From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 3 21:55:18 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 03 Aug 1998 21:55:18 Subject: Turkish generals choose leader Message-ID: International News Electronic Telegraph Tuesday 4 August 1998 Issue 1166 Turkish generals choose leader By Amberin Zaman in Ankara TURKEY'S generals met yesterday to select their new chief of general staff. The choice of the successor to Gen Ismail Hakki Karadayi, widely tipped to be Gen Huseyin Kivrikoglu, the land forces commander, will dictate the future course of Turkish politics. The military is now more openly involved in running the country than at any time since 1980, when it seized power. Sources familiar with Gen Kivrikoglu, described as a brilliant strategist, dismiss speculation that under its new boss the military will assume a lower profile. The urbane, anglophile, nicknamed "Diplomat Pasha" because of his mild demeanour, is expected to step up the fight against Islamic radicals. The generals are believed to be preparing to dismiss more than 100 officers with radical Islamic ties, barely a month after 164 officers were sacked for similar reasons. The change of guard comes only days after the Turkish parliament voted to hold an early general election next April. The ruling minority coalition, led by Mesut Yilmaz, the conservative Prime Minister, had bowed to demands that he should step down by the end of this year. The demands were made by the pro-secular, Left-wing Republican People's Party. Its leader, Deniz Baykal, on whose support the government relies, accused the government of failing to curb the spread of political Islam. Confronted with the loss of his pious constituents on whom his Motherland party is heavily dependent, Mr Yilmaz has begun to drag his feet over anti-fundamentalist legislation. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 4 08:26:23 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 04 Aug 1998 08:26:23 Subject: Turkey/Kurtulus Number 90 July 18, 1998 Message-ID: Kurtulus Number 90 July 18, 1998 The victory in the Death Fast of 1996 was achieved with the politics of the DHKP-C and the martyrs. Final victory will also be achieved by following this path. Two years have passed since the Death Fast of 1996. The victory gained two years ago with 12 martyrs continues to show the way to drive the struggles forward on various fronts. This victory has historic significance, with its preliminary phase and the phase that came afterwards it plays a decisive role in determining what victory and defeat is and what separation and unity mean. Bourgeois ideology suffered a defeat. Victory was gained by revolutionary politics which rejected surrender, continued the struggle under all conditions, was not afraid that the struggle would result in victims and created traditions of forming and maintaining ties to the people and the revolution and the culture of readiness for self-sacrifice. Every kind of reformist and opportunist conception was removed from Marxist-Leninist culture. While the separation of reformism was experienced during the Death Fast itself, the splitting off of opportunism was essentially completed in the subsequent period. The results and influences of the Death Fast are too wide-ranging to be expressed by saying that some rights could be won or restricted in such and such a time and place. The victory has defined the two years since from different viewpoints. Victories extending into the future require broader shoulders capable of bearing them. Through negative or positive developments, the influence of the Death Fast has shown who and what unity achieved victory, how the subsequent phase is to be evaluated and who has the strength to go further with what has been achieved and who does not. The Death Fast is a political and ideological victory more than anything else. In the political sense it brought all the enemy's political calculations to nought and halted his policy of aggression. In the ideological sense it unmasked the egoistic culture of the bourgeoisie, its anti-popular policy and its fascist face and opened the way for the people to take their place in the ranks of the revolution. The meaning of the remark "in their brains a quake was unleashed and the world was turned upside down" lies in this ideological victory. An ideological victory which destroyed the lack of conviction of those who said "it is not worthwhile to die for an ideology", the revolution was made concrete before the eyes of the people, a personality was displayed and the people's hate for the system was deepened, and a political left which could never go forward from abstract unity achieved at a negotiating table, united in an action which grew in significance because of the deaths. This remark was made right after the victory: "Besides having the function of a barricade against the attacks of the bourgeoisie, besides achieving rights for prisoners, besides unmasking the fascist face of the Refah Party, its real function was to deliver a heavy blow to the lack of conviction and pessimism that the bourgeoisie encourages. The real gain from this resistance is the victory in ideological struggle with the bourgeois ideology, the moral superiority. The superiority of the Marxist-Leninist ideology over bourgeois ideology was proved yet again." (M. Ali Baran, Kurtulus, August 3, 1996) The world and the country was shaken to its foundations, and everyone was shocked. This struggle with death showed everyone their place, whether positive or negative. Once more it was proved that the revolutionaries and the people cannot be defeated. The Death Fast was a struggle of two ideologies, two wills which gave ideology its direction: The bourgeoisie had said there is no longer an ideology worth dying for. The revolutionaries declared and proved that there are values and ideologies for which one dies. The bourgeoisie raised egoism and self-interest to the level of a principle. The revolutionaries strengthened sharing, collectivism, offered a major example of readiness for self-sacrifice and showed the people the growing power of their values. The bourgeoisie divides the people and stirs them up against each other. On the other hand, the fighters of the Death Fast, of Kurdish, Turkish, Arab, Cherkess and Georgian origin amongst others, united the people, organised them and showed the fraternity and solidarity of the peoples. The bourgeoisie treats dishonour, greed for money, and every kind of swindling as though these are virtues. The Death Fast and its fighters, in contrast, strengthen honour and dignity and treat people with respect. In the period of the Death Fast the politics were clearly shown through which the revolution can be achieved and through which the revolutionary cadres who have the leadership in the liberation struggle can hold on to it. Leadership, as politics and as cadres, crystallised in such a way that they can be seen by very broad masses. Broad masses of people were given the possibility of comparing parties, leaders and politics. At the same time, the scale of the victory placed a heavy load of responsibility on those who won the victory. The actual significance of the victory, the ideological and moral superiority should be concretised in the struggle and the unity of the people. If the political results created in the Death Fast are not transformed into political practice afterwards, the attacks by fascism, which is again trying to win ideological and moral superiority, cannot be opposed. Then the victory is restricted to one of having simply beaten off the attacks that went on back then and the historic mission of the Death Fast cannot be fulfilled. War permits no pause for breath. Nor does it permit one to squander an inheritance. It is impossible to develop and organise oneself by basing oneself on a victory one has not achieved for oneself. These are the rules, these are the realities of war. If we look at the Death Fast of 1996 and the subsequent struggle from this viewpoint, we can clearly recognise that the Death Fast united people but the victory separated them. While the opportunist left together with the victory went into a stage of erosion and collapse, the Party-Front was legitimised in the eyes of the people and its mass power grew and it travelled an important distance along the road to taking power. Because opportunism restricted the victory to beating off the attacks of 1996 and the phase after it, and was preoccupied with thinking, "How can I put myself in the foreground?", because they only made propaganda from the victory and the martyrs, they overturned the line that had actually achieved the victory. Instead of an analysis of what kind of period had been lived through in the prisons up to victory, all they did was engage in sterile agitation. Instead of a joint struggle, instead of decisiveness, instead of going over to the attack, instead of forcing the legitimacy of the revolution on the bourgeoisie and the necessity of serving the masses, they preferred to put their own narrow group interests to the fore. The victory was not used to organise the people but rather to advertise their own groups. This went so far that the left did not fear destroying the unity of the left and the people. The unity achieved in the prisons showed that a unity of revolutionary forces on the basis of a correct line can win. But a left which neither knows how to learn from the struggle nor from history was also incapable of learning from a struggle achieved with martyrs. With policies like splitting up unity into different areas, unity was eroded within two years. In this situation, the left which was opportunist, obsessed with advertising itself and only serving its own interests and which got itself into a cul-de-sac of pursuing an anti-Party-Front policy might as well have carried out the policy of attacks and marginalisation after the Death Fast themselves. This was what was experienced in the Susurluk period. Without displaying any far-sightedness and influenced by hostility to the Party-Front, an important phase was not analysed from the viewpoint of people's unity. Nothing came of the unity. Without even trying to destroy the politics of the MGK (National Security Council) which was trying to create a clash between Sharia (Islamic law) and secularism in an effort to integrate the people in the system, the MGK left and the reformists united on the basis of being against the Party-Front. Conforming with the system was promoted. Those who feared that they would slip into obscurity, who were afraid they would disappear or erode if they acted together with the Party-Front found that their fears were justified when they took a position against the Party-Front. This behaviour of the left is not to be wondered at. The history of the opportunist left before the Death Fast already showed their attitude of being only interested in their own advantage and seeking self-advertisement and wanting to compete with others, while being hostile to the Party-Front and constantly deviating to the left or right. They were the ones who in 1984 had dismissed the Death Fast of that year as "suicide" and "political murder". Nor was that all. When in the 1990s the fighters of the Party-Front fell while pursuing the policy of not capitulating, others designated this policy as "thirsting for confrontation" and preferred to stand apart from the struggle. Nor was their participation in 1996 the result of a serious analysis of the period. However, conditions were very different from the period earlier in 1984. The form of resistance they had formerly shunned was on everybody's agenda, everything was obvious to the people, the thick prison walls might just as well have been of glass. There was no haven the opportunists could seek refuge in. Nobody could propagate theories of "retreat" any longer. Moreover, they had seen the outcome of the Death Fast of 1984 which they had criticised and they realised that they would not profit from opposing such a major resistance and did not want to be outside it. So on the one hand their participation was positive: they did not want to be outsiders. On the other hand they showed ideological formlessness by by not making an analysis and self-criticism over the past. Ultimately, they were responding to the influence and proposals of the Party-Front and the ideology it created in the action they took. They gave martyrs. This is undoubted, in the same way that for every political movement there must be a basis from which strength can be gained in the fight for power. But they persisted in their errors and this prevented them from analysing this basis correctly and making use of it. So after the victory they started to fall behind. Reformism is afraid of victory because the Death Fast concretised the revolutionary alternative The reformists, in other words the current MGK left, were another circle who split off because of the victory. While the revolutionaries headed off to death to beat off the attacks and summon the people to struggle, the reformists, especially the ?DP (Freedom and Solidarity Party) and the EP (Labour Party, today EMEP, Party of Labour ) locked themselves in in their buildings to ward off the attacks of the MGK. While the people were exposed to attacks, these groups renewed their preferred game of calling for "fresh elections". Their minds had surrendered to the system and they could not believe that such mass heroism was possible. When actions grew bigger, and they were in danger of losing their mask, they called for a truce and thus de facto they supported the efforts fascism was making. Only in the final days did they try to do something, and this was because they were forced to. In spite of everything, the victory astonished them. They victory shook their way of life, the system and their status quo among the people. In a panic about the danger to the status quo, they attacked the victory. They were aware of its role in separating the people from the system and drawing them into armed struggle. These groups went over to the side of the enemy in order to stop growing participation in the struggle and the armed struggle and to block the channels leading the people to revolution. Against the development of the armed struggle and the people's movement they put themselves under the orders of the MGK. They betrayed the people by obeying the MGK in the Susurluk period and on May Day in 1997 and 1998. Yes, the victory has brought some together and separated others. While opportunism, which is losing influence as a result of its declining strength, was uniting, reformism became more and more part of the system. Moreover, it could be seen how both were united against the initiatives and mass support of the Party-Front, above all in the neighbourhoods and workplaces. Both fell well behind the point they were at before the Death Fast, opportunism because the victory overwhelmed it, and reformism because it was afraid of it. In this situation, without an analysis of the past and self-criticism it is obvious that they will fall even further behind. The Death Fast victory is continuing to show the way. Since opportunism and reformism cannot, it continues to show the people and Party the way to achieve power. The Party-Front will march along this road. Victory means power. Every victory means a step on the road to final victory. If there is deviation from the line that achieved these victories, those that have been gained will be betrayed and more importantly, the chance for final victory will be lost. Every one of our martyrs in the Death Fast is hope for the people, a source of fear for the enemy and a road sign for the comrades. A condition for continuing the struggle is to create new cadres every day and increase their number, for they will lead the revolution to victory. It is the task of the Party-Front to continue to be fighters of the Death Fast, to give the people hope and cause fear among the enemy. The DHKP-C means victory. The leadership, ideology, cadres and fighters of the DHKP-C are the guarantee of victory. The DHKP-C continues to show the way to victory, going forward along the line created by the victories. It continues its march along the road to final victory. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Wed Aug 5 12:10:26 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 05 Aug 1998 12:10:26 Subject: Kurtulus: Amnesty Discussion in Turkey Message-ID: Kurtulus Number 91, July 25, 1998 Freedom for all revolutionary prisoners, social prisoners and convicts Once again the "amnesty" discussion is on the agenda. In the view of the ANASOL-D government (translator's note: a coalition of the Anavatan or Motherland Party, the Demokratik Sol Partisi or Democratic Left Party, and the DTP or Democratic Turkey Party. Anavatan and the DTP are rightist, while the DSP is "left-wing" but in practice also rightist), conditions are favourable for proclaiming a general amnesty. One of the most important reasons for that is the interest that millions of people in our land have in the release of almost 60,000 social prisoners and convicts. It did not take long for the people to lose confidence in the ANASOL-D government which had come to power so noisily. Despite all its efforts to dull the people's consciousness, it inevitably shared the same fate as the governments before it. Within a year, its political prestige has dwindled to nothing. It is no wonder that from the viewpoint of the oligarchy, bringing a general amnesty on the agenda has become a topic for discussion. In a period in which social crisis has reached a critical point and the political crisis of the oligarchy has deepened, they are now talking of declaring a general amnesty... At the moment in our country there are about 45,000 social prisoners and convicts and about 18,000 revolutionary and patriotic prisoners. 13,000 people have been jailed or placed in investigative detention for murder, 16,000 for theft or robbery and 4,000 for rape or for acting as pimps. The system does not abolish the reasons for these crimes but promotes them at the same time, for through the conditions it makes our people live under it actually forces them to commit those crimes. In other words, the responsibility for people being in jail rests with an unjust system which condemns people to hunger, misery and dishonour. The social prisoners and convicts are in jail because the system has denied them the right to live like human beings, by driving them to murder, living off immoral earnings and theft. On the other hand, the revolutionary prisoners are in jail because they fought against this system, against injustice. The injustice is obvious to everybody. Nobody expects justice any more from this system. If the oligarchy is wanting to talk about an amnesty at the moment, it is because it wants to temporarily put an end to the people's lack of trust in all the institutions of the state, to alleviate the crisis and defuse it. This is the reason for talking about amnesty and about "social peace". The depth of the social crisis the oligarchy is in explains this. While those who rob the people of trillions of lira through embezzlement go free in court, those who steal bread because of hunger go to jail. On the other hand enemies of the people like torturers and murderers are declared to be "state heroes" and are acquitted. Justice is the justice of those who have money, it is ruling class justice. For poor people and workers there is no justice. All responsibility for this injustice rests with the exploitative and oppressive system. While the ANASOL-D government talks of a general amnesty, it stresses that the reasons are not political but "human" for putting this on the agenda. So were there no "human" reasons in the past? Have they become conscious of "humanity" today?... The people in charge of a system which has abolished life worthy of human dignity never act for "human" motives. The "human" reasons they speak of are nothing other than their own interests and all their talk is nothing other than demagogy... Their only concern is keeping the system on its feet. This system with its institutions is corrupt and unjust. The people expect nothing more from parliament, the system parties and politicians. It is this reality that the rulers fear, which forces them to go for short-term success through various stratagems. Broad sections of the bourgeoisie know this reality and in despair are searching for solutions to save the system from collapse. An example... Heper Dogan wrote in Milliyet on July 22 this year that "Today in Turkey the man or woman in the street complains of injustice. The judicial system, the guarantor of a state ruled by justice, is bankrupt. It is no joke: perhaps for the first time in Turkey, they have privatised the judicial institutions. Instead of courts, people are turning to contract killers... And the 'state ruled by justice' is mentioned in the first paragraphs of the constitution. It is like mere window dressing." Precisely, these lines by Heper Dogan mention certain facts. But he describes the reason for the problems as being a lack of foresight by the rulers and sees the solutions as lying within the system. This is the view he puts before his readers... The actual intention of the rulers is to keep the system going. So they want to make the people believe that solutions are possible within the system. Whatever is said, the source of injustice is not the lack of foresight of the rulers but the exploitative and oppressive system itself. This system stays in power through oppressing and exploiting the people. Wherever there is exploitation and oppression, there can be no justice... ANAP and the DSP merely talk of an amnesty for social prisoners and convicts. The bourgeois media too are scribbling away on this theme until their wrists ache. One of the sore points is how far the amnesty is to go... In other words whether the revolutionary prisoners should be included in it or not... Some bourgeois circles are of the opinion that "terrorists" should not be subject to an amnesty, while others have the opinion that in the name of "social peace and understanding" all prisoners should come under the amnesty... While the bourgeoisie goes deeper into such discussions, at the same time they also try to influence the consciousness of the people in directions favoured by them. By asking how far the amnesty should go they are trying to portray revolutionaries as guilty... The revolutionary prisoners want no amnesty from anyone. Only the guilty ask for amnesty. They are not guilty. Thousands have fallen or been taken prisoner in the fight against oppression and exploitation, against this unjust system. Their struggle is the struggle for independence, democracy and socialism. All of them are soldiers in this war. Their struggle is just and legitimate. It is the fight to drive imperialism from our land, to overthrow the exploitative, oppressive and collaborationist oligarchy. It is imperialism and the oligarchy who are guilty before the people, along with all their henchmen and lackeys. There can be no amnesty from the oligarchy for revolutionaries... While the bourgeoisie conducts a discussion about a general amnesty, there are also those who call for a "general amnesty without discrimination". They call themselves progressive, democratic and socialist. While they say that "thought crimes" do not count as "terrorism", they talk the language of the bourgeoisie. In this way they try to show that they are not fighting to overthrow the system and are acting within the limits set by the bourgeoisie. While they raise the issue of differentiation, they ask for amnesty for themselves... These are the demands and the behaviour of reformists and of circles seeking conciliation. The revolutionaries fighting imperialism and the oligarchy are seeking amnesty from no-one. Only those who have turned their back on revolution are begging for amnesty and clemency. Their words of struggle are for a struggle inside the system, so it is not surprising that they seek clemency from the bourgeoisie... The discussions of the bourgeoisie and those who act under bourgeois influence are confusing the consciousness of the people. The revolutionaries on the other hand stress their own legitimacy and the legitimacy of their struggle. There is no other way to achieve a life without exploitation, a life of justice and humanity, other than through resolutely continuing the struggle of the people against imperialism and oligarchy and for setting up people's power. That is why the revolutionaries seek an amnesty from no-one... It is revolutionary behaviour to raise the demand for the unconditional and immediate release of all prisoners and to make this the demand of broad sections of the people. And at the same time to demand the release of all social prisoners and convicts. To raise the demand for the arrest and punishment of all torturers, contra-guerrilla bands and fascists. It is revolutionary behaviour to place no hopes in the bourgeoisie, to defend the rightfulness and legitimacy of the revolutionaries and to make this the demand of broad sections of the people, expanding the struggle... Freedom for all revolutionary and social prisoners and convicts! Immediate and unconditional release of all revolutionary prisoners! Immediate arrest and punishment of all torturers, contra-guerrilla bands and fascists! http://www.ozgurluk.org/kurtulus -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Thu Aug 6 04:10:32 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 06 Aug 1998 04:10:32 Subject: Turkey/Kurtulus on Cyprus Message-ID: http://www.ozgurluk.org/kurtulus Kurtulus, Number 92, August 1, 1998 Cyprus, imperialism's island which never sinks and a stronghold of the oligarchy >From occupation to annexation? Who will solve the problem? These days Cyprus is going through the 24th anniversary of the "intervention for peace" of July 20, 1974, whose name evokes memories of tension and a crisis which has not been out of the headlines for some time. These include the S-300 missile crisis, the opening of a military base in Baf, news about the closure of gambling dens and the opening of new ones on Cyprus and finally the first visit by a prime minister of Turkey to Cyprus 24 years after the occupation of part of the island. >From UN representatives to US presidents and the governments of Turkey and Greece, right on to the speokesmen of Turkey and Greece on the Cyprus question, there has been much talk of "solutions for Cyprus", "justified hopes" etc. Those who are actually causing the problem are the ones trying to solve it. But nothing is being resolved anywhere, on the contrary, problems are constantly being aggravated and are continually plumbing new depths. >From occupation to annexation A phase has started in which the bourgeois media write headlines like "a historic step involving the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", or "we are firm with regard to Cyprus", or other ways are expressed in which it is clear that plans are afoot to annex Cyprus. This is going so far that it is no longer necessary to dial internationally to make a phone call to Cyprus from Turkey. How will this phase develop? Will Cyprus become the 80th or so province of Turkey? Or will it develop into an independent state? It is not actually possible to come up with an answer to this question from the latest developments. The reason for this uncertainty comes from observing just how the "discussion of the Cyprus question" is proceeding. That the discussions about the Cyprus question are largely empty and artificial is confirmed even by the undoubtedly fascist and chauvinist writer Rauf Temer, who called these discussions hackneyed and artificial, discussions which were heated up and served anew every year. Cyprus is a pawn in the oligarchy's game, a pawn which is pushed back and forth in chess games with the USA, the European Union and Greece. So if the pawn is pushed forward, this is of no significance. Even if the oligarchy's mouthpieces talk again and again about "unification", it is not really possible to do this in opposition to imperialism. On the other hand, an apparently independent Cyprus suits the oligarchy better. The superficially independent island serves the oligarchy as a contra-guerrilla stronghold and as a paradise for illegal financial transactions. The Cyprus of the Susurluk state The Susurluk state's ties with Cyprus through casinos are becoming increasingly obvious. Just after the Susurluk accident, the intermeshing of contra-guerrillas and the casinos came to light. Well-known figures in the Susurluk state like Mehmet Agar (former police chief, justice minister and finally interior minister of Turkey, who had to resign after Susurluk), Necdet Menzir (former police chief), Orhan Tasanlar (former police chief of Ankara, later on Istanbul, and now a member of parliament for Bursa), Mesut Yilmaz (current prime minister of Turkey), Sedat Bucak (member of parliament in the DYP or True Path Party, one of the ruling parties at the time of the Susurluk accident, in which he himself was injured) and Tarik ?mit (mafia chief on the wanted list), all were heavily involved with the casinos or else moved in the same circles as others who were. The contra-guerrillas launder money in banks and casinos in Cyprus and dredge up new resources for contra-guerrilla operations and for those who carry them out. It even became known that Mehmet Agar's driver and the wife of Tarik ?mit were among the owners of a Cyprus bank. But contra-guerrilla activities in Cyprus are by no means restricted to the laundering of dirty money. The island is used as a base for civil fascists. Also on Cyprus there are plots and chauvinist attacks, even "murders by persons unknown" have been carried out there against revolutionaries and democrats opposed to the system. An example of these attacks was the murder of the democratic journalist Kutlu Adali who was investigating contra-guerrilla activities on the island. At the moment efforts are being made to turn Cyprus into a centre of gambling dens while casinos that have been closed down in Turkey are being moved to Cyprus. There are no less than 19 casinos for the 150,000 inhabitants of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and 11 of them are owned by citizens of the Republic of Turkey. >From the "island of pirates" of the Ottoman Empire to the "contra-guerrilla island" of the oligarchy Cyprus was occupied and plundered numerous times in its history. Rulers of Assyrian, Mycenean, Egyptian, Persian and Roman origin all took turns running the island. The strategic importance of the island for trade in the Mediterranean caused all destructive and plundering states to cast greedy eyes on Cyprus. So Cyprus fell into the hands of the Arabs and the English, and for a time it was even ruled by a king of Palestine who had been overthrown. In the 13th century it was ruled by Venice and about two centuries later it was occupied by the Ottomans. The island's Turkish population dates back to this period of Ottoman occupation. The 20,000 Ottoman soldiers sent to the island at the time constituted the advance guard of the Turks on Cyprus. The Ottomans used the island as a base for their pirates who launched attacks as far as the Middle East, North Africa and Europe while trying to turn the Mediterranean into an Ottoman sea. Three centuries of Ottoman rule ended when Cyprus passed to the control of England. This was in 1878. The Ottoman state was crumbling away. The English sought to profit from the situation which arose from the high indemnities the Ottomans had to pay to their opponent in the recent war, Russia, after signing the Treaty of San Stefano (today Yesilk?y near Istanbul). As surety for guaranteeing Ottoman territory in Asia, the English demanded the use of Cyprus as a base. They were granted suzerainty over the island, but when the First World War broke out suzerainty was transformed into complete control. After the Second World War the current problems of Cyprus arose. After the war, all the balances in the world shifted. The peoples of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe fought and defeated fascism, struggles against imperialism all over the world were on the rise and socialism's prestige was high. The liberation struggles of the Arab peoples in the Middle East shook French and British imperialism to their roots. Middle Eastern oil grew more important and imperialism gazed hungrily on the region. In this situation there was talk of an independent Cyprus. Cyprus came onto our country's agenda in the 1950s, at the same time as neo-colonial relations with imperialism developed. The Democratic Party (DP) was in power. Sedat Semavi used the headline "Cyprus is Turkish" in his newspaper H?rriyet as the start of a campaign to whip up chauvinism and turn attention to Cyprus. The timing was interesting: at that point Greece was supporting the right of self-determination for the peoples on the island. On the other hand, imperialism was founding bases in various parts of the world to ward off socialism. And imperialism needed Cyprus in the strategically