Social network campaign to support mayor Demirbaþ

Social network campaign to support mayor Demirbaþ

I am the mayor of Sur municipality in Amed (Diyarbakir), Abdullah Demirbaþ. I have disease called DVT and it can cause death if it goes untreated. I was imprisoned for promoting multi-lingual municipality services and my political activities".

The short video presentation of a new campaign for mayor of Sur Demirbaþ starts like this, with his own presentation and that of his illness.

Demirbaþ is not allowed out of the country and so he is prevented from getting the necessary treatment for his illness.

A new social media campaign is being launched these days to help rise the issue and put pressure on Turkey because it allows the mayor of Sur out of the country to get treatment.

The text of the campaign is as follows: "Rather than being commended and supported for his contributions to local administration through providing multi-lingual municipality services, mayor of Sur municipality in Amed (Diyarbakir), Abdullah Demirbaþ, was given a heavy prison sentence. While imprisoned, his health began to deteriorate. Mr. Demirbaþ is in urgent need of treatment, which he can only receive abroad, but due to a court order against him, he is not permitted to leave Turkey. Because his disease cannot be treated inside Turkey, it is as if Mr. Demirbaþ is sentenced to death.

The ban on leaving the country in the case of Mr. Demirbaþ, is a harsh measure which goes beyond its intended purpose. Considering Mr. Demirbaþ’s health condition, the ban on leaving the country obviously disregards international human rights agreements.

The court is determined to keep the ban in place.

Our campaign aims to draw worldwide attention to this injustice through social media".

To support the campaign people are asked to join http://twitter.com through smart phone or computer and tweet #abdullahdemirbas a few times every Thursday.

Doing this will created a trend on Twitter that will appear on every Twitter user’s screen and will draw worldwide attention to Mr. Abdullah Demirbaþ’ plight.