July two thousand and sixteen at times he felt in tacky since then the turkish government has crackdown on dissidents on perceived opposition and indeed it was under that premise that i was arrested thats going on. Time the fountains of people were arrested. Over one hundred pounds and lost their jobs. Freedom to demonstrate it is the right of all people i live by it. Tempers Court Rulings have been met with harsh disapproval from the west. End of it so im going to regarding the rule of law and i believe that turkey has substantial room for improvement. On good long. Spring two thousand and eighteen. Mashallah tolo wants to return home back to the city of boom in germany with her son and if possible her husband shes a german citizen but a Turkish Court ruling has banned tolan from leaving turkey but shes accused of producing terrorist propaganda and being a member of a terrorist organization and next hearing is in a week. Well tolo is a journalist and translator the ruling hasnt stopped her attending demonstrations for human rights and freedom of speech. The protestors have to stand behind a barrier. While the police keep pedestrian traffic moving. Undercover security agents record everything on film what they know what im told will spend eight months in jail five of them with a son second who was two at the time the husband saw what color was also behind bars during that period. Jailed journalists and dissidents rallies confined to enclosures mashallah tone who is familiar with the whole repertoire of repression. Just try to fix the minds it just shows how freedom of expression is handled in this country. As a director if you want to voice criticism youre immediately fenced in. Yard and youre only allowed to speak out behind that barrier. They want to contain it so that not many people hear about it and those who happen to be walking by feel intimidated followed them into four by you didnt mention any issues that. It was behind these moves that mashallah told who was in prison from april to december of two thousand and seventeen many of the inmates are Political Prisoners like eighteen year old you are into. After visiting their daughter her parents meet with us in a nearby cafe. On march nineteenth of this year yarran and some fellow students from the watching university in istanbul took part in a protest against turkeys military offensive in afferent syria. Clashes broke out between more supporters and those who oppose. Police forces ended up arresting a number of war opponents but here until i was not among them. Four days later turkish president at a one threatened to use video recordings to identify all of the terrorist students who attended the protest and take action against them. The next morning a Police Special unit stormed the to her familys apartment this is yards room she hasnt slept here or sat at her desk in months her parents tell us they and their nine year old son were forced to lie on the floor while yon was arrested. A Police Officer pinned yarns father to the ground by pressing a boot to his back and later his head. On one legal dick now what did i do to deserve this. Why they treating me like this seems we respect the law and we respect other people who are not hurting anyone. I dont understand why they treat us like this if you are taking action against a girl who is only eighteen years old shes done nothing wrong it doesnt make sense the living room in september two thousand and seventeen turkeys ministry of justice announced that sixty nine thousand three hundred and one students were in custody. Hekmat summit turks have just turkeys minister of justice from one thousand nine hundred nine to two thousand and two at that time Turkish Security forces also used to questionable methods. Today turk says. This is. Mentioned its a basic human right medicine can afraid to them when people are free to protest and therefore oath that theres only one condition or that they cant destroy buildings or their surroundings. But freedom to demonstrate that is the right of all people for their most is the straightest a little it. Supposes that everyones government disagree you name it sorry a lawyer describes himself as conservative. In turkish talk he defends the governments heavy handed approach towards dissidents. Took on his own some article fifteen of the turkish constitution states that the government must take precautionary measures against those who might disturb public order as it would infringe upon the rights of the other eighty million turkish citizens or to visit so taking Safety Measures against those who spread terror and violence who commit acts of violence or who stand by perpetrators of violence is crucial for the sake of everybodys freedom this is also how the European Court of human rights sees it problem is due to cotland of course more common than in immediate. Here that. The repeal sign are not to egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood president at one fires up a k. Party member ahead of the Upcoming Elections on june the twenty fourth. If we like to add one plans to introduce a system that would grant him nearly a more strict in power. If he wins i dont promise is a more effective independent judiciary. This new system of governance will give the parliament a higher standing it will strengthen the executive branch and give more freedom to the judiciary. This is where michelle atoll who translated german news into turkish a former boss says the agency is socialist leaning its journalists advocate for the working class and for womens rights the state has accused nearly all of the agencys employees of spreading terrorist propaganda or being members of a terrorist organization. Who. Take it to that of course what we write bothers the government we write about corruption occupy the a. K. P. Government was corrupt we