From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Mon Feb 2 07:34:25 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 02 Feb 1998 07:34:25 Subject: Turkey: Riot police to be modernized Message-ID: 02-020-98 Riot police to be modernized * An Air Taser, which can spread shock waves, will be installed on the shields of the riot police _________________________________________________________________ Turkish Daily News Ankara - The Police department are updating the equipment of the riot police squads because of an intense public response to violence caused by police. A new device that emits shock waves will be installed on riot shields. Also, 20,000 plastic handcuffs and flexible truncheons, made of polyurethane, were imported from the United States. The police currently use wooden truncheons, the Anatolia news agency reported. According to the information, which was received from the Police Department, a device called an Air Taser will be installed on the riot shields of the police to decrease the use of truncheons. The Air Taser will stop demonstrators from pushing against police barriers by emitting shock waves. Police officials emphasized that the Air Taser did not emit electrical shocks and did not injure the human body. The Air Taser was invented in the United States and is produced by Israel. Police officials have started negotiations to import them into Turkey. The officials said that the device would only be used in very special circumstances. The police has presented its request and a sample Air Taser device to the Ministry of Health's Ethics Council. The decision of the Council will determine whether the Air Taser will be used. --- 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Mon Feb 2 08:50:18 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 02 Feb 1998 08:50:18 Subject: Press group protests jailing of Turkish journalist Message-ID: VIENNA, Jan 30 (AFP) - An international press group on Friday condemned the jailing of a Turkish journalist for allegedly spreading separatist propaganda in an article he wrote for a pro-Kurdish newspaper. The International Press Institute (IPI) wrote an open letter to Turkish premier Mesut Yilmaz highlighting the case of Haluk Gerger, a columnist for the daily Ulkede Gundem newspaper. Gerger was jailed on January 26 in Ankara after being convicted under Turkish anti-terrorist law for an article he wrote in December 1993 in the now-defunct Ozgur Gundem, a pro-Kurdish daily. He was also fined 208 million Turkish lira (1,000 dollars). "IPI believes that Haluk Gerger has been imprisoned for having carried out his professional duties as a journalist," said the Institute, who groups editors and media executives in over 100 countries. The ruling was "in violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," it said in a statement released at its headquarters in Vienna. "We strongly urge Your Excellency to do everything in your power to secure his release from prison," it told the Turkish premier. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Mon Feb 2 08:51:16 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 02 Feb 1998 08:51:16 Subject: European court condemns Turkish ban on Communist Party Message-ID: STRASBOURG, Jan 30 (AFP) - A European Court of Human Rights' ruling condemning Turkey's ban on a pro-communist party in 1990 may hold hope for the pro-Islamic Welfare Party -- subject of a similar ban earlier this month. The court in Strasbourg ruled Friday that Turkey had violated guarantees on freedom of association enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, by banning the Unified Turkish Communist Party (TBKP) nearly eight years ago. The TBKP's former president Nihat Sargin and general-secretary Nabi Yagci were awarded 120,000 French francs (19,575 dollars) in costs. Ankara dissolved the TBKP in June, 1990, just days after it was founded. Holding that the party had been disbanded before it was active, the court ruled that the government's action was based uniquely on the use of the word "communist" in the TBKP's title and a distinction its platform drew between the Turkish and Kurdish nations. "Such a radical step ... coupled with a ban on (TBKP) leaders from holding political office, appears disproportionate and unnecessary in a democratic society," the court said. More than a dozen Turkish parties have been dissolved since 1994 -- most notably the pro-Islamic Welfare Party, which was banned on January 16, despite being the largest party in parliament. Party leader and ex-premier Necmettin Erbakan and two of his close aides were also barred from politics for five years. Welfare's deputy leader Abdullah Gul met here earlier this week with Daniel Tarchys, the Council of Europe's secretary general, and Leni Fischer, chairman of the organisation's parliamentary assembly. Gul argued that the decision by Turkey's constitutional court to dissolve his party for activities judged harmful to the secular nature of the state, violated the European Convention on Human Rights. Erbakan has already pledged to appeal to Strasbourg over the banning order, and Friday's ruling is sure to prove a major confidence booster. A long list of cases involving dissolved Turkish groups is building up in Strasbourg, with the European Court of Human Rights scheduled to rule in April on the banning of the far-left Socialist Party, while appeals by three pro-Kurdish parties are still under consideration. Turkey's constitutional court began a series of hearings last May into the activities of Welfare, which was accused by state prosecutors of becoming a focus for anti-secular activities. The charges were concentrated on remarks by Erbakan and his aides calling for "jihad", or Islamic holy war in Turkey, and Welfare's efforts to introduce some Islamic practices into daily life. The United States and several European countries have criticised the ban, saying the verdict could hurt democratic pluralism in Turkey. Erbakan became Turkey's first Islamist prime minister in June 1996 after forging a coalition government with a conservative party. But his one-year term was marred by major rows with powerful pro-secular army generals over what they saw as creeping Islamisation. He was forced to step down under heavy military pressure in June last year. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Tue Feb 3 06:11:06 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 03 Feb 1998 06:11:06 Subject: Turkish report: Officials ordered bombings, killings Message-ID: Jan. 29 1998 Turkish report: Officials ordered bombings, killings ASSOCIATED PRESS ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish officials spent vast sums on assassins and were involved in murders, kidnappings and bombings -- many targeting Kurds -- according to a report released yesterday that confirms years of accusations by human rights groups. Security officials ordered the killings of prominent Kurds and allowed police officers to carry out summary executions, the report said. The government also was behind the bombing of the Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem in 1994 and the killing that year of a Kurdish businessman who helped finance it, the document said. The report, parts of which were leaked last week, focused on incidents from 1993 to 1996, under the government of former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. She and Turkey's current prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, who commissioned the report, are old political enemies. The 120-page report was published yesterday in Turkish newspapers, minus 11 pages withheld for security reasons. Even though it said that hitmen were on the government payroll long before 1993, it implied that Ciller was responsible for the abuses. Ciller has responded by calling the report a "children's storybook," and has said she would stand by the "heroic sons of this country who fought with their lives for the unity of the nation." According to the report, Turkey spent $50 million on assassins. The report identified 30 people killed by security forces and concluded that government agents had carried out many of Turkey's 14,000 "unsolved" murders, particularly those of suspected Kurdish rebels and businessmen who allegedly helped the rebels. "We have been saying all along that the state was involved in political murders," Jonathan Sugden of Amnesty International said in a telephone interview from London. "They were routinely denying all of this. Now they have acknowledged them all -- 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Tue Feb 3 06:13:26 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 03 Feb 1998 06:13:26 Subject: Movie Strikes a Nerve in Turkey Message-ID: Movie Strikes a Nerve in Turkey By Yalman Onaran Associated Press Writer Friday, January 30, 1998; 3:46 p.m. EST AP Photos NY190 ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- A movie that depicts police torture has scraped a raw nerve in Turkey, a nation wrestling with fresh disclosures of state-sponsored violence against political opponents and alleged rebels. ``The Heavy Novel'' is not ``Midnight Express,'' the 1978 U.S. movie whose portrayal of a young American caught for drug trafficking and brutalized by Turkish jailers was dismissed as wildly exaggerated when it was first broadcast on Turkish television five years ago. Rather, it is a story of ordinary people in Istanbul's back streets, leading anguishing lives rife with drugs, poverty and violence -- some of it perpetrated by police. The movie is on its way to becoming one of Turkey's most watched movies ever, not only because it deals with previously taboo subjects but because the country recently has come under severe international criticism for its human rights record. ``The Heavy Novel'' describes Salih, a quiet young man who finds himself opposing organized crime in his neighborhood. He flees into hiding after attacking a man who insults his girlfriend. Then, in one of the film's most graphic scenes, the police torture Salih's father to find out where he is. They pour water on his head, attach electrodes to his naked body and shock him, triggering uncontrollable spasms. Salih himself is eventually tracked down by police and also tortured to extract a confession for his attack. He doesn't relent. Offended by the depictions of torture and the film's portrayal of complicity between a police inspector and a Turkish mobster, authorities complained to the prosecutor, who launched an investigation into whether the film violates a law against insulting the security forces. The probe caused an uproar in Turkish newspapers, with columnists claiming that authorities were attacking a film that simply told the truth. The director of ``The Heavy Novel'' doesn't apologize for his work. ``It is ridiculous to claim there is no torture in Turkey,'' said the director, Mustafa Altioklar. ``The reason we cannot solve our problems is because we are afraid to confront them.'' According to Altioklar, Turkey's justice minister admitted last month that the government had confiscated ``torture tools'' from police stations. Claims of torture by Turkish authorities have become an international embarrassment to Turkey. The European Union recently rejected Turkey's latest application for membership, listing systematic torture among its other human rights problems. Furthermore, the release of ``The Heavy Novel'' two months ago followed the disclosure of a government report describing an array of official misdeeds, including torture by security forces and government-hired assassins. On one occasion, even a key intelligence officer became a torture victim, the report said. Depicting police misconduct is not the only Turkish taboo broken by ``The Heavy Novel.'' A gay adopted brother is embraced by Salih, a prostitute is befriended by the whole neighborhood, and drugs are consumed like beer. Now the producers are preparing Kurdish subtitles for the film's release in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, where a guerrilla war between Kurdish rebels and Turkish troops has been raging for over a decade. The clash has claimed at least 27,000 lives. A release with Kurdish subtitles would be unprecedented in a country where Kurdish-language broadcasting and education are banned. ``Hopefully the state won't be angered and won't try to prevent the showing with subtitles,'' said Sabahattin Cetin, the producer. ``We're encouraged by the softer attitude toward Kurdish language in recent 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Feb 5 04:11:50 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 05 Feb 1998 04:11:50 Subject: Turkey: 400 Arrests in Istanbul Message-ID: FEBRUARY 4, 1998 NEW ATTACKS LAUNCHED AGAINST OPPOSITION IN TURKEY ARRESTS IN ISTANBUL On January 29, 1998 in Adana, southern Turkey, three revolutionaries were killed by a special police unit carrying out extra-judicial executions. According to information from local inhabitants, the police fired about 500 bullets into the flat, in order to make it appear as though there had been an armed clash. While Mehmet Topaloglu, the official representative of the newspaper Kurtulus in Adana and another person died instantly in the flat, which belonged to Topaloglu's uncle, a third person in the flat died later of wounds in hospital. Members of democratic organizations, lawyers and Kurtulus representatives from Istanbul, along with friends of Topaloglu, in all about 250 people, travelled to Adana to begin investigations and take part in the funeral. It has been learned that the bodies of the other two, who were in a mortuary for autopsies to be held, were removed by the police yesterday and buried in a grave for unidentified people. After these events, the police carried out operations over a two-day period in various parts of Istanbul. Countless flats were raided by the police and according to available information, at least 400 people were arrested. Among them was Ahmet Latif Tiftikci, who is a worker in the IKM (Idil Cultural Centre), an artist in the Ayse Gulen People's Theatre as well as being a member of the People's Council in the Istanbul/Okmeydani neighbourhood. The attacks were targeted on people who had taken part in actions in Adana and Trabzon recently (1). The Turkish state loses no opportunity to use terror against the population. Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who claims to be "democratic" in contrast to his predecessors, and who carries on playing games concerning a "special report" on the 1996 Susurluk scandal, has shown himself once more to be a hypocrite. For the state's instruments, whether they kill 22 people like in Gazi in 1995 or take part in other pre-planned executions like in Adana, are invariably acquitted of whatever they do. It is perfectly legitimate for the people to demand a reckoning for all these state crimes, and for the whole of democratic public opinion in the world to support them. Please send a declaration demanding the release of those arrested: INFORMATION CENTRE FOR FREE PEOPLES Please send protest faxes quickly to: Istanbul police chief Hasan OZDEMIR Fax: 0090 212 635 4381 Justice Minister Oltan SUNGURLU Fax: 0090 312 417 3954 President Suleyman DEMIREL Fax: 0090 312 427 1330 Thank you for your support! (1) Trabzon: Sham legal proceedings against police on January 23, 1998 held in Trabzon, eastern Turkey. Hundreds of people came from Istanbul to observe the trial and demand the punishment of those responsible for the Gazi case in 1995. Adana: Scene of January 29, 1998 burial of murdered Kurtulus representative Mehmet Topaloglu. -- 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Sat Feb 7 06:07:27 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Feb 1998 06:07:27 Subject: Turkey: Strike called unconstitutional by Labor Minister Message-ID: 7 February,1998 Cagan: 'No one should expect the government to violate the Constitution' * Labor Minister Cagan states that the strike and collective bargaining accord that would be carried out by public employees is against the Constitution, adding that the right to unionize would be given to them within the legal framework set by the Constitution _________________________________________________________________ Turkish Daily News Ankara - Labor Minister Nami Cagan has stated that the Constitution bans public employees from going on strike and making collective bargaining contracts saying, "No one should expect the government to enact a law against the Constitution." Speaking at a seminar held by the Public Employers' Union (Kamu-Is), Cagan said that the government was willing to grant public employees the right to unionize as soon as possible. Cagan stressed that by enacting the draft in Parliament, public employees would obtain the right to unionize on legal grounds. Speaking on the right to unionize with strikes and collective contracts, one of the most recently debated issues, Cagan said that the 53rd article of the Constitution only allowed public employees to enter collective bargaining talks, but no to make accords. The minister emphasized that the Constitution deprives public employees of the right to go on strike and to sign collective contracts, adding that the Constitutional Commission in the Parliament also expressed a similar view. Cagan drew attention to the fact that a constitutional amendment is required in order to give public employees the right to strike and sign collective contracts, saying: "We should all struggle together in order to change the Constitution. No one should expect the government to prepare and enact a law which is against the Constitution." State Minister Burhan Kara stated that the unionization efforts of public employees have been ongoing for ten years, with the 55th government taking a step forward when it submitted a draft on that matter to Parliament. Asserting that the draft, which is currently on the Parliament's agenda, gives public employees the right to carry out collective bargaining talks within the boundaries set by the Constitution without contradicting existing laws, Kara put it on record that, by the enactment of the law, public employees would have a say in their own rights. Acknowledging that the current law on unions is not applicable for public employees, Kara continued: "Public employees' receipt of higher wages and superior union rights can only be provided by the restructuring of the state, the redefinition of public employees, the revision of the law concerning the trials of civil servants, the regulation of provincial administrations, the delegation of health, education, construction and infrastructure services to local administrations and the shrinkage of the state along with privatization." -- 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Sat Feb 7 10:07:13 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Feb 1998 10:07:13 Subject: The Hamburg incidents Message-ID: WHEN THE GERMAN PRESS CLAIMS TO BE SINCERE, AT LEAST THEY SHOULD WRITE THE TRUTH The gang of putchists and contras has wounded two of our sympathisers in Hamburg. The attack was carried out before the eyes of the police. On January 30, 1998, five members of the putchists and contras gang attacked two sympathisers of the DHKP-C in Hamburg. One of the attacked persons was wounded by three bullets, the second one was severely wounded by five bullets. Three of the five contras who carried out the attack were apprehended by the police, the others escaped. The assailants, according to the police, had come from Frankfurt in a yellow Golf with Frankfurt plates, constantly watched by the police. This means the police knew from the beginning what was possibly going to happen and that they therefore assisted the assailants by not intervening. It's not just a scandal when it is claimed that the witnesses of the event were mostly criminal investigators, it also shows the support of the German police for the putchists and contras gang. While the police never intervened in all the attacks by the contras till now, they constantly went after our sympathisers, putting them in custody, criminalising the people who had been subjected to the attacks, treating them as potential delinquents. The event was widely covered the following day, especially in the local press. However, the press reports only reflected a planned police provocation against our organisation. They even went so far to criminalise our organisation, using headlines which presented the event as a pay-off between Mafia circles. Although nothing of this is according the truth, it was not deemed necessary to cite sources to confirm these allegations. Furthermore, things were spread about our past which were completely false. The article in the Hamburger Bild daily was one of this kind. The one who was responsible for the article, Thomas Rosin, choose the following headline: "After the shooting in Ottensen: now the blood-feud". The writer literally composed a Western scenario. He is knowingly lying, using expressions which gives the readers goose-flesh. An example: "The 5-man strong terror group consists of a gang of Dev-Sol activists and Kurdish PKK-members", but such a statement cannot even be found in the police report. The provocation, prepared by the police, can be found at the end of the article when a detective is quoted: "Now we can expect a blood-feud. The supporters of the Dev-Sol wing of Yagan and their friends of the PKK will have to pay for this attack". In this way, it is tried to prepare the basis for police attacks against our organisation by raising the expectation of a act of revenge by our organisation in Hamburg against the putchists-contras. Another paper, using the same kind of expressions and pursuing the same goal, was the "Hamburger Morgenpost". The Morgenpost, using dramatic headlines, points at our movement as being "blood-thirsty" and "dangerous". One shouldn't forget however that it were the murderers of the peoples in this world, the USA and the CIA, who used the same expressions in their "Terrorism Report", published in 1997. This kind of speech even makes crows laugh. Look at the expressions which are normally only used by the authors and publishers of cheap detectives: "High Noon", "The Duel in Altona", "War of the Kurds in Altona?", "Those who speak out are as good as dead", "Fearing the revenge of the radical Turks", "Those who speak must die", "Has the next attack already been planned", et cetera, et cetera. The Morgenpost wrote about the history of our movement, about which they could have got information from everywhere, just as they remembered it to be, or like the police had told them to do. Logically, the story was such a conjecture, it can't even be could false anymore. (The most clear example: the founding of our movement was reported to have taken place 8 years before it had actually been the case.) The reports and the article in the Morgenpost must be seen as preparations for provocations, using police sources, against our sympathisers. It should not be forgotten there's nothing in the history of our organisation we would have to hide. In the history of our struggle, we defended all we did and we rejected everything we did not have to account for. Whether or not we were convicted according to the laws of the fascist state in our country was of no importance to us. We were legitimate, the fascist state on the contrary was illegitimate, politically as well as historically. Therefore we stood behind all our actions, although we knew the fascist state would give us the highest sentences. The German police and press have always tried to hold us responsible for actions we did not commit, for which we did not stand. That's how they try to criminalise us. With this kind of reports they try to connect us with several events which occurred in Hamburg in the past. We state once again these claims are not according to the truth. It are the police plans to attack our sympathisers which are behind these efforts. We have to ask here what the role of the police is in all these events. The German police literally encouraged the contra-gang to attack our sympathisers and did absolutely nothing, even though they observed these people constantly. Furthermore it has to be said that it is common knowledge that some of these persons co-operate directly with the police. And it's impossible that the police didn't know what people they were dealing with, prior to finding the narcotics in the houses of the contra-gang, an amount which could only serve dealing purposes. Our call to the German public: the only legitimate and competent organ to make statements about our organisation, or actions our organisation was connected with, is our organisation itself. The German public should not simply belief some statements and claims, where ever they come from. It's not our custom to deceive and mislead the public. This is a notion which is solely characteristic for the German police which is preparing further provocations. REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT European Representation February 1, 1998 -- 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 english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Sat Feb 7 10:07:17 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Feb 1998 10:07:17 Subject: Turkey: DHKC statement number 60 Message-ID: REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT Press Agency Press Statement Nr. 60 February 4, 1998 THE SUSURLUK STATE CONTINUES ITS ACTIVITIES THREE REVOLUTIONARIES WERE MURDERED IN ADANA On January 28, 1998, at 8.45 p.m., the police murdered, without any warning, three revolutionaries in the neighbourhood of Kiremithane, Adana, in front of the eyes of the people and the relatives of Mehmet Topaloglu. The police had surrounded the whole neighbourhood before. Three relatives of Mehmet Topaloglu were locked up in a room on the lower floor of the house the massacre took place in. Then the police used a trick to get access to the top floor of the house and murdered those who were present: Mehmet Topaloglu, Besat Ayyildiz and Buelent Dil. An investigation after the events showed the police started shooting without warning and that there had been no fire-fight. The police had the door opened in one way or the other and then they opened fire upon everybody who was in the house. Mehmet Topaloglu: representative of the Kurtulus magazine. He had nothing to do with armed or illegal activities whatsoever. Mehmet carried valid identification papers and was known to everybody in the neighbourhood. Besat Ayyildiz and Buelent Dil on the other hand were members of a Armed Propaganda Rural Unit of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front, a unit which was part of the Mediterranean Command. Because of a problem which occurred, they had been forced to go down into the city, with their weapons and equipment. The claim, published in a police statement, that they had come from Sivas to carry out an action is a complete lie. They had not come to carry out an action, none. Besat Ayyildiz (Nazmi) Born in 1966, in Bogazliyan-Yozgat, of Turkish nationality. The son of a poor peasant family. His childhood and youth were characterised by poverty. Because his family is poor, he had to do several jobs. His revolutionary views, his opposition towards the system, began to take shape during these years in which he saw the oppression of the people. During his time at the gymnasium, he got to know Devrimci Sol. But this did not lead to him becoming organised before he went to university. Between 1988 and 1989, while he studied at the Faculty for Languages and History, he took on himself some tasks in the youth organisation. Later he accepted responsibility for several tasks in the Revolutionary Youth in Ankara and Anatolia. He was arrested several times. He spent some time in prison. He did not succumb to the repression of the enemy. The resistance of Besat under torture and against the repression of the court was impressive and exemplary. In 1994, Besat was sent abroad for the time being. During that time he was in prison twice for a brief period. But all these imprisonments and all the torture could not change his revolutionary enthusiasm and his wish to fight the enemy. He was always enthusiastic to fight the enemy with a weapon in his hand. Before he went into the mountains in 1997, he said: "... We've learned that the road to achieve our highest goals, to achieve our greatest victories, begins - and in fact also ends - with carrying out the most simple tasks. From this side of the war, we learned the determination and the perseverance of a fighter. We've learned that one needs to be hardened to cope with the reality of this fight of the will in all fields, that we do not know ourselves well enough, that we've not really overcome known or unknown weaknesses, when our will, our bodies or our knees give in, when we give the enemy the opportunity to achieve a victory, or when we are forced to reward them... We've learned that we have to be successful in order to expand the war. We've learned that we first have to finish the struggle against ourselves, that we first have to finish our renewal, before we can achieve freedom..." Besat remained loyal to these words. He never forgot the responsibility he took from the time his feet touched the mountains, despite all the negative experiences and all the treason. Even under the most difficult circumstances, his beliefs and his bond with the Party-Front never trembled. Together with Buelent, he did everything to prevent that even a single bullet would fell into enemy hands. He did not fear death. When he fell on January 28, 1998, he left behind a heritage, fill with his bond to the revolution, the people and the Party-Front, filled with years of willingness to sacrifice and struggle. The struggle on the way Besat and his friends opened in Amanos and Torros will expand and they will live on as fighters of the Mediterranean Armed Propaganda Rural Unit. Buelent Dil (Nidal) Born in 1976, in Pinarbasi, Kayseri. Of Kurdish nationality. Child of a poor peasant family. Like Besat, Buelent spent his childhood and youth in poverty. He tried to earn his living as a tea-waiter, a dish-washer, and in textile factories. In 1993, he got to know some people of Devrimci Sol when he came to Istanbul to prepare for his exams to enter university. However, these acquaintances were still very new and he tried to build up a life within the system. He didn't see that the solution for oppression and poverty lies in the revolution. And so he went to relatives abroad in 1995, where he tried to build up a new life. But he saw that the solution was not abroad, on the contrary, oppression and discrimination even increased. Again he sought contact with the Party-Front, he wanted to fight. He took on some tasks in the organisation in England. In 1997, he was sent as a fighter to an Armed Propaganda Rural Unit of the Mediterranean Command. It was a passion for Buelent to fight in the mountains. He said: "... I have always felt a love for the mountains. After I got to know the Party-Front, this love even grew, it became a longing. I'm very happy the Party-Front has given me the opportunity to become a guerrilla in the mountains. I will use this chance as best I can till the end..." The love of Buelent and Besat for the mountains will even become bigger, the massacres by the enemy will not change this, on the contrary, our enthusiasm for victory will increase more and more. Mehmet Topaloglu Born in Adana, in 1972. Of Turkish nationality. Mehmet grew up in a poor neighbourhood of Adana. Although his original job was mowing-machine driver, he worked in several jobs. Because his family was poor, he had to end his education after primary school. During his struggle for survival, caused by the poverty, he was accused of having wounded somebody. In prison, he got to know the revolutionaries. He was able to compare the lives of the social prisoners with the lives of the revolutionary prisoners. The life of the revolutionaries was a new reality, which he had tried to imagine in the past, but was unable to see. He witnessed and recognised the small wars and the egoism of the social prisoners, formed by the system, prisoners he belonged to