Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

April - June 2024: Activities and Developments on the Right to Conscientious Objection in Turkey

Newsletter of the Conscientious Objection Watch Initiative

(25.07.2024) This is Merve Arkun, Conscientious Objection Watch Coordinator. I am writing to inform you about the latest issue of the Conscientious Objection Bulletin, which we publish periodically. In the latest issue, you can find the experiences of conscientious objectors in Turkey between April-June 2024. In the period April-June 2024, conscientious objectors in Turkey were subjected to many rights violations and restrictions, from violations of the right to work to restrictions on freedom of movement. Below you can find a brief summary of Conscientious Objection Watch’s activities in April-June.

Advocacy Newsletter

June 2024

(22.07.2024) Friends, hello everyone! This is Artem Klyga from the Movement of Conscientious Objectors. The FSB, the Russian special service, is very eager to recruit conscripts into their service on their own. To do this, they are making changes to the bylaws. Starting in September, Russian schools will have a lesson with elements of military training, which could negatively affect conscientious objectors to military service. Good news from South Korea: they have granted asylum to the first conscientious objector from Russia. And some good news from Russia: we received some positive decisions from the Russian court. Enjoy reading!

Vitali Dvarashyn: The Story of how a Belarusian conscientious objector

Being caught in the millstones of two state systems in Lithuania and in Belarus

(16.07.2024) Some time ago, Lithuania claimed to be a safe democratic country, which in 2020 clearly declared its desire to save repressed Belarusians from the wrath of a mad dictator Alexander Lukashenko. But then it changed its mind. Vitali Dvarashyn is one of Belarusian conscientious objector to military service whom Lithuania decided to persecute and continues to hound, and it’s unclear how it will all end.

Mikita Sviryd: The story of a Belarusian deserter in Lithuania

Stuck between the threat of death penalty in Belarus and illegal refugee status in Lithuania

Mikita Sviryd, a Belarusan deserter who, when the war started in Ukraine, fled illegally to Lithuania because he was afraid that the Belarusan army would go to Ukraine to help Russia. Today Mikita is an illegal refugee, Lithuania has denied the young deserter political asylum. In Belarus, desertion can be punishable by death penalty. Today, he is desperate and expects nothing good in his future. What is for geopolitics the fate of one guy who at the age of 19 decided to give up being a soldier? #protection4Nikita