report on that and they dont like it. The a. K. P. Has an education policy that aims to make the youth more religious and to dissolve the separation between church and state. Says we are right about that and that bothers them. Or violence against women we report that five women are murdered every day. That apparently annoys the government and so much ever since the a. K. P. Has been in power aggression has risen not only toward socialist media but towards any critical media thought it just was this both london and the two might be following the failed coup in july two thousand and sixteen pressure on the agencys journalists increased several of the desks here are no longer occupied. Mashallah turlough suspects for months longer tension was because of her work as a translator but thats not the official reason given and the ongoing case against her. I was arrested because i attended a Memorial Service but its no coincidence that i was chosen out of the thousands of people who were there. The whole. Thing theres definitely a connection to each day. But. I wasnt shut down it can continue to operate officially. I put all its journalists all its reporters have been arrested one after the other. And thats how theyll put an end to the news agency so it was in that vein that i was singled out and arrested because of this going on. And december two thousand and fifteen two women were killed by Turkish Police the Public Prosecution claimed they were members of the left wing Extremist Organization m l k p who supposedly used weapons during a raid. At the funeral several individuals are briefly visible. But the majority of those attending a leftist activists they accuse the police of executing the two women. Michele are told who carried one of the coffins for part of the way she says she had nothing to do with the people who were armed and attending a funeral was not prohibited. But the court said that by attending the funeral tolu belong to a terrorist organization her Court Hearing isnt five days steffen my as a parliamentary secretary for the German Interior Ministry he regularly travels to turkey to meet with representatives of edwins a k party p doesnt support the idea of pressuring ankara to lift travel ban. Of the pocket so how is minus in my opinion banging the drums is not the solution. I firmly believe if the German Government has chosen the right strategy by seeking to improve bilateral relations with turkey. And if a base for them to come in there is to give east. This is the s. Temple charlie and justice palace outside as often have a hard time understanding the decisions and verdicts reached in political cases here no matter how often the turkish government stresses that its courts are independent the opposition finds it hard to believe. It or not now a member of parliament was once a prosecutor himself has been low because. When we try to explain the situation with an expression borrowed from the nazi era. What would the fear have done. They say judges and prosecutors were told to put themselves in the place of the fear and decide as he would have such a good argument that in these in other words without receiving a direct order or written directive or also the muscle so we can say they reached decisions by putting themselves in his position. And asking themselves what ruling would he make. It a column of i think that also describes our Current Situation quite well without them i was so the. So limited. Time and again Turkish Courts have applied antiterrorist relations when prosecuting members of the opposition judges and Public Prosecutors close to fit elegant the turkish cleric living in exile in the us started building a Judicial Network in the one nine hundred ninety s. To go after political enemies. In an add on were allies until two thousand and thirteen but since the coup in two thousand and sixteen the latest thats been arch enemies. The turkish government accuses kulin of masterminding the porch. Oh in two thousand and ten in on shihan i was a Public Prosecutor investigating a movement in eastern turkey that was said to have ties to google and. Then one of his colleagues had to hama arrested claiming he was connected to the network many other attorneys and judges have also been arrested or jailed accused of having ties to the Guerrilla Movement and supporting the coup detat. In april two thousand and seventeen at four thirty in the morning special forces stormed mashallah told his apartment she was alone with her two year old son her husband had been arrested three weeks earlier. Young done haha missed they were masked and heavily armed they pushed me on to the floor in the hallways of one of the pressed his knee against my back so i couldnt get up. Another one went straight to my sons room. They threatened to take him away and put him in a juvenile institution. Where hed be trained as a special forces officer so he could fight terrorism. The one thing until there was no scam in their eyes were terrorists and they wanted to raise my son to fight against us the white mans all. The city owns and kept after that experience totally decided she wanted her son to grow up in germany. Is this mistake but its important to me because i want my son to feel safe and secure i cant offer him that here its not in my power. Mind huntly. Weve seen how they can affect familys lives even destroy them. This leads us down. Turkeys Constitutional Court in ankara this is the countrys highest court and its decisions should be respected by all Political Institutions and implemented by all of the courts. But the Constitutional Court is currently suffering its worst crisis in the history of the republic. In early january the judges ruled to release the journalist shot in our place and our town from custody both were accused of having connections to terrorist organizations and taking part in the june two thousand and sixteen porch. Memet out on a set of used secret messages on a talk show to call for the current two days before it happened. The deputy Prime Minister and former minister of justice. Condemned the ruling saying the court had overstepped its boundaries laid out by the constitution and prevailing law. Following this criticism the court in istanbul ignored the Constitutional Court ruling and refused to release the journalists shortly after the European Court of human rights and strasburg reached another verdict on the case it demanded that shot an al pious man at all time be released and chastise turkey for how they handle the issue. The c. H. R. Was a stablished by Member States of the council of europe of which turkey is a Founding Member the secretary general of the council of europe has cautioned ankara. It will ultimately put at risk the presence in the culture of europe because we can never have a member said that this in not in compliance with the rule of law. Respecting their judgment from the court of human right. Now but our time is still behind bars shine our pie was kept under house arrest until may the eleventh of this year just six weeks before the elections progovernment lawyer mehmet sari can look down over istanbuls promise of justice from his office what a local court good for he says if the Constitutional Court can just overturn never acts. To correlate that sluggish. We can talk about these rulings theres nothing to be said against that. But what really matters is this istanbuls court concluded that the Constitutional Court itself had violated the constitution. Of this missive on this so i could tell them. Its temples kartik or district people gather here three times a week to protest the dismissal. They draw attention to their plight with music and dancing most of them a teachers all of them lost their jobs after an emergency decree stated that any person in the organization working in the Public Sector that is deemed a threat to National Security can be suspended without justification. And. This gathering is also under observation. Since the coup in two thousand and sixteen over one hundred thousand turkish Civil Servants have lost their jobs as a result of the ruling. Who do your dead on the teacher of turkish literature is one of them out of sheer desperation she opened the car cafe and turkish a k h k is a decree issued in a state of emergency anyone affected by the decree can send a formal request for reinstatement to a commission and ankara thats what who they yelled at them did but shes yet to receive a response cut out up parliament to get it can use be magical so there are over one hundred thousand cases pending in the Commission Works very slowly theyve already decided on Twelve Thousand cases in three hundred one cases the petitioner was successful in reinstated. Thats a very small percentage. Look emission has given us much cause for hope. We dont know where the commission is we only know its somewhere in ankara. He is but we have no way of finding out how they work or what they base their decisions on passes for the shop. This is the government district in the house of the turkish capital ordinary citizens can only enter under exceptional circumstances its also where the commission meets. Takes a critical view of their work. Assume mumbai absolutely comes from all of that this is not an independent commission thats clear and you can. The government decides who gets on it. Its full of government operatives and officials abuse theres obviously a connection between them and the government i mean for the honestly to this day there is no credible evidence indicating that the commission makes independent fair decisions weve pretty good emma. Misato knows hearing is in three days she and her lawyer cut a tonge going over the strategy once more. The lawyer wants to call on the court to left to lose travel ban. Company just isnt possible because shes already spent eight months in jail no evidence was provided. She obeyed the judges order to present herself to the police once a week well make our claim and the court will decide to talk to my human logic the victim. And turkey lawyers who defend suspected terrorists are also under pressure the lawyer who started this practice has also currently in jail the charges often follow the same pattern this will have a list by they gather everything they can on a person put it all together and decide if youre a four instances of terrorist propaganda and if youve produced terrorist propaganda four times then youre a member of a terrorist organization according to them its there thats what happened to me and thats the accusation presented to the court at least. And mashallah tonans case thats an ominous secret witness that has accused her of being a member of a terrorist organization but this witness has never appeared in court. But there it was the judges and state prosecutors associated with the ghoul and movement simply filled any gaps in their arguments with fictional proof or secret witnesses. It might be unfair to claim that the current judiciary is being run like that groups like q but the need for secret witnesses seems to have risen that is your well to give a good watch out for the gestapo goes from there was. Still every prison around eighty kilometers west of us dumbo. Many Political Prisoners and journalists are intent here theres a courthouse right next door. Seventeen employees and journalists of the center left from hoodie a newspaper which is critical of the government are on trial theyve all been accused of belonging to a terrorist organization the judges claim the papers leadership turned the Publishing House into an institution for terrorist propaganda around nine thirty pm the Court Sentenced fourteen of the seventeen to what he had employees two year