From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Tue Jan 13 12:37:02 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Jan 1998 12:37:02 Subject: The only way for Kurdistan: Revolution References: Message-ID: THE ONLY WAY FOR KURDISTAN: REVOLUTION SOURCES AND RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISES IN LEGALITY The logic of the oppression and the terror by the ruling powers is showing itself quite openly. They want to intimidate the opposition forces by terror and oppression, forcing them to capitulate. In this, they know no borders. From the view of the people, the logic of the struggle against oppression and terror is clear. There is only one way to reject oppression and terror, to stop and to destroy it with all its roots: resistance and struggle. Those who accepted the pressure of the enemy in varying degrees, planning their tactics accordingly, dreaming oppression and terror would decrease, have always been proven wrong. There are numerous examples for this in the history of the class struggle in our country. The prisons are the stage on which this has been proven in 20 years of struggle. It's argued that, in order to avoid too much oppression, one should accept repression and seek compromises, but this is mistaken. The accepted pressure will be increased and further concessions will be enforced. The enemy will always take one step further. The situation HADEP is in at present, represents another negative example of this reality. The process from HEP to HADEP is a process of retreat and reversal. How did this reversal come about? Contrary to a resistance against the enemy attacks, based on legitimacy, a militant line and the masses, they preferred a line, controlled by the oligarchy, to soften oppression and terror. The decline began with a coalition with the SHP (1), continued with the oath ceremony - in parliament - and connected with a silence about massacres and arrests, becoming a line. It's this notion which allows for the chief state prosecutor of the revision court, Vural Savas, to point at the HADEP when he approves of banning a party. After banning a party, the new parties followed a more "moderate" line, a process which continued from the HEP, over the DEP and the OEZDEP, to the HADEP. There are wrong discussions about the HADEP, in their own ranks, as well as in others. In the centre of those discussions are those who "conquered" the HADEP or want to do so. But the line of the HADEP should be the priority of these discussions. Those who have conquered the HADEP, or want to do so, can be clearly recognised from this line. The main distortion is this discussion is this: when one looks at their policy, their statements, it's not easy to determine who is the real "chef" of the HADEP or who wants "to conquer it from the outside". Because in the epoch of those who criticise and who are criticised, it's not possible to differentiate between policies. The weakness of the patriotic movement (PKK) in the democratic struggle and in organising is one of the factors for this field to sink into the quagmire of legalism. The patriotic movement doesn't exist with an open political identity, neither in the struggle of the youth, nor the union struggle, nor in the gececondular (slum areas). The only form of existence of the HADEP was and is to mobilise the masses for peace, and their activities to win votes. This line will of course always cause compromises and legalism. Another point which be looked at more closely is the propaganda of the HADEP "to unify with Turkey". This was also the PKK's propaganda recently. But their were no practical steps, there couldn't be because those who spoke about it didn't pursue such a goal in reality. The words of wanting to "unite with Turkey" were mere propaganda. They were as empty as the words of the bourgeois parties who claim to be the parties of the workers and the peasants. The only reason for them to organise outside of Kurdistan are the Kurds who live here. It's their intention to organise the Kurdish potential, creating support for the national movement. The problems in the schools don't concern them. It couldn't be noticed that they organised an action to the benefit of the demands of the workers or the civil servants. These thing are considered unimportant "while the war in Kurdistan is going on". When one remains insensitive for the questions of the people of all nationalities, the claim of being a party of the Turks, will of course not be taken seriously. They not only showed no interest in the demands of the workers, the civil servants, students and the population of the gececondular, it's also of almost no concern at all to them that others are being murdered, made "disappeared" and executed. But these events are real, from Kurdistan to the west of Turkey, they are reality in all of Turkey. It's not possible to separate this. However, Kurdish legalism has made this separation. And when they then speak of "uniting with Turkey", this is of course not credible. There wasn't any participation of the HADEP in the campaign for the Gazi trial (2). The same HADEP saw the attacks in Gazi on March 12, 1995, as an "attack against the Kurdish people". But they didn't engage themselves for the trial. Whatever happens is connected with the Kurds, but later they do not care. Analysis, theory and practice are inconsequent. So those where your words then, and how do you explain your attitude towards the Gazi trial now? These are no isolated cases. Almost all events are analysed in this context, they always put themselves in the centre. While they put themselves in the fore-ground, they despised the left in Turkey. For this reason, they always praised