasons of conscience, including profound convictions, arising
from religious, ethical, humanitarian or similar motives". The
convictions revealed in Murat Kanatli's declaration cannot be dismissed as
merely his political opinions. We would also point out that in the same
resolution the Human Rights Council emphasised that "States should take
the necessary measures to refrain from subjecting individuals to imprisonment
solely on the basis of their conscientious objection to military service and to
repeated punishment for refusing to perform military service," and
recalled "that repeated punishment of conscientious objectors for
refusing a renewed order to serve in the military may amount to punishment in
breach of the legal principle ne bis in idem;".
No to Compulsory
Military Service Movement also supports the call of the Initiative for
Conscientious Objection in Cyprus for the
international community to express its solidarity with Murat Kanatlı and send
letters of protest to the Turkish Cypriot authorities as well as Turkish
authorities’ embassies abroad which is the country directly responsible for
human rights violations in the northern part of Cyprus following the Turkish invasion of the territories in 1974.
Cairo, 28 February 2014
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