Kurdish Man Announces Conscientious Objection

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A Kurdish man named Baran Toktaş has announced his conscientious objection, saying that “as a Kurdish youth, I refuse to shed the blood of my brothers, and to be on the same side with rapists.”

Baran Toktaş has proclaimed his conscientious objection with a written statement. Highlighting the fact that he refuses capitalism and militarism, Toktaş added, “I refuse guns and to be a soldier of militarism, to die and to kill for this blood-
sucking system where people kill one another to make arms dealers richer.”

Toktaş emphasized that he will not be a side of this dirty war where children are raped and killed by the orderly: “I reject being a supporter of this system where 34 civilians have been massacred by F-16 war planes but the dead have been convicted. I reject this system which destroys nature with chemical weapons and burns down forests.”

Toktaş also said that if he is put on trial at military courts, the judiciary and judges will not be fair, and that he has seen such practices in the past and has been following similar trials: “That the conscientious objectors are tortured heavily and even forced to commit suicide after they are taken into custody are explicit truths.”

“The considerable number of soldiers who commit suicide while doing military service, and the majority of them being Kurdish youths is one of the most powerful justifications of my conscientious objection,” Toktaş added.