Ozgur Ulke Close Down! ACT NOW!!

[mchyet at lionheart.Berkeley.EDU]

From: Michael Chyet <mchyet at lionheart.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Ozgur Ulke Close Down! ACT NOW!!

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.

>Item Ends