Warnews from Turkey

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 Metin Goktepe: Inside and outside the courtroom

  _________________________________________________________________
  
 By Hasan Ustun / Turkish Daily News
 
Afyon - When I climbed over the police barricade placed in front of
those attending the trial in the case of journalist Metin Goktepe and
reached Ordu Street where the Afyon Courts of Justice are located.
Outside the Courts of Justice lawyers, journalists, international
observers and Metin Goktepe's family were waiting to be admitted and
greeting one another.

At 9.45, after a second head-to-foot police search, we were given
permission to enter the garden of the Courts of Justice. I passed
through the security cordon of soldiers to left and right, one facing
forward the next to the rear, and all with latest-model riot shields
in their hands. As I climbed to the top floor where the courtroom was
located, I took my own precaution. Before my automatic camera was
observed, I placed it in a large pocket of my waistcoat and closed the
zip. Leaving behind the slogans, "A free press cannot be silenced,"
and "Independent judiciary, democratic Turkey," which penetrated the
Courts of Justice through the rear windows and could be heard in the
corridors, I was able to cross the threshold of the courtroom at whose
door I had been turned back at the previous hearing.

To the left of the approximately 5 x 8 m. courtroom a cordon of
gendarmes was surrounding one sixth of the available space into which
the accused police would shortly be led. I had to sit crosslegged on
the floor in such a way as to make it impossible to get up again at
the feet of the gendarmerie.

When Judge Kamil Serif started the proceedings, it was a little after
10.00. By contrast with Nilgn Ucar who had presided over two hearings
of the case as Duty Judge during the official court holiday, and who
had been accused of biased behavior in ordering the arrest of four
more policemen and of taking instructions from her husband, the
authority of this male judge could be felt immediately. Because the
accused police were disturbed, permission was not even given to
observe proceedings from outside the door. (As the hours went on,
despite the suffocating atmosphere inside, the doors remained
completely closed.) At the previous hearing, some of the accused
police had used medical reports to avoid attendance, while those who
did attend contented themselves with stating that they were taking
advantage of their right to remain silent. At that hearing, it had
also not been easy for the judge to question the accused. Insistent
reminders by lawyers for Goktepe's family that the period for
questioning the accused had been completed at the previous hearing,
that they had used their right to remain silent and that for this
reason it was now necessary to move on to hearing the witnesses
produced no result. During this period of tension the words, "Your
Honour, are you legally representing the accused?" were heard. On
complaints by the accused's lawyers that these words were an insult to
the Court and should be entered as such in the written record, Judge
Kamil Serif went into action and established that they had come from
Metin Goktepe's brother Dervis. When he asked whether they were
directed towards the President of the Court personally or towards the
whole Court, the Judge received the answer, "Your Honor, I, too, am
using my right to remain silent!" and this brought a smile to all the
tense faces in the courtroom.

This time, of the eleven police accused who were all present without
exception, Saffet Hizarci, Fedai Korkmaz, Murat Polat, Metin Kusat,
Suayip Mutluer, Burhan Koc, Ilhan Sarioglu, Tuncay Uzun and Fikret
Kayacan, asserted that they stood by the statements they had
previously made at the First Criminal Court of Eyup, Istanbul, and
demanded their release. Seyidi Battal Kose and Selcuk Bayraktaroglu
alleged that their previous statements had been extracted from them
under pressure and threats from Civil Inspectors and for Assistant
Director of Security Sedat Demir and denied allegations that they had
killed Metin Goktepe.

The Judge asked the police officers, who had previously made
statements accusing one another, "Is the relationship between you of
friendship or of enmity?" This question was necessary to establish
whether the statements were genuine testimony or the result of some
personal rivalry. One by one the policemen gave the answer, "There is
no enmity between us. We are colleagues."

After a 15-minute break following the accused's statements, the
hearing began again. The usher shouted the names, "Deniz Ozcan, Hayati
Gungoren, Ilhan Ucar, Ali Ekber Palabiyik," loudly through the
corridors of the Courts of Justice and the garden, but nobody stepped
forward to say, "I am here." Because these witnesses were not present,
their identification of the accused could not be carried out. However,
despite the absence of the witnesses, the accused's lawyer's
insistently asserted that the decision to hear them should be revoked.
The lawyers' claim that, "Conditions for identification have been
removed," was based first on the claim that photographs taken at the
previous hearing had been published in a large number of newspapers in
Turkey and elsewhere and that this had brought them to a position
where everybody would recognize them. Secondly, the lawyers alleged,
the "past of persons bearing witness against the honorable Turkish
police" was very important. According to the lawyers, the witnesses
had been members of illegal organisations. One of them was even under
arrest for murder.

While lawyers for the family were insisting that the time to make such
protests was when the witnesses appeared in court, one of the lawyers
for the accused, Guzin Koprulu continued speaking despite the Judge's
warning to stop. Upon her statement that, "All the newspapers Metin
Goktepe worked for, especially Evrensel, were completely financed by
illegal leftist organisations," the lawyers for the family reacted
strongly, and demanded that these accusations, which had the character
of "slander", be entered in the record. The Judge had difficulty in
making his voice heard as he cried, "Be quiet! Speak one at a time!"
When the atmosphere calmed, one of the family lawyers, Hasan Huseyin
Evin, stated, "The accused are on trial here. Not Metin Goktepe and
the witnesses." Shortly after this, another defense lawyer increased
tension in the courtroom once again by alleging that Metin Goktepe's
murder had been brought forward to force the killing of Ozdemir
Sabanci off the public agenda. Lawyers for the family pointed out that
Metin Goktepe had been killed before industrialist Ozdemir Sabanci and
described this kind of statement as a delaying tactic.

