Women jumping to the rhythm of anti-Erdogan slogans at IWD march on trial

By Övgü Pınar

Though finding oneself in the dock on charges of insulting the president has become quite ordinary, what makes their case peculiar is the activity that led to the indictment: Jumping to the rhythm of the slogans. On the night of March 8, 2021 thousands of women met in central Istanbul for the 19^th Feminist Night March, defying the restrictions. Police closed streets, used tear gas to disperse the activists and detained tens of women by the night’s end. Those detained were released the morning after, but two days later, 18 of the participants were indicted, some of them arrested with night raids to their homes. The next day a court released them pending trial, imposing control orders such as travel bans.

One year later, 17 of these women are still fighting the charges. On March 1, 2022, they were in courtroom as defendants, facing up to 7 years and 8 months in prison on charges of insulting the president, and organizing and participating in an illegal assembly and march.

The indictment, according to reports in Turkish media, alleges that two of the slogans, “Jump, jump, those who don't jump are Tayyip” and “Run Tayyip run, women are coming” – “Tayyip” being the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – at the feminist march constitute an insult to the president of the republic. According to the prosecutors, these slogans offend the honor, dignity and prestige of the president, and cannot be considered within the limits of the right to criticism and freedom of expression.

And the evidence of this alleged crime cited in the indictment is that the defendants jumped to the rhythm of these slogans. As the participants of the IWD 2021 march were wearing facemasks as a Covid-19 precaution, it was not clear who was actually shouting the slogans, so the law enforcement officers decided to indict those who were jumping in rhythm with the slogans.

“Not wanting to be a certain person cannot be a crime”

On the March 1 hearing, Ezgi Gözoğlu, one of the defendants, said “I don’t remember whether I chanted the slogans mentioned in the indictment, but I don’t think those slogans constitute a crime. Not wanting to be a certain person cannot be a crime.”

“I don’t have to like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I don’t have to praise a male representative of the state,” Ebru Sert, defended herself.

Their acquittal requests were eventually denied, and the trial adjourned until September 23.

Human Rights Watch, in a March 12, 2021 statement, urged Turkish authorities to immediately put a stop to the criminal investigation opened into women’s rights activists for shouting slogans. HRW called the case a violation of international standards on freedom of expression and said:

“Opening criminal investigations against women’s rights activists for nonviolent slogans, and taking them from their homes in the middle of the night, demonstrates the Turkish authorities’ profound disdain for freedom of assembly and speech, and of course women’s rights. It speaks volumes that even on a day to celebrate women and promote equality, Turkish authorities would rather target them for peaceful demonstrations than protect their rights.”

“I don’t have to like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I don’t have to praise a male representative of the state”

Thousands convicted since 2014

This, however, is hardly a rare instance of legal actions taken against those deemed to insult the president. As per Ministry of Justice statistics, more than 160 thousand criminal investigations on charges of insulting the president were launched since Erdoğan first became president in 2014. Of the investigations, more than 35 thousand ended in lawsuits and more than 12 thousand people were convicted, 3625 of them sentenced to prison.

In comparison, the number of investigations on the same charges between 2010-2014 was less than 3 thousand, 690 of which ending in lawsuits.

Article 299 of the Turkish penal code outlaws insulting the president of the republic, making it an offense punishable with imprisonment. Although the article dates back to 1926, critics say the easily offended current president uses it over-enthusiastically. There are calls for the article to be annulled, on the grounds that it violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

“We all jumped to the rhythm”

For the March 1 hearing of the trial against 17 women, a group of supporters came together at the court in Istanbul to show solidarity with the defendants and issued a statement:

“We came together here today to stand in solidarity with our friends who are being judged with the ridiculous affirmation that ‘they jumped to the rhythm’ and to say, ‘March 8 cannot be prosecuted, our feminist struggle cannot be stopped’. As the feminists who organized and took part in the Feminist Night March, we say, ‘We were all there’. We say, ‘We all jumped to the rhythm’. We say, ‘There can be no such crime’.”

And they went on to put out an invitation to the 20th Feminist Night March on March 8, 2022, saying, “This year too, we will shake the world together, chanting slogans and jumping in rhythm if need be.”