important Mediterranean. Recognising the right to self-determination, resulting in independence, would have taken the island out of imperialist hands, at least to some extent. So it was suddenly remembered that there were two peoples on the island and Turkey put itself forward as the protector of the Turks living on the island. In this way imperialism sowed enmity between the two peoples and in dividing the island it implemented the well-known policy of "divide and rule". Dividing it two ways was not enough, imperialism also sought to divide the Greek people. On the one side were forces who wanted an independent Cyprus to protect the island from neo-colonialism. These circles, the fairly strong communist party AKEL, other left-wing groups and the Orthodox Church, represented the actual wishes of the people. On the other side was the fascist EOKA, which wanted a "greater Greece" and supported "enosis" or union with Greece. Under the leadership of Archbishop Makarios the first group defended the unity and independence of Cyprus while the Greek fascists under Grivas made the blood of both Turks and Greeks flow as a result of their armed actions. At the international level there were the independent and socialist countries who defended the peoples' right to self-determination, and there were the NATO countries who wanted to make Cyprus a base for waging war. One of the "1,000 operations": the events of September 6 and 7, 1957 While the Cyprus question was being discussed at international level, imperialism sought to find its own solution. It was concerned by involvement in the Middle East and the approaches by the Arab peoples to the peoples of Cyprus were worrying developments for imperialism. So a conference was held in London in which Greece and Turkey were represented, but it ended without result. Then Turks from Cyprus held a protest demonstration in London. Two days later there were banner headlines in the Istanbul Express newspaper that there had been a bomb attack on the house in Salonika, Greece where Atat?rk was born. Istanbul was turned upside down. The "Cyprus is Turkish" association held a mass demonstration in Taksim Square in Istanbul. Before long the demonstration turned into an attack on ethnic minorities living in Istanbul. Tens of thousands of people surrounded and destroyed the shops, houses, places of worship and cemeteries of minorities, starting in Istanbul's Beyoglu district and spreading elsewhere. Later it came to light that a member of Turkey's national intelligence service had carried out the bomb attack. Parliament did not even consider it necessary to investigate the brutal attacks on minorities and covered up the events. It used the opportunity to declare a state of emergency in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir and censored the press. The events on September 6 and 7, 1957 are a typical example of contra-guerrilla operations. Hostility among the peoples is sown through this and similar actions like the one later in Maras (1978). Besides, the wave of chauvinism also serves to prepare the way for attacks on the revolutionary movement in the country. Imperialism whips up the "Cyprus question" From now on, imperialism concentrated more heavily on Cyprus. It did not scruple to use every kind of provocation and massacre. At the same time it persisted in trying to have a state on Cyprus that it could control. All the contra-guerrilla methods served this end. For this purpose various conferences were organised and treaties signed. While England, Greece and Turkey received the right to intervene in Cyprus, the island's right to independence was obstructed. Particularly in the 1960s, pro-independence views worried imperialism. So it supported chauvinist policies in Cyprus and aided attacks by EOKA. At the same time it secretly egged on Turkey to make threats to intervene in Cyprus. Cyprus has become an important base serving imperialism's interests in the Middle East. The tension in Cyprus gave legitimacy to imperialism's military presence in the region. Imperialism the main enemy of the peoples While the Cyprus crisis was rumbling on, a fascist junta took power in Greece on April 21, 1967. Just like the junta in our country it was under the leadership of the CIA. For the people of Greece it was the start of seven years of torture, arrests and massacres. The officers of the junta did nothing but seek to destroy any friendship between the peoples and uphold the domination of imperialism. The repression and the policies of the junta made problems in the eastern Mediterranean escalate. The colonels' regime gave General Grivas in Cyprus full authority to act without any need to consult the Greek government in Cyprus. Through this directive, which ultimately stemmed from US imperialism, the Greek dictatorship was successful in turning the Greek and Turkish people in Cyprus against each other. One massacre followed after another. Under these conditions, the armed forces of Turkey intervened on July 20 and 24, 1974 under the slogan "Intervention for Peace", and this ended with military occupation. The occupation of Cyprus by the troops from Turkey was one of the factors which contributed to the collapse of the junta in Greece, because the Cyprus policy of the Greek junta had been shown to be bankrupt. But of course this was not the reason why Turkey intervened in Cyprus! On the contrary, the rulers of Turkey and Greece worked hand in hand to prevent progressive developments which contributed to the achievement of independence. Now half the island was under military occupation. The massacres carried out in the name of an "intervention for peace" poisoned relations between the two peoples almost past the point of no return. After the occupation the island was turned more and more into a contra-guerrilla base. So , for example, the central units of the contra-guerrilla ?zel Harp Dairesi (Turkish: Special Warfare Department) were trained in Cyprus. Henchmen of imperialism like the generals Orhan Kilercioglu, Sabri Yirmibesoglu (a well-known contra-guerrilla theorist) and Kenan Evren (later on the leading figure in Turkey's 1980 military coup) all directed contra-guerrilla activities personally while training in Cyprus. Imperialism could comfortably use the Susurluk state as gendarmes against the peoples of the Middle East through the contra-guerrilla activities in Cyprus. In this regard it offered help. The Susurluk state could use the island for its drug trafficking which could no longer be concealed. Cyprus is one of the staging posts through which narcotics reach Europe from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cyprus as a tool of internal politics The governments of both Greece and Turkey are past masters at diverting attention towards artificially created "problems" whenever they themselves are in difficulty. Especially in periods when elections are looming, points are scored by putting Cyprus on the agenda. Hostility to other peoples is whipped up, and they are blamed for unemployment, hunger and misery to head off protests against imperialism and oligarchy. Another method is to use repression against the opposition in one's own land. A chauvinist mood is created through talk of crisis and war, and in this way economic and democratic demands by the people can be postponed or crushed underfoot. Those who stand for the rights of the people are denounced as traitors to the fatherland and thus neutralised. The oligarchies in Turkey and Greece use this tactic against the people on an ongoing basis. Cyprus is raw material for nationalist demagogy, a kind of aspirin the oligarchies in both countries take. Whenever they have a headache, inflammatory statements appear in the newspapers and the "crisis" starts to boil again like a kettle. The only solution is an independent, united and democratic Cyprus The Turkish and Greek people lived for centuries in harmony on Cyprus. Hostility began when the island was used by imperialism and by oligarchies. This is the most convincing proof of the need for an unremitting struggle against imperialism and in defence of fraternity among the peoples. Today the Turkish and Greek people are seriously prejudiced against each other, but these prejudices are not so strong that they cannot be overcome. A joint struggle is the basis for overcoming them. Turkish revolutionaries defend the independence of the island against imperialism and its unity based on the free will of its peoples. The second part of the People's Constitution deals with this subject. Under the heading "National independence and the fraternity of the peoples are indispensible principles for the Republic", the following is written: "Article 8: We keep our distance from all policies which cause aggression in international relations or are likely to stir up hostility between the peoples and threaten internal and external peace. Our basis is a policy which furthers the fraternity, friendship and solidarity of the peoples. "With all countries, starting with neighbouring ones, we will develop ties based on equality, respect and friendship, which serve the interests of our country and theirs. "Article 9: We keep our distance from views which produce or stir up hostility between the peoples of Turkey and Greece. The basis of this is seeking a life of fraternity and friendship. "Article 10: A basis for an independent and democratic Cyprus in which the Turkish and Greek people can live together in fraternity is to be promoted. A solution to the Cyprus question is to be striven for on the basis the peoples' right to self-determination." The liberation of all the peoples in our region depends on putting an end to the influence of imperialism. The struggle going on under the leadership of the Front against imperialism and oligarchy is the struggle of the Armenian, Greek, Laz, Cherkess, Arab, Turkish and Kurdish people, the struggle of all the people in the region. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 7 07:58:28 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Aug 1998 07:58:28 Subject: ]Human Rights Violations In Turkey: June 1998 Message-ID: Subject: Human Rights Violations In Turkey: June 1998 Human Rights Association (IHD) Balance Of Human Rights Violations In Turkey/Kurdistan For June 1998 Attacks and murders by "unknown assailants" 10 dead Deaths through torture in police custody 9 Deaths in military clashes 194 Attacks on civilians 25 dead, 21 wounded Persons "disappeared" in police custody 7 Registered cases of torture 33 Depopulated villages and hamlets 5 Attacks on prisoners 14 wounded Bomb attacks 14 Associations, parties, publications banned 22 Attacks and raids on similar institutions 8 Confiscated publications 26 Prisoners of conscience 135 (Translated by Arm The Spirit from 'Kurdistan-Rundbrief', No. 15, Vol. 11, - July 29, 1998) ---- For A Free And Independent Kurdistan! KURD-L Archives - http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 11 04:41:23 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 11 Aug 1998 04:41:23 Subject: The PKK where it is coming from and where it is going IV Message-ID: The PKK where it is coming from and where it is going Part 4 War and Peace "From the very first day up to the present our Party has made just one appeal. Peace, peace, peace... This appeal has been answered by expanding the scope of the war, and war was organised." (?. Yurtsever Genclik, November 1997, page 9) Peace, peace, peace... despite all statements about war, revolution, guerrillas and victory, everything is today focused on peace and negotiations. "The PKK wants peace, the Republic of Turkey does not and carries on the war." Again and again statements like this arise in different forms. It is obvious that these are not the statements of people who "want to fight throughout Turkey", who want to spread the war and who talk of revolution in Turkey. Those who constantly talk of peace cannot at the same time express such sentiments. The PKK makes statements like that on the one hand, and on the other it claims to stand for revolution, even revolution in Turkey. But in reality this claim is based on its past, its earlier theories and its guerrilla warfare. But this has no bearing on the current practice of the PKK. Currently the talk is chiefly of peace, dialogue and consensus. HOW DID THEY GO FROM WAR TO "PEACE"? "(...) The PKK is going through an impasse at the moment, despite its considerable political and military strength and its roots in the masses - as a result of its strategy and tactics which depend on a nationalist viewpoint. Instead of taking a critical look at this strategy and tactics and finding Marxist-Leninist solutions, it has tried to escape from this impasse by resorting to a policy of seeking a consensus with the oligarchy and imperialism. All its contemporary political and military actions are aimed at furthering this consensus. The PKK is trying to give this search for consensus a theoretical underpinning. (Decisions of the Founding Congress of the DHKP, "The Situation of the Kurdish National Movement and Our Attitude Towards It") The analysis given above expresses the position the PKK finds itself in today. The PKK certainly was more decisive from 1984, when it started guerrilla warfare and in the years 1986-87 when it pursued guerrilla warfare despite all the martyrs it suffered, than is the case at present. Especially after the guerrillas had reached a certain strength, the PKK set itself many tasks, ranging from setting up liberated zones to the creation of an independent Kurdistan. The PKK's drawback from the beginning was its nationalist viewpoint and the rejection of a class basis for its struggle, and its organising on a national basis. Since the aims it set itself were misguided, the alliances it entered into failed and it distanced itself more and more from Marxism-Leninism, and its politics, which did not meet the requirements of the war, have brought it into a political and military cul de sac. Since 1990 it has regressed. In the phase of the oligarchy's strengthened attacks around 1992, the PKK, instead of fulfilling the requirements of the war, began to look for solutions from imperialism and the oligarchy. In accordance with the policies of imperialism and the oligarchy it has taken onto its agenda "a cease-fire", even if only with the aim of arriving at a consensus. So as to be able to have a seat at the negotiating table it has made not spreading the war into a plank of its own policy. Only during the Gulf War was an "exception" made, for a short time. "A further disruption of the status quo, which in Kuwait was artificially created by other countries and is already tottering, will create the conditions for a great revolutionary development in this region. When the developments accelerate, the discontent among the populace will increase. This increase will tear at the present regime and put an end to it. The avalanche which came about as a result of the October Revolution, the Chinese Revolution and the revolution in Vietnam, can now appear in the Middle East as well." (Fourth Political Report by Abdullah ?calan, p.28) But even this "exception" was short-lived, as a result of the PKK's increased search for consensus and its policy of seeking peace. When this latest opportunity also slipped through its fingers, it no longer talked of the "great October revolution", or of "revolutions", "transitional governments" or "liberated zones", but instead nailed its colours more firmly to the mast of the "peace policy". In reality, the period since 1988-89 has been a period in which its prognoses have not been fulfilled. It is also clear how far-sighted this movement is when since the end of the 1980s it has designated "liberated zones" and "transitional governments" as short-term aims and expected an "October, China and Vietnam" revolution to develop from the Gulf Crisis. Instead of the PKK discussing this point and looking into why and on what basis its policies and tactics were not realised, it has almost altered its strategic line and developed a theory that the armed struggle has fulfilled its task and the stage is now set to engage in diplomacy. But in the statements by the PKK leadership made on every occasion and on a day-to-day basis, this is consciously concealed. So it tried to appear more warlike while actually going down the road of seeking peace, and it tries to appear revolutionary while in reality becoming more and more reformist. IS IT UNMASKING, TACTICS OR A "FINAL AIM", AND WHAT IS MEANT BY IT? The more vigorous the attacks by the oligarchy in this period, the more the PKK has gone backwards, and all the behaviour it has characterised as tactical has not allowed it to escape from its impasse, and it has not been able to realise aims like "strengthening and expanding the war", "increasing the number of guerrillas to 50,000", "achieving the October Revolution in the Middle East", "creating a transitional government in the region, initially based on Botan and Behtinan". In the end, it has gone from seeking these aims to seeking "peace". This condition is the failure of the national strategy, the theory of colonialism and the policy of seeking a cease-fire. Even if the PKK says "We know that the TR (Republic of Turkey) won't make peace, the Kemalists will not simply sit down at the negotiating table for peace talks. The TR is not going to make concessions just like that. But to push the TR into a corner we are unmasking it by calling for peace," all that does not correspond to reality. As in this quote, he policy of peace and seeking cease-fires is justified as an attempt to unmask, or as a tactic. But even if we remember Abdullah ?calan's statement that "politics consist of tactics anyway," it is clear that what we have here is not what we would understand as tactics. Moreover, there is no revolutionary logic to the statements cited above. Since the oligarchy in Turkey is a fascist one and carries out massacres, it does not have to be unmasked through a "peace offensive". This objective could also be achieved by expanding the war. Where the PKK sees it as inadequate to publicly confess to having a peace policy, it uses explanations like "unmasking" and "tactics". This is the other face of pragmatism. In reality all the indications are that the "peace policy" and the "consensus policy" are neither about unmasking nor about tactics but are a strategy and an absolute aim. This goes so far that the ruling classes' conflicts and disputes are being characterised as those between "hawks" and "doves". They have deviated from the path of trying to smash a thoroughly rotten state which is a war machine directed against the people. With the tactics they have suggested, they have developed solutions aimed at contributing to "saving" the decomposing state, and solving the oligarchy's problems. They have torn themselves apart in the attempt to show how much they are for a solution and for peace. WHOSE ARE THE PROBLEMS, AND WHICH SIDE'S PROBLEMS ARE TO BE RESOLVED BY PEACE? It is already the case that there is confusion as to whom the "peace" is for and whose problems will be resolved through its proposals. The Kurdish nationalists are seeking to convince the state how much "damage this war is doing to the state". They write about how much the "dirty war" is making a dent in the budget and correspondingly advise the oligarchy in Turkey to put an end to the "dirty war" in order to overcome its internal crisis. Whose side are we on? Whose problems are we seeking to resolve? "It does not look so simple for these circles to free themselves from the military's control, when they are so strongly dominated by the military and are only a kind of fig leaf for it, concerning themselves with fulfilling its economic and military demands. So the possibility of reaching consensus is a small one. But in the final analysis the military is also in difficulties. Revolutionary violence will be stepped up a little more in Turkey itself and cause them even further problems. Then a group can arise in the military which will support consensus. The signs of this can start to appear now. (Selected works of Abdullah ?calan, volume 6, p. 177) According to the PKK the "politicians" want to solve the problem through consensus. But the military is preventing it. (Although at the start of 1988 the PKK leader declared the contrary and said that the military wanted a solution but it was the civilians who were not ready for one. At that time he was saying the opposite from what he is saying now.) But if the PKK fights on, the military gets into difficulties and supporters of consensus appear on the scene. If the military is now in difficulties and can no longer pursue the war against the PKK, why is the PKK waiting for groups to arise which favour consensus? If the military is in trouble, why not spread the war even further and bring about the revolution? It does not because the PKK does not believe in achieving a result through armed struggle. For this reason it cannot - despite its declarations about the military and its problems - make the statement that the war should be expanded and the revolution brought about. On the contrary, it keeps talking of the pro-war "hawks" and the consensus-seeking "doves", it makes everything hinge on discovering them and expects the state to come round to agreeing on a consensus. "...The military must practice self-criticism. If it does not practice self-criticism in the coming period, then Turkey will have even more problems. ...What does all this mean. It means that the military is forced to prepare to reach a consensus. Chauvinism is very evident but it is of use to nobody. All it causes is the effusion of blood, bankrupts the state and throttles the exercise of politics. How long will the military carry on with that?" (Selected Works, volume 6, Abdullah ?calan, p. 178) The PKK has decided that the bankrupting of the state is a problem for itself, as is the throttling of the political system, and it is indicating to the oligarchy how it must resolve these problems. But those who fight for the revolution, for the liberation of the peoples, for people's power would in such a situation think of nothing other than aggravating the state's bankruptcy. For all these existing facts are proof of the existence of a revolutionary situation and the aim of the revolutionaries in such a situation is to bring about the revolution. These facts show clearly that PKK strategy is no longer based on the revolution but on peace and consensus with the oligarchy. So if they talk of peace and consensus and so on, they should stop seeking to deceive others by saying "it is only a tactic" or "we are unmasking them". WHAT IS THE STATE'S POINT OF VIEW? WHICH ATTITUDE IS BEING TAKEN TOWARDS THE STATE? The attitude a political movement takes towards the state shows us the clear criteria which define its characteristics. Even the man in the street has grasped the true face of the state and says quite clearly that the mask of the Susurluk state has long since fallen and that the state is alien, it tyrannises people, it belongs to people like Sabanci and Koc. When all left forces on today's political scene define the present state, they talk of the "oppressing classes' instrument for keeping down the oppressed classes..." Such a theoretical definition on its own is not sufficient. What is decisive is the attitude to the state and the steps taken in practice. Many left-wing forces fall for the state's declarations of wanting "more democracy" and they have expectations as a result which stop them from manoeuvring and they no longer take an attitude to the state. So we should take the opportunity to reiterate a general truth: the liberation of the oppressed is only possible when they organise, struggle and end this war with a revolution. The revolution means the smashing of the state apparatus by the masses and founding a new and more progressive order, that is, the revolution has the task of destroying the fascist state and in place of the destroyed state erecting a new state. Without this, it will not happen. If we struggle and want a revolution, this sequence of events must be gone through. On the other hand if you want only reforms and seek an existence inside the system, then you do not have the problem of bringing about the state's destruction. All that is needed is to be content with some reforms, to become a part of the system and accept the existence of this state and reach a consensus with it. This means politics is only conducted within the framework of the system. Institutions like elections, parliament and so on are the aim. When we come forward for war, guerrillas, Marxism-Leninism, revolution and communism, the decisive criterion is the attitude to the state. Either we destroy this state, or we reach a consensus with it. If our aim is to destroy the state we display a revolutionary attitude, but if we reach consensus and accept the continuation of the fascist state structure, we are displaying a reformist attitude the state can tolerate. Despite the war the PKK has conducted for years, it now talks of peace and negotiations. Thoughts of peace and negotiating cannot arise from a viewpoint which seeks to destroy the state and put an end to the mastery of the ruling class. The PKK, which from the beginning took heart from its hostility to the state and expanded its war, now wants to sit down at the same table as the state it was fighting and work together with it in a common structure. In the final analysis, this means to accept the oligarchy's system of exploitation and to say "you can exploit our peoples even further, I accept the state power of the ruling classes." But that also means that the "peace" the PKK speaks of is an actual problem for the attitude it accepts towards the state. If attempts to reach consensus with the state start, there is no telling where it will end. The entire policy is determined by the attempts, who is a friend and who an enemy, even the definitions and the terminology. This has had its effect on the PKK. They criticise socialism. They are saying, "look, we are not dangerous socialists." They admittedly claim to be socialists but on the pretext of criticising "actually existing socialism" they shed all the values and symbols associated with socialism. They pay no heed to the positive achievements of the socialist countries and do not defend socialism but prefer to attack it. The same thing comes up with regard to the state. The PKK leader says: "I will accept no democracy that means dictatorship to the bourgeoisie." But the bourgeoisie will naturally consider people's democracy to be a dictatorship. How is it possible for the people and the bourgeoisie to simultaneously exercise power or divide it? With such a conception, thoughts and slogans such as "fight until liberation, fight until the establishment of people's power" have no more meaning. HOW THOSE WHO DO NOT SEE POWER AS AN AIM VIEW EVENTS Those who do not strive to win power define concepts like friend and foe accordingly. On the other hand, those who fight or want to fight naturally seek out their friends among the friends of the people, that is, among those who fight. But when one is not aspiring to win power and in the struggle develops despair, exhaustion and a loss of self-confidence, then dialogue with the state begins to replace the goals that were hitherto envisaged and and appropriate friends and alliances are sought. The monopolies which are responsible for the massacres in Kurdistan, are today publishing reports about the Kurdish problem. For the problem is staring them in the face. Not just in Kurdistan but in the whole of Turkey, the struggle is growing. The events in Gazi, the May 1 demonstrations, people's justice, all these are staring them in the face. So we must seek reasons why those who for years shouted that "the only solution is to destroy them" are now talking of granting some insignificant cultural rights and are proceeding in a smooth and cunning manner. Although these facts are known, the PKK like all other nationalists have allotted certain roles to the monopolist bourgeoisie and view them as virtual alliance partners. The PKK leader even went so far as to say that the parasitic bourgeois Cem Boyner had taken on the Kurdish problem more strongly than the revolutionary movement had and was working to solve problems. There has been no word from Boyner for some time: he is working to help Beymen increase its capital share. But the left in Turkey, the DHKP-C is there where it belongs. What has become of all these analyses? Their world view has got to such a stage that that after the DHKC punished the Sabanci family concern - one of those most responsible for the policy of brutal repression and bloody tyranny against the peoples of Turkey, the Kurdish people among them, they (the PKK), out of fear that their policy of "cease-fires" and "peace" would be endangered, were among those who invented theories about a provocation. The reports published by the imperialist lackey Sabanci, the head of monopoly capital, virtually made them hail him as the saviour of the Kurdish people, but they were not written to save the Kurdish people but rather the system. But blind nationalism failed to see this. They stuck to the Sabancis like glue simply because in a period in which the system was in danger they spoke of granting a fraction of the rights nations should enjoy, and said "we have delayed too long in concerning ourselves with this problem." The declarations by the official spokesmen of the oligarchy, the prime minister, the head of the armed forces interest the PKK far more than anything else, such as the condition of the people or the politics, criticisms and proposals of revolutionaries. We have got quite used to this: after every change of government they are certain to express their expectations of the new government and its prime minister. As a rule, the PKK immediately sends the new prime minister a letter to say "how obliging they are" and then they wait for an answer. There is only one expectation: "peace" and a "political solution" to the Kurdish problem. Everything is viewed through these spectacles. What is interesting is that governments fall, new ones are founded, the puppet prime ministers change but the expectations of the PKK never do. Turkey is on the threshold of revolution. The oligarchy cannot govern. Governments fall and new ones are founded. It is obvious that all governments are war governments but nonetheless hopes in them are not given up. The Kurdish people and guerillas are showered with expectations. Every year there is a declaration that this year will be the "year of victory", another year will be the "year of decision". And this vicious circle goes on. Instead of fighting, hopes are pinned on peace... Instead of expanding the war, they wait... They look for friends in the wrong areas... They seek solutions to the Kurdish problem from the USA, from Germany... They count on the support of the ?zals, Boyners, Sabancis and so on... All these are stones littering the path leading towards an existence inside the present system. Revolutionaries for their part prefer revolution. "PEACE" AND "FIGHTING IN THE WHOLE OF TURKEY" "To be quite honest with you, if the hostile forces were to cease the operations aimed at annihilating us and said: here there is a problem, we must clear up the reasons for it, it must be discussed and the conditions for this created, we will also try to dispense with activities connected with the armed struggle." (Abdullah ?calan, Demokrasi newspaper, 8.7. 