the system forces, criticised the left in Turkey, and look for allies within the system. The integration of the HADEP in the system and their policy of reconciliation are no coincidence. Therefore there is no objective basis for regarding the line of the HEP and DEP as positive and revolutionary, condemning the HADEP as reconciliatory. This evaluation shows in reality that the situation the HADEP is in today, as well as the policy they represent, has not been analysed correctly. For example, it was stated at the recent Istanbul city congress of the HADEP that "the real defenders of the demands of the Kurdish people" had put their stamp on the congress. But when we look at the statements of those who were newly elected to the board, one can conclude there are no real changes. Although notions like legitimacy were emphasised in the statement of the city chairman, the policy remains the same: peace, dialogue, et cetera. The ideology is wrong. The class analysis of the war which goes on in our country is full of errors. The leadership is wrong. Let us for example pose this question: did the HADEP dictate the peace policy itself? Even the answer to this question shows the source of the errors lies in the ideology and the leadership. The peace policy wasn't dictated by the legal Kurdish parties, they only put it into practice. Who are promoting the peace policy? OEDP, SIP, EMEP, et cetera... The HADEP, as a natural consequence, takes the same position. But besides the reformists, there is also a strong democratic struggle in our country. However, the HADEP puts itself outside, far away from this struggle. For example, why didn't the HADEP participate in the preparations and the discussions for the people's constitution. When the OEDP would have drawn up a constitution, they undoubtedly would have jumped on it. The HADEP doesn't want to be put in connection, or appear in public, with any other organisation than the OEDP. Their conduct regarding the people's constitution is no isolated case. Another example could be seen with the march of the people's council to Ankara (4). Nobody from them took part. 400 people were arrested during this action, but nothing was done by the HADEP. The HADEP did not receive the people's councils, but to receive the union platform DISK, all their institutions are mobilised. The same is reflected in their press organ. According to their press statements, the democratic opposition in our country only consists of the HADEP, the OEDP, SIP, EMEP and DBP. As if the other wouldn't exist... The last example was shown during the Gazi trial. Those who offered themselves as trail monitors were repeatedly mentioned in their press statements, but the people's councils who had mobilised the people for the trial weren't mentioned once. They are not important to them, because everything is ignored. except the block of the reformist opposition. When we look at their line more carefully, we see this: the HADEP is no force for the revolution, they strengthen reformism and the system in stead. Also in the democratic field, the legalist line, existing already for years, must be replaced by a revolutionary one in order to develop a united struggle of our people. 1. The predecessor of the Republican People's Party, CHP, at the end of the 80's, led by Erdal Inoenue. 2. Trial against some of the participants in the massacre in Gazi where during a people's uprising after an attack by civic fascists against meeting places of the left in the neighbourhood of Gazi (Istanbul), some 16 people were murdered and many others were wounded. 3. Broadly discussed draft of a constitution for and by the people, stemming from the "Platform for Rights and Freedom". 4. March because of the 1st. anniversary of the Susurluk accident which publicly exposed the connection between the contra-guerrilla, the Mafia and the state, making Turkey a contra-guerrilla state. -- 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 irainc at igc.apc.org Tue Jan 6 01:21:09 1998 From: irainc at igc.apc.org (Iranian Refugees Alliance Inc.) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 17:21:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: new Issue of IRANIAN REFUGEES AT RISK Message-ID: The Summer/Fall 1997 issue of IRANIAN REFUGEES AT RISK (Bulletin of Iranian Refugees' Alliance) is now featured in our website http://www.irainc.org/text/nletter/su97fa97/su97fa97.html CONTENTS: Unsafe Haven: Iranian Kurdish Refugees in Northern Iraq. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Absoluteness of Article 3 - M.A.R. v. United Kingdom Gender Persecution and Iranian Women Refugees (an introdution) Turkey Halts Deportaion Campaign Presentation at OSCE Humanitarian Projects Year End Report IF YOU LIKE TO RECIEVE A PRINTED COPY PLEASE CONTACT US. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Iranian Refugees' Alliance, Inc. | | is a non-profit organization in the US assisting | | and advocating on behalf of Iranian refugees and | | asylum seekers nationally and internationally. | | For more information, please contact us. | | | | IRA Inc. ******************************* | | Cooper Station * FAX: 212-260-7460 * | | POBox 316 * Voice: 212-260-7460 * | | New York, New York 10276-0316 * e-mail: irainc at irainc.org * | | U.S.A. * URL: http://www.irainc.org * | | ******************************* | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Wed Jan 7 06:17:46 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Jan 1998 06:17:46 Subject: Turkey: Women ask female minister to resign Message-ID: TDN: Jan. 7. 