On June 24, SGP Chairman Christoph Vandreier and Johannes Stern, editor of the German-language World Socialist Web Site, read out an open letter to Ambassador Gökhan Turan in front of the Turkish Embassy in Berlin. In it, they demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ali Ercan Akpolat, the mayor of the municipality of Adalar, which includes Büyükada, the historic island of Prinkipo, as well as all political prisoners in Türkiye.

Akpolat was arrested together with numerous other representatives and employees of the municipality of Adalar as part of a large-scale police operation. The charges brought against him are baseless. They are clearly directed not against actual crimes but against elected mayors and opposition politicians.

Akpolat is known in Türkiye and internationally for his commitment to preserving historical truth and cultural heritage. Of particular significance is his work in connection with the “Trotsky House” on Büyükada, where Leon Trotsky lived in exile from 1929 to 1933 and wrote some of his most important works.

The embassy refused to accept the open letter. When Vandreier and Stern attempted to place the letter in the embassy mailbox, the police prohibited them from doing so on the grounds that the mailbox was located on embassy territory. This incident underscores the arbitrary and politically motivated character of the arrests and of the repression directed against oppositionists, workers, youth and anti-war activists in Türkiye.

The SGP and the WSWS demand the immediate release of Ali Ercan Akpolat, all those arrested as part of the operation against the municipality of Adalar, the more than 200 imprisoned anti-NATO activists and all political prisoners.