Bahar Kimyongur and his friends to face trial again!
In another step towards the middle ages and inquisitions, the Supreme court of Belgium annulled the acquittance sentence of Bahar Kimyongur ( Rabih Kamoun) and his comrades and ordered them to be put on trial again for alleged ties with DHKPC.
DHKPC is a Turkish Marxist revolutionary movement fighting against what it considers to be an oppressive and fascist Turkish state. It is calling for equal rights and emancipation of minorities and solidarity with the peoples fighting against American Imperialism instead of the policy of assimilation and oppression and alliance with the U.S that the Turkish government is following.
Regardless of the struggle of the DHKPC itself and without having to answer the question on the validity of its struggle, it goes without saying that having sympathy with such a revolutionary organisation is not a crime but an opinion. And also expressing that sympathy and solidarity by ways of articles and meetings is part of the freedom of speech and gathering. Nor Bahar who is a good friend of mine and a very convinced Marxist and Arab Nationalist -he belongs to the occupied Arab region of Eskandaroun (Hatay)-neither any of his comrades have participated in any acts of violence in anyway. So what is being put on trial in Belgium is their opinion, and the fact that they were acquitted by the court of appeal only to be sent back to face trial by the supreme court should be alarming for all people who are concerned for civil rights and freedom of speech.
I hereby declare my complete solidarity with Bahar and his comrades and my support to them every step of the way in their process, and I call upon all my friends and comrades to do exactly the same.
In Solidarity,
Dyab Abou Jahjah
June 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
The Belgian state doesn’t like the marxists, indeed and prefer to have extrem=right and imperialist on power in his state. Sorry for my bad english. In solidarity in this strugle for justice. Waroquiez Dominique
June 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
This is to assure free spirits like Bahar that there are people who would stand for you in defense of free speech and opinion, and would definitely be by your side when it comes to confronting imperialism and hegemony…. and we all know who is THE IMPERIALIST and THE HEGEMONIST!
keep the faith, comrades
June 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I’m afraid we never left the middle ages. But is an extremely complex matter, too complex to explain in a few lines. The funny thing is that there is a code beneath the Da Vinci Code from Dan Brown in which he somehow explains that, but all people care about is: ‘Did Christ have sex’, and in doing so confirm that we never left the middle ages. Sarkozy recently said we need to rebuild our culture, but most people thought he was babbling.
I think in Antwerp the chances that you get a judge that is not capable to see things clear is higher than in the rest of the country. Many, many people who on the surface condemn the VB beneath that surface sympathize with that fascist political party.
Some people say it helps when you think rational, but what with the many blind spots. The people who believe in the racist doctrine believe ‘rational’ is the way they think. Some things never change. As a kid the nuns taught us that Catholicism was the only true religion. All the others were wrong, especially the Jews for they killed Christ. I’m writing 1960. Viewed from today’s context the way that nun said about Islam was peculiar, and amazing. She said it was a good religion apart from polygamy. These days other mantra’s became part of a widespread anti-Muslimist doctrine.