Freedom for Gokhan Ok (16), Servan Yilmaz (16), ..

The petition

Freedom for Gokhan Ok (16), Servan Yilmaz (16), and Veysel Mamuk (16)

Last year, on October 3, 2007, theYenisehir Municipality Children Chorus that consists of 15 children between the ages of 12 to 17, performed folk songs in eight different languages –Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Kurdish- during the World Music Festival in California. One of the songs sung by the Children Chorus was the Kurdish national anthem "Ey Raqip" (Hey Guard). "Ey Raqip" was written by the Kurdish poet Dildar (1917-1948), in 1938, while in prison in Iraq.
When the group went back to Turkey, all of its 15 members were interrogated and the prosecutors filed a case against three of them (Gokhan Ok (16), Servan Yilmaz (16), and Veysel Mamuk (16)) for singing "Ey Raqip" under the Kurdish flag. They are facing charges for spreading separatist propaganda under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. The case will be heard by High Criminal Court on June 19, 2008. Children face up to 5 years imprisonment if found guilty of these charges.

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