1998 Women ask female minister to resign * 'Girls who have committed suicide because they were forced to take a * virginity test would have committed suicide anyway. I don't think * this is really important. Five or three girls, it doesn't matter. A * girl should not enter into such a dialogue with a man,' said Isilay * Saygin during an interview _________________________________________________________________ By Zeynep Erdim / Turkish Daily News Ankara - "Three women don't make a man." Isilay Saygin, minister responsible for women's affairs, said these words years ago. Some women who have started a campaign to call for Saygin's resignation believe she has not changed since that time. Halime Guner, one of the founders of the Ucan Supurge (Flying Broom) Women's Association says, many previous female politicians who achieved the same status went through a positive process and perceived women's consciousness while they were in office. "Turkan Akyol herself stated that she learned how to see things from the women's standpoint after she became a minister. Onay Alpago, who declared herself 'not a feminist, but a Kemalist' realized the importance of feminist movements in order to raise consciousness when she was in the same position," said Guner. The campaign started last week after an interview with Saygin, conducted by the daily Sabah's correspondent, Nese Duzel. Saygin's words on women and feminist issues caused a large amount of controversy and were not welcomed not only by women but also by many men. Saygin's approval of the virginity test and her presentation of the test as a "necessity," as well as her draft that requires equal prison sentences for men and women found guilty of committing adultery, caused tension among various groups. Some of Saygin's comments were as follows: "Imprisonment will discourage adultery. They will be humiliated in public." "Educating children is the duty of the mother and the father. The state is a father." "Let's skip the virginity issue. It doesn't bother me. I do whatever Turkish tradition and customs request and require of the family." "Girls who have committed suicide because they were forced to take a virginity test would have committed suicide anyway. I don't think this is really important. Five or three girls, it doesn't matter. A girl should not enter into such a dialogue with a man." "I don't have a private life. I am single. Maybe I wouldn't be this successful if I were married." Saygin's latest words are the straw that broke the camel's back. Many columnists, referring to Duzel's interview, asked Saygin what she understood by the term "human rights," "privacy of life," and "the limits of the state's protection of people." Guner says the Ministry for Women's Affairs was a major achievement by women which they had gained after years of struggle and hard work. "Saygin is there in vain. To be able to say 3 or 5 women might die is not something out of the blue; she was always like that," says Guner. The campaign calling for Saygin's resignation is planned to grow, not only remaining as a petition. Through the campaign, women want to raise their voices once again and demand their natural rights, such as being the sole owner of their own bodies. In the longer term, these issues -- the integration of women into politics, adultery and the virginity test -- are planned to be discussed on international platforms and in more public activities. The campaign is not run by a specific organization but is fully supported by large groups of women from universities, women's associations, and by individuals. -- 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 Wed Jan 7 06:33:11 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Jan 1998 06:33:11 Subject: Mainstream news on the Kurdish Refugees Message-ID: Rights Group: TR Tactics Cause Kurdish Migration By Elif Unal ANKARA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Turkey's top human rights activist on Tuesday accused authorities of causing a Kurdish migration crisis by using scorched-earth tactics against separatist terrorists in the mainly Kurdish southeast. "The state itself is forcing these people to this deadly escape," Human Rights Association chairman Akin Birdal told a news conference. Turkey has come under pressure from Europe to find a solution to its Kurdish problem after about 1,200 refugees -- many of them Kurds from Turkey -- landed on the Italian coast in flimsy boats last week. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says that although many of the Kurds might be economic migrants, some would be genuine refugees fleeing conflict in Turkey and a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq. Turkish officials say the migration is due to economic reasons alone and deny Italian assertions that Turkey's 10 million Kurds suffer political persecution. Birdal said millions of Kurds inside Turkey had been uprooted in a military campaign in 1994 and 1995 to empty Kurdish villages and thus dry up terrorist support and supplies. "More than three million people were forcibly evacuated as a result of burning down more than 3,500 villages," Birdal said. "The pressure on the people who were forced to migrate has not ended." Turkish officials have often blamed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group for emptying civilian settlements but the then human rights minister acknowledged in 1994 that the security forces had torched some villages. <...> PKK prisoners in a Megak?y jail briefly took two prison guards hostage in support of a hunger strike by fellow Kurds in another jail, Anatolian news agency said. It said the prisoners in Megak?y's Bayrampasa jail seized the two prison guards late on Monday and held them hostage for two hours before releasing them <...