Ozgur Ulke Closed Down! ACT NOW!!

[aoturkey at gn.apc.org]

Ozgur Ulke Closed Down

Feb.4, 1995                                   aoturkey at gn.apc.org


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                     OZGUR ULKE CLOSED DOWN! 

         Turkey delivers new blow to freedom of expression
        Journalists fear extra-judicial killings may begin
                       

Action-On-Turkey/London                                                         


Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish daily Ozgur Ulke (Free Country)  was 
closed  down  on Friday and banned from further publication.  The 
closure followed months of official persecution directed  at  the 
paper in the form of bombings,  assassinations,  confiscation and 
kidnapping of  reporters  and  editorial  personnel.  Journalists 
working for the newspaper now fear they may be marked for further 
extra-judicial    killings   and   call   upon   colleagues   and 
international organizations to take URGENT ACTION in  support  of 
their guaranteed right to life and to collect, express and impart 
information. 

Friday's  verdict  for  closure was passed by an Istanbul Justice 
Court in line with a decision of the  National  Security  Council 
Coordination  Board  taken  on  Jan.5,  1995,  to "eliminate" all 
dissident voices in Turkey "within the boundaries of law." 

"By closing down Ozgur Ulke,  the state has delivered  a  serious 
blow to the freedom of expression in Turkey and silenced the only 
remaining  opposition  voice,"  Baki  Karadeniz,  the newspaper's 
editor-in-chief,  said Saturday.  The newspaper has been in print 
for  nine  months  and  was  openly  marked  as  a  target "to be 
eliminated" by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller in a secret decree she 
sent to relevant government offices on Nov.30, 1994.  Immediately 
after  the  decree,  on  Dec.3,  1994,  Ozgur  Ulke's  four-floor 
printing facility in Istanbul,  its editorial headquarters in the 
same  city,  and its main bureau in Ankara were blasted to pieces 
in a serial  bombing  campaign.  Following  this  attack,  police 
launched  raids  on  Ozgur Ulke offices in different parts of the 
country and as of January 6,  all issues of  the  newspaper  were 
seized  by  police  and  censored.  At  least five reporters were 
tortured by the police in  the  same  period.  In  the  words  of 
Karadeniz, "such ruthless censorship and persecution was not even 
witnessed after 1980, following the military coup." 

It  is  now  the basic duty of journalists and writers throughout 
the  world  and  international  organizations  working  on  human 
rights, press freedoms and the freedom of expression to: 

-Protest  immediately  the  closure of Ozgur Ulke in violation of 
international laws and agreements 

-Express concern for the safety  of  its  employees  and  monitor 
developments  related  to  them  

-Support any new initiative in Turkey and/or abroad to  resurrect 
Ozgur Ulke in any form 


SEND YOUR PROTEST/CONCERN MESSAGES TO RELATED TURKISH AUTHORITIES, 
    TURKISH PRESS ORGANIZATIONS AND TURKISH NEWSPAPERS NOW!


Background:

Friday's  closure  verdict was passed after the 1st Justice Court 
in Istanbul on Thursday issued a verdict effectively banning  the 
newspaper and ordering for the confiscation of all of its copies. 
Newspaper  attorneys said they had appealed against this sentence 
to a higher court on Friday but before any legal action could  be 
taken,  the 2nd Justice Court of the same city passed the closure 
decision. 
   
Unlike previous routine orders for seizure issued by  the  city's 
prosecutors  office,  both  verdicts were signed by judges of the 
Justice Courts,  which are practically the lowest level  judicial 
authority in such cases. They claimed that "according to evidence 
compiled  against  Ozgur  Ulke,"  it  was  determined  that  this 
newspaper was a continuation of the Ozgur  Gundem  (Free  Agenda) 
which was closed down by a State Security Court last year. 

Citing  that  24  separate  orders  for  closure  had been passed 
against Ozgur Gundem,  the verdicts signed  by  two  judges  said 
Ozgur  Ulke  operated  out  of the same facilities of the defunct 
newspaper,  that its telephone and fax  numbers  were  identical, 
that  102  of  its writers were the same and that the page layout 
and contents of reporting  and  cartoons  were  also  of  similar 
nature.  The  newspaper  was not invited,  before the verdict was 
passed, to make a defense. 

The court order concluded that under the evidence  obtained,  "it 
is  obvious that Ozgur Ulke is a continuation of Ozgur Gundem and 
under these circumstance, according to paragraph 2/2 of Press Law 
article 5680 it should be confiscated."  Policemen  relaying  the 
order  to  newspaper  executives said this effectively "outlawed" 
the publication  and  if  Ozgur  Ulke  continued  to  print,  its 
editorial board would be placed under immediate arrest.  Judicial 
authorities speaking to Ozgur Ulke  executives  said  they  would 
have  preferred  not  to  carry  out the order but that they were 
under "high level pressure" and feared that  if  they  failed  to 
close  the paper down,  it would be dealt with "in extra-judicial 
ways." 

Attorneys for Ozgur Ulke said Friday that the arbitrary nature of 
the verdicts had not even allowed time for a higher court to look 
into the issue whereas the closure order could have been returned 
if they were allowed to voice their defense. 
   
Further Persecution:

Friday's verdict comes after a massive  crackdown  against  Ozgur 
Ulke. 

On Nov.30, 1994, Prime Minister Ciller issued a secret decree (an 
authentic  copy  was  later  later  obtained and published in the 
Turkish press) for  the  "elimination"  of  the  newspaper  after 
which,  on  Dec.3,  1994,  its  four-story  printing facility and 
headquarters in Istanbul and its Ankara bureau were  bombed.  One 
person was killed and 18 others were injured in the explosions. 

Yet,  Ozgur  Ulke continued to print in other facilities.  In the 
first week of January 1995,  the National Security Council took a 
decision  to  "prevent  the  newspaper from print" but emphasized 
that this should be done "within the boundaries  of  law.  As  of 
Jan.6,   1995,   policemen   started  to  wait  outside  printing 
facilities to confiscate the paper as soon  as  it  was  printed. 
Copies  of  the  paper  were  then  taken to a Prosecutor working 
around the clock and "inspected." Undesirable items,  often  some 
three  to  four pages of the paper devoted to human rights,  were 
censored and it had to reprint with blank spots.  

In several cases, the same issue of the newspaper was re-censored 
three times,  each targeting a new report.  Meanwhile,  at  least 
five reporters were detained and tortured by the police while its 
Diyarbakir office and other offices were raided. Journalists were 
"kidnapped"  by  the  police and tortured.  Some were tortured to 
sign false "confessions" against the newspaper's editorial board! 

Ozgur Ulke and its alleged predecessor Ozgur Gundem have  been  a 
major  target  for  Turkish "censorship" often taking the form of 
violent attacks.  Prior to this recent "campaign," 20 Ozgur  Ulke 
reporters  and  distributors  were killed by "unidentified" death 
squads and four reporters were kidnapped.  The mutilated body  of 
one  of  the reporters was found weeks later after being tortured 
and shot.  At least 35 journalists and workers of  the  newspaper 
have been imprisoned and 238 issues have been seized.  The latest 
campaign, however,  is different in context and it was clear from 
the  very  beginning  that  it  aimed to close down the newspaper 
altogether. 

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