1996) While the oligarchy uses the most inconceivable methods against the opposition aimed at "annihilating and exterminating" it, tolerates no kind of opposition and uses massacres, disappearances and executions as a means of intimidating the masses, for them to expect the oligarchy to "create the conditions for it" and offer "peace" means that this subject is simply not understood. The entire politics and tactics which are built around the will for peace lead social development in a false direction, that is, to a deformation of development. At the same time this means that the entire energy displayed by the people and the guerrillas up to now is being wasted. A basis is also being created for the oligarchy to have influence over the masses and direct them in such a way that obstacles are placed in the path of the struggle. The PKK leadership which waits for the "Susurluk state" to create conditions and in this regard awakes expectations among the Kurdish people with their politics and propaganda, will also be disappointed this time, like in the past. Moreover, just what kind of conditions are these? In this context, what is it that the PKK is expecting? These questions have not been answered. Have they grown so tired of the armed struggle that they "are ready to dispense with the activities of the armed struggle"? Has the armed struggle not fulfilled expectations? If the PKK were to look at its own history, it would see that the armed struggle took it from being a "small group" to the force it is today. Back then when it started, there were Kurdish nationalist groups with much bigger organisations. Today hardly any of these groups exist. They do not exist because they were opposed to the armed struggle, so they did not take part in the struggle and could not become a force. It may be that the word "peace" which is so often uttered is pleasing to some. It is even possible that the circles who have no class consciousness and want to play politics with the oligarchy's generosity, applaud this word and support it. Moreover there are some who see it as implementing a "great form of politics". That is, however, only a visible part of a rather bigger iceberg. There is another side to it. If we only look at the word "peace", it is an abstract concept. It is only clarified if we answer the question "peace with whom and for what?" If we also ask the question: "If we fight, against whom and for what are we fighting?" the subject becomes much clearer. The other side also can be seen. Don't the state's characteristics, its existence and the war it has waged for years against the people suffice to make it clear that for the people there is no alternative but to struggle? While the state attacks and mobilises all its forces against the people, does not wanting peace and awakening hopes among the people that "peace is imminent" mean tying the people's hands in the face of state attacks? Just how appropriate is it to expect a "solution" from the present system, from the forces which derive advantage from the continuation of this system and which have maintained total war against the people? Why should they want to end the war? For these forces, isn't peace the denial of their own class position and class interests? What is meant by the state, fascism and class interests? Can "good intentions" and "humanity" be expected from this system? If so, how do we explain the three thousand burned and depopulated villages and the driving of three million people from their homes? But if some claim that a solution can be achieved from this system, then we have only one question to ask: which state are we talking about? Whose state is it? Who are the people and what are their interests? And, most importantly, why has there been fighting for years, and for what? All those who persist in wanting peace and defending it must answer all these questions. "Yesterday there were all the preconditions for war, now they exist for peace," is said by some, but it does not explain the past and the years of war, in which thousands have fallen and a high price has been demanded. What has changed? What is the difference between yesterday and today, what is different? Has the oligarchy distanced itself from attacks and massacres? Has it reined in its limitless exploitation? Is it no longer ruled by T?SIAD (the monopolists' association) and the MGK (National Security Council)? Are they saying, "Here, take power and govern"? THE STRUGGLE IS OBSTRUCTED BY THE SEARCH FOR ACCEPTANCE The effect this kind of politics has at various levels and on various occurrences is already obvious. This viewpoint turns friends and foes and even the revolutionary mentality of waging a struggle upside down. A quite typical example of this was what happened after the punishment action of the people's enemy Sabanci. The break-in into the Sabanci Centre and the punishment of ?zdemir Sabanci frightened the oligarchy and pleased the people. As a result of the blow against the head of monopoly capital, the oligarchy, to dissolve the sympathy this action caused and conceal the major effect of the action, used all kinds of methods to confuse the issue. It is comprehensible when the oligarchy does this. While they said "it was not the DHKC", they tried to conceal the class nature of the action, spread unbelievable stories about it and tried to confuse people. Nevertheless, all this is quite understandable and clear. The big monopolies, like the Kocs and Sabancis, these parasites who are the true owners of the state, have for years been a natural target of the people and the revolutionaries. So they were punished by the revolutionaries of the Front and a statement was issued to the public in which the Front claimed reponsibility for the action. On December 23, on MED TV Abdullah ?calan made the following assessment of the Sabanci action: "(...) Now in connection with the murder of Sabanci, H?seyin Kocadag's connection with the Alevis becomes clearer. (Kocadag was a former deputy police chief of Istanbul who died in the Susurluk crash.) For example, he had a meeting with three police commissioners and two reports about it were published. I think a clarification of it is needed... It is actually a form of intimidation. Kocadag's name is mentioned, I think there is something to it; for example when fascist circles kill Kurdish entrepreneurs, there are many Turkish entrepreneurs who appear left-wing, these other commissioners. They see themselves as a rather different kind of band. Kocadag was into something a bit similar. He is Alevi. It may be that he had some connections to some formerly left-wing groups... For example they had some of them in their organisation. And these are exactly the ones who say they are striking a blow against capital, which does not seem much like reality to me." This assessment, and others like it in various media are the official assessments of the PKK leadership of the Sabanci action. This assessment cannot be accepted as criticism, for it is a distorted and quite conspiratorially motivated assessment which seeks to sully the action and confuse people. We have already written a lot on this theme. We do not want to repeat it all here. In connection with the content of this text we want only to say the following: Whom were these statements made to and what was the intention? Firstly, the PKK does not want actions and deeds other than the ones it carries out, especially not those that can "sabotage the peace policy". They have tried to create a connection between the action and their cease-fire. They are addicted to compulsory assessments and conspiratorial statements. They claimed the action was a provocation aimed at wrecking the cease-fire. What is worse is that the Sabancis who for years had organised the assault on the Kurdish people and financed it, were now, because of a statement they had made calling for the granting of some minor cultural rights, praised as the friends of the people. The action was seen as a "suitable occasion" to declare that the PKK was not against the monopolies but against the punishment action. This is a concrete example of how the significance of friend and enemy has changed and how creating misgivings about revolutionary actions plays a role. So a lot of revolutionary actions and revolutionary processes are given this kind of treatment. The basic message the PKK wanted to send to the oligarchy through the Sabanci action was the following: we can do business with you, we are not against you, we are against the DHKP-C. This message is not new at all. Let us remember the following statement, made six or seven years ago: "(...) The Turkish left is very backward. You say Dev-Sol. They blaze away here and there, I don't know if we should call them terrorists. They are too primitive. Should it be understood as the typical terrorist mentality? Our situation is different. For us violence is merely an instrument of politics." (December 7, 1991, Cumhuriyet, Abdullah ?calan interviewed by Semih Idiz.) The definitions in this quote supplement what has been portrayed above. Devrimci Sol is called a "terrorist" organisation. We are familiar with such designations. We are not accustomed to hearing them from patriots, above all from a movement waging an armed struggle. What is the PKK's reason for using the oligarchy's designation in reference to us? This question is also answered by another quote from the same period: "How does Turkey want to bring such people to see reason, I don't know? Perhaps we could get along with them. But they just shoot wildly. Making just one of them see reason is difficult. I don't know if we can call them terrorists, they are too primitive." December 1, 1991, Sabah, Abdullah ?calan interviewed by Nezih Tavla) The message he wanted to send the oligarchy needs no further explanation: "You can do business with us but not with Devrimci Sol." "You cannot make them see reason." Of course, those whose minds are set on reconciliation with the oligarchy are not able to accept Devrimci Sol on the same level. To confirm this, they call Devrimci Sol "terrorist". ?calan told the bourgeois media his view that "We can see reason but you'll never talk them around." We would never want the PKK to be made to see "reason". We say the PKK should, in choosing between two roads, not choose "being reasonable", but rather the revolutionary line, to be able to strike blows at the enemy and distinguish friend from foe. They should not even think about making Devrimci Sol "reasonable". The oligarchy has hit its head against a wall a few times trying to "bring Devrimci Sol to see reason". ?calan should not bother trying. And since it is known that Devrimci Sol will not be "reasonable" it should also be realised that there is no need for it to be anyway. What the PKK really wants to say is that it itself is prepared to be "reasonable", that is, prepared for a consensus. This is no other policy than to deliver itself up to the oligarchy. It was making such statements in 1991 and is still trying to show the oligarchy that it can be relied on. "EVERYBODY HAS MADE AGREEMENTS WITH THEIR TERRORISTS"! BUT WHAT KIND OF AGREEMENTS? Consequently the PKK never tires of expecting things from all kinds of parties and writes obstinate letters to the USA and the governments of the Republic of Turkey. "I sent a letter to Mesut Yilmaz. In it I offered him fraternity, peace and an end to the war. In reply I was sent a bomb." (He means the assassination attempt against him.) I say it openly, we are not thirsting for war. We want to conclude peace as soon as possible. The cease-fire remains in force nevertheless. Despite the attack we still want to resolve the problem at the negotiating table. Everywhere in the world similar problems are being resolved through dialogue." (Abdullah ?calan, May 14, 1994, Demokrasi newspaper) It is true that everywhere in the world "dialogue" has "resolved" a great many problems, but a price is paid for this dialogue. The price is dispensing with the armed struggle and "national liberation". So dialogue has begun in many countries. However the ruling classes and imperialists set the precondition that an act of submission should be made to them, the armed struggle should be given up and they should surrender. Those who fulfil these preconditions can then be admitted to dialogue. Look at Guatemala, Palestine, El Salvador and now the IRA... The oligarchy has not replied to any of the peace declarations and cease-fire announcements of the PKK, on the contrary, it has stepped up its attacks on the people. Today it is not ready for such a dialogue. It does not mean it will not be ready later. The oligarchy wants the PKK, which is ready to hand itself over, to be pushed so far into a corner that it will do whatever is demanded of it. That is their standard approach. Nevertheless the oligarchy, in its current difficult situation, does not want to dispense with its classic methods of achieving a result. Instead of talking of negotiations, it talks of "annihilation" and "obliteration". In short, for liberation movements there is no alternative to fighting unless they want to give up all hope of liberation. If the PKK surrenders it will of course say that it is because it wants peace. But on top of it all, today it says it wants to spread the war to "the whole of Turkey", to the Black Sea Region and the Taurus mountains. It goes further and does not limit things to Kurdistan but in this context it talks of a revolution in Turkey besides the revolution in Kurdistan and of its own leading role in this. But all this does not stop the PKK from dreaming of the "negotiating table". If conditions are ripe, the PKK will naturally go for what it calls a "political solution". At present it has not distanced itself from a political solution and sitting at the negotiating table to achieve it. So the current claim of "spreading the war to Turkey" is only an effort to get to the negotiating table to achieve the "political solution". But if the war spreads there will not be a negotiating table, and inversely, if there is a negotiating table there can be no talk of war.That means the PKK must either spread the war or insist on peace. At this point the PKK is insisting on peace, on the other hand it is also talking of spreading the war. Both existing together points to a contradiction. But when it is remembered that with spreading the war, even "spreading to the whole of Turkey", they intend to achieve peace, we see that there is in fact no contradiction. IS THE POLITICAL SOLUTION A "SOLUTION"? Nowadays everyone, from the reformists to T?SIAD, everybody talks about a "solution to the Kurdish problem". All have one thing in common, that is, they are part of the system. Admittedly, what do we understand by the political solution that is being defended? And whose solution is it? Let us look at the facts: "Now, America sees the armed struggle as terrorism. The USA wants this problem resolved through political means. What do you think of this viewpoint of the USA? ?calan: If America truly wants to resolve the Kurdish problem by political means, we would not fight a day longer. If they do not attack us, we will not attack them. Even without making conditions, only that Turkey must stop and not send its units to attack us. - So you are saying that the condition for dispensing with the armed struggle is that the USA and the European countries offer us a plan for a political solution of the Kurdish problem to bring about peace, which is accepted. ?calan: Of course, if they have such plans then they should be implemented, we are ready for it. We would sign this plan without preconditions, we are ready to fulfil whatever is demanded of us." (?zg?r Halk, February 15, 1996, p.19) >From this interview with Abdullah ?calan we learn yet again from whom things are expected. It is also clearly expressed what these expectations are. In many similar interviews and declarations, imperialism is not condemned, and the legitimacy of the armed struggle is not consistently defended. While the PKK moves into this cul de sac, the aim of independence becomes an unattainable "dream" in the memory: "Even England did not practice a policy of 'blood and iron' with regard to the IRA. Although the relationship of forces is quite unequal, they meet to resolve problems at a political level. The same can be seen in the ties between Israel and Palestine. Also in Bosnia, there is a political solution. Moreover in Chechnya it is the Russian government which calls for peace every day. For Kurdistan we do not want any status other than the one in Chechnya. Why don't they see that correctly or portray it correctly?" (Berxwedan, February 15, 1995, No 180, Abdullah ?calan) The PKK, which earlier took Vietnam as a model, now mentions examples like Ireland, Palestine, Bosnia, Chechnya and so on, in which national liberation could not be achieved. This is an important point because it shows the PKK's situation. The demand the PKK makes for a "political solution" is no more than the "national-cultural autonomy" it once rejected. These kinds of proposals, which were in the beginning made to "not be dogmatic" and as a "tactic" have now become the actual line of the PKK with the passage of time. First of all the aim of independence was revised to a "federation" or "autonomy", and later quite clear statements were made that these too can be completely dispensed with: "In short, in the coming period ways for a political solution will arise. The next parliament will treat this as an important problem... We do not want to separate forcibly... All that is needed is to have the self-confidence to enter into negotiations... We are not making any conditions." (2000'e Dogru, September 1991, interview with Abdullah ?calan) "...The future of Turkey will inevitably offer the Kurds unlimited democratic possibilities for interpretation, they will found their own parties, even regional parliaments; let us not call them a federation, but regional parliaments, regional parliaments are indispensible." (?zg?r Halk, May 1997, Number 76, Ali Firat) "This will happen, today or tomorrow. Whether it will be like the Basque model or the Palestinian one, if we strengthen resistance a little more I think the Turkish state will accept a solution." (?zg?r Halk, January 1996 Number 62) Finally they have got into a situation where they want only as much freedom as is offered to the "German Bundesl?nder". And in the current political situation they are expecting a "political solution" from the USA. How can this imperialist power which is the chief enemy of the peoples, which exploits our peoples and makes them hungry, how can it be seen as a liberating force capable of offering a solution? But that is how they see it. If we read the following statements about the situation in northern Iraq, it is clear that this mentality does not even come as a great surprise. "The Kurds want to tie themselves more and more to American and English soldiers. They are not happy with the Turkish soldiers. They are not happy with the Turks." (Rafet Belli, K?rt Dosyasi (Kurdish Dossier), meeting with ?calan, p 245) "...In reality forming a connection to the USA is a progressive step, as is one with the English... A connection to Turkey or Iran is a step backwards. So is a connection to Iraq. It is to some extent a progressive thing to be tied to the UN or the USA. (...) It is not our choice, but other strivings will develop. The urge to gain freedom will develop. Dependence will weaken the quest for freedom and independence will grow stronger." (Belli, interview with ?calan, p 246) So, after forgetting what a state is they are also forgetting what imperialism is. Imperialists always make the laying down of arms a condition of a peace settlement. And the PKK says this is fine by them. Good, so what kind of peace is it? Does it put a stop to class oppression and the national oppression of the Kurdish people? Can the Kurdish people determine their own fate freely? None of the points listed is being fulfilled. But if the PKK keeps going down its current trajectory it will water down its own conditions more and more and end up by being ready to end the armed struggle. It is clear that those who expect a solution from imperialism will end up doing this. "...Their defence is of a non-socialist system, which in practice is a consequence of nationalism and which to a certain extent they would be able to rule themselves. With what methods, with whose contribution and support this system they defend will arise, the borders are already drawn and they only want cultural rights in the bourgeois sense. While the Kurdish nationalists are of the opinion that a consensus can be reached with the imperialists and the oligarchy and pursue a classic policy arising from despair and exhaustion after a decade of war, they have the boldness to defend open cooperation with imperialism, and the PKK has been in this phase for some time. Because of the brevity of the war the PKK is not yet bold enough to defend open cooperation." (Resolutions of the Founding Congress of the DHKP, Resolution 18, The Situation of the Kurdish National Movement and our Attitude Towards It) ---------------------------- The Gulf Crisis, the elections in 1991, the Newroz festivals of 1991 and 1992, the armistices are important milestones in the PKK policy of seeking peace and consensus. The entire policy that PKK pragmatism has pursued in this phase, the "tactics", and the results they have led to are a millstone around the neck of the PKK: the political impasse it is in is, in part, a consequence of this millstone. Because of it, the PKK is, in the political sense, no longer standing up to imperialism and the oligarchy in the revolutionary sense of the word, and every day its politics become more backward and the demands it makes become more modest. Since 1990-91 it has peristed in a policy which it calls peace, a cease-fire, dialogue and a political solution. At this point we have to ask an important question: has this developed the war or not? It is clear that in the military sense there have been setbacks. It is clear that the oligarchy cannot wipe out the guerrillas as long as they do not give up the struggle, but it is also discernable that they have lost ground. From the political viewpoint they have made some "progress", and have won broad acceptance on the international scene, that is, they have forged a wide range of contacts. They call this a diplomatic victory. But if we remember that most of this is based on pragmatism and that these international ties and alliances only have very limited revolutionary significance, it is clear that on the political scene there is not a real progressive dynamic based on events in the country itself. In the actual war zone the mass movement has declined and there has been no progress in achieving cooperation and fraternity among the peoples in Turkey, or in winning their support. That shows us that the negative side of the balance sheet outweighs the positive. It is understandable that stringing together all the words that would enumerate what has been said on the matter of the peace policy would go far beyond the limits of the space available in this series. But the few examples we have published are enough to cause astonishment. One may well ask how such statements could ever be made in the name of revolutionary politics. Despite all declarations about "progress" and the "year of victory", this is a period of regression. The situation is clearly recognisable: the phase in which armed struggle was insisted upon was a phase in which progress was made, while the phase in which stress was placed on the peace policy has seen the struggle go into reverse. Scrutinising this policy closely is sufficient to condemn it on the basis of the results it has produced. Yesterday - today OCTOBER 1990 "Even if the SHP uses social democracy as a means of deception and even if in the last couple of years it has tried to show some that it is a development capable of changing the system it is clear that this party is certainly social fascist. It is to be recognised that it is not a party cooperating with the imperialists. For cooperating parties can develop in new ways, on the other hand the SHP is a social fascist structure and nothing else." (Serxwebun, Abdullah ?calan, October 1990, number 106) OCTOBER 1991 "Of course we say that the SHP-HEP coalition must be supported. We want to say that the efforts must be strengthened to prevent a right-wing government, a period of reaction and attempts to renew the special war regime, and conflicts among these forces should be aggravated, the balance among them destroyed so that the people can take advantage of it. We believe that strengthening this coalition is the best option to achieve such a result. For if this coaliton comes to power or forms a government together with others, it will cause significant disharmony among the institutions engaging in special warfare and the government. This situation will create special conditions which will limit the policy of special warfare and the position of whoever is installed as president and has broad powers will be unstable, and the possibility of some democratic developments will arise." (?zg?r Halk, October 1991, Abdullah ?calan, On the Question of Alliances and Coalitions, Number 12) MARCH 1992 "Everything for a total people's war, that is our motto. Prepare yourselves thoroughly. Understand your tasks well and fulfil them absolutely. (...) Arm yourselves! Every village must be a centre of rebellion, every house a strongpoint, and every family must be turned into a guerrilla unit. They should support the guerrilla actions expanding in the mountains by carrying out uprisings in the villages and spreading them into the cities. (...) Dig secret depots in the ground and store provisions there so the enemy can no longer threaten us with hunger in the future. Each village, each house must have depots. Build underground bunkers and tunnels against air attacks. Everyone who has a gun should join the nearest guerrilla unit. (ARGK Central Military Committee, Serxwebun, March 1992, Number 123) MARCH 1993 March 17, 1993: The PKK announces a unilateral cease-fire and makes an appeal for a "peaceful Newroz" in 1993. "The hand of the Kurdish people, extended under the leadership of the PKK, should be grasped..." (ERNK Europe Organisation, March 28, 1993) -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 11 04:55:37 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 11 Aug 1998 04:55:37 Subject: The Veterans of the Death Fast in 1996 in Turkey Message-ID: Kurtulus Number 91, July 25, 1998 The Veterans of the Death Fast The martyrs and the Veterans of the Death Fast have cleared the path to victory for us by equipping us with our moral values. They have transmitted to us their willpower and determination. If today they continue to bear the consequences of bringing our struggle to power, then we will also shoulder the energy of our Veterans of the Death Fast. Their eyes, ears, consciousness and limbs are those of comrades. They will die or remain alive, or they will die or survive, but victory will be theirs. With these words they set out on their road. Twelve of the hundreds of Death Fast fighters fell, and the others have remained behind. But how? The first things that come to mind when we talk about the consequences that come from the struggle or will flow from it in the future, are martyrdom and captivity. But these Veterans also reflect an important dimension of the struggle for power. Up to the present we have been able to enumerate a very large number of people who have been marked by the struggle at a very large number of its levels. We have hundreds of comrades who have been wounded in actions, or by the effects of torture, or by a bomb exploding while it was being manufactured, or as a result of operations in the prisons carried out by the enemy, and have come away permanently damaged. But the Death Fast of 1996 produced Veterans marked by the struggle on a far more massive scale. About two years ago, on May 20, 1996, 1,500 revolutionary prisoners in the jails went on an unlimited hunger strike. On July 3, 1996 they turned the action into a Death Fast under the slogan "Victory or death". There was no other way to defeat the oligarchy and win victory. Victory was achieved through death. With the participation of the second and third groups on July 16 and 23, the number of participants in the Death Fast which began with 159 persons on July 3 rose to 270. When the Death Fast fighters decided voluntarily to take part in the Fast, they were clear about the consequences that might arise from it. Fundamentally the decision they took was one of being prepared to look death in the eye in the course of a prolonged battle of wills. But there was also the possibility of being confronted with different consequences of this struggle, namely suffering damage of such a kind that no active task in the struggle can be carried out. So 12 revolutionary prisoners fell as martyrs in the Death Fast to win victory. When victory was announced, a significant majority of Death Fast fighters had achieved their mission and were still alive. So for them a mighty struggle arose to return to life. There were many Death Fast fighters who could no longer hear or who could no longer see, who had lost consciousness or were unable to walk. For our Veterans of the Death Fast, the 69 days of a battle of wills now had to continue in another dimension. But this new dimension was not an easy one. They had prepared themselves so well for death, even though they had won, that they were still prepared to meet death and did not accept treatment. Some had lost consciousness, others did not believe the words of the enemy. They wanted their own comrades to tell them of the victory. After 12 comrades had fallen it seemed to them that to receive treatment and return to life was like a betrayal. But the resistance had made the enemy surrender. The willpower to defeat death they showed in the Death Fast was now needed to overcome the illnesses and the damage they continued to suffer from. On the other hand they would take up their place, whether inside or outside prison, but at any rate inside the struggle, with the motivation of having fulfilled their tasks and mission faultlessly during a historical epoch. Perhaps the tremor in their hand would prevent them from squeezing a trigger. Perhaps their eyes could no longer see the May 1 celebrations, the banners waved by our comrades in all corners of the land, or the resistance of our people to fascism. But they would see with their hearts and with their consciousness. Perhaps their ears could no longer hear the slogans that shake the world, the marches, the defiant shouts hurled at the enemy during clashes, or they could no longer converse with their comrades. But they can hear everything with their hearts and their knowledge. Perhaps their legs can no longer take them to where a barricade is erected, or to a demonstration, onto the streets or into the mountains. But in defiance of illnesses and injuries, with their heads and with the belief in their hearts they can march along the road to revolution. Whatever may happen, they must fight through the consequences of the 69 days of struggle. The bodies that were prepared to receive death continue to defeat the damage they suffered. The General Secretary of the DHKP-C, Dursun Karatas, declared immediately after the victory in an message to the prisoners of the DHKP-C that the new struggle was to be conducted on the orders of the Party and said: "The Party-Front acknowledges the connection to the people and Party, the heroism and readiness for self-sacrifice of all our martyrs at the head, and all our imprisoned comrades. (...) We have paid a high price and caused an earthquake in the minds of millions. On the road of our fallen comrades we will carry our banner with the belief and trust of our fallen comrades in all corners of our land while we bow down with respect, embrace and greet all our comrades. Note: 1. The injured and the comrades who need treatment will above all employ their willpower and not remain afflicted by physical frailty. They will proceed from the understanding that they will go forward to overcome their afflictions. 