News Center- Turkish-German Forum of Culture has launched an online petition demanding the immediate release of Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk, who has suffered from health problems in prison.

The statement issued by the forum is as follows;

“Aysel Tuğluk, a human rights lawyer and a former MP of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has now been in detention in Turkey for five years.

Pervin Buldan, MP, announced that Tuğluk is seriously ill and has hardly spoken since the assaults of a nationalistic mob surrounding her mother’s funeral. The Faculty of Forensic Medicine at the University of Kocaeli has stated that Aysel Tuğluk is no longer fit to be imprisoned due to chronic and progressive Alzheimer’s dementia and should be released from prison immediately. This was rejected by the responsible İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institute affiliated to the Ministry of Justice.

Turkish-German Forum of Culture calls on Turkish authorities to put an end to systematic repression of opposition figures and the immediate release of Aysel Tuğluk and other prisoners, who have fallen ill, as well as of all political prisoners in Turkey like Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala, Gültan Kışanak and thousands of others, who are in jail only because of their political and social activities.

At the same time, we appeal to the new Federal Government of Germany to make the humanitarian orientation of its Turkey policy clear on this special occasion and to end the appeasement policy of the previous coalitions towards President Erdoğan. Send a clear signal that your government will stand up for human rights and democracy also in Turkey.”

Initial signer: Erk Acarer, Ahmet Akgün, Lale Akgün, Rezan Aksoy, Kemal Aktaş, Ali Atalan, İmran Ayata, Nursel Aydoğan, Berivan Aymaz, Hayko Bağdat, Celal Başlangıç, Oya Baydar, Osman Baydemir, Saadet Becerikli, Lezgin Botan, Safter Çınar, Abdullah Demirbaş, Renan Demirkan, Can Dündar, Dilek Dündar, Ragıp Duran, Aydın Engin, Aslı Erdoğan, Bernhard von Grünberg, Ülkü Gürkan-Schneider, Tuba Hezer Öztürk, Leyla İmret, Selma İrmak, Hasip Kaplan, Yılmaz Karahasan, Atilla Keskin, Besime Konca, Kader Konuk, Klaus Kost, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Nafiz Özbek, Bedia Özgökçe, Ziya Pir, Anton Rütten, Faysal Sarıyıldız, Herbert Schmalstieg, Nora Şeni, Ferhat Tunç, Günter Wallraff, Gülçin Wilhelm, Kemal Yalçın, Sibel Yiğitalp, Ahmet Yıldırım, Ayşe Yıldırım, Ragıp Zarakolu.