7.  The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Adana. 8.  At the time of the events, the applicant was a member of the Peoples’ Democracy Party (Halkın Demokrasi Partisi, hereinafter “HADEP”). 9.  On 26 June 1994 the applicant made a speech during HADEP’s first annual congress. According to the text of the speech, transcribed by three police officers on 30 June 1994, he stated the following:
“Dear Chairman, dear delegates and dear guests, I welcome you all. We are holding this first congress of our party at a time when extraordinary circumstances are affecting the Kurdish nation and the Turkish proletariat. Our historical duties and obligations are ever more important at this time. At around this time last year most of us present had gathered at DEP’s first congress. The attacks against us and against our people were at their peak. The imperialist savagery aimed at our nation and our country had been continuing before the eyes of the world. When we were talking that day, we underlined what policies our democracy should follow in the light of the developments which were taking place. Important social and political developments have taken place since then. It was happening so fast that before we had a chance to think and analyse what was going on, new developments were taking place. These developments have proved us right. Without repeating what we said one year ago, I would like to remind you of the following: the biggest hurdle for the democratisation of Turkey is the existence of the problem of Kurdistan. The reality is that Kurdistan is a colony. It is not possible for Turkey to be a democracy without solving the status of Kurdistan. The precondition for democracy to be established is to defend and to support the Kurdish nation’s right to self-determination. Therefore, any means employed by the Kurdish nation in order to exercise this right in a free atmosphere is legal and justified.
As we have said before, it is impossible not to collide with all the legal constraints and formalities imposed by the Republic of Turkey. This is because the existing legal system of the Republic of Turkey is formulated in such a way as to make the colonisation of Kurdistan lawful. For us, on the other hand, it is not what is lawful that should be the starting point in our struggle, but what is legal.
What Kurds mean to the [Turkish] Parliament has been evident in the practice of the last seventy years. To the world at large, the presence of the Kurdish parliamentarians in Parliament has always been interpreted as evidence that Parliament represents the political will of both the Turkish nation and the Kurdish nation. When, therefore, Parliament is presented as a legal entity, the imperialist terror imposed on Kurdistan has become lawful. The fact is, however, that for the Kurds this Parliament has done nothing other than legislate laws sending Kurds into exile, sentencing them to death, assimilating them, adopting the Takriri Sükun Act[1] and creating emergency regions and declaring martial law.
Unfortunately, these realities have not been adequately dealt with during the time of DEP. This last year has shown us just how right we were in our conclusions. The imperialist violence has increased day by day and a large number of settlements has been evacuated and destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee. Hundreds of people have become martyrs. Thousands have been injured. Tens of thousands of our people have been detained and tortured. On the one hand, the poor people have been made to bear the cost of this unjustified imperialist war and, on the other hand, the masses in the metropolitan areas have been indoctrinated by chauvinistic propaganda. But, despite all this, people have not been made to take action. No resistance was created. Backward steps have been taken instead of resisting the embargoes and seizures created by the imperialist terror. The people were not shown a target. People have been isolated. But all this did not help anyone. Parliamentarians, party members and chairmen have been killed. The Parliament of the Turkish Republic, which was called upon to help, has kicked six parliamentarians out. They were arrested. Subsequently, DEP was closed down and its remaining parliamentarians were kicked out of Parliament. Despite these failures of the politicians in the legal arena, the Kurdish nation continued its struggle for freedom with decisiveness and self-sacrifice.
Unfortunately, the Kurdish nation has been deprived of any active support it expected from us. No doubt, our friends’ understanding of the legal struggle has played a big role in this. This has resulted in the disintegration of different struggles. Different struggling parties were then alienated from each other. As a result, and as planned by the Turkish Republic, these different struggling parties became inactive. Unfortunately, this social resistance did not fit into our party colleagues’ understanding of legality. In order to make it fit we have to make the Kurdish nation a nation of slaves. Members of the Kurdish nation have never accepted and will never accept slavery.
What is expected from us is very obvious. Firstly, the rights of these oppressed people who want to govern themselves must be recognised without any question. Secondly, and as part of our democratic characteristics, we have to carry out our duties. We cannot escape from this historical obligation. Running away and taking backward steps will not result in anything other than our surrender. The prevailing circumstances have shown us once again that making attempts at reconciliation and doing nothing else will not help us to overcome our existing problems. We will not get anywhere by repeating our mistakes.
Therefore HADEP should, in accordance with its historical mission, put into action policies which would direct the peoples’ anger at heightened resistance. A party programme which does not correspond to our problems, which does not contain solutions and which is confined to legal boundaries is bound to be unsuccessful. ...” 10.  At this point the applicant was stopped by the chairman of the congress from continuing his speech. He was rebuked for criticising the Party’s constitution. 11.  On 31 January 1996 the public prosecutor at the Ankara State Security Court filed an indictment in which he accused the applicant of disseminating propaganda against the indivisible integrity of the State, an offence under Article 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. 12.  The applicant was kept in detention on remand between 14 November 1996 and 16 December 1996. 13.  At a hearing which took place on 16 December 1996 before the Ankara State Security Court, the applicant’s lawyer did not deny that his client had used words such as “Kurdish” and “Kurdistan” in his speech. However, he maintained that, taken as a whole, the speech had not disseminated propaganda against the indivisible integrity of the State. The lawyer further referred to his client’s right to freedom of speech, guaranteed by Article 10 of the Convention, and requested the court to acquit his client. 14.  On 22 January 1997 the Ankara State Security Court, which was composed of three judges including a military judge, found the applicant guilty of an offence under Article 8 § 1 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment and a fine. It concluded, in particular, that the applicant, by stating that any means employed by the Kurdish nation in order to exercise its right to self determination were justified, had disseminated propaganda against the indivisible integrity of the State. 15.  The applicant appealed against the judgment. In his appeal, the applicant stated that he had made his speech during a party political meeting, and that he had merely conveyed opinions about the economic and social improvement of the country, doing so in the exercise of his right to freedom of expression. 16.  The Chief Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation submitted his written opinion on the merits of the applicant’s appeal. The opinion was not notified to the applicant. 17.  On 1 March 1999 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgment of the Ankara State Security Court, finding that the applicant’s grounds of appeal were unfounded. 18.  On 21 December 2000 Law No. 4616 on Conditional Release, Deferral of Procedure and Punishments was promulgated. Accordingly, on 12 February 2001 the Ankara State Security Court decided to defer the applicant’s sentence. As a result, the applicant did not pay the fine or serve his prison sentence.