2. We will not shrink from any sacrifice or expense needed by our comrades in need of treatment. Dursun KARATAS" "You have fought and won victory, now you must use your willpower in the process of healing yourselves," the Party leadership said. Some have fought against their inability to remember things. Some would put a pencil in a place and promise to find it again two days later. At the first attempt they did not succeed, but later they did. Although the hand of some shook, they tried to do work themselves. Some had to struggle to control their own limbs. For hours they carried out walking exercises. First with the help of two comrades, then with the help of one, and finally alone. Even if they could not quite maintain their balance, and they had a tendency to fall, they managed to walk. Their comrades have voluntarily put themselves at the disposal of Veterans of the Death Fast, without complaining. Sometimes they have had to put up with having to spend hours feeding soup to a comrade, sometimes they have had to carry comrades on their shoulders. They have read to them from books, telling them about how the struggle is progressing. If trembling limbs were able to take two more steps than on the previous day, if the forgetful memory could remember something new, if one could read 10 more pages from a book or ask more questions about it, then nobody could spoil anyone's joy or happiness. Like the Death Fast martyrs, the Veterans are the enthusiasm, joy and motivation of the struggle. The values won in the Death Fast have been carried through into the present day by them. With their love for their comrades, their dilignece and readiness for self-sacrifice, they have created new beauties in life. The Veterans of the Death Fast, with their willpower and readiness to offer themselves up and to win victory through this readiness have - continuing the willpower of the Party-Front - gone into this struggle as victors. When they had overcome physical obstacles they won life and the struggle. Even if they could not overcome their physical damage they managed to live on. At the same time, our Veterans of the Death Fast are those on our side who with our fallen comrades have kept the Death Fast of 1996 in memory and have transmitted this historic event to the future. Our Veterans of the Death Fast who together with the fallen comrades have created a historic phase and at the necessary moment of the struggle - taking the price into account - have brought their parties and peoples nearer to victory, causing upheavals in peoples' minds lasting to the present day. All who saw them, whether outside or inside prison, or who heard them and knew them was at their side and able to recognise the heroism, readiness for self-sacrifice and refusal to turn aside from paying the price of the "free prisoners", the Front fighters, they remember these 69 days and are shaken by them. They are the living and lively spokesmen and spokeswomen of the Death Fast As the Death Fast fighters they have all seen the choice of themselves as the ones fighting in the foremost rank of the struggle as a personal evaluation of them by their Party. With this evaluation, the Party prepared the way for them to go into history as the heroes of the generation. Our martyrs have reached this stage. Continuing the 69-day clash, the way has been opened to our sick comrades - by giving them the title of "Veterans" - to live on as bearers of moral values from a significant chapter in our history. The Veterans of the Death Fast are the moral values of our Party and struggle. FASCISM'S POLICY OF "SILENT ANNIHILATION" The mouthpieces of fascism, who during the Death Fast told the public "We want to give them treatment, they are refusing it, our hospitals are ready" stopped saying that after the Death Fast ended. The demand for the health rights of the prisoners was one of the points accepted at the conclusion of the Death Fast. But once more the enemy has failed to keep promises given in front of the people. Scarcely had the resistance ended than the attacks started while prisoners were being brought into hospitals. Particularly in the prisons of Anatolia, it was difficult to even get into a hospital. They started not letting through hospital transports bringing necessary nutritional products. The transmitting of medicines and special foods which the prisoners had obtained through their own efforts was obstructed. And the prisoners who after great efforts were transported into hospitals were chained by the feet in cold or unventilated roooms, so-called "prison wards", because no area of the hospital had been set aside to receive them. Other resistance fighters, who in the first days were given hospital treatment because of the effect the Death Fast had had, subsequently were subjected to every kind of obstruction, and some were even left to die. Besides open policies involving attacks and massacres it is also a planned and conscious policy of fascism to murder the prisoners in this "silent" and "slow" way. This is not the first time this has been tried. What fascism did after the Death Fast of 1996 was like what it had done after previous prolonged hunger strikes such as after the Death Fast of 1984. Fascism is so far removed from humanity that it attacked revolutionary prisoners who were at the point of death on the 60th or 70th day of the fast, so despite any promises made they did not keep them and continued attacks. They prevented the treatment of revolutionary prisoners and paid no heed to the lasting damage that had been suffered. Fascism does not know how to cope with defeat. The prisoners it could not massacre in open warfare it would like to murder in the most despicable and slow manner. The resistance fighter of the 1996 Death Fast, the TKP/ML (Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist) fighter Polat IYIT was murdered as a result of this policy, through the denial of treatment. Many participants in the Fast still bear the marks of it. But despite this despicable policy the enemy could not achieve the desired results. The free prisoners, who have displayed every kind of readiness for self-sacrifice, have not surrendered, have died but not been defeated, knew that this policy too would beome bankrupt. It is an honour to be a Veteran of the Death Fast, this honour must be protected and we must defend it Our Veterans of the Death Fast are part of the price we had to pay in the Death Fast. They are the living reflection of our Death Fast. And so it is the task of all of us to defend them. Today our Veterans are issuing a renewed challenge to death. Without heeding physical damage and illness, they are carrying out one act of resistance after another. For they are defending a revolutionary will which the enemy cannot defeat under any cirmcumstances. We know that this is a long and protracted struggle. The struggle is not over as a result of defeating death once. What is decisive is being victorious in every clash with the enemy that is conducted. This is what is necessary for our success. For the enemy, who when losing a clash does not give up his fight to hang onto power, draws lessons from defeats and comes back at us with even bigger attacks. And we must, without stopping, without growing tired, take the struggle for power to victory with the same consciousness and resolution that they showed. New victories and the revolution will be achieved in this way. VETERANS OF THE DEATH FAST Sagmalcilar (Bayrampasa) Prison Mehmet Yaman: At present he cannot keep his balance while walking. He is oversensitive to loud noises. If there is a noise this causes him problems. He has a speech impediment, he can pronounce words only with a kind of drone. He does not have complete control over his hands and feet. Ali Ekber Akkaya: Besides progressive loss of consciousness, his sense of balance in his entire body is disturbed. He cannot completely control his hands, feet and body. He cannot walk unaided. He cannot write. Reading tires him quickly. He can only drone his words. He has constant headaches. Ali Yalcin: Besides loss of consciousness and forgetfulness, he suffers from visual diificulties and is oversensitive to loud noises. He has trouble walking because of slight disturbances of his sense of balance. Mustafa G?k: Visual problems, his eyelids flutter and he has a disturbed sense of balance. He has trouble keeping his balance while walking. He cannot completely control his hands and feet, they shake. Mehmet G?vel: He has constant attacks of dizziness and his sense of balance is disturbed. It is a strain for him to keep his balance while walking. He suffers from memory loss. Besides these, he suffers from salivating on a massive scale, stomach pains and general physical weakness. OTHER PRISONS Ibrahim Dogan (Bursa Special Prison): Sometimes he is plagued by loss of consciousness, progressive loss of memory, disturbances of his sense of balance and general tiredness. Abd?laziz Nakci (Bartin Prison): Part of the time he suffers from slight loss of consciousness and forgetfulness. It is difficult for him to keep his balance while walking. He becomes tired quickly and he is oversensitive to loud noises. Serdar Gelir (Bartin Prison): He suffers from forgetfulness, general physical weakness and difficulty moving about. He has constant headaches. Selmani ?zcan (Cankiri Prison): He has disturbances of his sense of balance, shaking hands, a speech impediment and a weak faculty of perception. Zeynep G?ng?rmez (Ankara Central Closed Prison): Some of the time she suffers from loss of conciousness, progressive memory loss and disturbances of her sense of balance. It is difficult for her to walk. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 11 18:10:45 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 11 Aug 1998 18:10:45 Subject: U.S. DENIES VIOLENT CLASHES IN LABOR STRIKE AT AIR BASES IN TURKEY Message-ID: violent clashes in labor strike at air bases in Turkey AP.international (08-11) 08:46:20 U.S. DENIES VIOLENT CLASHES IN LABOR STRIKE AT AIR BASES IN TURKEY ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The United States today denied reports of violent clashes between American soldiers and Turkish workers over a 3-week-old strike that has disrupted life at U.S. military bases in Turkey. Turkish media reported several confrontations between U.S. soldiers and Turks including physical and verbal attacks by Americans at Incirlik Air Base. ``All allegations of violent actions by U.S. servicemen at Incirlik, such as assaults, have been thoroughly investigated, and have proven to be unfounded,'' said a statement from the U.S. consulate in Adana, a few miles from Incirlik, which is the base for U.S. and British patrol flights over the no-fly zone in northern Iraq. About 1,400 Turkish workers have been on strike since July 23. The strike has shut down the commissary, gas station, dining halls and other facilities at Incirlik. Services at bases in Ankara and Izmir have also been interrupted. The strikers are demanding that salaries be raised every three months in line with inflation, now running at around 70 percent. They are also demanding improved benefits and compensation for earlier pay cuts. Strikers rejected the latest U.S. offer last week and negotiations have been deadlocked since then. ``The U.S. Air Force has made a very generous offer regarding wages, benefits and working conditions,'' the consulate said. The statement said Americans are offering double the average wages in the area. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Thu Aug 13 08:05:58 1998 From: dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Aug 1998 08:05:58 Subject: May issue Revolutionary left online Message-ID: see http://www.ozgurluk.org/pub/revleft In this issue: Merhaba International Conference of Revolutionary Organisations The National Security Council, the struggle and the people's organisations The protocol of DHKP-C and the PKK and developments DOKUMENTATION: Protocol of DHKP and PKK Contra-actions and the actions that serve them 1000 Operations and gangs Action teaches part 2 Three revolutionaries were murdered in Adana Tourists in Gazi >From March 30 to July 12, from April 17 to today... from today until victory The strategy of the party-front is in conformity with its traditions We have the honour of defending socialism Imperialism's attack on the arab people The "Middle Eastern Crime File" of imperialism American oppression in the gulf -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi (Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front) DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Thu Aug 13 11:03:09 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Aug 1998 11:03:09 Subject: [DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam ] May iss Message-ID: --Multipart_Thu_Aug_13_19:57:38_1998-1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII The Correct URL should read: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/pub/revleft Excuses! --Multipart_Thu_Aug_13_19:57:38_1998-1 Content-Type: message/rfc822 To: english Subject: May issue Revolutionary left online From: DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam Date: 13 Aug 1998 16:48:59 +0200 Message-ID: see http://www.ozgurluk.org/pub/revleft In this issue: Merhaba International Conference of Revolutionary Organisations The National Security Council, the struggle and the people's organisations The protocol of DHKP-C and the PKK and developments DOKUMENTATION: Protocol of DHKP and PKK Contra-actions and the actions that serve them 1000 Operations and gangs Action teaches part 2 Three revolutionaries were murdered in Adana Tourists in Gazi >From March 30 to July 12, from April 17 to today... from today until victory The strategy of the party-front is in conformity with its traditions We have the honour of defending socialism Imperialism's attack on the arab people The "Middle Eastern Crime File" of imperialism American oppression in the gulf -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi (Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front) DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl --Multipart_Thu_Aug_13_19:57:38_1998-1-- List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 14 06:33:38 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 14 Aug 1998 06:33:38 Subject: Mainstream news: Germany bans DHKP-C Message-ID: Subject: Germany bans two Turkish political groups FOCUS-Germany bans two Turkish political groups 11:43 a.m. Aug 13, 1998 Eastern By Mark John BONN, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Germany on Thursday banned two Turkish political organisations it accused of terrorising and extorting cash from Germany's two-million-plus Turkish population. The Interior Ministry said the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party (DHKP-C) and the Turkish People's Liberation Party (THKP-C) were responsible for a series of murders and attempted murders. It said the two had been involved in a bitter struggle for supremacy following the banning in 1983 of their predecessor, the far-left Devrimci Sol organisation. ``This has to be stopped...for the sake of the rule of law and so German and Turkish fellow citizens can live together peacefully,'' Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said in a statement. Tough action against crime by foreigners living in Germany has been a major theme of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's campaign to be re-elected on September 27. The campaign has tended to focus on criminality by individuals rather than that by organised, politically motivated groups. Three former members of the Devrimci Sol are on trial in Hamburg for attempted murder and arms offences. The ban, effective immediately, means the two groups will be stripped of their assets and forbidden from continuing their activities in Germany. Any representation of the insignia of the two groups is also illegal. Germany's Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which is responsible for internal security, said the groups had a combined membership of 1,300. The DHKP-C, by far the larger of the two groups, stated in a recently published manifesto its aim was the creation of a democratic, multi-cultural state for Turks, Kurds and other ethnic groups. The BfV, which monitors extremist groups in Germany, said members of the two organisations were wounded in shootouts in Frankfurt and Hamburg about a year ago. Some 2.3 million Turks live in Germany, the largest ethnic grouping among the country's seven million foreigners. Faruk Sen, head of the Centre for Turkish Studies at Essen University and a leading commentator on Turkish issues in Germany, said he did not think the activities of the two groups affected most Turks in Germany. ``Their impact is minimal. But the bans are justified...they have a symbolic significance,'' he said. He added however that it was likely the organisations would simply reform under new names. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 14 09:09:26 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 14 Aug 1998 09:09:26 Subject: Germany transfers $265 mln in weapons to Turkey this year Message-ID: Aug. 14 1998 Germany transfers $265 mln in weapons to Turkey this year The German government statement also indicates that a cargo ship used by the German military was sold to Turkey as surplus equipment Ankara - Turkish Daily News Germany reportedly sold DM 449.2 million (approximately $265 million) worth of weapons and military equipment to Turkey in the first half of 1998, the Anatolia news agency reported from Bonn. The number was derived from a response by the German government to a questionnaire submitted by the Green Alliance 90, a united opposition movement, on the transfer of weapons to some countries in recent years. According to the German government's statement, the value of weapons and military equipment delivered to Turkey by year is as follows: DM 619.3 million in 1994; DM 177.9 million in 1995; DM 600.8 million in 1996; DM 145 million in 1997; and DM 449.2 million in the first half of 1998. The government statement also said that a cargo ship used by the German military had been sold to Turkey as surplus equipment. Both Germany and Turkey are NATO members. The federal government additionally said that Germany had also transferred weapons to Greece, another NATO member, worth DM 30.7 million in the first half of this year. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Sun Aug 16 18:07:25 1998 From: tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 16 Aug 1998 18:07:25 Subject: Turkey: No defense cuts in next 20 years Message-ID: 15 August 1998 Military report: 'No defense cuts in next 20 years' The report brushes away the possibilities of a serious war in the first quarter of the 21st century, but says Turkey will be involved in smaller regional conflicts Ankara - Turkish Daily News A report by the Military Academies' Command has stated that Turkey will not be able to cut its defense spending and that the budget of the Turkish Armed Forces will constitute the leading expenditure in the nation's budget over the next 20 years, the Anatolia news agency reported. The report prepared by Turkish naval Capt. Yilmaz Aklar remarks that the United States and its European allies began to cut their defense spending following the removal of the Soviet threat and allocated the money saved to their economies. But it also cites the current threats facing the nation as obstacles to putting into effect such spending cuts in Turkey. According to the report, the threat of an international war has given way to regional crises, and Turkey has recently been wrestling with these. Capt. Aklar states that Turkey's neighbors have increased in number following the collapse of the Soviet Union. While on the one hand, he accuses Greece of hostility towards Turkey, he adds that the regimes of Turkey's eastern and southeastern neighbors are far from democratic. The report brushes away the possibilities of a serious war in the first quarter of the 21st century, stating however that Turkey will become involved in smaller, regional conflicts. The Turkish Armed Forces, it adds, will participate in noncombat military operations such as rescue missions for victims of natural disasters, civilian evacuations and fighting drug-trafficking. For its defense needs alone, Turkey is planning to spend $150 billion in the next 25 years. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Mon Aug 17 07:38:29 1998 From: dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (dhkc at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 17 Aug 1998 07:38:29 Subject: DHKP-C: The fight against fascism is legitimate! Message-ID: 14. August 1998 THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM IS LEGITIMATE On 13 August German Federal Minister of the Interior Manfred Kant, declared our organizing for "Forbidden". As reason robbery, bodily injury, extortion of donation funds and attempted murders were called. Our organization was called a "heavy criminal gang". We explained again and again and do repeat it again: The DHKP-C fights against the fascist regime in Turkey. The strategic target of this fight is too smash fascism, to free our peoples from suppression and exploitation and to create an independent country, in which the peoples can live freely. We stress, our organization is a people's liberation movement and the soil, on which she fights her struggle is Turkey. Our peoples, our friends, our enemies and everyone than knows us, knows that DHKP-C is a liberation organisation, which does what she says and defends what she does. There is not a single action carried out by the DHKP-C, which was not acknowledged. In Germany it gave violent actions with which we have to do nothing at all. By complots and with the influence of the police one tried to put these actions in our shoes. Such cases were corrected by our organization by statements. In each statement of our organization it is said, "everything that concerns our organization should be based on the the statements of our organization". Without doubt this also well known by the German authorities. Nevertheless was consciously tried to produce in Germany a phobie with the topic "internal security" This resolution is politically conditioned. It is calculated that this approach would be the best in the light of the upcoming elections and the new phase of Germanies relation with Turkey. Because of numerous speculations, we find it important to stress the following again: Our organization fights not with political and/or military support of any state, but with the voluntary support of our peoples. Our fight is based on voluntariness. We want and fight for the liberty of our peoples. Nobody can seriously defend the demagogie as that our organization collects money with the use of "pressure", not alone because in the demonstrations of our organization ten thousands of humans participate. The crucial question is the own position to fascism, for or against it. This question should be answered and one should behave accordingly. The German government offers its political - economic - military support to the fascist regime in Turkey. - while at demonstrators shoots the armed fascist state forces in Turkey, the German government watches. - while the state in Turkey lets humans disappear, the German government watches. - while fascism in Turkey commits massacres, with German weapons and ammunition, the German government does move a finger. - while to the crimes of fascism in Turkey are made public by our people with the use of actions and publications, the German state hits our people: with clubs on the heads of demonstrators, with arrests, condemnations and prohibitions. Our organization, DHKP-C, leads a completely legitimate fight against the fascist state in the Turkey, whose history is one the most brutal and bloodiest in modern history. It is legitime to fight against fascism! A liberation movement cannot be forbidden! REVOLUTIONARY of PEOPLE RELEASE FRONT DHKC European agency -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi (Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front) DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 18 07:54:37 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 18 Aug 1998 07:54:37 Subject: Turkey: Those who make people disappear will lose in the end Message-ID: August 18, 1998 THOSE WHO MAKE PEOPLE DISAPPEAR WILL LOSE IN THE END The Susurluk State makes peoples "disappear" and continues its massacres. Neslihan Uslu, Metin Andas, Hasan Aydogan and Mehmet Ali Mandal, arrested in Izmir on March 31, 1998, still count as "disappeared". The Susurluk State, which had ceased these methods of warfare against the people for a short period, now attacks again without any mercy. The Susurluk trial is a trial which shows the reality in our country. All the methods the state used against the people during the years of its unjust war were exposed and the real character of the state was seen by 60 million. Those who want to fool the people with the slogan of "father State" are the ones who are involved with all kinds of filth, the child molesters and the drug dealers. They are the enemies of the people organised in parliament, the army, the police and the Mafia, their hands covered in blood. They are the perpetrators of the disappearances, the massacres and the oppression policy. The Susurluk state was hit by the lightning of a reality which could no longer be kept secret. It was confronted with a serious moral problem. The government crisis deepened and contradictions sharpened more and more, the state institutions no longer functioned. During the phase where the MGK (National Security Council) took things more openly into its hands, the Susurluk state tried to gain time on the one hand, on the other hand reorganisations were started to be able to continue the attacks. While they tried to get the dysfunctional institution in order again, countless activities were carried out to clean up the state. The MGK, disciplining the system parties with debates about a "Sharia coup", invented by the MGK itself, tried to win over several circles to its side. It was especially seeking to close the trial about Susurluk with the least damage possible. It tried hard to rebuild the trust in the state and to clean it up again. The report about Susurluk, written by state prosecutor Kutlu Savas, must be seen in this context. The emphasis on the fact that the state had to keep its activities within the framework of the law revealed the true aim of the state. "Disappearances" and massacres should be carried out to secure the existence of the state but they should be carried out within the law and in secrecy. The state, closing the Susurluk phase in a way, increased its attacks against the people. There isn't a segment of the population which isn't subjected to these state attacks. Students and pupils, civil servants, the workers and the people from the Gececondus (slum areas), they were all subjected to different forms of state terror. The oligarchy soon reapplied its never changing and traditional policy within the context of these attacks. Massacres occurred frequently again. First three revolutionaries were massacred in Adana, later two more in Istanbul. The "disappearances", an important element of the war against the people, appeared on the agenda again. Neslihan, Hasan, Metin and Mehmet Ali are not the first ones in this chain of "disappearances", nor will they be the last. The oligarchy "lets disappear" in order to silence the entire society. But one thing is for sure, the four disappeared revolutionaries will, like the hundreds of our people before, speed up the end of the state and turn into a weapon, hitting it. The policy of "disappearances" in our country. The policy of "disappearances" was applied in many countries, especially in the countries of Latin America. It was first applied in our country in the 80's with the fascist September 12 coup. Since 1990, this policy was speeded up and applied systematically. During the period of the military junta, the number of disappeared was still below the 100 mark, but since 1991 the numbers increased rapidly, going into the hundreds. For instance, in 1995 alone there were more than 213 disappearances which can be certified. And there are dozens more which cannot be that easily certified. From the 90's, it was tried to force the revolutionaries into capitulation, harming the people's trust in the revolutionary organisations, with the policy of disappearances. Within a short time, this policy started to affect all segments of the people. This method, developed in the laboratories of the CIA to scare and frighten the people and to cause discourage and pacifism among the ranks of the people, was applied on a very broad level. The first disappearance: Hayrettin Eren Hayrettin Eren was made disappeared 18 years ago, during the phase of the military junta of September 12. After his arrest on October 20, nothing was heard of him again. Hayrettin Eren belonged to Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) and became one of the first targets of the policy of disappearances, not applied by the junta at that time as much as torture, execution and hanging. Hayrettin Eren was arrested when he was in his car in Sarachane/Istanbul. When his mother, Elmas Eren, after the arrest, went to the police station of Gayreteppe to ask about her son, she saw his car in front of the building. But the police answered: "We don't know. We're looking for him as well". But eight other persons, arrested with him at the same time, stated that he was with them at the police station. Despite the witnesses and all the requests, nothing was heard of Hayrettin since. He was seen last seen in the police station on February 18, 1981, by people who were arrested in connection with the punishment action against Mahmut Dikler, then police chief of Istanbul. The mother, talking about the days of searching for her son: "Starting with the police stations, we took this case to the council, even the Red Cross. There were no real investigations in those days. We found the witnesses, they had been in the same cell, they had been tortured together. There were so many who had seen him. Nobody doubts he has been held for months at the political department. But despite all these facts, the state prosecutor saw no reason to indict. But he knows as well as we do that the "disappeared" are being murdered by the state. But the state tries to get rid of its own mess and ignores dozens of witness statements." (Zafer Yolunda Kurtulus, "Liberation on the road to victory", no. 20, p.9) The nineties... Systematic "disappearances" organised by the oligarchy The 90's represent a phase of a revived revolutionary struggle, suffering setbacks after the September 12 coup. Be it Devrimci Sol, be it the Kurdish national movement, they all caused great fear at the oligarchy's front. Parallel to the increasing nationalist and class struggle, the oligarchy started to take new precautions, passing new laws. While the "democracy" game was played on the one hand, it was tried to dress up the entire policy of repression, torture and massacres against the people in a legal costume with new "Anti Terror Laws", legitimising it in this way. Against whom this attack is directed, increasing with the measures of the "Anti Terror Law", which is in fact a Terror Law, is described by Turgut OEzal: "... Organisations like the PKK or the Dev-Sol are now short before their annihilation. Until yesterday, the centre from which organisations like the PKK or the Dev-Sol were being led has been Russia. But when decay is ruling there, how can these organisations keep on their feet in Turkey?... The "Law of Fighting Terror" must include severe punishments." While the rulers in the leadership of the country were going through a crisis, dissatisfactions was growing among the people and the true faces of all the system parties was being revealed. The oligarchy, applying its raging terror since then, systematically started to apply its policy of "disappearances" during these years. The Devrimci Sol-fighter Yusuf Eristi was one of the first "disappeared" of that phase. A witness and a photography exist... But he's "disappeared" Yusuf Eristi was arrested in Belgradkapi/Istanbul on March 14, 1991. Despite the permission, given to the lawyers by the State Security Court, the "torturers" refused the lawyers to visit him. Later, despite all the witness accounts by his friends who were arrested at the same time, Yusuf Eristi was listed as "disappeared". The lawyers who came to the Forensic Institute to identify the Ibrahim Ilci after July 12 (when 12 revolutionaries of Devrimci Sol were murdered in Istanbul and Ankara in one single night), were shown a picture by the police, it was a picture of Yusuf Eristi's body, showing marks torture. On the initiative of the then newly founded OEzguer-Der (Student Association), a number of democratic associations carried out actions after the "disappearance" of Yusuf Eristi. A campaign was launched to find Yusuf. The "disappearances" came on the public agenda with this campaign for the first time, unmasking the oligarchy. Furthermore Devrimci Sol demanded justice from the murderers for Yusuf Eristi's "disappearance". Haci Beykara, member of the team of the 1. Department, responsible for Devrimci Sol, was punished. Together with every new person, "made disappeared" by the state, the struggle broadened and developed all over the country. Again and again it was shown to those in power that it would not be that easy to make the revolutionaries "disappear" and that these cases were being followed. "It shouldn't have become public" Soner Guel and Huesamettin Yaman were arrested in Istanbul on May 4, 1992, and then "disappeared". Again a campaign was launched, now to find Huesamettin and Soner who had joined the youth struggle through Dev-Genc (Revolutionary Youth). The lawyers went to the European Human Rights Commission with this case. While the families pressed charges on June 9, 1992, the members of IYOE-DER (Istanbul Faculty Association) asked inside and outside of the university: "Where are Huesamettin Yaman and Soner Guel?" Furthermore, a commission, consisting of members of IYOE-DER, Tuem-OEzguer-Der, the Ortakoey Cultural Centre and members of the "Workers in the Revolutionary Struggle" went to Ankara. They had talks with delegates and ministers inside the TBMM (the Turkish parliament). Mehmet Kahraman, state minister for Human Rights, who stated "I shouldn't have become public", was answered that they would continue to follow the trail of the "disappeared". The months of October and November 1992 represented a new and important phase in the struggle against the "disappearances". Caused by a struggle against a chain of "disappearances" at that time, the "disappeared" came on the agenda throughout the entire country and those in power were cornered and exposed. On July 20, the police "made disappear" Hasan Gueluenay, the same happened to Ayhan Efeoglu on October 6. "You want blood, here it is" Numerous actions were organised in October within the context of a new campaign. Press conferences and panel discussions were held. Dev-Genc carried out an armed action on October 24 in Besiktas/Akaretler. Traffic was blocked by a fire. A fire-bomb action against a bank was to show that Ayhan's murderers would be held accountable. On November 2, the mothers of the disappeared started a hunger strike in front of a local office of the HEP (People's