Greetings, shouted messages and tears fill the Silivri high-security court near Istanbul as the judges depart in the moments before the defendants are led out. In this brief space about 150 men, women and children in the public gallery try to communicate with relatives facing trial as ‘terrorists’.
Scenes like this are being re-played at the trials of at least 7,000 people – mostly Kurdish, but also progressive Turks or members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Their treatment has attracted the condemnation of human rights defenders and the European Court of Human Rights, who criticize Turkey’s all-encompassing terrorism laws, incompetent prosecutors, biased judges, unfair court procedures and lengthy detention on remand.