himself, and this caused him to criticise himself. He strengthened his contacts with the revolutionaries. During his time in prison, Mehmet witnessed the resistance of the hungerstrike till death in 1996 and the and the struggle of will-power by the revolutionaries. This gave Mehmet a new perspective of life and he decided to become a revolutionary. Because will-power can be that strong, he believed he could become a revolutionary himself and he began to combat the customs of his previous life. When he was released again, he was a revolutionary. He was a person, not of the normal struggle in the neighbourhoods, he was a person of the revolution. He knew who was a friend, and he knew who was the enemy. He knew that is was beneficiary to the enemy when the people fight among each other, that it is necessary to fight the enemy instead. He had to stand up, considering the repression of the enemy against the distribution of the Kurtulus in Adana, against the fact that the office was raided again and again, that the Kurtulus readers were threatened. He was arrested dozens of times. But nobody could force him to leave the struggle. The person who was executed on January 28, 1998, by the contra-guerrilla was a human being who had started to look at the world with different eyes, who tried to learn everything anew. He was not guilty of violating any law of the system. He didn't have any task in armed or illegal activities. His only guilt was being connected with the Kurtulus and being a revolutionary. The Susurluk state tries to send a message with these massacres: "don't stand up against the Susurluk state. Don't become revolutionaries, because you'll die". If necessary, we'll die by the thousands. We will crush this Susurluk state. We are fighting, conscious that the massacres will not stop before this state, the enemy of all the people, has been destroyed. We will never forget Besat, Buelent and Mehmet. And we will never pardon the murderers. Revolutionary People's Liberation Front -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Wed Feb 11 09:25:04 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 11 Feb 1998 09:25:04 Subject: DHKP-C: USA, MURDERERS OF THE PEOPLE - GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! Message-ID: USA, MURDERERS OF THE PEOPLE - GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! The government of the USA is preparing an attack against the people in the Middle East again. For some time now, fighter-bombers, war ships and bombs are being sent to the area. Now they want to use our country too as a jumping-board for a massacre against the Iraqi people. The USA defend their attack by claiming the "Saddam regime possesses biological and chemical weapons and does not open up some of its palaces to international control". This is just empty demagogy. The soil of the Middle East is of life importance to the USA. US-imperialism wants to bring this area totally under its control. It doesn't even allow the slightest protests in the area. This is also the source of the instability in the Middle East. When imperialism sees its interests endangered, it drops its bombs upon the people in the area without any hesitation. Examples for this are the bombing raid against Libya and the Gulf War, fully supported by the imperialist media. Together with the other imperialists, a massacre was carried out behind a veil of lies. The biggest terrorist of the world, the government of the USA, tries to cover up the flowing blood of the people with demagogies like "a contribution to international peace", "destroying the weapons of mass destruction in their production facilities to protect the people in the region" and "bringing down the Saddam regime and installing democracy". The USA, the enemy of the people, can't convince anybody. All the progressive people, the democrats and anti-fascists must oppose the bloody hands of the US over the Middle East. THE USA WILL BE DRIVEN OUT, THE COUNTRIES WILL BE FREE! USA, MURDERERS OF THE PEOPLE: GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! DHKC Revolutionary People's Liberation Front European Representation February 8, 1998 -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Parti-Cephesi Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) mailto:dhkc at ozgurluk.org http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Fri Feb 13 13:09:30 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Feb 1998 13:09:30 Subject: Turkey: Kurdish Cultural and Research Foundation on Trial Message-ID: The case against Kurdish Cultural and Research Foundation _________________________________________________________________ By Selin Kalman / Turkish Daily News Istanbul- The trial of the chairman and deputy chairman of the Kurdish Cultural and Research Foundation (Kurt-Kav) opened Thursday in Istanbul's Fifth Public Security Court. Chairman Yilmaz Camlibel and Deputy Chairman Mehmet Celal Baykara have been charged with opening language courses in Kurdish without permission. If convicted, the two men could face prison sentences ranging from six months to two years. The part of the hearing was given over to listening to the statements of Camlibel and Baykara. In his statement the latter said that the main objective of their foundation is to engage in scientific and academic research on Kurdish language, history and culture. He added that the course was very useful for improving the quality of translations from Kurdish to Turkish and the Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) had even asked for their assistance in translating. Following Baykara's statement, Camlibel told the court, "There are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey and all Kurdish citizens carry out their duties to the state in education and by going into the army. We applied to the Ministry of Education to open a Kurdish language course in accordance with ministry norms. This request has been turned down on the basis of the Law 2923 which is the educational section of the Foreign Languages Law. Kurt-Kav officials opened a case against the Ministry of Education for turning down their request; however, the law was passed by the Military Council following the coup of 1980 and according to the 1982 Constitution, no laws passed during that time can be suspended. "According to Law 2923, in accordance with the opinion of the National Security Council, in Turkey people can only open courses in English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Arabic and Japanese. No other language is permitted. But there are some state institutions like universities in which there are courses and education in languages beside these nine. Kurdish is an important language in Turkey. Sometimes the DGM receives cassettes and texts in Kurdish and they send them to our course to translate because Turkish prosecutors have trouble with Kurdish. Moreover a Kurdish child wants to learn his own language and people from other nations may wish to have Kurdish courses." Kurt-Kav has appealed the ministry prohibition to the Supreme Court. If the answer is negative, they are expected to apply to the International Human Rights Commission. The judge has postponed the present trial until May 5, 1998. -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Fri Feb 13 13:11:37 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Feb 1998 13:11:37 Subject: Turkey: 'A Kurdish state in northern Iraq is our main worry' Message-ID: TDN: 13 February 1998 Prime Minister Yilmaz: 'A Kurdish state in northern Iraq is our main worry' * _US assures Ecevit:_ 'No plan for an independent Kurdish state' _________________________________________________________________ Turkish Daily News Ankara- The Iraqi crisis and predictions about post-crisis developments continue to be the number one concern of Turkish politicians. On his way to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz told reporters on Thursday that the possibility of the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq is Turkey's main concern. "We should be prepared for such a development and must be alert," Turkish Prime Minister said. He also said that the United States is well aware of Turkey's concerns. The prime minister told the reporters that Turkey's border with Iraq is completely under control. Ecevit assured by the US In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said he had been assured by the United States that there is no plan to establish a Kurdish state. "I will take their word for it," Ecevit said. Ecevit made his comments after a meeting in Istanbul organized by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, where he answered reporters' questions about the current crisis in Iraq. Ecevit also compared the policies of the United States and the European nations on the Middle East. "Britain has been the leading country causing chaos in the Middle East since World War I," said Ecevit. Despite the U.S. assurances, Ecevit noted that Iraq is already divided into Kurdish and non-Kurdish regions. Logan denies British plans to set up a Kurdish state Meanwhile, British Ambassador to Ankara David Logan said that Ecevit's statements that Britain supports the breakup of Iraq and the creation of an independent Kurdish state "are utterly false." A statement concerning British policy on Iraq was released after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Wednesday that Britain could be in favor of the disintegration of Iraq and the setting up of a Kurdish state in that country's north after a possible U.S. attack to overthrow the Saddam regime. The statement referred to the statement made by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in the British Parliament on Feb. 12. "We support the territorial integrity of Iraq and would like to see it rejoin the international community," Cook said. "To assert falsely that, despite this clear and public statement, the U.K. is pursuing an undeclared policy aimed at the breaking-up of Iraq is to question the integrity of the British government. This is unacceptable and incompatible with the friendly relations which the U.K. wishes to maintain with its ally Turkey," the statement said. In a related development, the Turkish ambassador in London was summoned to the British Foreign Office by the deputy political director of the Foreign Office, Peter Recketts, TDN's London correspondent Orya Sultan Halisdemir reported. Despite official visits to various Middle Eastern countries both by Cook and Derek Fatchett, Turkey was left out of these visits. [INLINE] Sezgin: 'Measures are being taken' In addition, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ismet Sezgin said that preventive measures are being taken for the possible negative affects of a second war in the Gulf region. Visiting the Fleet Command in Golcuk, Izmit, Sezgin repeated that Iraq should implement all U.N. resolutions. OHAL governor: No migration, no operation, no buffer zone Aydin Arslan, the governor of the Emergency Rule Region (OHAL), said on Thursday that no migrations have taken place from northern Iraq towards Turkey because of the crisis in Iraq. Briefing reporters in his office on Thursday, Arslan said that no buffer zone was established in northern Iraq nor was an operation started. Arslan is a member of the High Coordination Board chaired by State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel and is in charge of the Emergency Rule region. He was in Ankara on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the board. -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Sun Feb 15 10:07:51 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 15 Feb 1998 10:07:51 Subject: DHKC: Let us stop the murderers! Message-ID: APPEAL THE IMPERIALIST BANDITS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE THE PEOPLES OF THE MIDDLE EAST SUBMIT Let us stop the murderers! US imperialism is preparing another attack against Iraq. In the first instance, the attack is aimed at the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East. The real aim of US imperialism is US supremacy and making the peoples of the Middle East accept the fake peace process the US is trying to foist on them. For this reason the US war machine and its weapons of destruction are being set in motion against the Iraqi people, old and young, men and women. Millions of people are being threatened. It is clear to the whole world that the nightmares being conjured up about the biological and chemical weapons supposedly possessed or under development by Iraq, are completely absurd. While the USA and the other imperialist countries possess weapons with which they could destroy the world dozens of times over, the chemical weapons of Saddam, whose existence has not been conclusively proved, are being used as an excuse to wage war by these bandits. Everyone knows that these bandits, who think nothing of acting as world policemen, have no trouble justifying the use of their mighty war machine against poor countries. Their aggression has already turned millions of people into corpses. The true reason for their attacks is that the imperialist bandits have not been accepted as gendarmes and peacebrokers. The American peace has not been successful in the Middle East. This peace is to achieve the submission of the Palestinians to Zionism and the Middle East to the status quo of the USA. However, neither the Gulf crisis nor the aggression that flowed from it were enough to turn the Middle East into a rose garden without thorns for imperialism. Now they want to unleash a second Gulf War against Iraq to intimidate the Iraqi people and the rest of the world. Their absurd war propaganda that the US Tomahawk is a 'democratic rocket' and Saddam's weapons are the 'weapons of a dictator' should influence nobody. On one side is a mighty machine of death, dollars, the dirty oil interests of imperialism, and on the other side millions of innocent and even defenceless Iraqi people. That is the reality. This is an imperialist war and in this war we are completely on the side of the Iraqi people. Our humanity, our love for the oppressed and our demand for justice force us to oppose this imperialist war, and we are opposing this aggression, this mass murder which is being heralded again and again in the international media with every passing day. European states also are supporting the approaching massacre. However we know that sections of European public opinion which have not forgotten their humanity do not agree with the attitude of these states. We appeal to those who are against the imperialist war; Let us close ranks. Let us form a protest front in Europe and in our country which will serve as a base for the attack, and in all the world. Let us oppose the second Gulf War. Let us stop the murderers. The bandits of the world have closed ranks. Those who want to stop the bandits must also close ranks. We are ready. So, long live international solidarity! Peoples of the Middle East, you are not alone! Down with the imperialist war! REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT European Representation 15 February 1998 -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Parti-Cephesi Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) mailto:dhkc at ozgurluk.org http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From greenscreen at mailexcite.com Tue Feb 17 04:35:32 1998 From: greenscreen at mailexcite.com (greenscreen at mailexcite.com) Date: 17 Feb 1998 04:35:32 Subject: The Press Oppressed- a talk in London Message-ID: posted by: ============================== Umit Ozturk Green Screen News PO Box 10386 London E17 7RG, U.K. tel: +44-(0)956-656937 email: greenscreen at gn.apc.org ============================== School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) KURDISH STUDIES FORUM Presents: "THE PRESS OPPRESSED" The Kurdish Question and the Media in Turkey A talk by Umit Ozturk (Environmental Journalist and Human Rights Activist from Turkish Kurdistan) - Oppressive laws and censorship - detention, torture and extra-judicial execution of journalists - Turkish nationalism and the mainstream Turkish media - The perception of Kuridsh identity in the media Talk followed by a slide show and an exhibition of Kurdish periodicals Date : Wednesday 25th February Time : 6.30 pm (coffeee served from 6pm) Venue : SOAS, Thornaugh Street, London WC1 OXG Nearest Tube : Russel Square (Picadilly Line) The Kurdish Studies Forum is an interdisciplinary forum for everyone whose research or work relates to Kurdistan. It offers an opportunity to present research topics for discussion, and to exchange regional knowledge. Although intended as an academic forum, the meetings are open to everyone who may be interested. Offers of papers to be presented at future meetings are are most welcome. It is aimed that meetings be restored to monthly sessions during term time. Further details available from the convenor, Maria O'Shea (0181-518032) or C/O the Near and Middle East Centre, SOAS. (0171-323 6239) If you wish to added to the mailing list for future meetings of the Kurdish Studies Forum, please leave your details for Maria O'Shea, C/O the Centre for Near and Middle East Studies, SOAS, Thornaugh Street, London WC1H OXG. The Kurdish Studies Forum is grateful for the support of the Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS. Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Tue Feb 17 05:07:47 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 17 Feb 1998 05:07:47 Subject: Turkey: Court arrests HADEP executives Message-ID: 17 February,1998 Court arrests HADEP executives _________________________________________________________________ Ankara - Turkish Daily News People's Democracy Party (HADEP) Chairman Murat Bozlak and six other party executives were arrested by the Ankara State Security (DGM) Court on Monday. Bozlak and party administrators were earlier taken under custody following a police raid on the HADEP headquarters. The HADEP executives will reportedly be tried on charges of violating Paragraph 1, Article 168 of the Turkish Criminal Code. This calls for a prison term of up to 15 years for those who are convicted of establishing armed gangs against the security of the state. The police raided the HADEP headquarters on Feb. 10 with a court order on the grounds that the 1998 calendar printed by HADEP was spreading separatist propaganda. The police seized the calendar and the documents at the headquarters. On Feb. 12, a second police raid was carried out on the HADEP headquarters, again with a court order, following a decision by the Office of the DGM Prosecutor in Ankara that the calendar and the documents contained elements of separatist propaganda. Also on Monday, the Ankara DGM obtained the testimonies of 14 intellectuals, comprising of writers and unionists. The 14 intellectuals, who claim to represent criminals of thought, compiled the speeches of lawyer Esber Yagmurdereli and unionist Mehmet Konuk in a brochure and published it under the title, "Freedom to Thought" on Feb. 12 in a bid to support Yagmurdereli and Konuk. They later applied to the Office of Ankara's DGM Prosecutor and asked to be tried, maintaining that they had committed the same crime as Yagmurdereli and Konuk. The prosecutor launched an investigation against these 14 intellectuals. They were summoned to testify at the office of the prosecutor on Monday. -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Tue Feb 17 17:52:39 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 17 Feb 1998 17:52:39 Subject: Press statement: Newspaper Kurtulus in Istanbul attacked Message-ID: PRESS STATEMENT RAID BY THE POLICE ON THE HEAD OFFICE OF THE NEWSPAPER KURTULUS IN ISTANBUL Istanbul, Turkey, February 17: For several hours the head office of the newspaper Halk Icin Kurtulus (Liberation for the People) was occupied by the Istanbul police. The repression against the newspaper Halk Icin Kurtulus, which has been rising to great heights in recent days, reached its culmination at a press conference held at the head office of Kurtulus by the newspaper's staff. Last Saturday in the Istanbul district of Kadikoy seven workers for the newspaper were arrested when they tried to read out a press statement. Then, yesterday, there were attacks by the police when workers for Kurtulus expressed their public opinion of the murder of the newspaper's Adana correspondent Mehmet Topaloglu, who was the victim of an extra-judicial execution last month during a raid on his flat by the police. The protests were above all made against the mass arrests which have been going on for days. In the course of these, the police have arrested many people, among them Kurtulus workers, and beat them, sometimes while they were made to lie on the floor of police buses. Today, at 1330, a press conference was held at the Kurtulus head office on Cagaloglu in order to protest against the attacks the previous day. Once again the police attacked, and, as was shown on several Turkish TV channels' evening news broadcasts, that afternoon the police arrested more than 40 people. The police surrounded the building and barged in on the pretext that they were ?looking for someone". The iron door was opened with a halogen torch by the police. Then the people inside tried to throw up barricades, but these were broken down with violence. More than a hundred Kurtulus readers and journalists gathered outside the building to protest, and were themselves attacked by the police. Several people were wounded and arrested. Various journalists who wanted to make reports on the spot about the incident were also attacked by the police. It was reported in the news that one of the journalists attacked in this way is in danger of losing the sight in his left eye. So far the names of 30 people arrested have been confirmed. These were Kurtulus workers or people who showed solidarity. All those in the building and gathered outside were arrested. The following were arrested in the building and taken to hospital as a result of the injuries they received. VAHAP KAYA UFUK DO?UBAY YA?AR D?L?BAY B?LENT TEG?N ZEHRA KURTAY BARI? BAYAR BANU G?DENO?LU Of these, ZEHRA KURTAY is in a coma. One other person whose name is unknown was also arrested in the office. Our latest information is that the following people were also arrested in the building. HAMDI KAYSI AYNUR CIHAN SENGUL AKKURT AYNUR KORUCU MUSTAFA BALCI MAHMUT KILILI TUNAY AKAN FETHI DOGRU SEVDA GOKTAS YUKSEL DOGAN OMER TUNCER ECEVIT ULAVUR LAZER FIDAN SAHIN ERDOGAN The following people are known to have been arrested in front of the building. TULIN SOYHAN NURHAN YILMAZ SAFFET ERCAN EBRU TURKOGLU AYDIN AKTAS KIYMET KILIC YUSUF ARACI MEDIHA ARACI Please send your protest messages to stop the oppression of the press in Turkey and release the journalists and others whose lives are in danger. Send protest messages to ?stanbul Police HQ: 0090 212-635 4381 Ministry of Internal Affairs: 0090 312-418 1765 Could you also please send the copy of your message to the Information Centre for Free Peoples, Cologne, Germany Fax 0049 221 760 2887 With best regards, Sandra Bakutz for the Information Centre for Free Peoples Kalkarer Str. 2 50733 Cologne Germany Tel 0049 221 760 7656 Fax 0049 221 760 2887 e-mail: informationzentrum at kurtulus.com -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Tue Feb 17 17:52:49 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 17 Feb 1998 17:52:49 Subject: Attack on the Newspaper Kurtulus Message-ID: URGENT PRESS STATEMENT, 2400 CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1998 Turkish police attacking newspaper office and beating and arresting journalists Today, February 17, the police of Istanbul, Turkey came to the building of the socialist weekly newspaper Kurtulus (Liberation). They came in on the pretext of attempting a search and then started beating and arresting the people they found in the building, some of whom are lawyers, and others journalists. According to pictures shown on the Turkish TV channel Show TV, several of the people inside and outside the building were being beaten and were covered in blood. Other pictures showed that there were still people holding out inside and the police were putting on gas masks, probably as a prelude to launching an attack using tear gas or some other form of gas. On January 28, Mehmet Topaloglu, the representative of Kurtulus in Adana, southern Turkey, was killed by police who sprayed his flat with bullets. Two other people died in the attack. This incident looks like a kind of introduction to today's attack on the Istanbul headquarters of Kurtulus. Kurtulus reflects the views of the DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front), considered an ?illegal leftist organisation" by the Turkish authorities. Kurtulus itself is a legally registered newspaper in Turkey, however. Last Saturday in the Istanbul district of Kadikoy seven workers for the newspaper were arrested when they tried to read out a press statement. Then, yesterday, there were attacks by the police when workers for Kurtulus expressed their public opinion of the murder of the newspaper's Adana correspondent Mehmet Topaloglu, who was the victim of an extra-judicial execution on January 28, 1998 during a raid on his flat by the police. The protests were above all made against the mass arrests which have been going on for days. In the course of these, the police have arrested many people, among them Kurtulus workers, and beat them, sometimes while they were made to lie on the floor of police buses. Today, at 1330, a press conference was held at the Kurtulus head office on Cagaloglu in order to protest against the attacks the previous day. Once again the police attacked, and, as was shown on several Turkish TV channels' evening news broadcasts, that afternoon the police arrested more than 40 people. The police surrounded the building and barged in on the pretext that they were "looking for someone". The iron door was opened with a halogen torch by the police. Then the people inside tried to throw up barricades, but these were broken down with violence. More than a hundred Kurtulus readers and journalists gathered outside the building to protest, and were themselves attacked by the police. Several people were wounded and arrested. Various reporters who wanted to make reports on the spot about the incident were also attacked by the police. It was reported in the news that one of the journalists attacked in this way is in danger of losing the sight in his left eye. So far the names of 30 people arrested have been confirmed. These were Kurtulus workers or people who showed solidarity. All those in the building and gathered outside were arrested. The following were arrested in the building and taken to hospital as a result of the injuries they received. VAHAP KAYA; UFUK DO?UBAY; YA?AR D?L?BAY; B?LENT TEG?N; ZEHRA KURTAY; BARI? BAYAR; BANU G?DENO?LU Of these, ZEHRA KURTAY is in a coma. One other person whose name is unknown was also arrested in the office. Our latest information is that the following people were also arrested in the building. HAMDI KAYSI; AYNUR CIHAN; SENGUL AKKURT; AYNUR KORUCU; MUSTAFA BALCI; MAHMUT KILILI; TUNAY AKAN; FETHI DOGRU; SEVDA GOKTAS; YUKSEL DOGAN; OMER TUNCER; ECEVIT ULAVUR; LAZER FIDAN; SAHIN ERDOGAN The following people are known to have been arrested in front of the building. TULIN SOYHAN; NURHAN YILMAZ; SAFFET ERCAN; EBRU TURKOGLU; AYDIN AKTAS; KIYMET KILIC; YUSUF ARACI; MEDIHA ARACI We call on European public opinion to send protest faxes to the Turkish authorities. Last August, an attack by the police on the Kurtulus building in Istanbul was suspended when protests were made, both by people outside the building and by West European institutions and individuals who sent in protest faxes. This time we can only try to shorten the time the arested ones are tortured. Please lend us your assistance again. Please send protest faxes to the following places: Istanbul Police HQ: 0090 212-635 4381 Ministry of Internal Affairs: 0090 312-418 1765 Please send a copy of any message you send to our fax number: (++32) 02 7337281 DHKC (Revolutionary People's Liberation Front) Brussels Information Bureau -------------------------------------------------- DHKC Front Revolutionnare de Liberation du Peuple Bureau d' Information Leuvensensteenstraat 323 1030 Brussel Tel/Fax: 32 2 73 37281 e-mail: dhkc at xs4all.be www: http://www.xs4all.be/~dhkc -- 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 greenscreen at mailexcite.com Wed Feb 18 05:40:18 1998 From: greenscreen at mailexcite.com (greenscreen at mailexcite.com) Date: 18 Feb 1998 05:40:18 Subject: Gulf Crisis Mobilisation Update Message-ID: posted by: ============================== Umit Ozturk Green Screen News PO Box 10386 London E17 7RG, U.K. tel: +44-(0)956-656937 email: greenscreen at gn.apc.org ============================== received from: "War Resisters' International" WRI/PEACE NEWS Gulf Crises Mobilisation UPDATE LIST 17 February 1998 PLEASE SPREAD FAR AND WIDE! This list is compiled from emails we get from pacifist organisations and activists around the world who are protesting the military build-up in the Gulf. It is a PARTIAL LIST and being added to daily. Please help me keep it updated by sending short and SUCCINCT additions,corrections, etc. Updates will be sent once or twice a week to this mailing list and anyone else who asks to be on it. (Send requests to warresisters at gn.apc.org, "Gulf mailing list" in the Subject line.) There is a LOT happening in response to U.S. and British aggression toward Iraq! Hopefully, diplomacy will prevail and there will soon be no more need for these updates... **************************************************** Report by Stephen Hancock -- Peace News BRITAIN There have been countless vigils across Britain in opposition to the proposed bombing - and often also in opposition to the continuing economic sanctions. In the event of bombing, people intend to hold candle-lit vigils in their town and city centres. The National Peace Council has compiled a list of local contacts for these vigils and other activities. There are at least four coalitions I know of that have sprung up. This is slightly confusing. A public meeting in the Houses of Parliament on February 12th attracted over 700 people and launched the Emergency Committee on Iraq (ECI) - an initiative supported by several left-wing Labour MPs (Members of Parliament). The National Peace Council Gulf Crisis Network (NPC GCN) organised a very successful demonstration - at only one week's notice -- at the Ministry of Defence buildings in central London on Saturday February 14th. Between 2000 and 3000 people attended. Following speeches by two Iraqi women, a member of the United Nations Association and veteran left-wing MP Tony Benn, there was a symbolic encirclement of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) buildings, and, simultaneously, a spontaneous sit-down protest in Whitehall - the main street running past the MoD and Downing Street. About 500 people blocked the road for nearly two hours, before being moved on by police. Nine people were arrested. On Monday February 16th, a hundred activists blockaded Northwood (Britain's Joint Rapid Deployment Force HQ in north-west London). Both gates were blockaded for five hours, and no traffic entered the base (although police broke the blockade at the main gate on three separate occasions - in order to let workers out). There were three arrests. Both Monday's and Saturday's actions gained significant press coverage and firmly established that there is public opposition to current British and US war-mongering. Women in Black are holding weekly vigils in central London, and there is a regular Saturday vigil (12.00 - 13.30) opposite Downing Street (organised by the proposers of the Ad Hoc Committee Against War in the Gulf - tel +44 171 436 4636). Further nonviolent direct action is planned, including an imminent trespass at Fylingdales - a US communications base in the north of England - and a "citizens' inspection" of Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment is planned for Friday (20th). In the event of bombing, as well as vigils, there will be nonviolent actions - at British and US