The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has labeled the planned law suit against internationally renowned Turkish sociologist and author Ismail Beşikçi as a "scandelous attempt to silence a critical voice for the Kurds.” Starting Wednesday, he is expected to go before the 11th criminal division in Istanbul to face a charge of particularly serious crimes. The famous Kurdish-expert has been charged with creating propaganda for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is banned in Turkey. The District Attorney’s Office is demanding a prison sentence of eight and a half years. "Beşikçi is, however, involved with the 15 million Kurds in Turkey on a purely scientific basis. To punish him for his work is completely arbitrary justice,” said Dr. Kamal Sido, consultant for the Middle East at the STP. Beşikçi published, within the context of his personal research, an article titled "National Self-determination and the Kurds" in the Turkish magazine, "Our Era.” The magazine editor, Zeycan Balcı, is likewise threatened with eight and a half years in prison.

Over the last four decades, Beşikçi has been sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison and has been fined a total of ten billion Lira (approximately 5.1 billion Euro) due to his publications on the persecution and discrimination of Kurds. He has actually accepted his sentences eight times, meaning he has had to spend a total of 17 years in Turkish prisons. He has been, among other things, charged with the "establishment of a secret one-man-organization.” 32 of his 36 books, which are devoted not only to the Kurdish question, but also the persecution of religious minorities such as the Alevi, Yezidi, and even the Assyrian-Aramaic and Greek-orthodox Christians, were or are still banned in Turkey.

Turkish, kurdish, and other intellectuals have started a world-wide campaign with the motto "Bilimin Namusa yalniz başina degildir!" (The glory of science will not be abandoned!) to support Ismail Beşikçi. The STP supports this international action. This human rights organization based in Göttingen will appeal to German politicians and political parties over the next few days with the demand to put pressure on the government in Ankara to cease their poor treatment of sociologists. Over the last four decades, the STP has regularly brought attention to the partisanship of the Turkish justice system.