Wti Chronicle

WTI ‹STANBUL SESSION FINAL

PRESS MEETING

LATE EDITION

Arundhati Roy’s press meeting in the name of the jury in 27 June 2005 at 11:00 am will be made at Armada Otel.

WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ ISTANBUL SESSION

WTI ‹stanbul Session:

LIVE ON AÇIK RADYO

JUNE 24, 2005, SUNDAY, LATE EDITION

SH FLA WS NE

Aç›k Radio is covering the WTI meeting live on 94.9 FM. Aç›k Radio team is right on the spot, next to the coffee shop at Darphane.

THE CHRONICLE GETS THE DECISION OF THE JURY! The Chronicle staff, overcame all the difficulties and managed to get the final decision text of the jury from the organisation committee, one

Live coverage is new for Aç›k Radio. Ömer Madra, the director of Aç›k Radyo, said that before WTI they had done only one live news coverage to report from the site of a Greenpeace demonstration. Although they are not very experienced at live broadcasting, they did a wonderful job at WTI. Ömer Madra said that Aç›k Radyo represents conscientous journalism. When asked about the responses to their live coverage, he told us two stories: “We got two unusual responses. The first one came from a medical doctor, who is a regular listener and supporter of Aç›k Radyo. He called us to say that, on the first day, at the surgery clinic of the hospital he works at, everyone, including doctors and patients, was listening to the talks at WTI. And the second one is actually a criticism shared by three of our listeners. They said they would have loved it if we were doing live coverage continuously throughout the day. They were somewhat disappointed in the

sense that we were covering only bits and pieces from the meeting. At the beginning, that was exactly my suggestion. But then my friends convinced me that continuous live coverage all day long would be too much for the radio medium. Nevertheless, I think we need to learn from this criticism.” We also talked to Aysenem Andiç from Aç›k Radyo, who was very excited being part of WTI. She said she followed the meeting as it was broadcasted live on Aç›k Radio the first day and felt very excited. And when she got to Darphane on the second day and became actually involved in the event, she got even more excited. It is Andiç’s first live coverage experience. She says she loves even all the hassle of live coverage: “It is, I think, a matter of being engaged in a shared cause. People look very happy here despite the fact that many of them are already very tired by now.”

SPYNICLE

BENCE WTI

The Volunteer Coordinator, impressed by the performance of the Chronicle, submits his indecent proposal to Chronicle’s coordinator: The Volunteer Coordinator – Why don’t we sell the Chronicle for 1 YTL.? We can get away with some costs. A volunteer – (jumping onto stage from the table beneath) With this speed you might say tomorrow, “Let’s sell a couple of volunteers”. *** A volunteer (hearing that Tolga wants to give a disclaimer to the Chronicle) – I want to send a disclaimer to God, saying Tolga needs redaction.

(Ayfle Ç.)

INFORMATION DESK AYDAN person between 20 and 30 in the fundraising AYDAN group. *** Two guys walking in Darphane: - Man, what is going around here? - They are setting up a court. Americans will come. - Ah, yes. *** Two reporters in the press room. One is quite confused on the role of the Tribunal: - These are all in vain. The Tribunal and so on..

***

- Don’t think so. Even holding a record for history is a moral responsibility.

Löker (on the weak t-shirt sales) – I demand, on our next activity, to have at least one

- No, this is really meaningless. Besides, we are getting tired for nothing.

This circular is published in order to support the WTI ‹stanbul Session, by Metis Publishing.Thanks to DISK for duplication resources. Metis Yay›nlar› Ltd. ‹pek Sok. No. 9 34433 Beyo¤lu ‹stanbul

day before it went public.

‹STANBUL , JUNE 26, 2005 Our source, who doesn’t want his/her name to be disclosed, said the Jury of Conscience took the decision after long hours of discussions. “They are keeping discussing for 48 hours without an interruption. I don’t understand why, these folks are guilty. Ask anyone in the street, they would tell you why.” The source, whose name starts with an M, and then continues with –editor’s cut- said s/he thinks the Jury did their best to prevent the final decision text to be one of those boring judicial texts, which no one understands anything. In the final text, Bush and Blair are, to no surprise, declared guilty. However, the punishments due are draconian. Some of them are as such: * George W. Bush shall withdraw his troops from Iraq, and then repair all the buildings and homes they destroyed by carrying stones one by one. * Bush and Blair shall memorise writing and reciting the word “peace” in all the

