Law student Ateşcan Ateş represented UK in Spain

ATEŞCAN Ateş, a successful law student born and raised in London participated in the ‘International Human Rights Oratory Competition’ organised by the European Law Bar Association Federation in Spain.

Ateşcan Ateş, the eldest son of a father from Sivas and a mother from Adana, is currently studying law at London Southbank University. Lawyers under the age of 35 and law students participated in the ‘International Human Rights Speech Contest’ held between September 2 and 3.  Ateş, who participated from London, made special statements to the Londra Gazete and gave information about the competition held in Bilbao, Spain.

Ateş, 20, made the following statement to the Londra Gazete: “Since I am the Law Society president of my university, I am aware of events such as law competitions, seminars and workshops that come to my university. This competition caught my attention and interest. The reason for this is; human rights is also a very important platform. I was more interested in the fact that the theme of the competition was “war crimes”; this subject had an important place…

“In the first stage, I took a 5-minute speech video under the title of ‘What are war crimes?’ and forwarded it to the commission. I was selected among the participants and made it to the final. Later, I stated that the Alevi massacres, especially the Dersim, Maraş and Sivas massacres, were war crimes. I prepared a text to explain that there are massacres committed by the hand and support of the state and that this is a war crime. Two people from South London Law Society and two people from Westminster & Holborn Law Society, four people and one of our assistants, we set off to Bilbao, Spain, representing UK, for the final. In the competition, in which different countries also participated, four people made it to the final, and a lawyer from Romania won the final by debating.”

Stating that he came fifth in the competition, Ateş added that this competition was an extraordinary experience within the scope of his personal experience and that he gained various friendships.

Ateş continued, “The other contestants who participated were graduated lawyers. I was the youngest and only law student of them all. In addition, it was very important and valuable for me as an Alevi to explain my path and the painful massacres on such a platform. Maybe I did not come first, but at the end of the competition, they said that the competitors did not know about Alevis, and those who did, had no knowledge of the massacres in such detail. For lawyers who have been fighting injustices in Turkey, I received an invitation to be an assistant ‘Trial Observation’ at a hearing to be held in November.”