The KulturForum TurkeyDeutschland has launched a petition to the German government for the release of Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk, who has been imprisoned in Turkey. Under the heading ‘Appeal to the Federal Government: Clear signals to Erdoğan! For the release of Aysel Tuğluk!’ the forum calls on the new federal government to leave behind the appeasement policy of the previous coalitions towards President Erdoğan and to support the immediate release of Aysel Tuğluk and other ill and political prisoners such as Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala and Gultan Kışanak.

The text of the petition published on change.org reads:

“Aysel Tuğluk, a human rights lawyer and former MP for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), has been in prison for five years.

HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan announced that Tuğluk has hardly spoken since the events surrounding her mother's death when a nationalist mob attacked the funeral service. The forensic medicine faculty of the University of Kocaeli has stated in its report that Aysel Tuğluk is no longer capable of looking after herself alone and is to be released from prison immediately due to chronic and progressive dementia. The institute for forensic medicine of the Ministry of Justice in Istanbul rejected this report.

The KulturForum TurkeyGermany demands from the Turkish government an end to the systematic repression against imprisoned opposition members and the immediate release of Aysel Tuğluk and other ill prisoners as well as thousands of other political prisoners such as Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala, Gultan Kışanak, who are in prison solely due to their political and social activities.

At the same time, we appeal to the new federal government to give a clear signal for human rights in Turkey on this special occasion and to leave behind the appeasement policy of the previous coalitions towards President Erdoğan.

Send a clear signal that your government will stand up for human rights and democracy in Turkey! Demand the immediate release of Aysel Tuğluk and other ill prisoners as well as thousands of political prisoners such as Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala and Gultan Kışanak! "

The first signatories are Erk Acarer, Ahmet Akgün, Lale Akgün, Rezan Aksoy, Kemal Aktaş, Ali Atalan, İmran Ayata, Nursel Aydoğan, Berivan Aymaz, Hayko Bağdat, Celal Başlangıç, Oya Baydar, Osman Baydemir, Saadet Becerikli, Lezgin Botan, Safter Çınar, Abdullah Demirbaş, Renan Demirkan, Can Dündar, Dilek Dündar, Ragıp Duran, Aydın Engin, Aslı Erdoğan, Bernhard von Grünberg, Ülkü Gürkan-Schneider, Tuba Hezer Öztürk, Leyla İmret, Selma İrmak, Hasip Kaplan, Yılmaz Karahasan, Atilla Keskin, Besime Konca, Kader Konuk, Klaus Kost, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Nafiz Özbek, Bedia Özgökçe, Ziya Pir, Anton Rütten, Faysal Sarıyıldız, Herbert Schmalstieg, Nora Şeni, Ferhat Tunç, Günter Wallraff, Gülçin Wilhelm, Kemal Yalçın, Sibel Yiğitalp, Ahmet Yıldırım, Ayşe Yıldırım and Ragıp Zarakolu.