MY DEAR CHRONICLE “We love the Chronicle, hope you will love and support it.” My introduction to the first issue of the Chronicle was starting with these words. Actually, we hit the road with some sort of blind courage, not expecting at all such an interest. The Chronicle aimed to cover the ones behind the stage, to keep the unofficial records of dozens of people who gave their labour and time to the organisation of such an activity, and to share it with the participants of this historical Tribunal. Apart from making this grade, we overcame the challenge of releasing 4 issues in 3 days. It was duplicated bilingually (350 in Tirkish, 150 in English). All has been circulated each day. So, in addition to our usual morning edition, we made a late edition for this last day of the Tribunal.

languages throughout the world. Both leaders will be held to an examination each year in 20th of March from the word. * Bush will have lessons from his journalist friends in Turkey on “Proper, ethical and impartial journalism.” –Editor’s note: Oh, no! This is too much, it’s a clear violation of human rights! Poor man!* George W. Bush shall collect money for his bail, carrying a plaque “Forgive me!”. The amount he must collect is 193 billion dollars, which equals the cerrent amount spent from the US budget for the occupation of Iraq. According to the calculation made by our arithmomanic reporter, if George W. Bush manages to beg for 15 USD an hour, he can collect the totul amount in 13,027,500,000 hours. This equals to 512,800,000 days, or 1,487,000 years. Clark Howell, Paleoanthropologist from Berkeley University, said to our reporter, “One and a half million years are enough for a species to evolve. So, we still have hope.” (Ertan)

RAUF This edition denotes the end of both the WTI ‹stanbul Final Session and the Chronicle. We walked the way with Ayfle Ç., Canay, Çi¤dem, Damla, Derya, Dinç, Duygu, Ertan, Gülderen, Löker, Melise, Nihal, Nil and me. Some didn’t know each other before, but nevertheless enjoyed spending hours to the first lights of the morning. It was an interesting and teaching experience. We liked the work we do. We became proud of it. We made a huge collective working experience out of “a circular and nothing else”. We thank you all, for not leaving us alone, and helped 500 copies to be circulated each day without a return. Hope to see each other in new tribunals, new struggles. Now, let’s leave here in all our humility.

BABEL FISHES OF ‹STANBUL SESSION

A FORM OF LIFE DISCOVERED BEHIND THE STAGE!

Douglas Adams, the ironic writer of fantastic literature, solved the language problem with Babel Fishes in his book Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Name of the fish was referring to the Babel Tower and the division of one mother language of humankind after it collapsed. You were tucking the fish inside your ear and it was translating all languages spoken in the universe.

We just discovered that there is some form of living creature among the cables and cords behind the stage management desk in the WTI meeting room. We were amazed to see that these creatures, almost lost among the power outlets, jacks and buttons, are in fact human beings like all of us. Indeed, compared to myself who is incapable even of TV zapping, they belong to a stage at the other end of the evolutionary spectrum. (And I’m afraid they are very close to the next step, where they might as well become integrated into the world of cables.)

WTI court rooms’ Babel Fishes are Nur, Sungur, Ahmet, Nevzat, Tanyeli, Deniz and P›nar. These seven traslators are working in their small cabinets all day long and doing one of the hardest works ever- making us understand each other. We hear their voices but usually do not see their faces. The only complaint of the voice of the court is, not having a chance to prepare as well as they wanted to. because the texts always arrive late. WTI ‹stanbul session has another important meaning for them. This is a good chance to train junior translators in field and they are really happy about it. (Damla)

Joking aside, one of the invisible heroes of the WTI meeting room is the stage management team, which makes possible the smooth flow of presentations by managing the technical infrastructure. The management team, coordinated by Bar›fl, is composed of 25 people; and all the team members are constantly on the watch for problems to solve. They say the most difficult day was the first one, where there were technical issues to deal.(Damla)

BOOMERANG TACTICS AGAINST BUSH Women’s Will has been resisting the Iraqi occupation and supporting the women not only of Iraq but also of other countries in the region. According to Hana Ibrahim, the best tactic to resist the Bush government is to turn the “democracy” that it promotes into something that works against its hegemony. (Nil)

What do you expect from WTI?

Have you ever been arrested?

WTI primarily has to do with ethics. For me, it does not need to result in any decrees; its task is to judge the war criminals, to warn the people of the world, and to leave a trace in history. This tribunal will hopefully pave the way for another one in accordance with international law.

We always find new ways to make it confusing for them. They often emphasize the idea of a “free press”, and that is exactly what we make use of. They talk about the “freedom” to organise street demonstrations and we do use that freedom. They could well use force to stop us any time, though. That actually happens a lot of times. For instance, once when we were demonstrating against the occupation of Fallujah, they surrounded us with their tanks. However we were able to demonstrate despite the tanks, with the help of the people of the city who joined and supported us. No one can guarantee this, of course. There is always the risk of being attacked by the occupation forces. In many cases, people were even shot dead. Or you may hear about a friend who was assasinated. They prefer not to set foot on our office, because they do not want to seem repressive. If ever they do that one day, that would probably be upon something outrageous, like a claim that we keep weapons in our office.