bases. Two members of the London-based anti-militarist group, ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War) are currently in Iraq with members of the US-based sanctions-breaking group, Voices in the Wilderness. Peace News has produced an "Iraq Crisis" supplement detailing British and international responses, and its next issue (out February 26th) will have a fuller round-up of activities - please send them details about what you are doing or have done (and include clear contact details). People were slow to wake up to this crisis, but now there is a lot of activity. Some of the media talks about our protests alongside the diplomatic efforts. Most of the media, though, spouts government propaganda - but even some prominent militarists are saying that what is proposed doesn't making sense. Peace News, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY, England (tel +44 171 278 3344; fax 278 4040; email peacenews at gn.apc.org). National Peace Council, 88 Islington High Street, London N1 8EG, England (tel +44 171 354 5200; fax 354 0033; email npc at gn.apc.org). **************************************************************** National Emergency Coalition to Stop the War Against Iraq U.S. CONTACT: International Action Center 39 West 14 Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter at iacenter.org http://www.iacenter.org phone: (212) 633-6646 fax: (212) 633-2889 So far, demos have been held in AT LEAST 60 towns, cities, etc. - arrests only in DC that we know about so far... The National Emergency Coalition comprises over 40 organisations and individuals and is sponsoring local protests in more than 50 cities between February 17-24 prior to the mass demonstrations on February 28. The Coalition is sponsoring a February 17 protest at 5 pm at Times Square in New York. The group will also rally at Times Square on February 21. For Immediate Release Press Contact: Brian Becker/Deirdre Sinnott/Kadouri Al Kaysi Attention: News Editor (212) 633-6646 Thousands will Demonstrate on February 28 in First National Protests Opposing New U.S. War on Iraq. The newly formed National Emergency Coalition to Stop the U.S. War Against Iraq has set two national anti-war protests on February 28, 1998, for New York City and San Francisco. The Coalition includes over two hundred groups and prominent individuals from anti-war, civil rights, labor union's, women's, student, lesbian, gay, bi and trans, veterans, and religious organizations. The New York City demonstration on February 28 will include a mass march from Times Square to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The Times Square rally will begin at noon. Demonstrators in San Francisco will assemble at Dolores Park at 11:00 AM. ******* ISKD TURKEY CONTACT: Serdar Tekin Izmir Savas Karsitlari Dernegi Izmir War Resisters' Association Tel: + 90 - 232 - 464 24 92 Fax: + 90 - 232 - 464 08 42 e-mail: osi at info-ist.comlink.de ISKD will make a press statement on the street on February 13 and will protest the attitude of USA and its supporters. There is no concrete plan now. One idea is to write an anti-war manifest and try to distribute it widely, get signatures from well-known intellectuals, artists etc to create publicity. ODP (Ozgurluk ve Dayanisma Partisi - Freedom and Solidarity Party) started a march from Ankara to Incirlik, an American military airforce unit in the south of Turkey which was used to bomb Iraq in 1991. ******* Eugene Peaceworks U.S. CONTACT: Jen & Michael. 541-343-8548, 454 Willamette, Eugene, OR 97401 We are having a rally today, Wed. 2/11 from 4:30-5:30 asking people to call the president and our two senators (Ron Wyden, up for re-election & Gordon Smith on the Foreign Relations committee) to encourage creative diplomacy. We are still planning future actions. An ongoing educational and letter writing campaign likely, getting peace activism going again at the University of Oregon, etc. Possibly weekly Rallies. ******* Peter Jones AUSTRALIA CONTACT: Philip White in Adelaide and Shane Guthrie in Perth There are Gulf actions in Canberra, Perth, Armidale (NSW) and Adelaide that I know of. ******* Maggie Helwig CANADA CONTACT: Maggie Helwig 527 Markham St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6G 2L4, +1-416-537-7290 (tel/fax, but phone first) An ad hoc group of about 15 people (including members of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, the Quakers, Toronto Action for Social Change, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and me, plus Ken and Simone) took part in a 30-hour sit-in at the office of Canada's "Defence" Minister Art Eggleton, from 11 am Feb 9 to 5 pm Feb 10, while Cabinet was deliber- ating on Canadian participation in the US action. We held a press conference with representatives of several religious and ethnic communities in Mr Eggleton's office on the morning of the 10th. We did call, on the radio, for people to occupy the offices of their MPs... I can guarantee we will have other actions... ...the Canadian Arab Federation has made good statements to the press, as has the Canadian Iraqi Coordinating Committee (they're an anti-Saddam, anti-military-intervention group). CAF can be reached at 5298 Dundas St W, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, +1-416-231-7524. CICC I'm not sure about. ******* Ernst Guelcher Green Group in the European Parliament, Peace and Disarmament BELGIUM CONTACT: Ernst Guelcher ...next week in Strasbourg the European Parliament is debating the crisis situation and will hopefully adopt a strong resolution against military attack on Iraq. ******* Forum voor Vredesaktie BELGIUM CONTACT: Eloi Glorieux, fax: +32-2-640 07 74, tel: +32-2-648 75 83, or e-mail Forum will organize a first meeting with other peace organisations (For Mother Earth-Belgium; Vrede; ...) on Sunday 15 Feb in Antwerp to see what kind of direct non- violent actions could be done the next week. The already scheduled meeting of the Abolition 2000 coalition in Belgium, on Monday 16 Feb in Brussels, will be used to prepare some common public actions against the deepening crisis. On Tuesday 17 Feb there will be a great symbolic action "PEACE IS OVER - WAR CAN BE" in front of the NATO headquarters in Brussels (at 3 p.m.) organized by Forum voor Vredesaktie in collaboration with the Flemish Theater groups STAN and DITO-DITO, with the active support of Frank Vercruyssen, Tom Lanoye (famous writer), Benjamin Verdonck, Willy Thomas and other personalities from the world of culture, theater and cinema. Many other organisations are planning actions (e.g., Pax Christi) ******* Jan Smiley (organisation - ?) U.S. CONTACT: Jan Smiley Protest Demonstration in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, February 14, 1998, Valentine's Day. The theme is "Have a Heart, Spare the Iraqi Children." We will meet at Wall Street Plaza, at 1:00 p.m. Then we will march peacefully through the downtown area toward Church Street, passing out "valentines" to people urging them to join the protest. ******* American Friends Service Committee U.S. CONTACT: Mira Tanna, St. Louis (314) 862-5773 mvtanna at artsci.wustl.edu We are organizing the following activities: February 27, 1998 Rally in front of the Federal Court House at Market and Tucker Blvds., from 4:30 - 6 pm. We will be alerting the US attorney to violations of international law by the United States. American and Iraqi speakers will address the impact of the sanctions on the people of Iraq and the impact another war would have. DAY OF US ATTACK Candlelight vigil will begin at the Robert Young Federal Building on Spruce and Tucker at 8:00 pm on the day that bombing begins. Also, we are organizing daily briefings for the press on different aspects of the crisis in Iraq beginning on February 16th. ******* Jonah House U.S. CONTACT: Disarmnow at aol.com We witness at the White House on a regular basis through- out the year and frequently at the Pentagon regarding Iraq. Tomorrow we will participate with faith-based people in civil resistance again at the White House to call attention to the new escalated threats of bombing. ******* Dorothy Day Catholic Worker U.S. CONTACT: Bill Frankel-Streit 202-882-9649 Max Obuszewski 410-323-7200 or 503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW, Washington, D.C. 20010 CATHOLIC BISHOPS JOIN WHITE HOUSE PROTEST AGAINST WAR IN IRAQ Washington, D.C. Protest on Thursday, February 12 at White House at 12 noon ******* The Student Political Responsibility and Awareness Collective (SPARC) at University of Vermont U.S. CONTACT: Greg Guma, editor of Toward Freedom SPARC has planned a teach-in to unravel the sordid history of US policy in the Persian Gulf at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, in room 105 of the Votey building on campus. Organizers oppose both the ongoing UN-backed blockade and the current rush to war. ******* Ithaca chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America U.S. This organisation opposes the use of force in Iraq. Several members sent an e-mail message opposing bombing to all US senators and congresspeople who have e-mail addresses. ... I can make the list available or . CONTACT: Sylvia Wahl, coordinator, Phone: 607 257-2520 ******* ETAN Washington Office U.S. CONTACT: ...for more information on the International Days of Protest There will ... be demonstrations at the White House at noon on Wednesday, February 11, and Thursday, February 12 (a national day of protest on the anniversary of bombing of Amariyah shelter). In DC, Womens Strike For Peace and other groups have called for a protest at the White House on Thursday, February 5th at Noon. ******* One Million Signatures Campaign Egypt and U.S. CONTACTS: Egypt: Sohair Soukkary, Tel: 011 20 2 525 3810; Fax: 011 20 2 342 0661 United States: Rania Masri, Tel: 919 848 4738; Fax: 919 846 7422; E: IAC at leb.net Dr. Mohammed Mehdi, Tel: 212 972 0460; Fax: 212 682 1405 On Tuesday January 13, 1997, a coalition of Egyptian and international organizations will deliver almost 18 million signatures demanding an end to the sanctions on the Iraqi people. The One Million Signature Campaign, which began in July 1997, far exceeded its expectations by raising almost 18 million signatures, all united "to save the children of Iraq, and ban economic blockades as weapons of mass destruction." ... The ceremony place at 3:00 p.m., on Tuesday January 13, at the Cairo Official Stadium. ******* The 11th Hour Peace Coalition CONTACT: Larry Jackson, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, (518)-581-6051 Public Fast The 11th Hour Peace Coalition will sponsor a public 24 hour fast beginning Friday, January 30 at 12 noon. Students at Skidmore College, founders of the peace organization, will lead the fast. Students are using the fast to protest sanctions in Iraq and the threat of impending military force. The fast is inspired by the recent statement of opposition issued by 54 Catholic Bishops against the sanctions in Iraq. ...Three of the Bishops have begun an indefinite hunger strike with the demand of meeting with President Clinton. ******* ******* ORGANISATIONS THAT HAVE MADE STATEMENTS 1. IFOR (International Fellowship of Reconciliation), NETHERLANDS and U.S. FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation) IFOR CONTACT: Anke Kooke, IFOR General Secretary Fax: +31-72 515 1102 FOR CONTACT: Doug Hostetter 2. International Peace Bureau (IPB) 3. Committee on the Middle East 4. Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation We have made a statement on on the Gulf crisis to the Swedish Government, to not give US support if US acts without the support of UN Security Council. The statement was made together with the Swedish Peace Conucil. CONTACT: Isak Svensson 5. American Friends Service Committee, St. Louis, U.S.; CONTACT: Mira Tanna, St. Louis (314) 862-5773 6. ******* OTHER REFERENCES... 1. Anti war-on-Iraq homepages and websites A number of U.S. peace movement groups have pulled together a site to track on the Iraq Crisis and provide weekly commentary and opinions. Hosted on the Nonviolence Web, home to dozens of U.S. peace organizations, it is linked to back- ground pieces, action alerts, a "what you can do" section, and a discussion board. Perhaps most importantly, there's a section where participants can list local demonstrations and start building a grassroots movement against military action in the Gulf. The "Iraq Crisis Antiwar Homepage" is located at: http://www.nonviolence.org/campaigns/iraq.htm You may also find these useful: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/greenrd/project/nowar.htm http://www.middleast.org/iraqhtm.htm http://www.pgs.ca/pages/iraq91.htm http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/ 2. Two other nonviolent activist organisations in Austria: The Aktionsgemeinschaft "Christinnen und Christen f?r die Friedensbewegung" Oeverseestr. 2c 1150 WIEN Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence Postfach 504, (Wolfgangerstr. 26 ) A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria fon/fax: +43 6132 24590 3. For information on the plan to wear black armbands as a sign of solidarity with the people of Iraq: 4. Another German organisation with information: WRI-AG der FoGA Tel.: +49-441-17436 Fax: +49-441-2489661 Alteneschstrasse 15 D- 26135 Oldenburg email: WRI-AG.FOEGA at OLN.comlink.apc.org 5. Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI) CASI now has an email discussion list, for free discussion of issues relating to the sanctions and Iraq. At the moment, the topic is unsurprisingly focused on the bombing of Iraq. To join, contact Seb Wills . 6. For information on actions in Italy: Saluti pacifisti, p. COMITATO GOLFO (Walter Peruzzi, Piero Maestri, Paolo Limonta) Milano ******* War Resisters' International is a network of pacifists and nonviolent activists on every continent who work on national, regional, and international levels, as well as in local communities, to end war and the causes of war. Founded in 1921, WRI is based on the declaration made by each member: "War is a crime against humanity. I am there- fore determined not to support any kind of war and to strive for the removal of the causes of war." For more information on joining WRI or making a donation, please ask for a WRI leaflet. WRI, 5 Caledonian Rd., London, U.K. N1 9DX (warresisters at gn.apc.org). Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Thu Feb 19 18:23:13 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Feb 1998 18:23:13 Subject: Fortres Europe: Greek police chief to tackle Kurd influx at Rome me Message-ID: ATHENS, Jan 5 (AFP) - The Greek government announced Monday it was sending its top police officer, Athanase Vassilopoulos, to Rome for an international meeting on the current influx of Kurdish refugees from Turkey. Yannis Papadoyannakis, general secretary in the ministry for public order, said Vassilopoulos would lead the Greek delegation to the Wednesday meeting, which will also include police chiefs from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. "For us, the Kurdish immigration problem is mostly a political problem and European cooperation is necessary," Papadoyannakis said, adding that he believed Turkey should be encouraged to take back the illegal immigrants. He said that while Greece was concerned by illegal immigration, it was not faced with arrivals on the same scale as that facing Italy. More than 1,200 illegal immigrants arrived in Italy aboard two Turkish ships on December 26 and January 1. Most of them were Kurds from Turkey's troubled southeastern region where government forces are engaged in a conflict with militant Kurdish separatists. Papadoyannakis said immigrant-smugglers to Greece had now turned to new tactics of abandoning the ships with their human cargo in Greek waters or dumping the immigrants on remote islands. He said 8,000 Kurds who had arrived in 1996 and 1997 were now living in Greece. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Thu Feb 19 18:28:11 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Feb 1998 18:28:11 Subject: For the record: US, Turkish ships arrive in Israel for controversial Message-ID: HAIFA, Israel, Jan 5 (AFP) - US and Turkish navy ships arrived in this Mediterranean port Monday to begin joint maneuvers with Israel amid sharp protests from Arab states worried about a stronger Turkish-Israeli alliance. One US ship and two Turkish frigates joined Israeli forces for the five-day exercise code-named Reliant Mermaid, Israeli navy spokeswoman Gilla Gerzon said. The exercises, organized in the framework of a 1996 Israel-Turkey military cooperation agreement, involve ships, helicopters and aircraft in simulated search-and-rescue operations. The kick-off of the joint maneuvers sparked sharp new criticisms of Turkey from several Arab states, which have already said that they fear stronger Israeli-Turkish ties could threaten Arab security. "The maneuvers ... are one of the consequences of the military alliance between Israel and Turkey and reflect the aggressive intentions of those two countries against Arabs," the Syria's official Tishrin newspaper wrote Monday. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa warned Turkey that any alliance with Israel will provoke a similar response. "Turkey must know that any alliance will trigger the establishment of a counter-alliance," Mussa told the Egyptian parliament Sunday, according to statements published Monday by the government press. The only Arab state involved in the exercises, Jordan, tried to shake off widespread Arab criticism of its role by saying Monday it is sending just one observer to the maneuvers. "We are not participating ... so we have to use the right terminology. We are sending one observer to the exercises," said Foreign Minister Fayez Tarawneh. The commander of Jordan's naval forces, rear admiral Hussein Khassawneh, left Amman Monday to observe the exercises. The Reliant Mermaid operation begins with two days of land preparations. On Wednesday, a seaborne portion is scheduled to take place and involve a mock rescue of a sinking fishing ship in the eastern Mediterranean, Israeli officials said. The US and Turkish ships are due to depart Israel Friday. The maneuvers were criticised by the Arab League Sunday, while Iraq, Libya and Iran have also issued protests. But Turkish-Israeli ties are expected to deepen further after the European Union's decision last month not to consider Turkey's candidacy to join the 15-nation body. Ankara has already indicated it will now expand relations with partners outside Europe, notably the United States and Israel. The joint exercises were originally due to have been held last summer and then in November but were postponed each time amid the criticism from Arab states. Under their 1996 military agreement, Israel trains Turkish pilots in return for the right to conduct training exercises in Turkish air space. Israel also signed a 630-million-dollar contract to modernize Turkey's F-4 fighters and agreed on joint production of Israel's Popeye ground-to-air missile. Last week Turkey announced that Israeli state defense firms had also won a 75-million-dollar contract to upgrade F-5 fighter jets in collaboration with a firm from Singapore. List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Fri Feb 20 09:54:18 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 20 Feb 1998 09:54:18 Subject: Turkey, contra-guerrillastate: Kill Dursun Karatas and you'll get wh Message-ID: THE SUSURLUK STATE SAYS TO THE MAFIA : KILL DURSUN KARATAS AND YOU'LL GET WHATEVER YOU WANT! "I think it was about the end of 1994. A former officer of the Turkish state's intelligence service (MIT) wanted to meet me in Amsterdam. He informed me about the development in the Karatas incidents. They tried to cheat me by telling me that they had not managed to get in contact with Karatas at all and asked if I could try to contact him. At that moment I realized that this wasn't just an idea of this one person, but of a whole gang working for the state and I asked him without beating around the bush: "Are you offering me a job?". He said: "Why not?". They made me the same offer through Cant?rk, which I also rejected, but I know other persons whom they made the same offer to, and they accepted the task." These are the words of the mafioso H?seyin Baybasin, who lives in the Netherlands. In the magazine Arti Haber he speaks about the promises that a fortune could be made by killing Dursun Karatas, the leader of the DHKP-C. Baybasin is not the first to make statements like this. Many mafiosi made similar ones before, admitting that they tried to hunt down Dursun Karatas and were commissioned to do this by the Susurluk state. The mafiosi Alaattin Cakici, Nurettin G?ven, Tevfik Agansoy or the mafioso and MIT agent Tarik ?mit are just a few examples. But all this is not the whole story. There are other things we know. The mafioso contra-guerrilla state used all its resources, each mafia gang, thief, suspicious person, drug-dealer, collaborator, agent and consular official it could find in order to track down Dursun Karatas. They still search for Karatas in order to kill him. And what would the state be prepared to pay for that? DEAL IN HEROIN AND DRUGS, SELL YOUR PEOPLE, EVEN YOUR STATE, JUST KILL DURSUN KARATAS! This is what the state promises the mafia gangs and collaborators: Are you dealing in drugs or heroin? Do it. We can do it together if you want. Do you want to poison the Turkish people and the people of the world? Poison them as much as you like, let's do it together. If you want to pillage your people, want to make them addicted to gambling, want to rob and burn places down, all right, do it; if you want to spit on the honour and self-respect of the people? Just spit away! If you want to sell your land, your people, sell them, do whatever you like, let's do it together! I'll take care of you, give you licences for your weapons, give you green diplomatic passports, you can go wherever you want to without any fear, I'll let you pass through the V.I.P. salons like lords of all that you survey without your having to go through a search, and if you get in trouble with the police by accident or end up in the law courts - don't worry, I'll take care of you and you'll be freed again. See, you can live like a king, like a god! You can commit any filthiness and do any dirt you like, if it isn't enough I'll give you all the money you want; just kill that Dursun Karatas. Kill him, rescue me from this grief! I don't want anything else from you. YOU WON'T MANAGE IT! YOU HAVE NO ESCAPE, WE ARE GOING TO PUNISH YOU... The Susurluk state uses the mafia gangs in many different ways. They even channel them into the city neighbourhoods and schools. It says: We aren't managing to finish off the revolutionaries and the people with torture, massacres and executions, so help us, poison all of them, benumb them, let them forget that they are human beings, make them lose their self-respect and slowly kill them by the hundreds of thousands. The Susurluk state is without any honour. A regime that tortures its people in the meanest way, which "loses" them, massacres and poisons them, is one of the dirtiest and most dishonourable regimes of the world. A regime like this is not able to continue its filthy system without doing this. But all its struggles are in vain. It cannot prevent the people from coming to power, it cannot prevent the revolution. The Susurluk state is afraid. It is afraid of the revolution, it is afraid that the people will come to power. It is afraid that it will have to pay for the crimes against the people, that it will have to render an account to the people for its crimes. The oligarchy is afraid of this revolutionary organisation and its leader, whose aim is power and which has its roots within the people, because it is not able to destroy and split it into pieces, in spite of all its massacres, policies of destruction and all its methods aimed at countering it. The slogans "Long live our leader Dursun Karatas", "Long live the Party-Front" shouted by the People's Liberation Fighters in their bases surrounded by the enemy, the "DHKP-C" signature that the fighters draw on the walls with their blood - these are what makes the oligarchy afraid. So that's why destroying them is a matter touching on the oligarchy's very existence. The more it sees its end approaching, the more confused it gets and doesn't know what to do. It becomes more and more miserable. It is hoping for help from drug dealers and mafia gangs. It is letting the mafia gangs attack the people. It says: find Dursun Karatas and kill him. We say to imperialism's offspring, the collaborators, the contra-guerrillas, the military and the police, the mafia gangs and the ones commiting crimes against the people, who are continuing to commit them: You cannot and will not manage it! We are the ones who are going to punish you. There is no way you can escape us. The Front, the people's justice will continue to call for an account and punish the guilty ones. None of you will escape unpunished; justice is going to be served. FROM THE SUSURLUK REPORT: "SELLING WOMEN IS ALLOWED" A transcript of a phone call is published in the Susurluk Report issued by Kutlu Savas. The dialogue is between a "MIT officer" and the mafia chief Hadi Azcan: MIT Officer: Yes? Hadi: Hello, how are you? MIT O.: Aaa, Hadi, is this you? Hadi: Yes sir... .......... Hadi: I would like to ask you for a favour. MIT O.: Well then, tell me. Hadi: Sir, this Veli Albay is becoming more and more a problem. He doesn't leave me in peace, especially after the incidents with K?rsat. I think he's in contact with Sedat Peker. Or K?rsat told him something himself. MIT O.: I guess that Sedat is the channel. Hadi: Probably. Can't someone talk to him? MIT O.: Now, how are contacts between Veli Albay (Colonel Veli) and the haci (Yesil/ "Green", a notorious figure connected to both the state and the underworld), do they have good relations now? ......... Hadi: Here there are 30-40 of us right now, sir. We made more than 10 billion lira in less then a month with this tombola business. He knows about it now. It's allowed to sell women. They are putting up obstacles in the way of the tombolas. It's a winter day now. It will make 2 billion, if you give all the 40 persons 50 million. I gave away 4 billion. No-one has a penny, I swear to you, sir. MIT O.: You speak with the haci. He knows a lot of people at the gendarmerie. I don't know anyone. Hadi: This Veli Albay does this on purpose. This short dialogue on the telephone reveals everything: The contra-guerrilla chief at JITEM (the gendarmerie's intelligence service), Veli K?c?k, is allowing any dirty business, trafficking in women included. Very likely problems arose about sharing out the money gained from the tombolas. Yes, when you manage to harm the revolutionaries somehow, when you damage and injure them, when you serve the oligarchy's policy of destruction and provocations against the revolutionaries and fighters for national liberation, then you may do anything you desire! Yes, this is the oligarchy's "gang justice"! -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Sun Feb 22 13:25:26 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 22 Feb 1998 13:25:26 Subject: DHKC website updated Message-ID: To all who are interested. We have just updated our website at http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc + The latest issue of Devimci Sol/Revolutionary Left, a Revolutionary Political Review about Turkey and Kurdistan (Feb. 1998) has been put online. (http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/pub/revleft) + A document about the cooperation between the maffia and the Secret Service, hunting for the Chairperson of the DHKP-C, Dursun Karatas. + Statements on the Iraqi-crisis etc. Rev. Greetings, -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Parti-Cephesi Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) mailto:dhkc at ozgurluk.org http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Mon Feb 23 10:23:21 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 23 Feb 1998 10:23:21 Subject: DHKC: Isolate the drug pushers and putschists-contra-gang! Message-ID: A CALL: ISOLATE THE DRUG PUSHERS AND PUTSCHISTS-CONTRA-GANG, COLLABORATING WITH THE POLICE, EVERYWHERE YOU FIND THEM The putschists attacked, the police protected them. On January 30, 1998, two of our sympathisers in Hamburg were attacked by the putschists-contra-gang, The putschists-contra-gang stepped into a Golf with Frankfurt plates. The police new everything of this car, even the words on the rear-window. As was shown later, the car with the putschists was followed from Frankfurt by the police. The 5-people strong putschists' gang came to Ottensen (Hamburg) where two of our sympathisers were at that time. One of the putschists went to an sympathiser and asked him: "Are you ...?" (asking for his name). When the answer was "Yes", one of the putschists drew his gun and started to empty it from close range. Our friend was wounded by 5 bullets. The attacker aimed for his groin, stomach and chest, missing the chest and hitting his arm. In the meanwhile, our other sympathiser tried to get away. The putschists ran after him and open fire upon him as well. One bullet went through the windows of a parked car, just when a women passed it with her child. The stomach and arms of our fleeing friend were hit by 3 bullets. The officers of the CID, who had followed the putschists, were present while all this happened. They did nothing against the putschists. (They were later heard as witnesses) After all this was over, 3 putschists were arrested, while the 2 others "managed" to escape. Later that day, policemen searched the houses in Hamburg of those who had been arrested. 135 grammes of heroin were found in one of the houses. As was the case in all the other attacks by the putschists, the police acted against our sympathisers again and arrested our friends who were distributing leaflets. (Our people who were arrested at February 2 when they distributed leaflets are charged with making propaganda for a "banned organisation". The leaflets stated however that all the putschists do is known to the police and that the attacks had been carried out under protection of the police.) Behind the putschists: the German police Armed attacks by the putschists against our people have been carried out in many cities in Europe. Many sympathisers have been wounded. Especially in Germany, the police attacked our people, and not the putschists, after an attack had been carried out. All this although it was known to the police that the attacks had been carried out by them. Until now, the People's Cultural Associations were searched and people arrested after every attack. Even distributing newspapers was used for a reason to arrest people. And many people were arrested. For the first time since World War 2, the German and French police co-operated, and they did so against our organisation. Especially from Hamburg, it's known that some of the putschists, known by name, are co-operating with the police. The police quite openly protected and covered the putschists. The ones who were attacked were arrested, threatened and interrogated as suspects. Furthermore, a criminal investigation was launched against them. In the last case, the police satisfied themselves by just following the putschists from Frankfurt to the place of the crime, the attacks by the "suspects" were not prevented. The provocation attempts by the police and the press >From the point of view of the police, it's important that our sympathisers carry out acts of revenge against the attacks by the putschists in order to make provocations effective. After the attack in Hamburg, the police steered attention to this especially in their public statements. Words like "Expecting revenge" and "Now it's the DHKP-C's turn", coming from the mouths of some police chiefs, were used. In this manner, they try to criminalise our organisation in the public eye. The provocation attempts of the police were also reflected in articles in the Hamburg press. There were headlines like "Fearing death, some small merchants - eye-witnesses of the