Aslı Aydemir has been placed under pre-trial detention, not those who attacked the satirical magazine, LeMan.
Today, once again, we stand witness to a case where, not those who have made calls to violence, lynching and massacre, but an individual who opposed them has been punished. Once again we face arbitrary punishment, where the judiciary is being abused to suppress opposition voices. A morning raid on the home of our friend and a member of our organizations, Aslı Aydemir, on 4 July 2025, followed by her detention, and finally, a ruling of pre-trial detention based on trumped-up charges...
In our collective memory, the wounds of the Madımak Massacre are still fresh, where 37 people were murdered on 2 July 1993 in Sivas when an arson mob set fire to their hotel, where they had gathered for the Pir Sultan Abdal festival: On June 30, 2025, a mob demanding sharia, attacking LeMan magazine with sticks and stones, openly making death threats and chanting, “This building will burn down” filled the streets with intimidation, hatred and violence. Why were no effective legal steps taken against these grave crimes? For how many of them has there been a fair and transparent investigation? How many individuals joining the mob has been held to account within legal boundaries? Not a single one! Yet, a person who was sitting at a spot close-by, and reacted to the events, a dissident, a feminist psychologist, an Academic for Peace has been placed under pre-trial detention. A member of our organizations, Aslı Aydemir, was detained in a morning raid on her home carried out by the police force on July 4, and was later placed under pre-trial detention on trumped-up, manipulative, baseless grounds and sent to Silivri Prison.
We know well that the state’s duty is not to provide impunity for those who spread death threats, and home raids, morning detentions and arbitrary arrests targeting dissidents cannot be considered legitimate. Justice is served not with hypocritical mechanisms of punishment that weaponize the judiciary, but with equal rights and responsibilities for all.
Not those who attacked the satirical magazine LeMan, but a dissident voice who reacted to the attack has been placed under pre-trial detention.
This is no coincidence. It is part of a long-running mentality that sets out to silence and criminalize dissident voices. Today, we are under the obligation to discuss who this weaponized judiciary persistently and arbitrarily punishes, and to whom it confers impunity. What we are witnessing today is not an individual case of injustice, but part of the systematic intimidation targeting all dissident voices. We know this well from the appointment of government trustees, widely known as kayyums, to municipalities by usurping the vote and will of the people, from the arrest of Kurdish and opposition politicians, from the routinized operations targeting socialists and trade unions, from attempts to suppress the voice of the youth on the streets, and from obstructions, attacks and detentions targeting the Feminist Night Marches and Pride Parades.
A psychologist dedicated to social solidarity, a feminist, an Academic for Peace has been placed under pre-trial detention, not those who attacked the satirical magazine, LeMan.
While jihadists carrying out acts in public space involving threats and violence face no sanction, we witness how those who raise their voice against said threats are rapidly subjected to punitive measures. This clearly shows how the principle of objectivity that should form the foundation of judicial processes has been replaced by arbitrary implementations in tandem with political circumstances. The truth is no longer established on the basis of evidence, but on the basis of the statements of some. The truth is no longer discussed before the law, it has been incarcerated within borders defined by the ruling power. We experience every day how verdicts are shaped not by facts but by pre-determined political positions and how the judiciary has become a stick that punishes all sections of social opposition.
Arbitrariness has long become normalized in the socio-political atmosphere we are in, and our sense of justice has systematically been eroded. We all know well: It is not law that decides what is right or legitimate, but the ruling party and the judiciary it controls. We live in an environment where anyone who dares to speak out becomes a target, and where the truth is replaced by borders drawn by the ruling party. Thus, what we face today is the normalization of fascism in our everyday life. This regime, where legal certainty has been suspended, opposition has been synonymized with crime, and society is kept in line through intimidation, is also trying to organize silence through its autocratic destructiveness that escalates by the day. Our share in this, then, is to inhale this suffocating, fascistic air, and to resist.
We refuse to become accustomed to this course of action! We will not be silenced! A member of our organizations, our dear friend Aslı Aydemir has been placed under pre-trial detention, not those who attacked the satirical magazine, LeMan.
In a society where the judiciary does not function, safety is replaced by fear, and expression is replaced by silence. Aslı refused to remain silent, and we will not be silenced either!
Aslı is an Academic for Peace who refused to remain silent in the face of attacks targeting the Kurdish people, and whose rights were usurped as she was dismissed from her position at Dicle University on 24 December 2017 with Decree Law No. 695 for signing the Academics for Peace Petition. She is a feminist that refuses to compromise with the patriarchy, and raises her voice in resistance against male domination. She is also a critical psychologist who prioritizes the mental health of the people, and is involved in the struggle for a professional law for psychologists that sides with society, peace and labour. In the same manner that Aslı was present in every sphere of life with her spirit of resistance, we, too, act against this oppressive regime with the responsibility of strengthening a common struggle not only for her freedom, but the freedom of truth and all voices that resist.
These events threaten not only the freedom of one individual, but the general safety of public space. We will continue to remind the judiciary of who requires criminal prosecution. That is because refusing to remain silent in the face of injustices produced by this regime is not only a human reflex, but an ethical-political responsibility we all share. We are not silent observers of this unlawful process. Neither are we on the side of those who chant threats of murder, and those who protect them.
We do not accept this unlawful act. We stand with Aslı Aydemir, and demand that she is released immediately!
Toplumsal Dayanışma İçin Psikologlar Derneği/Association of Psychologists for Social Solidarity (TODAP)
Eğitim Sen İstanbul 6 Nolu Üniversiteler Şubesi/Education and Science Workers’ Union, Istanbul Branch 6 for Universities