‘I would rather go to jail than do army service’ - Τουρκοκύπριοι ακτιβιστές

A GROUP of Turkish Cypriot activists said yesterday they would face jail rather than join the military.
Calling themselves the Initiative for Conscientious Objection in Cyprus (KVR), the group staged a small protest outside the north’s military courts in Nicosia in support of New Cyprus Party (YKP) leader Murat Kanatli, who is on trial for refusing to take part in mandatory annual military exercises since 2009.
“We will not take sides in war, so we will not join in preparations for war,” Kanatli told the press under the watchful eye of plain-clothes police outside a military court yesterday. The activist faces a possible prison sentence if found guilty of draft dodging. There are no provisions for conscientious objectors in the north.
“At the end of the hearing, the court will probably fine me. But I will refuse to pay, so one way or another they will have to imprison me,” he told the Cyprus Mail later.
A military judge adjourned Kanatli’s trial until July 5 after a brief hearing yesterday, apparently because a panel of three judges is needed to rule on the case.
Kanatli believes that despite a lack of vocal opposition to military service in Cyprus, there are many who wish to join him in refusing to take part.
“They [the administrations] are ignoring the fact that on both sides of the island there are thousands of young men who don’t want to be part of this war machine, and who refuse to take sides,” he said, adding: “I won’t be alone in this. Others are joining me in by not appearing for military service or training”.
Kanatli, like all Turkish Cypriot males who have completed military service, is considered a reservist in the Turkish Cypriot army, and must appear at a military training session once a year until he is 40. However he has been refusing to attend since 2009. Failure to do so usually results in a fine, but refusal to pay the fine or repeated non-attendance can end in imprisonment.
“If there was a war in Cyprus, I would not take sides,” Kanatli said, adding: “Who are our enemies? Is it anyone who is on the other side of the barbed wire? Are our enemies the friends that we drink coffee with every day in Ledra Street?”
Kanatli said KVR had forged links between anti militarists on both sides of Cyprus, and had become a member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO). He added that of all the countries represented in the Council of Europe (CoE), only Turkey and Azerbaijan refused to grant men the right to opt out of military service for any reason other than poor physical or mental health. The north’s military, being ostensibly under the control of Ankara, means there are no provisions for conscientious objectors there either.
Asked if he would accept civilian duties in the place of military training, Kanatli said as long as it was “not preparation for war” he would be happy to do it.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/i-would-rather-go-jail-do-army-service/20110615