Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah Turkey held a press conference at 10:45 am on Thursday, 18 September 2014 in Akgün Hotel in Istanbul to provide the media with the necessary information about the campaign and its aims.

The participants of the press conference were: Mahmut KAR, Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Turkey; Hasan SABAZ, writer at Doğru Haber Gazetesi and as representative of Mustazaflar Cemiyeti (Society of The Opressed); Lawyer Hasan ÖLÇER; Murat ÖZER, President of Imkan-Der; Lawyer Kaya KARTAL, Assistant of General Secretary of Mazlum-Der; Lawyer Necip KİBAR; Mehmet ŞAHİN, Chairman of the Akincies Association in Fatih/Istanbul; Mustafa ŞATIROĞLU as President of the Istanbul Thinking Institute; Cüneyt SARIYAŞAR as Istanbul Branch President of Mazlum-Der.

Mahmut Kar, Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Turkey in the name of Hizb ut Tahrir, the representatives of the participating NGO's and the lawyers gave their reviews for Turkey's unlawful proceedings especially against Hizb ut Tahrir and generally against all Muslims.

Mahmut Kar summarized the unlawful practises in the trials against Hizb ut Tahrir spanning from the year of 1960 until today. He said further, that in the so-called democratisation and expanding of the freedoms in Turkey that this process ran backwards for the members of Hizb ut Tahrir. So that while being punished with 6 months for membership of Hizb ut Tahrir in the year of 1960, the punishment multiplied 15 times and is now seven and a half years for just being a member of Hizb ut Tahrir.

Mahmut Kar gave the following important information:

"Hizb ut Tahrir is a globally established Islamic political party, working in more than 50 countries. It is working for the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah to rule all Muslims by what Allah (swt) has revealed and unify them once again under the leadership of one ruler, as the Islamic Ummah lived for centuries and to carry the Islamic Dawah as a light and guidance to the whole of the world."

"Hizb ut Tahrir does not adopt a top-down method; in contrary it works within the Ummah and together with it to gain the support and the leadership for this aim. Its work is only ideological and political and it certainly never adopts armed actions. Friends and enemies all over the world know of these fixed principles of Hizb ut Tahrir for the past 60 years. Those who accuse Hizb ut Tahrir in Turkey of being a terroristic organisation and its members of being terrorists and then punish them with these justifications are fully aware of these principles. They see better than anyone else that these forced invented and imposed claims are nothing more than lies. Therefore, these judgments are politically oriented rather than juristically."

Murat Özer, President of Imkan-Der, stated, Hizb ut Tahrir has been founded by the scholar Taqiuddin al-Nabhani (Rahimehullah) 61 years ago and it is a political movement which has been working for long years to reunify the divided Ummah again under the power of the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashida. While Özer highlighted that Hizb ut Tahrir is only banned in dictatorial countries and is not banned in many countries, he questioned how it could be banned in Turkey and how the members could be persecuted and sentenced to prison for their political work. Murat Özer reminded also, that Hizb ut Tahrir is the essence of 1400 years of Islamic history and also of the Anatolian lands; and therefore no one can accuse Hizb ut Tahrir to be extraneous for Turkey. Özer said, instead of expecting the change of Hizb ut Tahrir, it is the constitution of Turkey that has to be changed.

The common message of all participants was the call for the immediate release of all imprisoned members of Hizb ut Tahrir and all political activist Muslims in Turkey.

Written for Central Media Office Hizb ut Tahrir by

Representative of Central Media Office Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Turkey