Worker's Party) in Istanbul/Eminoenue. From November 4, this hunger strike was continued in Ankara. On November 6, the relatives occupied the regional office of the DYP (True Path Party) in Ankara. On November 7, they carried out a manifestation in front of the house of the state president, Sueleyman Demirel, accompanied by slogans. Despite all the rejections, they succeeded in having a meeting with Demirel in the end. Demirel said: "You think I carry them in my pocket so I can take them out just like that?" Thereupon, the mothers and fathers grabbed him by his collar and demanded accountability. On November 12, the mothers yelled in front of the department: "You, the responsible for the government and the state who cannot have enough of blood... If you want blood, here it is", throwing bottles filled with blood. These actions, carried out by the relatives, became news despite all the restrictions and the censorship. For the first time, the murderers seriously got cornered. The oligarchy could no longer keep the policy of "disappearances" secret, despite its demagogy. There murderous face were exposed. These actions, carried out by the mothers, were supported in many parts of the country by solidarity hunger strikes and telegram actions. A lot of organisations and institutions, based in Europe, called to "increase the voices against the disappearances". Devrimci Sol carried out bomb attacks against the election offices of the DYP and the SHP, demanding accountability of those who were responsible for the "disappearances". In the leaflets, published by the Revolutionary People's Councils, titled "In Turkey, the land of the disappeared, the mothers are searching for their children", it is said: "Now the horror, yesterday witnessed in Nazi-Germany, in Argentina and Chile, is alive in our country. The oligarchy thinks it will be successful with this policy, frightening the people. But they are wrong: they cannot terrify 60 million people, forcing them to capitulate". A massacre, a disappearance On August 13, 1994, five people were massacred in Perpa. While the oligarchy was not only murdering revolutionaries but unorganised people as well, Erdogan Sakar, arrested in Perpa on that same day, was made "disappeared". The relatives of the martyrs and the prisoners went on their way to Ankara to have meetings with ministers and delegates. They wanted Erdogan Sakar's murderer. Despite all the security measures, accountability was demanded with an attack against the central meeting of SHP (Social Democratic People's Party) party leader Murat Karayalcin. The hunger strike, continuing till then, was ended. With every new "disappearance", the struggle against the disappearances grew Ali Efeoglu, whose brother Ayhan Efeoglu "disappeared" before, was arrested on January 5, 1994. He "disappeared" as well. All inquiries into his whereabouts were in vain. The responsible state prosecutor of the DGM (State Security Court) in Istanbul stated: "Maybe he went to his brother". The attempt to make Ali Efeoglu disappear made the relatives of the disappeared and the prisoners, and the youth, come into action once again. The students of IYOE-DER (Istanbul Faculty Association) organised several penal meetings at the universities at the end of January. On January 31, they carried out an occupation of the Istanbul office of the SHP in Taksim. At that same time, the Devrimci Sol prisoners gave strength to the campaign with their actions and statements in court. In April 1996, Devrimci Sol member Recep Gueler was made "disappeared". There has been no news from him since his arrest on April 24. All inquiries were answered with "He isn't with us"... Luetfiye Kacar from Devrimci Sol was made "disappeared" as well after her arrest in October 1994. During that same period, a member from the TDKP (Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey), Kenan Bilgin, was made disappeared while he was in police custody in the DAL (Deep Investigation Laboratory), despite many witnesses. On October 26, the Platform for Rights and Freedom started a hunger strike inside the regional SHP-office in Istanbul against the disappearances, the massacres and the burning down of villages. On December 24, Ismail Bahceci was arrested and made disappeared. A broad campaign was launched for Ismael Bahceci. Press conferences and panel meetings were organised, numerous actions were carried out, in Turkey as well as abroad. The "Committee `No against disappearances'" did a lot in Ankara. A speech was held at a civil servants meeting on January 21, 1995, in Ankara. The "Revolutionary People's Forces" entered the Istanbul office of the SHP in Esenler, accusing the party of accomplicity. Actions for the disappeared were carried out in many neighbourhoods, roads were set on fire. Attacks with bombs and fire-bombs were carried out against state institutions from Istanbul to Trabzon and Adana, actions like painting slogans and hanging banners were carried out everywhere. Delegations for Ismail Bahceci were organised in Europe. The delegation from Austria, the Netherlands and Greece tried to have several meetings in Ankara and Istanbul. Those in power, cornered again, tried to avoid meetings with the delegates everywhere. The campaign for Ismail Bahceci met a lot of response inside the country and abroad, a sensitivity for the disappeared was created. This campaign showed that the disappeared would not be given up, under no circumstances. "DISAPPEARANCES" THROUGHOUT THE WORLD Those in power have used all kinds of inhuman methods against the oppressed throughout history to be able to continue their injust system. To secure their power, it was necessary to prevent the people from organising and fighting. Therefore there here has always been pressure from the rulers against the oppressed. That has been the aim of the torture, the massacres and the dungeons, used against those who fought against injustice, against the resisting peoples. The methods which were used against the poor changed with the development of societies, and with an unchanging aim and substance in its form, methods were developed which were adopted to the specifics of certain periods. To have people tore apart by animals, putting them on top of stakes, burning or stoning them to death, and all kinds of torture methods created space for others. During the phase of imperialism, the last stage of capitalism, even more "scientific" and "specific" methods were applied in the struggle the peoples that fought for independence, democracy and freedom, all in line with the demagogy about "human rights", coming up after the II. War of Partition. It was begun to lead the attacks against the peoples of the world from the imperialist centres and monopolies. The USA, becoming the leader of imperialism during this phase, designed new attack policies against the peoples, learning from the liberation struggles in the past. They used their newly developed physical and psychological methods in practice. One of these methods was the policy of DISAPPEARANCES, used by the imperialists and their local collaborators against the revolutionaries. The first order to "make disappear" NIGHT AND HAZE The policy of "making disappear" was for the first time applied systematically by the Nazi-regime during the II. Imperialist War of Partition against the people that were occupied by Hitler fascism. Confronted with the increasing anti-fascist resistance, Hitler stated: "Executions create heroes", and the Nazi's started to apply more differentiated methods to "prevent heroes". And so the "Night and Haze" decree was published in February 1942. Prisoners in custody were to be transported to Germany in the night. Tens of thousands of people were sent into uncertainty. The taken measures were defended as follows: "These measures will ensure definite results because: a)There will be no trail of the prisoners, b)There will be no information about their whereabouts or fate". In this way, tens of thousands of people, pushed into train wagons in the night, were sent to the ovens to be executed and for the first time mass disappearances entered history. This policy, for the first time applied by the Nazi's, was used by the imperialist USA in a further developed form after the II. War of Partition, this time against the class specific and national liberation struggles of the neo-colonial countries. The Nazi's extend "NIGHT AND HAZE" to the neo-colonies, ordered by imperialism At the end of the II. Imperialist War of Partition, the fascist Hitler-generals, aware that there would be a regeneration, secretly sought contact with the USA. As a result of the negotiations with the USA, some of these generals sought refuge in the USA, others in Latin-America. Among them was general Gehlim, specialist in fascist underground organising. The fascist generals, giving their entire knowledge and experience to US-imperialism, laid the basis for contra-guerrilla organisations in the entire world, aimed against class specific and national liberation struggles. After the II. Imperialist War of Partition, the lessons learned from the "Night and Hazel" decree against the people who resisted fascism in Europe and Germany, and the lessons learned by the USA till then from the wars against the peoples, were all put together. They started to apply the policy of "making disappear" in a more specific way, especially directed against the people of the Latin-American countries. This policy was extended to all neo-colonial countries in the world. The result of this barbaric inhuman policy was that countries like Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Burundi, Morocco, Cambodia, the Philippines, Ecuador, Haiti, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, India, Kuwait, Rwanda, Namibia, Papua-New Guinea and Turkey have become countries of the "disappeared". Guatemala covered in "haze" 40.0000 DISAPPEARED In 1954, Albay Castillo Armas took power in Guatemala. Albay Castillo Armas was an officer, trained by CIA-experts in the USA. And thus started an untamed terror against the ethnic people. During the phase of the junta, the influence of the monopoly `United Fruit' increased and the land which had been expropriated by the former government was given back to the large landowners. The wave of terror against the people, reached its top in 1966 when the entire country was sold off to imperialism for a mere song. In 1967, after the "search and destroy" operations against the guerrilla movements, roads had become unpassable because of the many corpses. Water wells and rivers were full of corpses, corpses who could not be identified because of the torture, corpses which had been skinned, severed heads, body parts, arms and legs... This sight more or less became normality. Together with the "Glorious Army of Guatemala", during this phase completely collaborating with the USA, the NOA (New Anti-Communist Organisation) cut off the left hands of their enemies, and tongues were torn out. The contra-guerrilla organisation, called MANO (Organised National Anti-Communist Movement) marked opposition members by painting black crosses on their doors. Besides the overt and covert massacres, daily mass mortality continued, caused by poverty. From the 70.000 people who died in Guatemala in 1968, 30.000 were children. Child mortality rates were forty times higher than in the USA. As a result of the hopelessness of the rulers, confronted with the struggle of the peoples, the method of "disappearances" was applied frequently for the first time in Guatemala during this years, in time it developed into one of the most basic forms of attack. From 1966 till now, some 40.000 people were "made disappeared" in Guatemala. 1973... Uruguay and Chile The increasing poverty and need, caused by the beginning of the economic-political crisis of 1968 in Uruguay (the production is based on farming and cattle breeding), led to one strike after the other. The influence of the armed movement Tupamaru, fighting a liberation struggle, grew in time, and the number of armed actions against the rulers increased. To keep down the growing struggle of the people, the fascist junta took power in July 1973. With the fascist junta, Uruguay changed into a large concentration camp. Besides torture and massacre, "disappearances" became daily events. The murdered and "disappeared" were not only Tupamaros. Intellectuals, pupils, opponents of the system, all segments of the people became the target of the relentless terror of the fascist junta. The people who were heavily tortured in the "Libertad" dungeons of Montevideo for weeks and months, later "disappeared". The corpses were left to rot in ditches, the irrigation canals, the woods. The bodies of some of the disappeared were later found in lonely places. During the phase of the military junta, thousands of Uruguayans "disappeared". The socialist Allende-government, coming to power after the elections of 1973, wanted to end the exploitation by the international copper monopolies, which largest reserves are in Chile. The mining industries were to be nationalised. The imperialists, seeing their profits endangered, opened war against Allende. Chile was economically completely strangled. The people were incited against the government and in the end the military junta, backed by the USA, came to power, led by the fascist Pinochet. Allende was murdered, the country was changed into a blood-bath. The national stadium in Santiago was re-functioned into a torture centre. Tens of thousands of Chileans were made "disappeared" after they had been tortured and murdered in this stadium. During this phase, not only Chileans "disappeared", the junta didn't shriek back to make disappear many democratic and intellectualist foreigners as well. Pinochet, who transformed Chile into a country of the "disappeared" and a country of massacres, entered history as one of the most bloody dictatorships with these methods. The torture methods of the intelligence organisation of that time, DINA, and the fate of the "disappeared" were revealed to the entire world later with the confessions of DINA-employees who were responsible for the countless massacres and who had gone through a crisis. The "disappearances" became systematic state policy The "disappeared" became part of the war reality in our country. With the beginning of 1994, the state continued the "making disappear", and the revolutionaries continued their struggle for the sake of the "disappeared". In most cases, the disappeared were never found again. However, during that phase it was sometimes possible to recover the bodies. Only in a few cases was it possible to free those were disappear from the hands of the state. A "lucky case" of disappearance With the intensification of the policy of disappearances, the sensibility and the fighting spirit of the people's segments began to develop as well. The mothers, despite all the hindrances, demanded accountability from the murderers of their children and with numerous actions they created a tradition of struggle for the disappeared. Ayhan Uzala, kidnapped by the contra-guerrilla on November 29, 1994, was the first who was to escape the state policy of disappearances. When he left his house in Kadikoey/Istanbul he was taken away by 7-8 persons. This was not a normal arrest, as the leader of the unit declared, "illegal methods" were used. Because of the increasing publicity in- and outside the country, the murder of Ayhan Uzala, who was interrogated for 20 days in the neighbourhood of Izmit/Kandira, could be prevented. Ayhan Uzala described the incident as follows: "After my kidnapping, I was interrogated for a long time. During the interrogations, they repeatedly showed me pictures of press conferences, held by my family and several democratic mass organisations who wanted to find me again. (...) In the night of the 20th. day, they came again. The usual questions were repeated for a while. A short time later the leader of the team asked upset, "why haven't you told us you're a Dutch citizen". But then he said: "Well, you've passed your first visitor's phase, but we'll hand you over to another team. You'll stay there for 3 months and they will try new methods." The wallet and the items they had taken from me on the first day were given back to me. Then they put me in a van. After more or less three hours, the van stopped in a wooded area and I was taken out. The noise of dry leaves we stepped on and the silence around made me realise we were in a wood. At first they wanted to tie me to a tree. I resisted. Then they leaned me against it. The leader of the team said: "Well, this is the end of it, we'll kill you". The same voice yelled: "Kneel down!" I said "No, I will not kneel down, no way". (Ayhan Azala, OEzguer UElke, December 25, 1994) While the story of Ayhan Uzala, "released" in the woods, shows the disappearance policy of the state and the massacres during the arrest, it as also an example that the arrested can be freed from the hands of the murderers. The State Security Court agreed, the police let "disappear" Cueneyt Aydinlar, a third year student at the Faculty for Communication Sciences of the Istanbul University, was arrested on February 22, 1995, together with 13 friends. The State Security Court decided police custody for 15 days. The state prosecutor in this case was Aytac Tolay. Looking at the situation in Turkey, this wasn't unusual so far. The real developments only showed at the end of these 15 days. When the people who were arrested together with Cueneyt Aydinlar were brought to the State Security Court again, Cueneyt Aydinlar, whose arrest had been acknowledged by the prosecutor, wasn't present. The police stated Cueneyt Aydinlar had escaped from the station and the state prosecution issued an warrant against her for escaping. Despite many witnesses and the official recognition of her arrest, Cueneyt Aydinlar was made disappeared while in police custody. Aysenur, Hasan and Ridvan Aysenur Simsek was arrested in January 1995. Despite all the efforts and a lot of requests, there has been no news from her. The official institutions didn't acknowledge her arrest. On April 12, the state prosecutor of Kirikkale called Aysenur's family and told them the place where Aysenur had been buried. Aysenur was kidnapped by the contra-guerrilla, then tortured and murdered. Aysenur body, which showed gun shots in the head, the chest and the chin, represented a new level of the policy of disappearances and massacres. Hasan Ocak was kidnapped by the contra-guerrilla on March 21, 1995. Despite activities for months, no result could be achieved. While Hasan's name was added to the list of the disappeared, one day farmers found a dead body in a wood in Beykoz, showing signs of torture. Hasan Ocak was arrested on March 21, tortured in several ways and then strangled. After the body, found in the village of Bozhane/Beykoz, had been kept for 28 days in the Forensic Institute, it was buried on the cemetery for the "unknown" in Altinsehir. His brother, who went to the Forensic Institute on May 16, was able to identify Hasan from a picture. Hasan was kidnapped, like Aysenur, then murdered and his body was left behind in a remote area. The body of Ridvan Karakoc, covered with torture signs, who had been made disappeared at the end of February, was also found in March in the woods near Beykoz. He was later buried on the cemetery for the "unknown". The state prosecutor of Beykoz stated that the family of Ridvan Karakoc had been contacted after his identity was established with fingerprints. However, his body was found on March 3 and was kept in the Forensic Institute till March 26. Then he was buried on the cemetery for the "unknown". Only after Hasan Ocak's body had been identified by his brother, could the whereabouts of Ridvan Karakoc be found out. The oligarchy covered the people with terror be leaving the bodies of the people who had been murdered after their arrest at places where they would be easily found. The oligarchy, aiming at terrifying the people and forcing the revolutionaries to give up, used this method to increase fear and passivity, saying "I am the state, I can let disappear, I can let murder". The oligarchy extended its psychological attack against the people. "Turkey will not become another Argentina" Despite the terror by the oligarchy, become more and more relentless, the people did not remain silent. The attacks were damned with numerous actions. During a campaign, led by the DHKC (Revolutionary People's Liberation Front), the people demanded accountability from its enemies. In this phase of numerous actions, new traditions were created in the struggle for the disappeared. On May 12, members of TIYAD (Support and Human Rights Association of the Prisoner's Relatives) blocked the Bogaz Bridge, stopping the traffic and shouting slogans like "Turkey will not become another Argentina!" On May 19, more than 10.000 people from the population and several revolutionary organisations joined Hasan Ocak's funeral in the Gazi neighbourhood (Istanbul) With countless panel meeting at the universities, commemorations in the neighbourhoods, distributing posters and hanging banners, the issue of the disappearances was made known to the broad public. The DHKC held the enemies of the people responsible by carrying out bomb attacks and punishment actions. There were numerous occupation actions abroad as well. In Cologne, meetings and a demonstration were held. A signature campaign, started by the Information Centre for Free Peoples was joined by countless people and institutions in Europe. In the Middle East, many organisations showed their support in the struggle against the disappearances as well. Many statements, coming from organisations in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Tunisia, condemned fascism. On June 9, 1995, the Armed Propaganda Unit Ibrahim Yalcin (belonging to the DHKC), led by Sibel Yalcin, carried out an action against policemen who guarded the entrance of the regional DYP office in Istanbul. One policeman was killed, another severely wounded. The DHKC claimed the action, in which Sibel Yalcin died in the end, with this statement: "Aysenur Simsek's murderer is the state. It's his contra-guerrilla, his police, his MIT (National Intelligence Service), his army. The people cannot live without justice. It cannot remain a bystander, watching injustice and oppression in a country without any sign of justice. It cannot bend for the tyrants, the oppression and dishonour. It cannot capitulate. We will not capitulate. We will apply the people's justice." "Where are our 300 disappeared people?" In July, the DHKC carried out a campaign called "Where are our 300 disappeared people?". At the beginning of this campaign, a torturer was punished in Okmeydani on July 9. The most effective actions of the campaign were the occupations. On July 13, the "Revolutionary People's Forces" occupied the head office of the "New Democratic Movement" in Istanbul, their demand: "We want the murderers of Aysenur, Hasan and Ridvan". On July 14, the Galata Tower was occupied. The Barristers Guild in Istanbul was occupied on July 28 as well. The occupations, aimed at informing the entire public about the issue of the disappearances, among others, expressed the question "Where are our 300 disappeared people?" On July 16 and 17, fighters of the DHKC held the torturing enemies of the people responsible. Attacks against police units were carried out in Beyazit and Alibeykoey. Besides Istanbul, actions were also carried out in numerous cities of Anatolia, as well as in Europe. Disappearing in Kurdistan This is where the "OHAL" is declared, the state of emergency. Everything has been a little different there. The Kurdish people, subjected to oppression and massacres for decades, was one of the segments in the nineties which had to endure state terror the most. Houses, entire villages, were burned down. Mass torturing was carried out village squares and in police stations. Because it defended its national honour, all kinds of oppression were seen as appropriate. Hundreds, thousands were massacred. The policy of disappearances were applied to the Kurdish people as well, relentlessly. Hundreds of people "disappeared". It's even impossible now to determine the exact figure. Hundreds were added to the list of the disappeared as "nameless disappeared". "We will find Duezguen" On October 21, 1995, Duezguen Tekin, while leaving the house of a relative in the Evren-neighbourhood (Istanbul) to go to work, was kidnapped by plain-clothed policemen. He "disappeared". Shortly before his disappearance, Duezguen had told his family that he had been constantly followed the week before by plain-clothed policemen. He mentioned the plates of the car, 34F6676, which was following him. Despite all the efforts of his relatives and the lawyers, the police denied Duezguen's arrest. Duezguen was a worker and he belonged to the Revolutionary Workers' Movement. His mother, Elif Tekin, who stated: "I want my son back from the state. We went everywhere, they say `He isn't here'. We vowed, we will find Duezguen", has become a determined and persistent "relative of the disappeared". A campaign, taking on international dimensions, was organised to find Duezguen Tekin. Numerous manifestations for Duezguen were held in November and December. Furthermore there were several bomb attacks against fascist institutions. On December 1, an armed attack was carried out against a police car in Firuezkoey. On December 19, the mothers occupied the election office of the former state minister Algan Hacaloglu. Despite all the actions during that time, nothing could be found out about Duezguen Tekin. In May 1996, new developments occurred regarding Duezguen's disappearance. Kasim Acik, interrogated in the Gebze prison and later punished by the MLKP, mentioned in his confession that Duezguen had been buried in Cadirkent. Thereupon a search action was started in Cadirkent. The action, in which Elif Tekin participated in the first ranks, was supported by other mothers and several democratic mass organisations. The CHP regional office in Fatih was attacked by the DHKC on July 31. An attack against the police station in OErnektepe occurred on August 20. While the DHKC showed that the murderers would not get away unpunished during this important phase of the struggle, a broad publicity was created with countless actions. Although 1995 was one of the years with the highest figure of disappearances, a strengthening tradition of struggle could be seen in the following phase. The struggle against the "disappearances" and the taken position The struggle, waged against the disappearances, was significant in as far as it was meant to break through the psychological effect which the state sought to spread, rendering the policy of disappearances futile. The state thought society would withdraw more with each new disappearance. It tried to make people get used to disappearances. But this has not been the case. With the efforts of the mothers for their children, the helplessness and the lack of perspective of the state became apparent. The struggle against the disappearances spread across the borders of the country, across the whole world. New traditions were created in this field. Especially the Mothers of the Disappeared, with their sit-down-action in front of the Galatasaray Gymnasium each Saturday, represent an important part of the struggle for the disappeared. Without doubt, this position was not won easily, was not easy to keep. The mothers were clubbed down, dragged from the square, but they did not give in. Despite all the terror, spread by the state, despite the retreat of several reformist circles, the Mothers of the Disappeared won. This time the state tried to hide its exposed face with "Disappeared Information Busses" and "Disappearance Offices". Putting the reality of the disappearances in our country on the agenda, it has been the Party-Front who fought for that under all circumstances. Whether with actions on the democratic level, or with actions with which people were held accountable, the Party-Front didn't give up the disappeared. This struggle followed a line which crossed the policy of the oligarchy, demanding accountability. At present as well, the struggle against the "disappearances" is a task of all who regard themselves as humans. Although a serious sensitivity has been created regarding this issue, this in itself isn't enough. Those who do not want to be the next tomorrow have to act for the disappeared today. If we want to render the state policy of disappearances futile, if we want to end the disappearances, this is inevitable. "DISAPPEARANCES " IN THE WORLD When we think of disappearances, one country springs to mind: Argentina. In the years between 1976 and 1983, when the military junta was in power to crush the growing liberation struggle of the people, between 30 and 40 thousand people "disappeared" in Argentina. The policy of "disappearances", quite common in the Latin-American countries since the sixties, later spreading to the other neo-colonial countries of the world, was most intensely applied in Argentina. The executors of this policy were the army and the co-operating contra-guerrilla organisation AAA (Anti-Communist Alliance of Argentina). The Argentine Aliciay Partnoy who could be rescued before his disappearance, describes the co-operation between the army and the AAA as follows: "One day I was arrested in front of my house by uniformed soldiers. In the five months I was their hands I learned a lot regarding "disappearances". My hands tied, my eyes covered, I was put in a military vehicle. I was in the hands of the Anti-Communist Alliance of Argentina of which the army claims it has no ties with." All those who were in the concentration centres and camps, all those who wanted the independence of Argentina, were kept their as hostages. The life of these people, subjected to torture and oppression, depended on coincidence. The cruelty, applied at that time in Argentina, was described in a confession of the petty officer Victor Armanda Ibarez, member of the Guard Regiment of the Armed Forces of Argentina, albeit not very comprehensively. It was published in the paper "La Prensa", published in Buenos Aires on April 24, 1995. Petty officer Ibanez declared in these confessions to have savagely killed about 2.000 people between 1976 and 1978, carrying tasks in El Compito. Petty officer Ibanez stated that the "disappeared" people, of whom the state claimed they were not in its hands, were thrown out of planes into the ocean, after being drugged with the so-called Pananoval. The cruelties, carried out with Phantoms from the Air Force, were a feast for the sharks. The sharks, digesting the people who were thrown off the planes with appetite really began to become fat. I do not want to go into these gruesome details. Regarding these massacres I witnessed, I'm ashamed to be a human being." (Cumhuriyet, January 5, 1997, p. 6) Petty officer Ibanez wasn't the only one who made confessions regarding the massacres which were carried out. The pensioned colonel Adolfo Francisco Scilingo made similar statements. General Martin Balz said on television: "Besides the violations of the right to life, numerous illegal methods were applied against the arrested. The horror they went through can no longer be denied. We will not repeat the mistakes we've made. I give you my word". (Yeni Politika, May 14, 1995, p. 4) The methods which were used were extremely cruel and inhuman, for instance, pregnant women were subjected to severe torture until they gave birth, chained together they had to await there time. After giving birth, the mothers were murdered and made "disappeared". The babies were given to the torturers who had murdered their mothers, to soldiers, state prosecutors and judges. Nowadays there are tens of thousands of grandmothers in Argentina who are searching for their grandchildren, whose mothers and fathers have been murdered. "Identifying Commissions" were set up and 56 trials to find the grandchildren were concluded. It weren't just socialists and revolutionaries who were hit by the terror which ruled Argentina, who "disappeared". All those who opposed the junta, even "people like you and me" were subjected to the most severe torture and to "disappearance". An example from Africa: the Western Sahara The policy of disappearances of US-imperialism, taken over from Hitler-fascism, further developed and applied in Latin-America, was soon practised by the collaborating rulers of all neo-colonial countries. The Moroccan leadership, which occupied the Western Sahara, also grabbed for the weapon of "disappearances". The West-Saharan El Khadir Daoud, whom they wanted to make "disappear" at that time but who surfaced 16 years later in good health, reports: "The beginning of our war lies 30 years back. Our country, Sahara, a country in Africa, was split up between Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. Our country, colonialised by Spain in November 1975, was later given to Morocco and Mauritania. After Morocco occupied the Western Sahara, the Moroccan government launched