event - refuse to speak", the police was going to "protect the witnesses, do everything", and "who speaks, dies". The national press continued with similar publications. Despite our cautions and indications, they didn't rectify their articles. It was mentioned nowhere that the police had been involved in the event from the beginning. Pictures of newspapers were published to legitimise the attacks against our sympathisers and it was furthermore claimed that this organisation was criminal. Our struggle is fought on the soil of our country The language, used by the German police and press, is the same as is used by the Foreign Office of the US and the CIA. Both try to present our organisation as absolutely criminal, organised in Mafia-structures. In the report "Global Terrorism" (1996) of the US State Department, the US-government - the organisation which in reality is the biggest terrorist of the world - tried to picture us as terrorists, calling upon all the imperialist and collaborating countries of the world "to dry up the financial sources of this and other organisations" and to "initiate the needed judicial measures". These are the same attempts as they are now sought by the German police and the bourgeois media. Germany is not within the realm of our struggle, neither is any other European country. We are fighting for the liberation of the people of Anatolia on which soil our struggle is taking place. We are not waging an armed struggle abroad, against nobody. Those who claim the opposite are doing so consciously, and they are lying. At the same time, we are a people's movement. We see all those who aren't interested in the fascist system in our country, those who haven't lost their dignity and honour, those who love their country and people, as part of the people. With the support of the people, material, immaterial as well as physical, we are expanding our struggle. In our entire history, there has never been an action which harmed the people. The smear campaign and the provocation attempts of the German police cannot convince people. Drug dealing fits the putschists Another point of the attack in Hamburg was that the drug dealing by the putschists became apparent. This was not a new of unknown phenomenon. It was also known to us that they were active in other illegal activities, besides drug dealing. Without any doubt, the German police knew about this, but until now they never acted. In connection with the last incident, this became apparent in a inevitable manner. There can be no other explanation for the 135 grammes of heroin. Countless time we have said that putschism was connected with immorality, perversion, dishonour and treason. Now it's clear for all that it is in fact a Mafia gang, connected with drug dealing. A call upon all our friends The putschists are a Mafia gang, dealing in drugs and co-operating with the German police. They are enemies of the people whose only goal is to attack the Front and its sympathisers. This gang is only mentioned, and only then, when they attack the Front and its sympathisers. That's the only way they can draw attention upon themselves. Isolate this gang everywhere. These immoral criminals have nothing to do with the revolutions and being revolutionaries. Keep away from them. Drive them away. Let them not enter the places you are in. This clique, which shoots at the Front, which wants to kill sympathisers of the Front, which deals in drugs, carries out all sorts of illegal activities and co-operates with the police, has no right to be in places where the people are. Note: Some cadres abroad of Devrimci Sol wanted to carry out a coup in a major base of the movement abroad. They confiscated the archive and the money which belonged to the movement. They even imprisoned the leader of Devrimci Sol, Dursun Karatas, for a while. When the putsch became known, all the cadres and sympathisers of the organisation crossed the plans for a coup with their attitude. The putschists escaped, taking the confiscated archive and money with them. They are still at large. Behind this treacherous coup were the imperialists, co-operating with the contra-guerrilla in Turkey. Since then, the putschistic "runaways" attack the DHKC supporters in Europe at every occasion, organising provocations. The police in Europe very well knows that these contra's live their lives in Mafia conditions. Revolutionary People's Liberation Front European Representation February 1998 -- Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Parti-Cephesi Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) mailto:dhkc at ozgurluk.org http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Wed Feb 25 09:54:08 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 25 Feb 1998 09:54:08 Subject: Turkey: Fascist terror on the increase and the revolutionary line Message-ID: Translated from the Kurtulus: FASCIST TERROR ON THE INCREASE AND THE REVOLUTIONARY LINE Death is taking a stroll all around us. This is neither "literature" nor exaggeration. Osman Das, Mehmet Kurnaz, Burhanettin Akdogan, Serpil Yilmaz... The oligarchy is continuing to murder in the torture centres and prisons... With murder and terror the oligarchy seeks to gain strength and restore its morale, which suffered a blow following Susurluk.Day after day, the fascist bands attack students and young people. It is pure luck that there have not been more deaths so far. Police terror reigns in our area. Uniformed police try to occupy our city districts and bring them under control. However, nobody is surrendering, nobody is turning traitor. Youth, whether organised or not, is standing up courageously to attacks. The police have not succeeded in making the people in the shantytowns submit, the people's councils say no, despite all repression people are stating as vigorously as possible that the people are uniting in the people's councils. We must organise against fascist terror. We must organise against state terror. Whoever under these conditions seeks to work only with legal methods is in fact admitting that he or she is outside the arena of struggle. There is no alternative to answering fascist terror in the language it understands. Today or tomorrow, nobody will be able to flee from this. That is why "people's violence" must be organised. The revolutionaries are in the position of being able to assess the past year from the point of view of the oligarchy, the people or the revolutionaries, and to establish what were positive developments and what were weaknesses. Because today one can see that the current aggressiveness of the oligarchy is the result of the phase experienced over the past year. In this phase, which we call the "Susurluk phase", the revolutionaries succeeded in pushing things so far forward that the oligarchy lost its influence over the people's opposition. Admittedly, from the viewpoint of the opposition such a development could not go on much longer. Because it would have meant the end of the oligarchy was approaching. At the moment the oligarchy is trying to manoeuvre to get out of this situation. To put it more precisely, the manoeuvres it engaged in over the past year have been stepped up with greater intensity. For the rulers, 1997 was a year in which discussions to solve the system's crisis continued on a broader basis than before, but without a result. We can say that it was a year in which the rulers had a painful sense of their approaching end. "We have our backs to the wall", "We have been floored", "The system is in danger". Again and again, fears such as these were expressed by the monopoly capitalists and the bourgeois press. The crisis which existed before Susurluk was then aggravated by it because of the people's reaction against the rulers, certainly far more than in comparison with previous years. All organisations and institutions found themselves in a discussion which involved condemnation of the values held by the rulers. The rulers' state apparatus lost respect in the eyes of the people, the image of the "paternal state" was shattered. The state began to lose strength in its ongoing campaign against the revolutionary struggle and its inner contradictions sharpened, causing it to suffer blow after blow. The phase which began with the Gazi uprising (March 1995) showed that a period of uprisings was beginning. With the Susurluk accident, millions saw the true face of the state completely exposed. Along with the revelation of the state's inner contradictions, it became clear that this was the state of the contra-guerrillas and not the people. This state, which received heavy blows and shocks, saw itself forced to make strenuous efforts to stay on its feet and save itself from the truth revealed in the slogan "Susurluk is the state". The policy put into the foreground by the National Security Council, "Secularism versus the Islamic state" to a large extent served this aim and was successful up to a point. As a result of these efforts, the oligarchy dared to release the murderers who had been jailed as part of investigations related to Susurluk, and to prepare the conditions for new attacks. All this should not be interpreted to mean that the oligarchy has overcome its crisis or saved itself from the effects of its exposure in the eyes of the people. This exposure of the state is an achievement of the people and the revolutionaries which cannot be undone. The spokesman of the ruling class [President] Demirel, at a press conference on December 27, 1997 was unable to present a rose-tinted assessment of 1997. Demirel tried to indicate at the conference various ways for the state to resolve its own difficulties. While what he said was largely repetititious, he did emphasise one of his main concerns: the people's sense of hopelessness had risen. According to the state's own polls, 42% of the population have no sense of hope of receiving anything more from the state. >From what was said at the press conference, it could be understood that the rulers still feel very worried about the political chaos revealed by Susurluk. Demirel's words, "Everyone will know his task and stay at his post. If a link in the chain breaks, the whole set-up will collapse," gave expression for the first time to the fear that the army, which was going on the offensive, was subject to the same strains suffered by other parts of the system. This was also a sign of anxiety in the face of the army's offensive. The military waved its sword to left and right in an effort to distance itself from the filth uncovered by Susurluk. It was only natural for the other forces in society to feel threatened. And this sense of threat continues to this day. The main fear of the oligarchy however is that the army has played its last trump card. Whatever may be the case with the oligarchy, the inequality and injustice in our land have begun to bring the rulers and the imperialists into severe difficulties. in Istanbul, the difference between the incomes of the poorest and richest members of society has risen by 1473%. The Mesut Yilmaz government like all the preceding ones will only succeed in widening the gulf. At this point, the crisis will become more concrete and sharpen, as the rulers' lack of any way out will become more apparent.They cannot do anything. The only way left to them is the current increase in terror, and this is precisely the avenue they are now pursuing.The government has declared 1998 to be the year of reforms, the year in which the state will be reconstructed. But even the state does not believe that. So they are not making preparations in this area but rather are concentrating on developing new laws to increase repression against the people and employ more terror against the revolutionaries. Developments in the prisons and the increasing number of massacres are the product of these efforts. What the revolutionaries do against this, what line they will follow, these are no longer a secret. We are not experiencing such a phase for the first time. The people and the revolution in Turkey are rich in experience as far as dealing with fascist terror is concerned. It is necessary to jointly carry out the struggle of the masses and the implementation of revolutionary violence. One or the other alone will not suffice to drive back fascist terror. For the same reason, none of the reformist tactics aimed at solutions within the system will succeed. Against the attacks and murders of the oligarchy only the application of both paths of struggle, mass struggle and revolutionary violence, will manage to drive back fascist terror. Revolutionary violence united with the organised strength of the people cannot be defeated. This is a proven fact, the fruit of decades of revolutionary struggle. The task today is, in all areas, among the youth, in the gecekondular (city slums), among the workers and public employees, to defend against and struggle against fascist terror on the basis of mass resistance and revolutionary violence. In no area can official and civil fascist terror go unanswered. The attacks, arrests, executions and massacres must be confronted by the masses and the people's violence. In all areas, there must be sensitivity towards attacks launched elsewhere. Today it is more important than before to act together. The "democracy game" of the oligarchy, used until the other day to guide the country, is now played out. The oligarchy itself can see that. The Yilmaz government came into being in the past six months with the aim of achieving something, but it has become clearer with every passing day that it has no room for manoeuvre. However much they try to create an optimistic atmosphere in 1998, in a short time the senselessness of this enterprise will become obvious. Even as the rulers come up with any amount of mendacious news about "hope" via their media, their fear will grow. While the people's hope for freedom from this system grows, the hope of the rulers that they can save the system declines. This is the reality in our country. The oligarchy's terror intends to destroy the people's hopes. It seeks to annihilate the representative of the people's hopes, the revolutionary organisations. But the people's movement will grow, revolutionary violence will develop, the attacks of the oligarchy will be beaten back and revolution will spread with the growth of the people's hopes and its representatives, the revolutionaries. Footnotes: (1) On November 3, 1996 in the Susurluk area of western Turkey, a Mercedes limousine struck a lorry while driving very fast. A police chief, a parliament deputy of the DYP (True Path Party, at the time part of the ruling coalition), a beauty queen and an internationally wanted drug dealer, mafia chief and fascist killer were in the Mercedes. Following this scandal, new revelations came out every day about the involvement of the state in drug dealing, prostitution, murders, massacres, and every type of mafia and contra-guerrilla activity. (2) On March 12, 1995, civilian fascists in a car fired on meeting places in the Gazi/Istanbul neighbourhood used by leftists. Two people were killed, but the police did nothing to catch the killers. The people of Gazi reacted, supported by people from other parts of Turkey, with an uprising lasting several days. During the uprising another 18 people in Gazi and Umraniye were murdered by the police. (3) After the Susurluk accident the army threatened a coup to discipline the bourgeois parties, who were discrediting each other in their attempts to show that they themselves were "clean". (4) In the prisons of Turkey attempts to put political prisoners in isolation cells are again on the agenda. The building of such cells was suspended. Up to the present the prisoners have managed to avoid transfer to isolation cells. Past attempts by the state to do this were one of the reasons for the hunger strikes in the summer of 1996, in which 12 prisoners died. --- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Wed Feb 25 09:57:16 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 25 Feb 1998 09:57:16 Subject: Studentsstruggle in Turkey Message-ID: The following text is a backgroundstory about the struggle on the universities in Turkey. It was translated from the Revolutionary weekly Kurtulus "PROVOCATIONS" CRUSHED THROUGH STRUGGLE Following years of silence, student youth have since 1986 taken up and raised the struggle for democratic rights and exposed themselves to the action of the police and military. With the upturn in struggle, repression and bans, arrests, torture, imprisonment, disappearances and massacres have increased. Schools and universities were turned into police and military barracks. But despite everything the struggle of the student youth could not be halted. Even if there were setbacks from time to time, the struggle spread from the big cities to Anatolia and from the universities to the secondary schools. The attacks by fascists using knives and sometimes guns also increased in scope in certain schools and districts. Since the boycott on November 6 last year, these attacks have increased and taken an organised form, spreading from Istanbul to Ankara, Bursa, Budur, Kocaeli, Canakkale, Malatya, Adana, Antalya and Sivas and have occurred as far away as Kars. The fascist attacks have been specifically targeted against revolutionary-democratic students and have caught the youth in a web spun with the aid of police terror and the bourgeois media. It was obvious that these attacks were planned and centrally directed. THE STATE IS THE AGGRESSOR This must be recognised by everyone. Neither the fascists' organisations themselves nor their attacks are independent of the state and the MGK (National Security Council).Since the foundation of the MHP (Nationalist Action Party) and its Idealist Hearth offshoot, these organisations have been directed by contra-guerrillas and used in attacks on the people. From the 1960s until the September 12, 1980 putsch they carried out hundreds of massacres. They killed thousands of revolutionary, democratic and progressive people. They tortured and murdered people and put their bodies in sacks before dumping them. They occupied schools and denied the right to live to revolutionary and democratic students, to all who were not on their side and refused to do what they said. They attacked and bombed schools and halls of residence. All this was done under the protection of the state, with the help of contra-guerrillas and the police. First the fascists would attack and kill, followed by the police and military who did the same. Revolutionaries, democrats and patriotic students were arrested, tortured and detained. The fascist attackers on the other hand were able to walk around unhindered. What we are experiencing today is no different from the period before the September 12, 1908 military coup. In addition to the MHP and the Idealist Hearth there is also the BBP (Great Unity Party), founded by a former MHP chairman, Muhsin Yazicioglu, one of the main organisers of contra-guerrilla massacres who spearheaded the BBP split from its parent organisation. There is also the Nizam-i Alem Hearth organisation. It is clear enough from what we have already experienced what the role of the state has been in the attacks experienced since 1990. While revolutionary-democratic students are unable to enter educational establishments without police identity checks and painfully thorough searches, as well as being followed around in the schools and campuses by civil police who sometimes arrest and detain them, the fascists are able to go around the same establishments armed with knives and even firearms. While the fascists attack, the police merely look on or else launch attacks on revolutionary-democratic students themselves. Under police protection, the fascists can leave the scene of fighting as if nothing had happened and prepare to launch new attacks. At this point, observing fascist support for police attacks and concluding from this that the fascists are merely police informers is an error. To think that, in the light of all that has been revealed since the Susurluk accident about the contra-guerrilla state and the reality of fascism, would be to misinterpret and misunderstand what has been witnessed.The attacks are carried out under the control and direction of the state, the MGK itself. Interior Minister Basesgioglu made this clear when he said that "the leftists have brought these events about". Decoded, this statement was a message to the fascists that "the state will continue to protect you and take you under its care". This is quite apart from the fact that the interior minister cannot change reality simply by attempting to disguise it. This is because the forces which direct the state are not the interior minister or even the government, but the contra-guerrillas of the MGK. The interior minister's statement merely shows that he does not bother to conceal his collaboration with the contra-guerrillas. The bourgeois media have explained away police attacks as resulting from "a lack of education", or "inability to maintain a stiff upper lip", and have thus tried to avoid criticising the state itself. The media also play a role in allowing the state's part in fascist attacks to remain concealed, through headlines like "clashes between leftists and rightists" and "provocations". WHAT IS THE STATE SEEKING TO ACHIEVE? The state has been driven into a corner, harried and unmasked by Susurluk and the growing opposition of the people, but it is collecting its strength and preparing new attacks on the people. Even though they have been unmasked, the contra-guerrilla bands are being released, murderers under contra-guerrilla control are being promoted and in the Black Sea region there is practically a state of emergency. Everywhere in the country democratic mass organisations are repressed, their people arrested, their meetings are attacked by the police, city neighbourhoods where they are strong are kept under police terror. In Kurdistan, repression, arrests, murders and disappearances, efforts to abduct revolutionaries and force them to cooperate and commit betrayal are continuing and being stepped up. All this shows that the Susurluk phase is coming to a close and being succeeded by a new phase in which comprehensive contra-guerrilla attacks are becoming the order of the day. The fascist and police attacks on students at the time of the November 6 boycott were an aspect of this new wave of attacks on the people. [Note: the November 6 boycott takes place every year in the universities as a protest against YOK, the State Higher Education Council. YOK was founded right after the 1980 military coup as a way of bringing universities under state control. The content of lessons is controlled, uncongenial teachers and students expelled and every kind of political activity not favoured by the state is halted.] Their aim is clear: to prevent the organising of the youth and inhibit their capacity to wage a struggle. Youth have not bowed their heads, have not given in, however, even though the police and military have turned their schools into police stations and army barracks. To achieve its aim, the state wants to utilise the fascists in an even more effective manner. So the fascists are trying to occupy the schools in the way they did in the 1970s. Under fascist occupation, revolutionary-democratic students would be caught between the fascists inside the schools and universities and the police and military outside, and would not be able to gain access to the schools.They could only get in by bowing their heads and surrendering. In other words, not to display any signs of political personality, not to engage openly in any political or organisational activity, not to organise any action or rally for even the most basic democratic and academic rights. The state wants to create a type of human being who does not think, does not deal either with his or her own problems or those of the people, does what he or she is told, and in short is no more than a robot of the system. "DON'T FALL FOR PROVOCATIONS" MEANS IN FACT TO FALL FOR THEM The attempts of the enemy and the bourgeois media to present fascist attacks as "clashes between leftists and rightists" and fables about "provocations" are designed to whitewash the state and also to break the resistance of the youth towards fascist attacks and cloak their struggle in silence. The headline "The leftists have brought these events about" is one way to do this. This is meant to influence the psychology of young people, to retard their consciousness, to silence them and to make them think, in response to fascist attacks and attempts at organisation, "Let's not fall for provocations", or "Oh, clashes shouldn't be happening", "We don't want to be accused of starting disturbances". In this way the fascists can get a firm foothold in the universities, legitimise themselves and build up their strength. But there is also the fact that the left keeps falling into the enemy trap with the theory of "let us not fall for provocations", as a way of fleeing from the struggle. This theory already existed before the September 12, 1980 military coup and was propagated by the revisionists, reformists and opportunists, who thought that the reacting to the fascist attacks was a diversion from the struggle with the state, and that prolonged conflicts with the fascists would lead the class struggle into a dead end. In this remarkable logic two errors stand out: the fascists' struggle and organisational methods are deemed to be independent of the state. Before the military coup, the revisionist TKP (Communist Party of Turkey), the reformist TIP (Workers' Party of Turkey) and other organisations like the KSD (Kurtulus Sosyalist Dergisi, Liberation Socialist Magazine) and DY (Devrimci Yol, Revolutionary Path) held these viewpoints and acted accordingly. Instead of taking part in the anti-fascist struggle and raising it to a higher level, they called on the state to ban the fascist MHP. Their struggle with the MHP was not simultaneously directed against the state but exclusively at the MHP. The second mistake was to separate the anti-fascist struggle completely from the class struggle. Both struggles were treated as completely different and separate. Now, let us imagine the following: the fascists attack and we fail to deliver any riposte, what will happen then? Will the fascists stop attacking? No. What will happen is clear. They will continue their attacks and try to either annihilate young people or bring them under their control. Every step back, in the name of "not falling for provocations" or every attempt to wage a purely defensive struggle against fascist attacks will produce nothing, but will pave the way to legitimise the fascist organisations and make it possible for them to strengthen themselves. If this happens the end result will be that the schools and universities fall completely under fascist sway. Now, what kind of class struggle is being waged by those who draw back from fascist attacks and allow the schools bit by bit to fall under fascist control? What ends will this struggle serve? To see how impossible it is to spread the class struggle without stepping up the anti-fascist struggle and driving back the fascists scarcely requires mastery of Marxism-Leninism. What was experienced earlier has yielded clear results. On what basis is the current struggle of students and school pupils growing? Ending undemocratic practices and repression, achieving democratic rights, raising the struggle for educating the people and so on... All these are basic points and whoever opposes them has to be combated by us. When we are confronted with fascist attacks, we cannot develop the class struggle without removing this obstacle, the class struggle will unite with the struggle against this obstacle. Of course the state says, "Fight among yourselves rather than with me", when it pushes the fascists to launch attacks. But to frustrate this policy and expectation of the state does not mean remaining silent and fleeing from the struggle, but renewing the struggle. In this case it is necessary to step up the anti-fascist struggle, which means it should be used as a way of organising the masses and getting them to participate in the struggle.What is the aim of the state's policies in relation to "provocations"? It is to divert the struggle of the people and the youth from their objective. Before 1980, this met with success against organisations which did not want to "fall for provocations". But if the anti-fascist struggle is led in such a way as to avoid deviating from its objective, if on the contrary it is conducted in such a way as to unite the struggle against the state with the struggle for people's power, then the tables will be turned on the state and its games. And this is what must be done. If the anti-fascist struggle is raised, it is possible that other demands may recede into the background. But if we organise the masses on the basis of the anti-fascist struggle and lead them in the struggle, if we can show the masses the correct path, if young people realise that the state is cooperating with those who launch fascist attacks, who are simply one of the means the state possesses, and if the other demands and problems of the masses are not lost sight of in the course of the anti-fascist struggle, then all this will serve to develop the class struggle and be of use to the revolution at the same time. And this will have meant that the provocations have been destroyed. -- 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 english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl Fri Feb 27 09:13:29 1998 From: english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 27 Feb 1998 09:13:29 Subject: Jailed Kurd MP Urges U.S. To Scrap Helicopter Deal Message-ID: Jailed Kurd MP Urges U.S. To Scrap Helicopter Deal ANKARA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A jailed Kurdish MP nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize urged the United States on Saturday to cancel a planned $3 billion sale of helicopters to Turkey because of Ankara's human rights record. "The United States should once again review its policy on the attack helicopters, which I believe should not be given," Leyla Zana said in a letter she gave to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck. The pair met in Ankara central prison on Saturday during a human rights fact-finding mission to NATO ally Turkey by Shattuck. Zana and three other Kurdish deputies were imprisoned for 15 years in 1994 on charges of links to Kurdish rebels, largely on the basis of speeches they had made. Their case is among the most prominent human rights issues in Turkey, stalled in its bid to join the European Union partly because of its rights record. Washington gave the green light in December to U.S. firms Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing-McDonnell Douglas to supply AH-1 Cobras and AH-64 Apaches respectively to Turkey. Members of Congress had expressed concerns about arms sales to Turkey because of its rights record. Zana, whose letter was released by the Human Rights Association, said Turkey had made no improvements on human rights. "Systematic torture continues to be both an interrogation method and a state policy," she said. "The obstacles in the way of freedom of expression have not been lifted." The leadership of a Kurdish party was arrested last week on charges of ties to Kurdish guerrillas. They face up to 15 years in jail. Zana last year rejected any attempt to release her until a solution was found to Turkey's festering Kurdish problem. More than 27,000 people have been killed in 13 years of clashes between security forces and Kurdish rebels, fighting for self-rule in southeast Turkey. The United States is generally supportive of the Turkish fight against the rebels. It backs Turkey as a valuable partner in a tough neighborhood that includes Iraq, Iran and Syria. ******************************************* Solidariteitsgroep Turkije-Kurdistan Postbus 2884 3500 GW Utrecht the Netherlands stk at xs4all.nl http://www.xs4all.nl/~stk/index.html ******************************************* -- 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