Mehmet Tarhan

Mehmet Tarhan (born 1978) is a Kurdish conscientious objector who was imprisoned for refusing military service. Tarhan had been sentenced to four years in a military prison for disobedience after refusing to wear a military uniform, a sentence that is evidently the longest ever given for such an offense in Turkey. He was released in March 2006 after spending several months in prison. As of 2014, he is a member of the party assembly of the Peoples' Democratic Party and a member of the executive committee of its consultative body Peoples' Democratic Congress.

Life

According to Tarhan, he was born into a Kurdish peasant family. At the age of 17 he worked as a government employee in Diyarbakır. During this time he worked with KAOS GL (an independent political and cultural LGBT group) and Lambdaistanbul (an LGBT civil society initiative). He also became involved in and supported anti-military efforts. Tarhan credits his sexual and ethnic identity with causing him to question militarism.

During his days in prison he was offered and accepted to join Jury of Conscience of World Tribunal on Iraq.

Conscientious objection

Tarhan first publicly objected to military service in October 2001. At a press conference in Ankara he said, "I condemn every kind of violence and believe that joining or condoning violence will only result in new violence and everyone will be responsible for the consequences. I think that wars caused by power-mongering states are first and foremost a violation of the right to life. The violation of the right to life is a crime against humanity and no international convention or law can justify this crime, regardless of any rationale. I therefore declare that I won't be an agent of such crime under any circumstances. I will not serve any military apparatus."

Arrest and trial

In Turkey, all men face conscription for up to 15 months. In January 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sentenced Turkey for violation of article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of degrading treatment) in a case dealing with conscientious objection.

Sexual orientation

Tarhan could have avoided military service by stating that he is gay. However, the Turkish military perceives homosexuality as an "illness" and requires rectal examination and visual "evidence" to support such a claim. and his imprisonment has attracted the attention of organizations like Amnesty International.