attacks against relatives of the members of POLISARIO (People's Liberation Front of El Hamra and Rio de Ora), which resisted the occupation. According to Amnesty International, more than 260 people disappeared. In the morning of March 17, 1976, when I wanted to go to my training as a high school teacher, I was arrested by plain-clothed policemen. First, they cut off my hair and my beard. Our own clothes were taken from us and in stead we were given trousers and a shirt. Then they gave us orders. `You are now in a school, forget your name no. 82. When you have to go to the toilet, when you want water, when you want to wash or to pray, then call (EL Hajj)'. I was never addressed with my name again. Questions were asked regarding the POLISARIO. We calculated the days to be able to endure the torture, using the meals we were forced to eat. The interrogations and the torture lasted for 7 months. (...) Our contact with the outside world was completely broken off. For 16 years, I haven't heard a radio or music. I never saw a book, nor a pencil. For 5 years we didn't shave. We shortened our growing beards and moustaches with a cigarette. Our clothes bleached and started to fall apart. In 1991, the local security forces in the centre we were in, brought a television set, a video recorder and a cassette. They delivered us a message, something like `the King of Morocco., Hassan II., has forgiven the people from Sahara who are in prison'. Then, in July 1992, I was put in a military vehicle, together with 60 other `disappeared', and we were brought to an empty hotel in Quarzazate. Later I also came to my hometown Tan-Tan. After my release I was officially under police custody for another two days." (Demokrasi, May 18, 1996) Daoud, released after 16 years, and officially held for two days, stated that more than 60 people had been murdered in the secret detention centres. The struggle against the "disappearances" world-wide The struggle against the "disappearances" first got world-wide publicity in 1977 with the actions of the mothers of the "disappeared" on the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, just a 100 meters from the headquarters of the junta. The "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo", named after the place of their action, started with their action on a Thursday when they came together, led by the mother of one the disappeared, Azucina Villaflor de Vicente. The number of participants grew larger and larger in time. They always wore white headbands, they wrote petitions, lighted candles, chained themselves to the entrances of state institutions, put appeals in the papers... In 1978, during the World Championships football, held in Argentina, they made themselves heard to the entire world. The fascist junta in Argentina, its bloody face exposed to the entire world, started to attack the mothers of the "Plaza de Mayo" even harder, confronted with their helplessness. Many lawyers, functioning as a mouth-piece for the mothers, disappeared, as well as senora Vicente herself. However, the "disappearances", the threats and the attacks by the state never made them give up their justified struggle. In 1971, the 81 year old Mrs. Pargament, after "losing" her son, addressed all her friends and acquaintances, even the "Disappearances Office" which was set up by the junta, but it was all in vain. Mrs. Pargamant states: "Villaflor de Vicente, at that time in vain looking for her child, like us, one day said: `We're walking around without any sense. This way we will never achieve something. Why don't we go to the Plaza de Mayo to carry out a sit-down-action. We can tell the people about our worries there, and we can write letters to the proper institutions.' That day was April 30, 1977. A Saturday. The next Thursday we were on the square. Our numbers grew every Thursday. The police asked us what we wanted. We told them: `We want our children back. And we will write a letter regarding this matter.' They said: `If that's the case you'll have to move. There is no other way.' We started to move. Lined up, we walked into an area of state institutions. We marched and wrote letters at the same time. As you can imagine, the police immediately tried to prevent that. But we, mothers, weren't afraid of anything." (Cumhuriyet, January 5, 1997, p. 7) The fascist junta called the mothers, whose struggle it wanted to smudge and humiliate, "Las Locas", (Crazy Women), or the "Crazy Ones from Thursday". But the state terror, like torture, massacre and disappearances, intended to keep down the struggle of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo proved t o be futile. In the end the state tried to bribe the mothers, using new laws. To no effect. The mothers rejected the money, covered with the blood of their children. At the end of the struggle, waged by the Argentinean people against the junta, wishing for justice, the civic government, coming to power in 1983, started show-trials against the junta leaders. In these trials, only junta chief general Jorge Videla and admiral Emilio Massera were sentenced to life. However, even these were released after a while, when an amnesty was decreed. The present situation is described by Mrs. Pargament as follows: "Now our state minister is saying that 1 million dollar is to be given for each "disappeared". But we are not interested in the bloody money from the state. We very well know that, when we take the money, we will have to keep quiet. We will have no more rights to make demands. These people do not know us. We will not sell the blood of our children. We will not forgive the murderers, we will not forget. We will continue our struggle till the last drop of blood. The struggle of the mothers is of a political nature. We want all families to have a roof over their heads, we want the fathers to have work, we want the children to have the possibility to go to school. We want a country where it is possible to live. That is what our children wanted as well, and that's the only reason they have gone. 30.000 disappeared children have fought for a better world. But we mothers only understood that after we lost our children. Our children have shown us the right way." (Cumhuriyet, January 5, 1997, p. 7) -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Tue Aug 18 20:05:09 1998 From: tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (tabe at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 18 Aug 1998 20:05:09 Subject: Turkey: ODP leader criticizes Demirel's proposed presence at Agar we Message-ID: ODP leader criticizes Demirel's proposed presence at Agar wedding Istanbul - Turkish Daily News In the open letter sent by Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) General Chairman Ufuk Uras to President Suleyman Demirel, Uras called on the president to not participate in the wedding of Mehmet Agar's, Elazig True Path Party (DYP) Parliamentarian Mehmet Agar which was to be held last night. In the letter Uras stated that if President Demirel went to the wedding of Mehmet Agar's son, it would show that the most important person in the continuing investigation of the Susurluk case, Mehmet Agar, was being tolerated by the government. "Mr. President, it is very usual for you to participate in activities that suit our traditions and social life. But this wedding is like a challenge of the dark powers against a peaceful society. The criminal gangs have been taking their courage from the government and have become a dangerous element in society. Please do not provide these people with more courage by participating in this wedding." Mehmet Agar, as the former Minister of the Interior, was implicated in the Susurluk scandal which arose following a traffic accident in November, 1996. In the accident a police chief, a fugitive from charges of murder and the latter's girl friend were killed. The only survivor was the Sanliurfa DYP Parliamentarian Sedat Bucak. All four were in the same Mercedes involved in the crash. Bucak and Agar are currently being tried in court on suspicion of being involved in criminal gangs operating within the government. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Tue Aug 18 20:51:24 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 18 Aug 1998 20:51:24 Subject: Turkey/Human Rights: Old propaganda RFE: Turkey Moves To End Torture Message-ID: Europe: Turkey Moves To End Torture In Effort To Join EU By Joel Blocker Prague, 12 March 1997 (RFE/RL) - Strongly supported by the United States, Turkey has begun a new effort to establish its credentials as a candidate for full membership in the European Union. Not for the first time, Ankara's effort centers on improving the country's human rights record, a long-time target of Western criticism and a major hurdle for Turkey's early admission into the 15-nation EU. On Monday, Deputy Premier -- and Foreign Minister -- Tansu Ciller called a press conference to declare that her Islamic-led government would end what she acknowledged was the widespread practice of torture in the country. "Whenever torture is mentioned anywhere in the world, Turkey's name is invoked," Ciller said. "This is a shame we cannot bear." Ciller pledged that torture "will be wiped out from our nation." She said that governors and police chiefs of every Turkish province would now be held responsible for stopping torture. She even promised to make unannounced personal visits to police stations to check whether the new torture regulations were being implemented. Ciller's remarks amounted to an unusually pointed avowal of what Western human-rights organizations and other critics have repeatedly contended: that torture is systematic in -- and, many say, endemic to -- Turkey. For years, Turkish high officials have insisted this was not the case, claiming that those responsible for what they said were isolated, sporadic torture incidents were always punished. In a follow-up statement yesterday, Ciller's Foreign Ministry announced a broader series of measures designed to improve the country's human rights image. The measures focus not only on preventing torture of those held in police custody, but also reducing legally sanctioned detention periods, intensifying the search for missing people and increasing freedom of expression. The Ministry said that its goal was "to drop the issue of human rights both from Turkey's agenda and from the Turkish-EU relationship before the end of this year." That, even many Turkish officials would admit, will take some doing. But remarks made yesterday by State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, and clearly not merely coincidental with the issuance of the Foreign Ministry statement, show that the United States intends to back to the hilt Turkey's campaign to refurbish its image in the West. Burns hailed Ankara's new human rights reform package and said EU members should give Turkey what he called "high marks" for its efforts. Burns also said that U.S. ambassadors in the capitals of the EU's 15 member states had been instructed to reaffirm to their host governments what he called Washington's "very strong views" on future Turkish membership in the Union. He then stated those views in the strong, staccato phrases that have quickly become the hallmark of his new boss, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "Turkey is a European country," Burns declared. "Turkey has its roots in Europe. Turkey's security is based in Europe. And Turkey's future...ought to be grounded in Europe." The trouble is, as Burns acknowledged, the United States does not have a vote in the EU and doesn't "always see eye-to-eye with (EU) governments" on Turkish issues. In fact, both the unusually strong U.S. language and Ankara's new image-polishing campaign came as a reaction to perhaps the sharpest blow to Turkish hopes for early EU admission ever administered by West European politicians. At a meeting in Brussels early last week, leaders of Europe's Center-Right parties said unanimously that they did not consider Turkey a serious EU applicant. The leaders subscribing to that view, most of them Christian Democrats, included German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Italian Premier Romano Prodi and Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar. Former Belgian Premier Wilfred Maartens spelled out their reasons for opposing Turkish entry in terms almost diametrically opposed to those used by Burns. "Turkey is not a candidate...either short-term or long," said Maartens, who now heads the Center-Right European People's Party in the EU's Parliament. "We want the closest cooperation possible (with Turkey), but we are creating a European Union. That is a E-u-r-o-p-e-a-n project." In other words -- words that Maartens diplomatically did not use -- Moslem Turkey can never be a part of Judeo-Christian Europe. The "civilization gap," as some analysts have dubbed it, between Turkey and the EU has long been the fundamental -- if seldom admitted -- reason why Turkey, granted associate status 34 years ago, has never been able to attain full EU membership. Only in recent months have EU leaders been willing to acknowledge that reality and break the taboo about discussing it in public. Five weeks ago, Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo of the Netherlands, which currently holds the EU's revolving presidency, told a European Parliament Committee that it was "time for us in Europe to be honest" about Turkey. "There is a problem with a large Moslem state," said van Mierlo, who does not share that view. "Do we want it in Europe? It is an unspoken question." Thanks to van Mierlo the question has now finally been uttered, and the candidly expressed views of EU Center-Right leaders last week owe much to his breaking of the taboo. But with offended Turkish officials threatening to block the eastward expansion of NATO (in which Ankara is a full member) if Turkey is not assured of eventual EU membership, the question is now far more complicated. That's why the United States, pushing hard for early NATO enlargement, has now decided to go all-out in pressuring EU members to re-establish Turkey's candidature. It's far from certain that the United States and Turkey will succeed. For one thing, heavy public U.S. pressure on West European governments often back-fires because EU officials do want to be perceived as bowing to U.S. demands. What's more, centuries-old history, with its evidence of a deep civilization gap, is clearly not on Turkey's side. And more recent history has amply demonstrated that Turkey's promises to improve its human rights record are seldom fulfilled. The last evidence of that failing came in the year following the EU's signing of a customs-union accord with Ankara in 1995. Angered by Turkey's reneging on its pledges to implement Western human-rights criteria, the European Parliament six months ago cut off all customs-union funding to Turkey indefinitely, in effect making the accord a dead letter. The customs union was meant to bring Turkey into closer association with the EU -- without granting it full membership. If that strategy did not work, ask some analysts, how after so many failed previous attempts can anything short of a miracle bring about early Turkish entry into the EU? -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Wed Aug 19 11:21:21 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Aug 1998 11:21:21 Subject: Grey Wolves in Kosove? Message-ID: ANKARA, Aug 18 (AFP) - A Turkish nationalist group has been recruiting volunteers to take part in a self-styled humanitarian aid mission in the war-torn southern Yugoslav region of Kosovo, the group's leader said Tuesday. "We are seeking to create a 5,000-strong Kosovo Volunteers Army and have already recruited some 2,500 men whose conditions are suitable," Tuna Koc, head of the Nizami Alem (World Order organisation, told AFP. "But do not be misled by the name, army. It will be an unarmed unit and will be involved in humanitarian missions. Our aim is not to fight the Serbs on the ground, but to provide the Kosovo refugees with humanitarian aid," he said. "We did similar things in Bosnia and Chechnya in the past," Koc said without elaborating. He charged that the "Serbs are committing the worst kind of crimes against the Albanian population of Kosovo and the western world is merely watching this. "So we have to do something to relieve the plight of those suffering," he said. "But we are waiting for the result of the planned peace talks for Kosovo. If they fail, we will step up efforts to send our men to Kosovo," Koc added. The Turkish group's move came amid increased attacks by Serb troops against independence-seeking Kosovo Albanians, led by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA. The KLA, which only a month ago claimed control of some 40 percent of Kosovo territory, has suffered a series of blows after Serb forces launched a massive offensive aimed at securing major roads connecting the capital Pristina with the west and south of the province. The Serb onslaught has caused tens of thousands of civilians to flee. International aid agencies put the figure at more than 230,000. Kosovo's whole population is around two million. The international community, headed by the United States, has been pressing Belgrade and ethnic Albanians to resume talks over restive Kosovo province, as NATO troops began manoeuvres in neighbouring Albania. Turkey has special links with Kosovo as the region was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire between the 14th century and late last century. More than two million Moslem Albanians, many of them relatives of those in Kosovo, live in Turkey, according to ethnic Albanian groups in the country. But despite its strong ethnic and religious ties with the Kosovo Albanians, Turkey has refrained from supporting the region's independence aspirations. Ankara instead favours the restoration of Kosovo's autonomy and a solution within Yugoslavia's territorial integrity. However, this did not prevent Turkish President Suleyman Demirel from condemning Serb attacks as a crime against humanity and calling for western intervention during a visit to Albania last month. Koc said his group did not want to undertake anything that might be viewed as an "illegal move in the eyes of the Turkish government and the United Nations, and will be seeking their green light before sending our men to Kosovo. "If get that kind of green light, we will apparently not wait for permission from the Serb perpetrators," added the leader of the nationalist Turkish group. But Turkish government officials ruled out any support for the initiative. Koc's Nizami Alem is an organisation on the sidelines of the right-wing Grand Union Party, a seven-MP opposition group in Turkey's 550-seat parliament. That party supported an Islamist-led cabinet from outside the government when it ruled the country between June 1996 and June last year. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Wed Aug 19 19:19:50 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Aug 1998 19:19:50 Subject: Latest news from US Bases strike Message-ID: Harb-is has a new strike web page in English/Turkish. You can find many things about the strike from http://www.harb-is.org.tr *************************************************************************** President Izzet Cetins press conference in Adana on the occasion of the 23rd day of Harb- strike at US military workplaces 14th August 1998 Dear members of our Press, dear colleagues, and my dear striking friends, who, for 23 days now, have incessantly been defending labours honour against all sorts of repression. In some editorials and some news, on both national press and the Internet, one sees some false information as to how workers have deprived pregnant women of milk, and people of food and drink, and fuel. US soldiers claim to be surrounded, and under siege, while the US Ministry of Defence and Embassy reminds us of a possible deterioration of mutual relations between Turkey and the US as a consequence of our strike, clearly with a view to break it. As is known, the negotiation process, initiated on March 19, could not be concluded within the legal term of sixty days, and no agreement came either out the additional term of negotiations, as a consequence of the US employers stubborn attitude, as evidenced by the state mediators report. So our Union announced a strike at all three US workplaces, and went on strike on July 23, 1998, in Adana, zmir and Ankara. In the process of using this legal and constitutional right, we have seen the US employers attempts to break our strike. As you well know, military forces based on a foreign soil are obliged to comply with the legal system of the host country according to NATO-SOFA / NATO-DECA and SEIA mutual agreements. Yet, the US employer has never obeyed the Turkish law, and acted to break our strike. Colonel Robertus Remkes, Commander of ncirlik Base, and other military authorities are continuously trying to break our strike, as openly evidenced by inspectors reports as well as court decisions. Our picketers have been harassed, and US soldiers photographed and sent dogs onto picketers. Besides, the US side is spreading false news, stories of Turkish workers depriving American children of fresh milk, and people in general, of food and drink, and imprisoning people to their houses. We, as the Union of Defence Workers, are using a legal and constitutional right, the right to strike. We are not warring, as the US side would think. Though we find it hard to believe that US children are deprived of even milk, Aye Ba, the head of Womens Committee of our Adana Branch, has personally volunteered to distribute milk to American children, saying she is also a mother and she is in this struggle to get milk for her own children. On the other hand, the fact that the US citizens cant leave the base has hardly anything to do with the strike. They are simply not allowed to do so, because of an internal circular of US Commendership, which aims at a consumer boycott in the town, and arouse a confrontation between shop owners and strikers. This simply wont work and I extend my thanks to ncirliks shop owners for their understanding and support. And finally, according to the soldiers and civilians of ncirlik Base, their lives are endangered, and our Union and members are to be blamed for it. Harb- Union, as an organisation deeply devoted to democracy and human rights, never attacks peoples right to life... On the contrary, we qualify any such attacks as incompatible with human honour. Therefore, we decline any responsibility for ungrounded allegations, and condemn any such harassment against US citizens. Dear Friends of Labour, Our struggle is one of honour and bread, and against all sorts of arrogant attitudes towards our national independence. The NATO-SOFA / NATO/DECA agreements stipulate that foreign countries must fully comply with host countries legal system. Foreigners who do not have a work permit can not be employed in positions which are exclusively reserved for Turkish workers. Yet, the US employer, keeps violating our national legislation, and this, despite severel inspectors reports and court decisions, so considering other nations, including the Turkish Republic, like 8th class banana republics. Dear Friends, Our struggle is one for bread and human pride, one which is carried out by 1,800 proud and brave members of Harb-, and is not caused by excessive wage demands, as argued and propagated by the US employer. We demand: More protection against arbitrary lay-off, Amelioration of working conditions, Prevention of illegal labour, Extension of collective agreement rights to sub-contracting labour, Respect for our national law and court decisions, and Decent wages... However, the US employer has continued its usual insensitiveness to our legitimate demands, bringing the negotiations of the last three days to a dead end. The attempts to suppress our strike, and all sorts of Byzantine intrigues, are publicly known. And I declare that nothing will stop our legitimate struggle. We are all familiar with some circles who argue that our strike will make harm to the Turkish-US relations. I am calling upon all US fans and aspirers of mandate regime: The US side is only an employer to us. And it has to know its powers, duties and responsibilities, period ... What goes on now in Adana, Izmir and Ankara, is a struggle for bread. And respecting and supporting this legitimate struggle is a duty for all. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to all friends of labour, who have been supporting our strike for the last 23 days. Izzet etin President -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Wed Aug 19 19:19:57 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Aug 1998 19:19:57 Subject: TURKEY: When an Amnesty Is Not The Answer To HR Crisis Message-ID: /** ips.english: 459.0 **/ ** Topic: DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-TURKEY: When An Amnesty Is Not The Answer To ** ** Written 4:14 PM Aug 18, 1998 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.english ** Copyright 1998 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks. *** 15-Aug-98 *** Title: DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-TURKEY: When An Amnesty Is Not The Answer To Human Rights Crisis By Nadire Mater ISTANBUL, Aug 11 (IPS) - 'They are free. And you?' read the ironic slogan on the placards raised alongside pictures of Turkey's four most famous prisoners of conscience: sociologist Ismail Besikci, playwright Esber Yagmurdereli, journalist Ragip Duran and international relations analyst Haluk Gerger. Hundreds of people, including prominent journalists and human rights activists, gathered in Istanbul's Ortakoy District Square at the weekend, calling for the immediate release of all Turkey's political prisoners, jailed journalists and writers. Street p erformers and musicians gave the event a festive air. The government, which includes several figures who were jailed as 'subversives' and 'terrorists' during the years of military rule in the 1970s, has tabled general amnesty proposals for the Turkish Republic's forthcoming 75th anniversary. But they exclude freedom for ''prisoners of conscience''. For the political prisoners in Turkish jails, a national amnesty that excludes them is nonsense. ''It is a universally accepted standard that 'amnesty' means the state's annulment of so-called crimes committed by its political dissidnts,'' Esber Yagmurdereli told IPS during an interview in Cankiri Central Prison last week. Having spent 13 of his 53 years of life in prison, the veteran peace campaigner, blind since the age of 11, is expected to serve another 22 and a half years in jail. The media has called for freedom of ''prisoners of conscience'' and for changes to the l aw, while insisting that captured Kurdish guerrillas stay in jail. Most of Turkey's prisoners of conscience were jailed for their efforts to spread the word about the country's debilitating 14 year civil conflict in the south-east, where Turkish Kurds seek autonomy for their region. Support for the Kurdish case, even voicing concern about the conduct of the war, is dubbed by the Turkish state as illegal support for 'separatism'. Dozens of people, from paliamentarians to playwrights, have been jailed for speaking out. ''For every gain a price should be paid,'' Yagmurdereli said, in a special message to the weekend event in Ortakoy. ''The price should be paid for final victory. I greet those who have been paying and those who are lined up to pay for their part.'' Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has proposed a limited general amnesty for the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Turkish Republic. But citing constitutional articles 14 and 87, which restrict parliament's power to pardon crimes against the state, Ecevit says a general amnesty is out of question. ''However,'' he adds, ''we can pardon those prisoners who have committed crimes due to p overty and want.'' Rights activists argued that the amnesty should free its dissidents, not pick out prisoners whose release would make the state look sweet. Instead Ecevit has redefined 'crimes against the state' as 'crimes of terrorism' and grouped them with state frauds ters, torturers, murderers, rapists and tax evaders -- all of whom will be denied amnesty as well. ''They (the government) say, `If you are a prisoner of conscience, you better stay inside','' says journalist Oral Calislar mockingly. A leading columnist with the Istanbul daily Cumhuriyet, Calislar spent 20 months in jail on charges of 'separatism' aft er he interviewed two Kurdish leaders in 1993, Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Kemales Burkay of the Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK). Optimism rang in Calislar's words: ''Turkey's democratic public should not lose hope, for we are fighting to change the world.'' ''This is a century old story,'' says journalist Nazim Alpman, spokesman for the group behind the weekend protest, Uninterrupted Fight for Freedom of Conscience (DOSS). ''Esber Yagmurdereli was released on health reasons, in November, on the eve of the E uropean Union's Luxembourg summit, against his will as well.'' The summit announced the next group of nations to join the bloc, but Yagmurdereli's release was not enough to ease the EU's concerns about Turkey's rights record, and Ankara's name was left off the list. ''Turkey was not admitted to the EU and Yagmurdere li was once again jailed,'' Alpman noted wryly. ''According to the globalisation legend the world has become smaller. Well it has for all, campaigners of freedom of expression included,'' he said. ''We are determined to internationalise our campaign until the last prisoner of consciece released and a ll the restrictive laws are abolished.'' The campaign is collecting signatures from Turkey's prominent political and intellectual figures who urge all, ''including parliamentary deputies, to assume their responsibilities and bring about freedom of conscience and expression.'' The petition has already been signed by some 500 hundred major figures, including veteran novelists Yasar Kemal and Adalet Agaoglu, poet Can Yucel, and human rights activists Akin Birdal and Ercan Kanar. According to Turkish Ministry of Justice figures, at last cunt there were 63,468 prisoners in Turkey's jails, 24,708 or 44 percent of whom will be denied amnesty if parliament passes Ecevit's proposal in October. Of that total, 9,306 were convicted under anti-terrorism laws, 13,024 for murder, 4,037 for rape, 709 for bribery, 2,633 for fraud and 3,640 for drugs related crimes. The 9,306 'terrorism' convicts include almost all of Turkey's prisoners of conscience, jailed under articles 6,7 and 8 of the 'anti-terror law' and Article 312 of the Penal Code. The law's ambiguous terminology gives the State Security Court judges to decide freely what constitutes 'support for separatism'. Ismail Besikci, Haluk Gerger and Ragip Duran all fell foul of these draconian laws. Sociologist Ismail Besikci, 53, doyen of Turkey's 'criminals of conscience' is srving his 15th year in prison. He has served several jail terms for his views on the Kurdish separatist question and his latest stint began in 1991. Already condemned to a t otal of 100 years in jail, Besikci faces sentences totalling another 104 years in cases pending against him in the State Security courts. Associate Professor Haluk Gerger, 50, international relations analyst and former lecturer at Ankara University' Faculty of Political Sciences, is currently serving eight months for separatism in Ankara's Gudul District Prison. He has published a book, Th e Political Economy of Turkish Foreign Policy, while in prison and also faces fresh charges and sentences for his writing and speeches. Journalist Ragip Duran, 44, is serving out a 10 month sentence in Saray District Prison in north west Turkey. He was jailed for writing a commentary on PKK guerrilla leader Ocalan, whom he had interviewed in 1994. ''I should remind that the four of us are not heroes but just symbols for the ongoing fight for freedom of expression,'' said Duran, speaking to IPS by phone from jail this week. ''You must not forget the 90 other journalists now in prison. We do not cla im any special privilege and we have no right to that.'' But for him, amnesty will be an inadequate response if the laws stay on the statute book and the state retains its power to jail journalists and parliamentary deputies as it sees fit. ''I do not look for an amnesty,'' Duran says. ''This should be finished once and at all. The concept of 'crime of conscience` should be abolished for ever. This is the final answer.'' (END/IPS/NM/RJ/98) Origin: Amsterdam/DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-TURKEY/ ---- *************************************************************************** This material came from PeaceNet, a non-profit progressive networking service. For more information, send a message to peacenet-info at igc.apc.org *************************************************************************** List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 21 11:37:01 