As 1.00 p.m. approached, Judge Kamil Serif gave a few minutes' break
to allow him to reach his decisions, then listed these as follows:
Fedai Korkmaz, Murat Polat, Burhan Koc and Metin Kusat were released
because of the state of the evidence in their files; it was decided to
summon witnesses Deniz Ozcan, Hayati Gungoren, Ilhan Ucar and Ali
Ekber Palabiyik to identify the accused;the Civil Inspectors
(inspectors for the Interior Ministry) and the police who took the
accused's original statements were to be summoned as witnesses, and
the case was adjourned until October 1997.

After the hearing, I went to the square which has been nicknamed
"Metin Goktepe Square" by those following the trial. Even if the
hearing was over for the day, around 1000 people gathered here were
chanting, "The Metins are here, where are the killers?" In
explanations in the square made on behalf of the Contemporary Lawyers
Association and the Labor party, speakers reminded listeners that
police accused in the Susurluk case had been set free and that the
trial was faced with the danger of being suppressed, but that the
press and defenders of human rights would not allow a similar
development in the Metin Goktepe case and would continue to pursue his
killers until they were punished. Those who had arrived in about 20
buses promised that they would return on 9 October before dispersing
homewards.

"Those who burn people are defending human rights!"

Seeing the delegation of 30 overseas observers cross the police
barricade at "Metin Goktepe Square" and walk towards the courthouse, a
young policeman, about 20 years old, screwed up his face and told the
colleague beside him, "Those who burn people in their own countries
come here to defend human rights!"While they were waiting to enter the
courtroom, I had the opportunity of asking some of the foreign
observers what they thought of the above words and why they found the
Metin Goktepe trial important enough to come and observe it.

Professor Hans Reerink, Social Worker, began by saying, "I am very
interested in human rights all over the world." "Of course," he
continued, "these are questions of democracy. In our country I oppose
similar occurrences. Everybody who calls himself a democrat, a human
being, must oppose them. But the Metin Goktepe trial is an occurrence
not encountered in our country."

Prof. Reerink connected Metin Goktepe's death to the effort he had
expended for rights, freedoms and democracy. "Both the German and the
Turkish states are afraid of these things," he said. The German
Professor stated that the death of a journalist freely pursuing his
occupation was a negative situation for both Turkey and the world, but
that he believed justice would be done as Turkish intellectuals and
the media had adopted the case.

Klaus Peter Dillman, who had traveled from Germany to Afyon as the
representative of the Federation of Democratic Workers Associations,
said, "This case is the first in which Turkish policemen are on trial.
That is the important thing. It is in the Turkish government's
interest to finish this trial process as fast as possible, because it
is causing very great interest throughout the world."

Alain Calles, General Secretary of the MRAP organisation which works
against racism in France, also evaluated the Goktepe case as a symbol.
"Here we are witnessing the enforced relationship between power and
justice," he said. Alain Calles reported that he has spoken of his
observations in Turkey in meetings with the Foreign Minister in
France. In previous meetings, MRAP had reported to the French Foreign
Minister that Turkey had not carried out its responsibilities in the
matter of human rights.
  _________________________________________________________________
  
Third assault on police headquarters

  * DHKP-C militants once again have targeted Istanbul police
 headquarters with a LAW missile but hit their target this time
 either.
 
  _________________________________________________________________
  
 By Hakan Aslaneli / Turkish Daily News
 
Istanbul - The illegal Revolutionary Peoples' Liberation Party - Front
(DHKP-C) has carried out its third assault on what has become their
number one target, the Istanbul police headquarters in Aksaray.
Tuesday evening about 19:30 the assailants - it is thought there were
two - approached from the street next to the hospital across from the
headquarters building and where they climbed to the second floor of a
vacant building there. The organization's members then trained their
light anti-tank weapon (LAW), a rocket launcher, on the building but
were unable to achieve their goal because it fired too early.

The rocket had only gone one or two meters before it exploded in the
air. The attackers then fled leaving behind a surgeon's glove, the
weapon and the case which had held it.

The police headquarters was 500 meters away from the assailants'
weapon, which only has a range of 200 meters. Experts have not yet
been able to ascertain the goals of the organization's members since
even if the weapon were working normally it couldn't have reached its
target.

Police have now taken heavy security measures in order to protect
their headquarters' building, which has been attacked twice, first on
June 16 and then on July 14. The illegal DHKP-C also was responsible
for the attack on the Officers' Club at Harbiye. The police launched
an operation following this attack and arrested five people who were
shown to have planned the attack. The assailants are members of the
illegal organization are now in prison charged with the assault and
are being tried by the Istanbul State Security Court; the death
penalty has been requested.

  What is the aim?
  
Following the latest assault, anti-terrorism squads havemounted a
broad operation and have been searching everywhere, including the
roofs of houses. Experts say it is impossible for the rocket launcher,
LAW, to hit a target 500 meters away and are of the opinion that the
target might have been the petrol station which is just opposite the
building but nonetheless belongs to the police headquarters' grounds.

Ten minutes before the attack, Police Chief Hasan Ozdemir and his
deputies had been holding a meeting and officials say that the target
might have been this group.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
The Struggle for justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan
http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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