The legal battle is still continuing since the attack on Mavi Marmara on the 31st of May 2010, due to the disinformation in the media about IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. There have been many attempts to mislead the public in both the national and international media. We are sharing the following statement outlining the legal process with the public:
Since the attack on Mavi Marmara on the 31st of May 2010, there has been disinformation spread across the national and international media about IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. Our foundation has embarked on an important legal battle against these propagandas. Within this scope, many national and international publications disclaimer texts have been published, complaints have been made and legal compensation cases have been conducted.
Within this whole process they tried to create the perception that, they were carrying weapons to terrorist organizations in the Mavi Marmara, and were allegedly provoking Israel. They falsely claimed that our foundation brought financial assistance to Turkey from Iran and labeled us as "pro-Iran" and even labeled us as the "Salam Terror Organization" and attempted to draw us into an unfounded investigation. They associated us with the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and from time to time labeled us as supporters of ISID. Their attempts in trying to link our foundation with all these terrorist organizations who are not interconnected with each other show that they are trying to create a false perception about out foundation. IHH was linked to whichever terrorist organization that was in the agenda at the time.
Another unsubstantiated claim that was often put forward in the media, which was considered unlawful by us and was disclosed by many official authorities was that trucks owned by IHH were suspicious of carrying guns. These allegations do not have solid evidence therefore, official authorities announced them to be false. IHH Humanitarian Foundation has never done anything illegal in the world and has not provided aid to any group.
Another false claim found in the media is that IHH Humanitarian Foundation was raided under the name of Al-Qaeda investigation. Their efforts to create a negative perception off our foundation has led to the IHH office to be raided unlawfully. The trial is still continuing for those who were responsible for the unlawful raid. A formal announcement has been made to notify the public that IHH or any other humanitarian aid foundation, had nothing to do with the Van Chief Public Prosecutor operations.
In this process, local media outlets such as Hürriyet, Milliyet, Bugun, Yenicag, Yurt and Aydınlık were obliged to correct their misleading news reports. The disclaimer of the results of our applications were forced to be published as well. The studies conducted were not limited to the local media, especially after the Mavi Marmara the incident, international media outlets such as BBC, The Daily Telegraph, International Herald Tribune and New York Times had to correct and re-publish the misleading news they were publishing.
IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundations legal battle with the ill intended media organizations are still continuing. In 2014, 37 disclaimer texts were published in newspapers and many news reports were corrected by official organizations or the foundation itself. Within the scope of the legal battle, 17 criminal complaints were filed against authors and publishers responsible for the misleading news. Most of the investigations are still ongoing, 5 of our complaints have resulted in the preparation of an indictment and a public trial has been opened.
Regards to the public.
IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation
DISCLAIMER TEXTS