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 21 Aug 1998 11:37:01 Subject: Turkish Probe on Gazi-Trial Message-ID: 16 August , 1998, Turkish Probe issue 292 The Gazi trial proceeds laboriously Initial incident : The men were in a coffeehouse watching a football match on television when a car drove by and sprayed bullets into them. This was the initial incident that triggered the Gazi uprising. Change of venue : Trabzon was thought to be the best site for the trial. It couldn't be farther from the friends and families of the Gazi victims or, for that matter, farther from the press. Silent politicians : Where are the politicians who spoke of outside 'provocateurs' back in 1995? Why don't they name names if they know something? NIKI GAMM It is Sunday, March 12, 1995. The sun has set in Istanbul. Sixty-seven-year-old Halil Kaya, who sleeps at the cemevi* in the Gazi district, is sipping tea in the Dogu Coffeehouse, where he has just arrived. A car with a taxi license plate approaches the Dogu Coffeehouse, and a hand emerges from the window and pulls the trigger of a gun. The car that has wreaked havoc in three other coffeehouses along the way disappears as suddenly as it came. As a result of the gunfire, Halil Dede** is shot dead in the chair in which he sits, and many others in the coffeehouse are wounded as they watch a match on television. The time is 10:00 p.m. and people pour into the street, trying to understand the meaning of the rifle shots. They are stunned by the sight they encounter. Halil Dede and the wounded people lie on the floor in a bloodbath, and there are scattered pieces of glass, fallen chairs, a stove that has been riddled with bullets and the dazed expressions of the people who escaped with their lives. People recall the identity check conducted in the coffeehouses just a half hour before the attack. Word spreads that although the police were on alert to secure the neighborhood, the car from which the gunned attack was staged was not stopped by security officers... The crowd marches to the Gazi police station. The officers in the station call for extra help as the crowd swells. Panzers and mobile striking forces arrive. But according to the testimony of eye witnesses, they enter the Gazi neighborhood firing bullets into the air and into houses. Thus begin the events that serve to further provoke, rather than calm, the situation. What enraged the people of Gazi ? Mehmet Gunduz was born in Erzurum in 1958. He has three children and works at construction sites in Istanbul. That night, he hears an account of the events on television, and according to the statement of his wife, he starts to worry about his friends and relatives. He goes out and meets the crowd around the prayer house. He is shot dead in front of the prayer house by panzers at about 4:30 a.m. With increased rage, the crowd marches toward the police and the panzers. The police fire on the crowd to make it disperse, and the crowd's aggressive behavior causes a further flare-up. The events continue into Monday, March 13. A curfew is declared in the Gazi neighborhood and soldiers arrive at the site of the incident. Not a confrontation between Alawites and Sunnis During the events that took place on March 12-13 in the Gazi neighborhood, 23 people lost their lives and over 100 were wounded. Efforts to portray the event as a confrontation between Alawites and Sunnis, because of the large Alawite population in the neighborhood, have been fruitless. Everything happened before the eyes of millions of people. All TV channels broadcasted the events live, including the latest developments. People who watched the events on TV witnessed everything that happened in the Gazi neighborhood. There were scenes of uniformed and civilian police officers hiding behind a wall, choosing their targets and then firing on people; they caught a girl by the hair, dragged her on the sidewalk and tread on her repeatedly. Others dragged wounded demonstrators along the ground and hit people on the head with billy clubs. These scenes are seared into the memories of people who watched the Gazi events on TV. The opening of the Gazi trial Lawsuits were filed on behalf of the people who demonstrated, and court cases begun immediately, but the trials of the guilty police officers were obstructed numerous times. When a tragedy like this occurs in a democratic country, there is usually a speedy investigation to determine who the guilty parties are and what might have motivated them. All the necessary information is collected and a prosecution begun. However, the court case involving the Gazi massacre started only after a very laborious process. According to information obtained from lawyers and from court records, the events proceeded in the following way. The Istanbul Eyup Chief Prosecutor opens a case at the Eyup Court of Serious Crimes demanding punishment for the crimes of "deliberately killing and wounding people for reasons that go beyond self-defense, and killing people in such a way that the culprits cannot be found." However, the office of the governor asks that the case be handled at another court, citing "public security." The Supreme Court transfers the case to Trabzon. The Trabzon Court of Serious Crimes asserts that the crimes were committed "on administrative duty," and, citing the law regarding the status of state officials, it obtains a decision "to stop the case." Certain of the accused police officers who had lodged a complaint object to the stopping of the case. The ensuing confusion is rather interesting. It is clear that the First Punishment Section of the Supreme Court returned the case file without scrutinizing it. Lawyers find out that the Supreme Court Chief Prosecutor has applied to the Punishment General Committee to revoke the decision of the First Punishment Section. The Committee states that the objection to the decision to stop the case should be filed at a superior law court, and this time the file is sent to the Rize Court of Serious Crimes because of its proximity to Trabzon. This court adopts the opinion of the Rize Chief Prosecutor and cancels the decision to stop the case. Finally, the Gazi case is getting under way. This time the families of the people who died in the incident raise an objection. Stating that they came from Istanbul to follow the case despite economic difficulties, they ask that the case be moved to a court closer to Istanbul, and the file is once again sent to the Supreme Court. The Tenth Punishment Section finds the relatives' demand for a change of venue inappropriate. It backs up its decision with the following justification, "According to the laws regarding procedure, material hardship cannot be a reason to transfer a case." In brief, the case that was transferred to Trabzon as a result of the state's demand cannot be moved to Istanbul in response to the the citizens' demand. Lawyers interpret this situation as a double standard. It raises the question as to whether "justice operates differently for the state than it does for the citizens." The present situation When the case that began with a record delay is reopened, people make the trip from Istanbul to Trabzon, notwithstanding the financial hardship. The Gazi events are still unresolved, despite the time that has elapsed. Statements by eye witnesses shed light on only part of the case, and only then on its more blatant aspects. The trial of 20 police officers, two of whom were arrested, continues while the presiding judges change. In fact, suspects are left to go free in limited numbers. The court statement of Zulfu Livaneli, who gave eye witness testimony at the eleventh hearing, was not transcribed as part of the court records on the objection of lawyers for the accused that it contained Livaneli's "interpretation" of the events. Lawyers for the accused objected to Livaneli's statement: "When we were working at the Milliyet newspaper, we heard of the events and went to the site of the incidents with Umur Talu and Yalcin Dogan. We saw that people were tense. I was told that there was a demand for soldiers to come to the place of the incident because of the lack of confidence in the police. They asked for the soldiers. There was a big turmoil. We made some speeches to pacify the people. While I was there, I did not witness guns being fired and people being shot. I learned about this when it was shown on TV. I have confidence in the court. I believe that justice will be served in an incident where 23 citizens lost their lives." As the trial was postponed to Sept. 8, there was a demand for a hearing involving certain witnesses and evidence. As a result of that hearing, it was decided that two police officers, Adem Albayrak and Mehmet Gundogan, would continue to be kept under arrest and that the other accused police officer, Isa Bostan, would be released. In a statement to the press after the hearing, defense lawyer Remzi Kazmaz said, "Once again we have failed to find justice in Trabzon after a trip of 2400 kilometers. The people who arranged to have the Gazi case tried here are the ones who want this criminal organization and organizations like it forgiven. But we'll never forgive them." The Gazi incidents have not been forgotten When those living in Gazi relate their experiences since the incidents, they say that just residing in the quarter has made them feel guilty. One young man with whom we spoke said: "Wherever I go to look for a job, they refuse to give me one when they learn where I live. They behave as if I were one of the guilty." A young girl who lives in another quarter says:"The police are frequently on patrol in our area. We are treated like terrorists all the time." A member of one of the families who lost a loved one in the Gazi incidents states: "The defendants in the tenth hearing at the Trabzon court said that the people of Gazi are without honor. Everyone who lives in Gazi is more honorable that the murderers who have blood on their hands. However, even our people can be insensitive. Everyone is a witness for those who live in Gazi, but there are those who can be extremely silent. That the case has not made any progress in the courts for the past three years shows this. Those responsible for what happened in Gazi are not the people of Gazi. "Tansu Ciller, who was prime minister at the time, has said: 'Behind every successful person are those who want to prevent this. If the incident was not provoked, how could that many people have gathered in such a short time?' We have seen how successful her own government was, and it came out how criminal organizations involved in the provocation were abetted. "Still, Motherland Party (ANAP) General Chairman Mesut Yilmaz was in the opposition at that time. He also said, 'We call on everybody not to be carried away by these provocations but to let this game come to naught. The day is togetherness day. If we as ANAP can contribute to this to whatever extent, we are prepared to do this.' The people of Gazi have silenced and shamed those who say that it was a clash between Alawites and Sunnis. We have achieved unity among ourselves and togetherness. We have kept hearing promises from these people. Now, when he is prime minister, do you think he desires to pursue the court case? Why doesn't he make matters easy for those of us who go to Trabzon? After all there's his promise... "Husamettin Cindoruk, who is a partner in this government, also said at the time: 'Those who perpetrated this inimical incident are not Turkish citizens; they have come from outside. Their goal is to pit us against each other, and they are trying to destroy secularism and national unity.' My daughter was one of those who died. I expect Husamettin Cindoruk to reveal what he knows about the incidents. If someone has had a hand in these incidents, let it be known so that my pain may become somewhat lighter. We have been told that our memories are poor, since so many empty words have been spoken. But as citizens our memories are intact. The people who have lost their memories are the political parties pursuing power and their representatives. Even if the Gazi court case continues until I die, I will pursue it, and if my hands and feet fail me, I will tell those near to me, 'Take me on your back.'" * A cemevi is a place of worship, as well as a cultural center for * members of the Alawite sect. ** A dede is an elder member of the Alawite sect. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 21 12:07:07 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 21 Aug 1998 12:07:07 Subject: Security enhanced around US representations in Turkey Message-ID: ANKARA, Aug 21 (AFP) - Police have enhanced security around US diplomatic representations in Turkey after Thursday's US missile raids against alleged terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan, a US official here said Friday. "Our embassy contacted the Turkish foreign ministry last night, asking for enhanced security measures around US representations. Our request has been met," aUS embassy official told AFP. "But this is part of global security measures and we are not aware of any specific threats against US interests in Turkey," the official added. The Turkish foreign ministry Friday voiced support for the US raids, saying that Ankara shares Washington's determination not to let any country allow terrorists to use its territory. US forces on Thursday fired several Cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for bomb attacks two weeks ago against two US embassies in eastern Africa, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands. US President Bill Clinton said after the missile attacks that there was compelling evidence the two countries had a role in the bombings. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Sat Aug 22 11:35:04 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 22 Aug 1998 11:35:04 Subject: Turkey Buys US Attack Helicopters Message-ID: TURKEY TO CONDUCT FLY-OFF FOR ATTACK HELO COMPETITION By Frank Wolfe (Defense Daily; 08/18/98) Aug. 18, 1998 (DEFENSE DAILY, Vol. 199, No. 98 via COMTEX) -- Turkey is to hold a fly-off starting Sept. 14 for five bidders vying to build 145 attack helicopters for the nation. The contract, which may be awarded next June, is potentially worth $3.5 billion. Turkey was to issue a short list narrowing the list of competitors from five to two or three this month, but that has been delayed due, in part, to changes of command, promotions and retirements in the Turkish armed forces and the requirement to bring the new personnel up to speed on the competition, industry sources said. That "neck down" has been pushed back to October, or possibly November. The Turkish military attache could not be reached yesterday for comment. Two U.S. firms are bidding in the competition: Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT], which is to offer a version of its AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter to the Turks, and Boeing [BA], which will market its AH-64D Apache Longbow. Last December, just before the bids were due, Bell and Boeing received State Department approval to enter the competition (Defense Daily, Jan. 5). U.S. officials have been concerned about the role U.S. arms have played in Turkey's suppression of Kurdish rebels. If Turkey awards the contract to a U.S. firm or firms, the State Department would still have to issue an export license to finalize the sale, a State Department official said yesterday. The House International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would then have 15 days to stamp their seals of approval--followed by floor votes in both houses--for the sale to go through. But hearings could be delayed, meaning final floor votes could also. Bell has not yet received State Department permission to take its two-bladed AH- 1W Super Cobra to Turkey for the fly-off. It was unclear yesterday if Boeing had received such approval from the government. Bell wants to market its AH-1Z four bladed King Cobra (4BW) to Turkey. The King Cobra is currently under development, but Bell executives believe the aircraft will have lower life cycle costs than the Apache Longbow. The 4BW is to double the payload of the Super Cobra and share identical components--including avionics, transmissions and glass cockpits--with the UH-1N (4BN) Huey utility helicopter. Turkey already has 38 Cobras and Super Cobras, which the country has used in its battle with separatists. For its part, Boeing believes the Apache is the right choice for Turkey. "It's much more advanced than anything being offered and almost anything that's on the drawing board," said Ken Jensen, a Boeing spokesman in Mesa, Ariz., where the company builds Apaches. "We have the support of the U.S. Army. If they picked Apache, they would have the Army's support behind them, including spares, training and technical assistance, even beyond what the contractor would provide." If Turkey picked a Cobra version, it would have similar support from the U.S. Marine Corps, which is flying those attack helicopters. Some question whether Turkey needs anything as advanced as the Apache and say the Cobra versions are significantly less expensive to maintain. "The Apache is a great helicopter, but it's very expensive and costly to maintain," an industry source said. The U.S. military buys Apache Longbows for about $8 million per copy, while it can get four-bladed King Cobras for about $6 million. But Jensen said the Apache Longbow has been price competitive with Cobras and Super Cobras in international competitions in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The other attack helicopters in the Turkish competition are the Tiger by the Franco-German Eurocopter, the Mangusta by Italy's Agusta, and the Ka-50 Havoc by Russia's Kamov. For the competition, Kamov has partnered with Israel Aircraft Industries. Industry and government officials familiar with the Turkish competition expect the short-list to contain a U.S. option and a back up foreign option should the U.S. government bar its manufacturers from actually delivering its attack helicopters due to political pressure from Congress. Copyright Phillips Publishing, Inc. {C:DefenseDaily-0818.03187} 08/18/98 -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 24 06:41:17 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 24 Aug 1998 06:41:17 Subject: Turkish mafia suspect's capture rekindles scandal Message-ID: _________________________________________________________________ TURKISH MAFIA SUSPECT'S CAPTURE REKINDLES SCANDAL _________________________________________________________________ 06:09 a.m. Aug 23, 1998 Eastern By Jon Hemming ANKARA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The capture of Turkey's most wanted Mafia suspect has rekindled a two-year-old security scandal which has rocked the country with allegations of ties between organised crime and the state.* French police seized suspected Mafia boss Alaattin Cakici, a bodyguard and a female companion as they were leaving a luxury hotel in Nice last week. Turkey's top policeman has said the arrest could stir up the scandal again. Cakici was carrying a Turkish diplomatic passport, suggesting his alleged campaign of murder and extortion was being aided from above. ``This is bigger than the Susurluk scandal,'' national police chief Necati Bilican was quoted as saying in the newspaper Sabah. Allegations that right-wing death squads were employed by the state to kill political enemies and business rivals emerged after a car carrying a senior policeman, a wanted Mafia boss and a government MP crashed near the town of Susurluk in 1996. Only the MP survived the crash. Prosecutions of him, a former interior minister and a number of other people have yet to lift the lid fully on state-Mafia links. Cakici, a former far-right gang member, is accused of extortion, involvement in illegal property deals and ordering several murders, including that of his ex-wife and business partners. Turkish media, quoting sources close to Cakici, say he will name names at a court appearance in France on Monday and point the finger at Turkish political figures he says once protected him. Turkey's National Security Council will meet on the same day to discuss Cakici's arrest and an application for his extradition from France. Reports of clandestine phone calls from Cakici to cabinet ministers have added to the intrigue. ``Everything will come out during the investigation. Now everyone is afraid that they will also be exposed,'' Bilican said. Columnist Ismet Berkan wrote in the liberal newspaper Radikal: ``The capture of Alaattin Cakici has made a lot of people nervous in Turkey.'' Bilican said the Turkish diplomatic passport found at Cakici's five-star French Riviera hideout was genuine but had been tampered with. A notebook seized with him listed the telephone numbers of Turkish intelligence agents, politicians and senior policemen, the police chief said. Bilican, appointed last year by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz to clear up the scandal, said the operation to capture Cakici had to be carried out in the utmost secrecy to avoid the fugitive being tipped off about the plan. ``We worked in great secrecy in a very narrow team. No one knew what we were doing,'' he said. Observers say people keen on frustrating attempts to clean up the state are still influential in the corridors of power. ``Don't forget since he came to office, there have been a full four attempts to remove Bilican. His every move has been opposed with great resistance,'' Berkan wrote. Many regard the arrest of Cakici as a sign that things may be changing and those wishing to see an end to the state's protection of criminals are in the ascendant. Another alleged underworld boss, Sedat Peker, flew to Istanbul on a private jet from exile in Romania last week and gave himself up to police. A third accused Mafia godfather Kursat Yilmaz had also been caught. ``Alaattin Cakici, Kursat Yilmaz, Sedat Peker are people on the inside of the Susurluk events,'' said Bilican. ``All three thought they could flee abroad and be safe. Two were captured and third had to return to Turkey as the noose tightened around him ... This is Susurluk. We will not give up the pursuit.'' -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Thu Aug 27 05:59:30 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 27 Aug 1998 05:59:30 Subject: Kurtulus: To whom does Turkey belong? Message-ID: Kurtulus Number 93, August 8, 1998 To whom does Turkey belong? "We are godparents, partners by marriage, blood relatives. Our villages, our nomad tents lie side by side For centuries we have taken daughters as wives and given daughters away We are neighbours, side by side Even our chickens mix with one another..." Ahmet Arif One of the main daily newspapers in Turkey has in its logo the words "Turkey belongs to the Turks". And in the chauvinistic propaganda about the 75th anniversary of the republic's foundation, we hear these words a great deal and no doubt will hear them a lot more in the coming months. But is it historically really the case? Does Turkey belong ?exclusively" to the Turks? Whoever has seen the various cities of Turkey or even has seen only the parts laid out for tourists can see right away that this does not correspond to the reality in Turkey. Yes, Anatolia is Turkish. But at the same time it is Kurdish. It is also a little bit Greek, a little bit Armenian, a little bit Arab, a little bit Cherkess (Circassian), a little bit Laz... Anatolia has been the home of various peoples over millenia. Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Laz, Cherkess, Bosnians, Azeris and many other Muslim and Christian peoples have poured their sweat into Anatolia's soil, cultivated it, derived produce from it as well as the most beautiful traditions and values. The peoples living in Anatolia and the different faiths sometimes held by the same nationality, the different tribes and clans living in various regions have created their own values, traditions and cultures. From marriages to cultural festivals, to receiving visits from neighbours, from funerals to births, from day-to-day contacts to family structures, the differences among them are not difficult to detect. They are rooted in geography, religion or the economy. But these cultural peculiarities were never an obstacle to the peoples living with each other in a fraternal manner amid mutual friendship, respect and tolerance. They lived together fraternally while maintaining their own cultural peculiarities. The mutual ties have also logically given rise to shared cultural characteristics. So for example, Kurdish and Arab influences can be detected in Turkish culture. The same applies to the cultures of the Kurds, Arabs and other peoples. Even if the languages and religions of the peoples are different, they have still helped one another from time to time. Sometimes they were in neighbouring villages. In one area the villages are inhabited by Turkmen. But on another side of the same mountain there are Kurdish villages. If you then descend onto the plain, there are Arab villages... The peoples are so mixed together. They invite each other to weddings and cultural festivals. At funerals, they pay condolence visits to one another. Sometimes different nationalities live in the same village. The upper or lower side of the village, or even next door to each other. Together they celebrate festivals or share good and bad times. The S?mela monastery is known to everybody, for example, even if only through television and the newspapers. While a ceremony is held in the church in keeping with its religion, the Muslims wait outside, sacrifice sheep and prepare for the festival. When the ceremony is over the Christians come out of the church. Turks, Laz, Georgians, Greeks, and Armenians celebrate... Sheikh Bedreddin's followers knew no distinctions of language, religion or nationality when they organised their life in Aydin, they shared everything, and everything was built through common effort and toil. In the face of the attacks from the Sultan and the rulers, they swung their swords together and the blood they all shed mingled. Were relations between the peoples on the soil of Anatolia always like that, characterised by fraternity and tolerance? Unfortunately, no. Sometimes the peoples attacked each other and found the cruelest oppression to be appropriate. So, why was that the case? What destroyed the image of fraternity? What was it which would not let the peoples share among each other? Actually there is no "satisfactory" answer to this. The rulers, from the Ottomans to the present day, have sought to secure their own domination by setting the peoples against one another. So they created artificial differences among them and sowed the seed of hostility. They organised provocations and exploited the beliefs of the peoples and with the help of their own religious leaders, religious law courts were established. Causing the effusion of another people's blood was deemed to be righteous, and a place in paradise was said to be reserved for those who made blood flow. If a people rose up against exploitation and oppression, the rulers sought to win over another people to help in putting down the uprising. Sometimes this was successful. For example Sunnis would be used to put down uprisings by Alevis, and Alevis would be massacred. In this way, Turks were armed against Kurds and hostilities fomented, and the same was done to cause discord between Kurds and Armenians, Armenians against Turks and Arabs against Greeks. For example, during the War of Liberation the imperialists tried to use the Armenians to break the resistance. As another example, the Kemalists used Alevi Kurds to defeat the uprising by Sheikh Said and the Sunni Kurdish tribes. During the First Imperialist War (World War I) Armenians were massacred. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were murdered or forced to emigrate. Not just to crush uprisings but for other reasons, the peoples would be stirred up against each other. Sometimes it was major landowners and feudal lords who incited the people so as to win the lands and riches that belonged to others. As a result of this agitation, the provocations and massacres by the rulers have given rise to certain prejudices. Thus the Arabs are seen as dirty. They are disparagingly termed "fellahin". On the other hand, Romanians are called "thieves", and nobody will sit down next to them. Armenians and Greeks are "infidels", the "historic enemy". Kurds are "primitive", the Laz are "stupid", Turks are "oppressors", "unbelievers"... The rulers have intensified the "divide and rule policy" even further with capitalism and especially in the dissemination of news through the media. Based on the grandeur of the ruling nation, the rulers have made chauvinism into one of the cornerstones of their rule. Fascism uses chauvinism by developing theories of the superiority of the Turkish race to create a mass base for itself. All other peoples are said to be enemies. On all sides there are enemies... "The only friends of the Turks are the Turks themselves." It wants to use circles influenced by these chauvinist politics against other peoples or at least to educate them in such a way that they agree with the policy of the state and are against the struggle of the peoples. But one of the biggest obstacles to the chauvinist politics and propaganda of fascism is the reality of the peoples in Anatolia. Along with the development of capitalism, the peoples have more and more mingled and interwoven as part of the flight from the countryside to the cities. Today, especially in the biggest cities, people of every nationality and faith live together. They are neighbours in the same city quarters. They drop their sweat on the floors of the same factories. At school they share the same desks. They are ground down by the same oppression, exploitation and poverty and feel the same hunger pangs. So we are asking who is responsible for the poverty and oppression experinced by the workers? Can the one who is responsible for the oppression for the pains suffered by a worker be a worker from another people who labours in the same factory? Of course not. Or if today languages, cultures and traditions of peoples are forbidden, are the Turkish people responsible for it? No they are not. The culture and traditions of the Turkish people too are threatened by the depraved imperialist culture. Attempts are made to destroy the ties between people, the values, the traditions, one after another. This is the common problem faced by all our peoples. The system is to blame for this. It is also the system which disseminates the corrupt imperialist culture, bans languages and cultures and exploits and oppresses the peoples. On the other hand, the owners and rulers of this system are fundamentally neither Turks, Kurds nor Laz! It is clear that this state belongs to none of the peoples of Anatolia. It is also not the state of the Turkish people, that is also clear. Whose state is it? Before everything else it is not the state of our peoples. This cannot be altered by its name, "Turkey" nor by the demagogy of "this state is the state belonging to us all, but there are separatists among us." Let us take a closer look at the rulers. Do they not come from all nationalities? Isn't Sabanci a "Turk"? Isn't Cefi Kamhi a "Jew"? Isn't Sedat Bucak a "Kurd"? Isn't Besim Tibuk a "Laz"? Are there not "Georgians", "Azeris", "Sunnis", "Christians", "Alevis" and "Armenians" among them? Yes there are. They have all formed a coalition. This is not a coalition of brotherhood, nor one of the unity of the peoples... This coalition is a coalition of exploiters, the dishonourable and the scoundrels. They sit at the helm of the treadmill, exploit our peoples, oppress and murder them.. Their religion, their beliefs, their nationality is "money". To keep the system going they murder Turks just like Kurds. Or is that not the case? It is our peoples who create and produce everything with the sweat from their brows. Can there really be underhandedness, rivalry and enmity among those who bring about everything through their sweat and their toil and who are the real possessors of all values and of everything that is beautiful? Not really. Hostility and oppression are merely the methods of those who want to lay hands on the fruits of this toil without working for it. Enmity, hypocrisy, separatism, provocations, massacres and every kind of filth are to be laid at their door. It is in the interests of the peoples to put an end to repression. To end the suppression of identity, culture and language. To drive out of the country this coalition of thieves who have sold the land to imperialism and their masters the imperialists, and to free the country. One of the indispensible conditions for this is the unity of the peoples living in Anatolia and Thrace. Just like in the War of Liberation... The place to achieve this is in the ranks of the Front. The Front is the unity and the common struggle of all our peoples. In the ranks of the Front all peoples struggle to bring about their own power. In the ranks of the Front, all