ISTANBUL- Police raided a human rights activists’ workshop titled “Training for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders”, taking place in Büyükada/Istanbul in the morning of July 5th. The list of detained activists so far include;




Nalan Erkem, Özlem Dalkıran (Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly);

İlknur Üstün (Women’s Coalition)

İdil Eser, Veli Acu (Amnesty International - Turkey)

Günal Kurşun (Human Rights Agenda Association)

Nejat Taştan (Equal Rights Monitoring)

Şeyhmuz Özbekli (former Mazlum-Der member)

Ali Garawi (moderator)




The detentions became public by coincidence yesterday evening and there may be at least one more detainee whose name is still unknown. The police give no information about the reason for the detentions.




The State of Emergency Law in Turkey allows the authorities to deny the detainees’ right to see a lawyer up to 24 hours. The lawyers are expected to see the detained human rights activist on July 6th , in the afternoon.