Pro-Kurdish paper published des

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: Pro-Kurdish paper published despite court order
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

---- Forwarded from : nyt at nyxfer.blythe.org (NY Transfer News Collective) ------


Pro-Kurdish paper published despite court order
By Aliza Marcus

    ISTANBUL, Feb 3 (Reuter) - Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish
newspaper hit the streets on Friday despite court orders to
confiscate copies for alleged separatist propaganda.
    The daily Ozgur Ulke's editor-in-chief Baki Karadeniz told
Reuters the court's decision on Thursday and again on Friday
opened the way for the paper to be shut down completely but
under Turkey's press laws this could not happen immediately.
    Karadeniz said the court's ruling was an attempt to silence
the newspaper -- whose staff complain of frequent harassment by
police -- because of its close coverage of the 10-year Kurdish
guerrilla war for control of southeast Turkey.
    ``Their aim right now is just to put as many obstacles in
our path and our readers' path,'' he said.
    The court's rulings were based on a decision that Ulke,
which started up last April, was a continuation of a previous
pro-Kurdish paper, Ozgur Gundem, closed down by the state
security court last April for separatist propaganda, according
to a copy faxed to Reuters.
    The court's rulings so far have been issued too late to stop
actual distribution of the newspaper, Mustafa Ayzit, a lawyer
for Ulke, told Reuters.
    ``They may be worried that if they shut the paper completely
international reaction will be harsh, so instead they try to
block it like this because it looks less harsh,'' he said.
    Turkey's human rights record is being watched closely by
Western countries, especially after the December sentencing of
eight Kurdish MPs to up to 15 years in prison largely on the
basis of statements critical of Turkey's Kurdish policies.
    Dismay over the sentencing, in addition to repeated
allegations of torture and forced evacuations of Kurdish
villages in the southeast, helped Greece veto a proposed customs
pact between Turkey and the European Union. The issue will be
discussed next month.
    The court's decision to confiscate Ulke was criticised by
the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
    ``Whether or not Ozgur Ulke is a successor of Ozgur Gundem
is not the issue,'' executive director William Orme said.
    ``The fact is that a newspaper has been ordered confiscated
because it disagrees with the government on a sensitive issue.
It is yet another example of how the Turkish government has
gotten tougher on the opposition press,'' he said.
    Over 100 writers, intellectuals, lawyers and trade unionists
are in prison in Turkey on charges of separatist propaganda
stemming from written or verbal statements contrary to official
Turkish views on the country's Kurdish minority.
 REUTER
Reut08:06 02-03

Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service

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