people are free. Culture and identity are free and no people stands above another. This power is the power of the people. Because only with people's power can the culture and language of every people develop and be enriched. Under people's power, the state has the duty to secure every opportunity for the peoples in this regard. In this state structure no peoples will stand over others or enjoy hegemony. Its basis is fraternity and friendship between the peoples. Setting up people's power means securing a life in fraternity and freedom for all our peoples. The power of the people is the expression of the fact that all our peoples will share in the government that will resolve all economic, political, military, cultural and social questions. The power of the people is the liberation of the people. The Front is convinced that Turkey is the Turkey of all the peoples who live in Anatolia and Thrace. The Front's ranks are the ranks of the fraternity of all the peoples. Hundreds of martyrs are the proof of this. Haydar, Sabo, Niyazi, Yemo... Kurds. Bedii, G?lnaz, Halil Ibrahim, Kemal, Berdan, Devrim Yasar... Arabs. Ali Tarik, Hasan, Murat, Mustafa, Idil, M?jdat... Turks. Sinan, Bahattin, Ayse... Laz. Osman, Ahmet Fazil, Arslan... Georgians. Avni, Ismet, ?mit Dogan... Cherkess. They were members of the Central Committee, commanders, fighters in the ranks of the Front. They came from different cultures, confessions and nationalities to meet in the ranks of the Front. To liberate the peoples, they fought with weapon in hand against the common foe. They shed their blood on Anatolia's soil, and caused hope to grow. The system is the enemy of our peoples. It is the system which divides the peoples and tries to oppress them, exploit them and has turned Anatolia into a prison. All peoples are brothers and this land belongs to them. The ranks of the Front show our peoples who is the enemy and who is the friend. On the other hand the struggle of the Front is the expression of freedom and the liberation of the peoples in this brotherhood and sisterhood. http://www.ozgurluk.org/kurtulus -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Fri Aug 28 19:13:01 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 28 Aug 1998 19:13:01 Subject: Gangster's arrest exposes links between Turkish crime and state Message-ID: Friday August 28, 1998 Gangster's arrest exposes links between Turkish crime and state By Chris Morris in Ankara Turkey is bracing itself for fresh revelations of political wrongdoing, after the emergence of new evidence of links between the state and rightwing gangs. The latest twist in a long-running security scandal resembles the plot of a thriller. One of the country's most wanted men, a vicious rightwing extremist named Alaattin Cakici, was arrested last week in the south of France. He was carrying a diplomatic passport, which the government says was given to him by a Turkish intelligence agent serving in Beijing. Mr Cakici is wanted in connection with a series of murders and extortion rackets. When he was arrested a notebook was seized which apparently contained the telephone numbers of many powerful people in Turkey - politicians, intelligence officers and senior policemen. It has already been revealed that Mr Cakici was in contact with Eyup Asik, a minister who is a close ally of the prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz. Mr Asik has denied any wrongdoing. There have also been suggestions that the gangster had close ties with politicians now in opposition. Local media report a war breaking out in the higher echelons of the intelligence services, but it is still not clear who the real political masters are. Allegations that rightwing death squads were employed by the state to kill political opponents and business rivals first emerged two years ago, when a car carrying a wanted mafia boss, a government MP and a senior police officer crashed in the western town of Susurluk. Only the MP survived, but official documents bearing the signature of the then interior minister were found in the wreckage. The former minister and the MP now face criminal charges of abuse of power. Turkish newspapers have for days carried banner headlines about the arrest of Mr Cakici and its consequences. The authorities have begun trying to extradite him from France to stand trial at home. He is not the only rightwing extremist to have been taken into custody in the past few weeks. Many observers here believe this could mean that official protection for criminals who have served the state in dubious ways could be ending. "Two leading gangsters have been captured abroad, and a third has returned to Turkey to face his punishment," the national police chief, Necati Bilican, said. "The noose has tightened and we will not give up the pursuit." The national security council, which includes senior ministers and powerful generals, said this week that it is determined to pursue the struggle against organised crime. ? Copyright Guardian Media Group plc.1998 List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.soli.de Sat Aug 29 12:29:00 1998 From: K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.soli.de (K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.soli.de) Date: 29 Aug 1998 12:29:00 Subject: Verhaftungen in Istanbul Message-ID: <6.nnNfb6.RB@walker.link-do.soli.de> Regionalbuero Friedenszug "Musa Anter" Medizinische Fluechtlingshilve Bochum e.V. Internationale Menschenrechtsdelegation 1998 gemeinsame Presseerklaerung 29.08.1998 Istanbul: 180 Personen bei Kundgebung verhaftet Menschenrechtsverein von Polizei besetzt Im Zuge der gewaltsamen Aufloesung einer Menschenrechtskundgebung in Istanbul wurden am heutigen Samstag insgesamt fast 180 Personen von der Polizei verhaftet. Jeden Samstag Mittag versammeln sich vor dem Galatasaray im Stadtteil Taksim seit 173 Wochen die sogenannten "Samstagsmuetter", Angehoerige von Menschen, die in Polizeihaft "verschwunden" sind. Sie fordern seit Jahren mit friedlichen Mitteln die Aufklaerung der an ihren "verschwundenen" Verwandten begangenen Verbrechen. In den vergangenen Monaten kam es immer wieder zu UEbergriffen von Polizeieinheiten gegen die "Samstagsmuetter". Am heutigen Tag wurde die Kundgebung vollstaendig verhindert. Zeitgleich umzingelten Polizeieinheiten um 12.45 Uhr den tuerkischen Menschenrechtsverein IHD und nahmen saemtliche Personen fest, die das Gebaeude verlassen wollten. Dabei kam es zu 127 namentlich bekannten Verhaftungen. Um 15 Uhr Ortszeit wurden Bueros des Vereines von der Polizei besetzt und nach Angaben aus Istanbul weitere Personen festgenommen. Seitdem ist die Telefonverbindung unterbrochen. Bei einer Razzia in umliegenden Cafes kam es zusaezlich zu ca. 30 Verhaftungen durch die Polizei. Unter den Inhaftierten befinden sich u.a. Emine Ocak, Hanife Yildiz und Mueruevet OEzgen, deren Angehoerige als "verschwunden" gelten. Auch die beiden Vizevorsitzenden des IHD, die AnwaeltInnen Eren Keskin und Osman Baydemir wurden festgenommen. Der Vorsitzende des IHD-Istanbul, Ercan Kanar wurde ebenso verhaftet, wie seine Stellvertreterin Zeynep Baran und die Vereinsmitglieder Leyla Kaya, Mukaddes Samiloglu, Cemile Sahin, Nese Ozan, Esra Akkaya, Muteber Yildirim, Alev Cevik, Safi Ekinci, Ismail Sarioglu, Leman Yurtsever. Der bekannte Saenger und Menschenrechtler Sanar Yurdatapan, die AnwaeltInnen Sedat Yueksel und Mercan Polat, die beiden oesterreichischen StaatsbuergerInnen Juergen Stowasser und Nina Horacek, sowie zahlreiche Mitglieder der Parteien OEDP (Partei fuer Freiheit und Solidaritaet) und der vom Verbot bedrohten prokurdischen HADEP (Demokratische Volkspartei) befinden sich ebenfalls in Haft. Die Verhaftungen stehen in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang mit der fuer die kommende Woche geplanten Friedenskarawane, zu der der Menschenrechtsverein aufruft. Die Karavane soll am 31.8. Istanbul verlassen und am 1.9., dem internationalen Antikriegstag in Diyarbakir eintreffen. Mit dieser Aktion wollen KuenstlerInnnen, Intelektuelle und MenschenrechtsaktivistInnen aus dem ganzen Land die Beendigung des Krieges in den kurdischen Provinzen einfordern. Bei Rueckfragen wenden Sie sich bitte an die Telefonnummer 0171-7127375 (Knut Rauchfuss) ## CrossPoint v3.1 ## From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Sun Aug 30 12:57:20 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 30 Aug 1998 12:57:20 Subject: Turkey: USAF Release on Strike Progress Message-ID: Turkish Strike Talks at Incirlik Still Stalled Aug. 28, 1998 INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- Observers from the U.S. embassy and Turkish General Staff attending negotiations this week saw the Turk Harb-Is union leadership withdraw its most recent offer-one that was perhaps a step closer to a settlement. For the first time in four days, the union showed at negotiations to end the 37-day-old Turkish employee strike here Wednesday. During this session, the union took a positive step by lowering its pay package demands. According to the U.S. Air Force's lead negotiator, the union dropped its salary demands from a 40 percent to a 38 percent raise of hourly pay. (Ed. Note - The decimal is in the right place!) Additionally, it met the Air Force's offer of a $1,000 lump sum payment and requested four quality of life payments of $400. The union differed in cost of living adjustments, asking for seven to the Air Force's six. "This was certainly a good sign," said Col. Dutch Remkes, 39th Wing commander. "It looked as though we might be making some headway in finally reaching an agreement. Unfortunately, the next day was totally different, and we seemed to be back at deadlock." On Thursday, the union raised its pay demands to a nearly 47 percent pay raise, an $1,100 lump sum, eight COLA adjustments and four $425 quality of life payments. If deadlock continues, the strike could be suspended by the Turkish government, which would then direct differences be settled through arbitration. Results of arbitration would be binding on both parties. A side issue still on the negotiating table is job security. The union is trying to ensure that no employees are terminated for any reason--including reductions in force, closures or misconduct--during the two years period covered by the collective labor agreement. "No business in any country can provide 100 percent job security for the duration of a lengthy contract," said Ian Kelly, head of the U.S. Information Service in Ankara. "Even presidents and ministers do not have total job security." Kelly related that job security became a union concern after several incidents involving possible criminal behavior occurred at Incirlik. Union members fear that some workers will be fired once an agreement is reached. Kelly added that there were few such incidents and that they are under investigation. Remkes said the wing will take appropriate actions after investigations are complete. A second side issue is the legal employment of American citizens at U.S. Air Force facilities. The union seeks an end to employment of U.S. military family members and off-duty members of the military. Remkes said that all such employment issues are provided for by the NATO Status of Forces Agreement or by Turkish work permits. He added that this issue is non-negotiable at the management/union level. In terms of pay, Kelly stated that if the current U.S. offer is accepted, average earnings for a Turkish Harb-Is union worker would be more than twice as much as workers performing comparable work on the local economy. "The U.S. Air Force offer is very fair and generous. Additionally, we've made a good faith effort to produce an equitable collective labor agreement. Since negotiations began, the U.S. has increased its offer by 28 percent," he said. posted by Len in Indy List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.comlink.apc.org Sun Aug 30 19:36:00 1998 From: K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.comlink.apc.org (K.RAUCHFUSS at LINK-DO.comlink.apc.org) Date: 30 Aug 1998 19:36:00 Subject: PKK verkuendet Waffenstillstand Message-ID: <6-vnjWZM$RB@walker.link-do.soli_> Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Der nachfolgende Artikel erscheint in SoZ Nr.18/98 "WANN EIGENTLICH, WENN NICHT JETZT ?" PKK erkl?rt einseitigen Waffenstillstand "Ich dachte Sie h?tten uns geladen um uns zu erkl?ren, da? Sie die Waffen niederlegen", lautete die provozierende R?ckfrage eines Journalisten des t?rkischen Nachrichtensenders NTV. Doch der Vorsitzende der Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans PKK lie? sich nicht aus der Ruhe bringen. Mit wohl ?berlegten Worten deklarierte er in einer live-Schaltung des kurdischen Fernsehsenders MED-TV vor Vertretern des kurdischen Exilparlamentes und Repr?sentanten europ?ischer Friedens- und Menschenrechtsgruppen sowie dem versammelten t?rkischen Journalistentro?, einen unbefristeten Waffenstillstand. Dieser solle am 1. September, dem internationalen Antikriegstag, in Kraft treten. Bereits zweimal zuvor hatte die PKK einen einseitigen Waffenstillstand erkl?rt. In keinem der F?lle war die t?rkische Seite gewillt auf das Angebot einer politischen L?sung einzugehen. T?rkische Truppen f?hrten ihre Angriffe gegen die kurdische Zivilbev?lkerung mit unverminderter H?rte fort. So beendete 1993 nach nur kurzer Zeit der ?bergriff einer PKK-Einheit auf unbewaffnete Milit?rs die einseitige Waffenruhe. 1995 und 1996 hielt die kurdische Guerilla immerhin acht Monate lang den Provokationen von Seiten des Milit?rs stand, bevor sie den Kampf ihrerseits wieder aufnahm. Heute, so betonte ?calan, seien die Bedingungen f?r die Einleitung eines Friedensprozesses weit g?nstiger, als in den Vorjahren. Man werde sich zwar gegen milit?rische ?bergriffe verteidigen, sich jedoch nicht durch Provokationen dazu verleiten lassen, den Waffenstillstand vorschnell wieder aufzuk?ndigen. ?calan betonte, da? dieser Entschlu? nicht aus der Position milit?rischer Schw?che heraus gefa?t worden sei, sondern ein Verhandlungsangebot im Bewu?tsein der eigenen St?rke beinhalte. In diesem Sinne wolle er diesen Schritt als historische Chance f?r die Konfliktparteien verstanden wissen, der in einen dauerhaften Friedens- und Demokratisierungsproze? m?nden m?sse. Der Waffenstillstand erstrecke sich nur auf den t?rkischen Teil Kurdistans, da von Seiten der KDP in S?dkurdistan keinerlei Signale gekommen seien, die auf eine positive Beantwortung des Waffenstillstands schlie?en lie?en. Zwischen den Zeilen lie? ?calan damit durchblicken, da? auf t?rkischer Seite offensichtlich derartige Signale existieren. Auf etwaige Absprachen hinter vorgehaltener Hand angesprochen, lehnte er es jedoch ab, zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt Details und Namen zu nennen. Er wolle vermeiden, da? verhandlungswillige Personen im t?rkischen Machtapparat durch vorzeitige Publizierung ihrer Ansichten unter chauvinistischen Druck geraten und unter Zugzwang ihre Positionen in der ?ffentlichkeit nicht mehr durchhalten k?nnen. Er erwarte jedoch positive Schritte seitens der T?rkei. Zun?chst blieben diese positiven Schritte jedoch aus. In ersten offiziellen Stellungnahmen wiesen t?rkische Politiker das Angebot als unglaubw?rdig zur?ck. W?hrend Vize-Ministerpr?sident B?lent Ecevit rundweg erkl?rte, die PKK werde sich ohnehin nicht an den Waffenstillstand halten, gab sich Ministerpr?sident Yilmaz allerdings durchaus z?gerlicher bei der Wahl der Worte, mit denen er das Angebot zu einer politischen L?sung ablehnte. "Wenn dies ein Spiel ist, so ist es sinnlos," erkl?rte er gegen?ber der Presse. "Wenn ?calan verstanden hat, da? er den t?rkischen Staat nicht bek?mpfen kann, da? das ausweglos ist, so ist dies ein Fortschritt. Dann warte ich darauf, da? noch mehr folgt. Aber wenn dies nur gedacht ist, um Unterst?tzung in Europa zu gewinnen, wird es zu nichts f?hren. Wir werden ihn niemals als Gespr?chspartner akzeptieren, aber wenn er sagt, da? es aussichtslos sei und sich ergeben will, dann soll er auf diesem Weg weitergehen." Mit ?ffentlich erkl?rter Verhandlungsbereitschaft lassen sich bei den bevorstehenden Parlamentswahlen f?r keine der staatstragenden Parteien Mehrheiten gewinnen. Seit jeher setzen diese auf chauvinistische Rethorik um Stimmengewinne einzufahren. Vor diesem Hintergrund und angesichts unkalkulierbarer Reaktionen des Milit?rs scheinen die von Yilmaz gew?hlten Worte durchaus weitreichender als 1995. Auch die t?rkische Presse wagte sich mit Zitaten aus der Rede ?calans und dem Abdruck der Stellungnahmen der vom Verbot bedrohten prokurdischen HADEP weit vor. Nun wartet die ?ffentlichkeit auf erste Reaktionen aus dem Milit?r, dessen neuer Generalstabschef H?seyin Kivrikoglu am Tag der Waffenstillstandserkl?rung sein Amt angetreten hat. Unterdessen schaffte Mehmet Cakir, Polizeichef von Istanbul und ber?chtigter Gegner friedlicher L?sungen, zun?chst Fakten. Im Zuge der gewaltsamen Aufl?sung einer Menschenrechtskundgebung in Istanbul wurden am n?chsten Tag insgesamt 163 Personen von der Polizei verhaftet. Wie jeden Samstag hatten die "Samstagsm?tter" - Angeh?rige von Menschen, die in Polizeihaft "verschwunden" sind - versucht, sich vor dem Galatasaray zu versammeln. Dort fordern sie seit Jahren mit friedlichen Mitteln die Aufkl?rung der an ihren "verschwundenen" Verwandten begangenen Verbrechen. An diesem Samstag wurden sie alle verhaftet. Zeitgleich umzingelten Polizeieinheiten den t?rkischen Menschenrechtsverein IHD und nahmen s?mtliche Personen fest, die das Geb?ude verlassen wollten. Unter den Festgenommen befanden sich auch die beiden Vizevorsitzenden des IHD, die Anw?ltInnen Eren Keskin und Osman Baydemir, ebenso wie zwei ?sterreichische Staatsb?rgerInnen, zahlreiche Mitglieder des Menschenrechtsvereines, der Parteien ?DP (Partei f?r Freiheit und Solidarit?t) und der HADEP (Demokratische Volkspartei). Die Verhaftungen stehen in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang mit einer geplanten Friedenskarawane, zu der der Menschenrechtsverein aufruft. Unter dem Motto "Frieden: Wann eigentlich, wenn nicht jetzt?" soll die Karavane von Istanbul nach Diyarbakir ziehen und dort am internationalen Antikriegstag eintreffen. Mit dieser Aktion wollen K?nstlerInnnen, Intelektuelle und MenschenrechtsaktivistInnen aus dem ganzen Land die Beendigung des Krieges in den kurdischen Provinzen einfordern. Die Bereitschaft von Regierung und Milit?r zu einer politischen L?sung zu gelangen, wird sich daran messen lassen m?ssen, ob die Karavane Diyarbakir erreicht. (Knut Rauchfuss) Ausz?ge aus der Waffenstillstandserkl?rung der PKK: "Schon seit l?ngerer Zeit wird seitens des europ?ischen Parlaments und einiger Friedensinitiativen [...] von uns erwartet, da? die PKK Schritte f?r eine politische L?sung einleitet. [...] Diese Haltung hat uns Mut gemacht. [...] Terror und Gewalt sind niemals mit menschlichen Prinzipien zu vereinbaren. [...] Wenn die die gegen uns ausge?bte Gewalt auch nur zum Teil zur?ckgenommen w?rde, wenn die menschlichen Grundprinzipien und die Menschenrechte verwirklicht, die Entwicklung der Demokratie und ein Dialog ?ber die politischen Probleme begonnen w?rden, dann k?nnten wir ohne jeden Zweifel behaupten, da? keine andere Organisation und kein anderes Volk sich mehr nach Frieden sehnt als wir. [...] Es macht uns stolz, den ersten Schritt zu unternehmen. [...] Wenn wir die aktuelle Situation der T?rkei ansehen, dann ist ihr Hauptproblem ihre Demokratisierung und nicht das Kurdenproblem, auch wenn das diesen Anschein hat. Das Kurdenproblem und die Nichteinhaltung der Menschenrechte resultieren aus undemokratischen Verh?ltnissen. [...] Wir waren niemals gegen die Republik, wir sind auch nicht gegen die Republik T?rkei. [...] Es ist keine Abwertung der Republik und keine ?bertreibung, wenn festgestellt wird, da? diese Republik den Menschen seit 75 Jahren keine Demokratie gebracht hat. Das Volk ist niemals in den Genu? der Demokratie gekommen. Es ist viel davon geredet worden, aber es wurde nicht in die Realit?t umgesetzt. Es ist ein grundlegend antidemokratisches Verst?ndnis, das sich bei vielen Istitutionen, besonders bei allen politischen Parteien, die s?mtlich von oligarchischen F?hrern gelenkt werden, wie eine ansteckende Krankheit verbreitet hat. Das wird dem Volk als Demokratie pr?sentiert. Die Demokratie mu? von dieser Scheinheiligkeit befreit werden. Die Demokratie mu? im Volk verwurzelt sein. Dies ist keine Beleidigung der Republik und schon gar keine Teilung. [...] Seit den 70er Jahren hat die Gewalt ein Ausma? erreicht, das nur bei faschistischen Regimes bekannt ist, und Zehntausende sind durch unentwegte Repression und Provokationen get?tet worden. Das Entstehen der PKK ist ein Produkt dieser Entwicklung. Die kurdische Frage ist nicht unsere Erfindung. [...] Es wird viel von Br?derlichkeit geredet, aber statt diese Br?derlichkeit zu praktizieren, wird gesagt, da? die Souver?nit?t und die Unteilbarkeit der T?rkei nicht in Frage gestellt werden darf. In Ordnung, aber f?r wen gilt diese Unteilbarkeit? Und wer greift heir wessen Rechte an? Warum wird es als Seperatismus bezeichnet und als Angriff auf die Hoheit der T?rkei verstanden, wenn wir von Euch verlangen, das zu verstehen? [...] Wenn sie die M?glichkeit einer politischen, demokratischen L?sung sehen, sind wir bereit, ihren Forderungen entgegenzukommen, damit nach 75 Jahren vorrangig das Demokratie-Problem der T?rkei gel?st wird, damit nicht weiter dieser hohe Preis des Krieges gezahlt werden mu?, damit die Menschenrechtsverletzungen aufh?ren und den Aktivit?ten der Mafia-Banden ein Ende gesetzt wird. Wenn sie wirklich ernsthaft dazu bereit sind, sich daf?r einzusetzen, respektieren wir das derzeitige Recht und richten uns nach den elementaren Menschenrechten und den Regeln der Demokratie. Wir haben damit keine Schwierigkeiten. Wir verletzen diese Dinge nicht. [...] Aus dieser Haltung heraus und um den weltweiten Kr?ften f?r Frieden und ihrer Sehnsucht nach Frieden am ersten September, dem Weltfriedenstag, eine Antwort zu geben, den Beschl?ssen des Europaparlaments und der st?rker werdenden ?ffentlichkeit der T?rkei entgegenzukommen, haben wir uns zu folgendem Schritt entschlossen: Ab dem 1. September beginnt ein Waffenstillstand." ## CrossPoint v3.1 ## From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 31 14:13:36 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 31 Aug 1998 14:13:36 Subject: Revolution in Turkey and the Kurdish Issue Message-ID: For those who are interested in the views of the DHKP-C on the Kurdish Issue: We have created a special websiste about this issue at http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/pub/kurdistan Nothing fancy here, just a compilation of articles about the "Revolution in Turkey and the Kurdish Issue" -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 31 14:43:40 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 31 Aug 1998 14:43:40 Subject: Police intervene in 'Saturday Mothers' protest at Galatasaray Message-ID: 31 August,1998, Istanbul - Turkish Daily News Police intervened Saturday in a protest being staged in front of Galatasaray Lycee by the so-called "Saturday Mothers," taking more than 100 participants into custody. A group of mothers, students and intellectuals who tried to gather at the entrance to the lycee, located in Istanbul's Beyoglu district, were warned by police to halt their activities. The protestors, however, did not heed the police warning and started walking up Istiklal Caddesi to Taksim Square. One mother at the head of the group told police that their aim was to protest quietly and peacefully. Police intervened after five minutes or so, wielding truncheons. Robocops threw the protestors into the police cars, where they were taken to Istanbul Police Headquarters on Vatan Street in Aksaray. More than 100 protestors were arrested by the police -- pushed, pulled, slapped and sprayed with an eye irritant -- despite the fact that the protest was being carried out before the eyes of television cameras and journalists. The Saturday Mothers' protest is now in its 172nd week. The aim of the women and their supporters is to obtain information about the unexplained disappearance of relatives and loved ones, often while in police custody. The sit-down protest has been relatively calm; however, for the last three weeks the police have been intervening and taking people into custody on the grounds that the protests were illegal. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 31 14:58:01 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 31 Aug 1998 14:58:01 Subject: Turkish Probe: CHP's New Report on Kurdish Problem Message-ID: CHP's New Report on Kurdish Problem As part of its policy of reconciliation with Kurds, the CHP revealed its 'Southeast Report,' in Diyarbakir Village guards to go The report recommends a modern security force be formed in place of the rapid-reaction force, and demands that the village-guard system and illegal establishments such as counter-guerilla forces and the Gendarmerie Counter-Terrorist and Intelligence Center (JITEM) be dissolved Reconciliation? As the report has been opened to discussion just on the eve of elections, the CHP once again confronts the Kurdish problem; either it will reconcile with the people of the region or it will follow its predecessor's path, the Social Democrat Populist Party's (SHP), and will distance itself from the region's people MUSTAFA ERDOGAN Ankara - Turkish Daily News The Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) opened a discussion of its report on the East and Southeast, which the party commissions began preparing at the approach of the CHP's 27th general convention. The report, which is regarded as the successor to the famous report on the Kurds delivered by the Social Democrat Populist Party (SHP) before it merged with the CHP, caused great excitement in the region. CHP deputies chose to reveal the report on the Southeast along with another report at a meeting before a group of delegates in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir. Representatives of both democratic and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were invited to participate in the meeting. The report's demand for a radical removal of the rapid-reaction force and village-guard system, which render a democratic solution for the region more difficult, was considered by some residents of the region as "inapplicable" and "unrealizable" and as "utopian" for others. Since the SHP's previous and more self-aggrandizing report on Kurds, 3,500 villages have been evacuated, 3,000 killings have gone unsolved and millions of people have been forced to migrate, according to regional party authorities, who also brought up the CHP's problem in conveying "trustworthiness" in the region. CHP discusses the problem At its well-attended meeting held in Diyarbakir's Demirok sports arena, the CHP opened a debate on two of its commission reports, the "Democratization and Human Rights Report" and "Reforms for the East and the Southeast." Delivering the meeting's opening speech, CHP Diyarbakir Provincial Chairman Mesut Deger drew the listeners' attention to the fact that the events which have previously taken place in the region may still be observed in spite of the 1991 discussions which recognized the Kurdish reality. In part, Deger criticized his party's past treatment of the subject. CHP Deputy Chairman Bulent Tanla was given the podium after Deger. Tanla underscored that the CHP is proposing a new project for Turkey. "The CHP's efforts will end infertile conflicts and polemics. The CHP proposes solutions to the country's problems through the people's participation and, by renewing itself, advances on the road to the government," he stated. Algan Hacaloglu, a member of the party's Central Decision-Making Council (MYK), spoke later to present the two reports. "Being a social democrat means being for peace, for brotherhood, for people and for rights," he said. The CHP believes that unless the Kurdish problem is solved, the country's other problems cannot be remedied, Hacaloglu stated. Emphasizing the fact that not only the region's people but the whole of Turkey has to deliberate the reports, Hacaloglu said that the lack of principle, fraudulency and negligence experienced after the 1980 coup has led the country to its current state. "The fact that security forces in the region have lost the distinction of being 'people's security forces' has an affect on the events occurring in the region without a doubt." Demirel harshly criticized Stressing that the Kurdish problem is at its core a matter concerning pluralistic democracy and the solution is a "democratic approach to ethnic sensitivities," Hacaloglu referred to then True Path Party (DYP) leader and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel's statement: "We recognize the Kurdish reality." "How valid can the president's discourse be when he today attempts to be a witness at a wedding of a son of a gang leader [referring to Mehmet Agar]?" Hacaloglu asked. Later, the reports were read and discussions initiated. Twenty members of the party assembly, including Zulfu Livaneli, the party delegation consisting of 25 members, 10 foreign missions and a multitude of foreign and Turkish journalists attended the meeting. After the meeting in Diyarbakir on Aug. 4, the CHP organized other meetings in Istanbul on Aug. 7, in Ankara on Aug. 10 and in Gaziantep on Aug. 13 and discussed issues of human rights and democratization. What does the report include? Fighting against terrorist organizations cannot be an excuse for human rights violations Turkey is a party to international laws regarding the human rights issues Human rights violations drive back democracy and disrupt the country's peace European Human Rights Commission is full of dossiers from Turkey In modern democracies opinions are not referred to as crimes, freedom of speech is not limited Turkey cannot clear itself from the shame of torture Unsolved murders and extra-judiciary killings harm democracy Inability in finding missing people ruins faith in a state based on law Compulsory evacuations in the Eastern and Southeastern regions violate the right to live and move freely Food embargo is an example of extra-judicial limiting of citizens' necessities Children's rights have been violated increasingly; violation of women's rights is the biggest inequity facing our secular democracy and ideals The length of a custody period harms the detainees and is uncivilized Democracy almost does not exist in the Southeastern region, the flowing blood in the regions is our brothers' blood The image of a police state creates a faith vacuum in the region Unless a common political will and wide support from the public is obtained, solutions cannot be realized These are the basic principles of the CHP reports which also include some proposals regarding the region. The most important proposals are these: Instead of a rapid reaction force a modern security unit could be formed; the village-guard system has to be removed; the armed forces' basic duty is to provide security on the borders; support to terrorism from abroad has to be prevented through the appropriate policies of governments; the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has to become civil and illegal establishments such as counter-guerilla organizations and the Gendarmerie Counter-Terrorist and Intelligence Center (JITEM) must be dissolved. The CHP's Southeastern report makes some economic analyses. The feudal structure of the region continues to exist, states the 35-page report, even though 75 years have passed since the establishment of the republic. The report suggests that experts in and on the region should establish an "Economic Progression Council" to find solutions to economic difficulties. Now, the question remains. To what extend will these proposals be actualized and how will the CHP follow up on the issue? The CHP will either fulfill all of its promises and make peace with the region's people or it will follow the path of its predecessor, the SHP, and continue to distance itself from the people. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From ozgurluk at xs4all.nl Mon Aug 31 18:42:44 1998 From: ozgurluk at xs4all.nl (ozgurluk at xs4all.nl) Date: 31 Aug 1998 18:42:44 Subject: Turkish children sentenced to prison terms for stealing sweets Message-ID: ANKARA, Aug 31 (AFP) - The Turkish high court Monday upheld a nine-year prison sentence against four youngsters found guilty of stealing desserts from a sweet shop, their lawyer said. "Our appeal was rejected. These heavy sentences prove the pathetic state the Turkish justice is in," Hakan Gencer, lawyer of the four boys aged between 15 and 17, told the Anatolia news agency. The four were caught in the southern city of Gaziantep last year while trying to steal sweets. A local court later sentenced each to a nine-year jail term for "premeditated robbery." "The lives of these children are destroyed. We cannot reach anywhere with a law system like this," Gencer said. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan! Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl / mailinglists: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl