Turkey: Report on Osman Erden & more

Our colleague Osman Erden, Assistant Professor at the Department of Art History at Mimar Sinan University Fine Arts and President of AICA, Turkey, was detained for about six hours. He was beaten by the police before the arrest. The threats continued during the detention as the riot police kept abusing him on the bus where he was held. Erden was let go after 3:00 a.m. as no charges could be brought against him. Voluntary lawyers from the Istanbul Bar Association, Rector of the University Yalcin Karayagiz, Professor of Sociology and Ali Akay, and other colleagues advocated for his release.

At the time of his detention, Osman Erden was taking part in a protest against the abuse and arrests of people who had been detained during the Gezi Park protests and also against the law that was passed to take away the independent powers of TMMOB the Union of Chambers of the Architects and Engineers of Turkey.

It was another terrible night of continous provocation and unwarranted assaults by undercover operators and the riot police of the Turkish Government. We have artist and curators colleagues who were gassed, or wounded with rubber bullets.
This is not what democracy should look like.

Vasif Kortun, Director of Research and Programs, SALT, Istanbul
Board Member of CIMAM