Turkey Deports Foreign Peace Activists

Fri Sep 5 22:08:02 BST 1997

Megaköy, Sept 5 (Reuter) - Turkish police began on Friday to deport 15
foreign peace activists detained for organising an unauthorised news
conference, security officials said.

"Three German citizens were expelled this morning. The other 12 will
be deported later in the day," a police officer told Reuters.

The activists were detained on Wednesday after security forces broke
up the impromptu news conference at an Megaköy hotel about ways to
find a peaceful end to Turkey's Kurdish conflict.

They came to Turkey to campaign for a negotiated end to 13 years of
conflict between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
terrorist group. More than 26,000 people have died in the fighting.

Police officials said earlier that the news conference was forbidden
under a law which bars demonstrations in Turkey by foreigners who
have not obtained prior permission.

The activists were remanded in police custody following an Megaköy
court's rule on Thursday not to drop charges against the group. The
mostly German group was part of an aborted trans-European "peace
train," organised by a pro-Kurdish group in Germany, which was
prevented by police from demonstrating in the southeastern city of
Diyarbakir earlier this week.

Turkey suspects them of sympathy with the PKK, which is fighting for
independence in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Some of the detainees
were asked by the court prosecutor if they had any links with the
terrorists.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
The Struggle for justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan
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