Many people were struck by your presentation. Apparently, it is very difficult to maintain resistance while living in very difficult conditions under the occupation. What are the most significant diffulties that you face in your daily lives in Iraq? We refused to be an NGO under American occupation; we also refused to represent any specific group. We publish a newspaper; and our main problem is lack of funding. Our resistance requires the dissemination of ideas through printed media; and in that sense, it is mainly a textual resistance. Besides, we also organise demonstrations.

NO HASSLE WITH WTI

THEY WRITE THE HISTORY IN A DIFFERENT WAY A documentary film crew followed the WTI to write a history in a different way for the next generations. Zeynep D. and Enis thought of a WTI documentary when they chat. Alisa, Alp, Aykan, Çiçek, Gülengül, Hakan, Hande, Sevgi and Zeynep A. had joined them with volunteer support. We’ve talked with Zeynep D. And Gülengül when they gave a break. How did the project start? Zeynep D: We were already in the WTI project and thought of making a documentary on WTI. Then we’ve talked to Alisa from ASA and decided to edit New York and ‹stanbul sessions together. We started shooting the preparation, communicatiuon and meeting processes two months ago. We don’t have a budget but we don’t have any expenses except casettes. We’re all volunteers. What do you think will be the effects of ‹stanbul session? Gülengül: It couldn’t prevent the invasion and it won’t effect politics, but it showed that

young generation can do something without material expectations. People above middle age have a desperate mood like “What will change in the end?”. We decided to say our word mlistening to our heart instead of doing nothing just because of the conviction that nothing will change. Some people say “What can you do? You are not powerful enough.” But WTI came to life here with 160 volunteers’ help from 70 countries. By what we shoot and you write, it is being documented.

We had a little chat with the security officers in front of the Darphane-i Amire gate. One of the officers said, not until he arrived at Darphane that he had an opportunity to be informed about WTI. Right away, he inquired about the content of the organisation and he says: ‘Just then, I feel glad to be a part of such an event. This way or the other, someone should express his reaction against such violent actions. None of us has the courage to do this though, because the opposite side has the ultimate

power. Since the invasion of Iraq, I’ve had sleepless nights whenever I watched the news. This Tribunal will increase the awareness of those who stay ignorant towards the issue.’ When we asked whether it was hard to work with us, he said: ‘Nobody here has hassled with us. This morning, they came to say thank you for our support. Not even a single crisis occurred with neither the guests nor the organisation staff. Personally, I feel very happy to be here.’ (Ayfle Ç.)

PORTRAITS FROM VOLUNTEERS

Zeynep: The slogan “Another world is possible,” may also be a desperate one, because you can read it as “It’s possible but we can’t do it.” We have to think of doing something now instead of thinking another world to be realised in the long term. This is the final session but for our generation it is a first step to talking some things: It gathered us together to imagine something. Recording a different version of history is another important issue. (Nil)

CAPTURING TO EASE THE PAIN During his daily rush, we had an opportunity to chat with Attila, WTI’s documentary photographer. He said he is trying to capture not only coming people, but the energy around: “Activists know such actions don’t have great immediate outcomes, but they can open great doors. Therefore, I don’t account for whether the war stops.” “If you leave the powers alone, they do everything in evil, and there is no extent to this. If you show your reaction, the evil they do will decline. It is said that one million people died from the beginning of the occupation. If the activists in the world didn’t show any reaction, now this might have amounted to two million. You might ask what the diiference is. The pain in the number ‘1’ is the difference. I’m trying to ease this pain.” (Nil)

THE CHRONIC VOLUNTEER Hasan Tahsin Y›lmaz is one of many volunteers of WTI. His career as a volunteer is not limited to WTI, though. When we ask him what he does other than volunteering for WTI, he says “I volunteer for other nongovernmental organisations.” He adds that it is different to work for WTI: “Here the difference is that we are writing history. This is not only a momentary political action. WTI is going to leave a trace in history. We know that the people or the governments we are dealing with are very powerful, but we too are getting more powerful everyday. The energy, the feeling we all share here, is the proof for that.”

THE CLERK OF THE PRIVATE COURT Löker has been one of the wellknown figures of the WTI preparation process. Transferred from Ankara, Löker, our activist and director friend lost his volunteer position in Greenpeace through being fired. Since then he dedicated himself to the WTI. He internalised his tasks in such a way that he says “I am a clerk in a private court”, when asked about his job. Embracing this position in a passionate way Löker is set to commence a campaign to organise a new tribunal.