AF/ATS: Kurdish journalist murdered

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: AF/ATS: Kurdish journalist murdered

/* Written  1:17 pm  Sep  7, 1992 by aforum at moose.uvm.edu in cdp:misc.activism. */
/* ---------- "AF/ATS: Kurdish journalist murdered" ---------- */
posted by: AF/ATS

11 August 1992

PRESS RELEASE

WRITER HUSEYIN DENIZ HAS NOW BEEN MURDERED TOO!

Gundem newspaper correspondent, writer and member of International
PEN, Huseyin Deniz, resident of Ceylanpinar (the Kurdish province
of Urfa) was subject to an armed attack two days ago and died
yesterday. He was shot in the head from behind at close range. He
died in hospital.

Huseyin Deniz has been working as a journalist in the Kurdish
region for the past ten years and also researched on folklore
there. Along with writing a column in our paper and working as a
correspondent he reported for the National News Agency and
Cumhuriyet newspaper and his work was frequently published in books
and research papers from his post in Ceylanpinar.

The attack was the third attack on Gundem personnel within the last
ten days. Last week, Diyarbakir/Gercus correspondent Yahya Orhan
was killed and after that our Diyarbakir correspondent Burhan
Karadeniz was the victim of an armed attack in which he was
seriously wounded.

What is the reason for this slaughter of journalists?

For the past 3 months our daily newspaper has drawn attention to
reports concerning state terror, abuses and torture in the Kurdish
region along with the operations of the contra-guerrillas. As with
the murder of our colleague Hafiz Akdemir two months ago, the
perpetrators have not been identified. Moreover, government
spokesmen have not even considered it necessary to denounce these
attacks upon our members of the press. This increases our
suspicions that the killers are being protected. The official
inquiry into the Huseyin Deniz case raises these further. After the
event, relatives of Deniz who informed our paper stated that a
vehicle belonging to the civilian police had been stationed outside
the Viransehir office of our correspondent for a considerable
period and that those who came and went had been under
surveillance. Only prior to this morning's attack, no police were
seen anywhere near the workplace. Eye witnesses said that two
unknown youths ran from the scene of the attack for no apparent
reason. 

We call upon all members of the press worldwide who seek to report
the truth to take a stand against this slaughter of Kurdish
journalist.

Hasan Bildirici
Gundem Editor in Chief


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