> Turkish Interior Minister Murat Basesgioglu said many of those who washed up in Italy were south Asians or Kurds from Iraq, not Turkey, He said the terrorists were using the migration issue to darken Turkey's image abroad. "The PKK is trying to mislead Italy and other European countries and present it as a Kurdish migration," Anatolian news agency reported Basesgioglu as saying. EU countries fear a Kurdish immigrant influx could spill over to them. Bonn, in particular, is alarmed that thousands of Kurds could try to join half a million of their kin already in Germany. Turkish border police have arrested 57 migrants trying to cross illegally into Greece so far this year, the governor's office in the border province of Edirne said. It said a total of 52 Iraqis, four Azerbaijanis and one Georgian had been captured. Illegal migrants pay around $3,000 a person to smugglers for the journey from Turkey's rugged coastline to the nearby Greek islands or Italy, aid workers say. They often spend days in dirty, dangerous boats. "We strongly condemn the way in which the smugglers are taking advantage of such vulnerable people," UNHCR spokeswoman Pamela O'Toole said in Geneva. Kurd Refused German Asylum Kills Himself DUISBURG, Germany, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A Kurd committed suicide by setting himself on fire after German authorities turned down his bid for asylum, police in the western town of Duisburg said on Tuesday. They said the 24-year-old man, a Turkish citizen, walked into a petrol station in the nearby town of Wesel late on Monday and doused himself with petrol from one of the pumps. He then walked into the sales area of the station with a canister he had filled with petrol, sending sales staff fleeing for cover, and then set himself ablaze. The man is reported to have repeatedly shouted "Kurdistan" -- the independent state demanded by Kurdish terrorists in southeast Turkey -- during the incident. A police spokesman in Duisburg said the man had been facing imminent expulsion from Germany following a rejection by authorities of his asylum request. The man, who has not been named, was airlifted to an emergency clinic in Duisburg but died shortly after arrival. The incident comes amid growing concern within Germany that it could become the final destination for a flood of Kurdish asylum seekers arriving in Europe via Italy. Around half a million Kurds already live in Germany, which has a Turkish population of some two million. Germany is sceptical of many asylum requests by Kurds who say they face repression in Turkey. It argues that many are simply seeking refuge for financial reasons. German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther urged Italy, Greece and Turkey on Monday to step up controls on illegal immigration. -- 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 Wed Jan 7 19:16:18 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Jan 1998 19:16:18 Subject: Prison Hungerstrikes In Turkey/Kurdistan Continue Message-ID: Hungerstrikes Continue As Protests Spread To More Turkish Prisons Ignored by the mainstream media, political prisoners in Turkey have been on hungerstrike for several weeks to demand improved prison conditions. Although the hungerstrike by prisoners in Nazilli was called off on December 25, 1997 following successful negotiations with prison officials, the situation has escalated elsewhere, particularly in the high-security prison at Erzurum. 336 political prisoners from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other leftist organizations are on hungerstrike there to protest against special isolation detention conditions. Prisoners Serefkan Kaya, Resul Akkol, and Suleyman Elefkan are said to be in serious condition. Several other prisoners are suffering health problems such as internal bleeding. But prison officials have so far refused to budge. In a statement published in the pro-Kurdish daily paper 'Ozgur Politika' in Europe, the prisoners said: "All of our efforts, which are directed at compromise and humane demands, and those of the negotiating delegation have not received a single reaction. The state is continuing to pursue its isolation policies." Protests against inhumane conditions and the introduction of isolation detention are continuing in other prisons as well. In Adiyaman, prisoners have refused food since December 23, 1997. In Halfeti and Diyarbakir, political prisoners began an unlimited solidarity hungerstrike on December 21 due to the "conditions in the high security prison in Erzurum and the oppression in other prisons". This past weekend, PKK prisoners in Midyat special prison also began to refuse food in order to begin their protest. In order to continue to the strike for as long as possible, and to increase the pressure on the prison officials, the hungerstrike there will be conducted in three-day rotations. According to the Human Rights Association (IHD) in Erzurum, prisoners in Erzurum went on hungerstrike for a total of 160 days in 1997, so their health is very delicate. In 1996, 12 prisoners [from Turkish revolutionary leftist organizations] died during a 69-day hungerstrike, and dozens were permanently injured by the effects. (Source: 'junge Welt' - January 7, 1998) ---- For A Free And Independent Kurdistan! KURD-L Archives - http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Wed Jan 7 19:32:15 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Jan 1998 19:32:15 Subject: More Deaths In Turkish Prisons Message-ID: The KIC Amsterdam documents a press release of the Kurdistan Information Centre in London: Urgent Press Release January 7, 1998 Turkey: Deaths In Prisons Continue Following the death of Osman Das in Bartin Prison, another PKK member, Serpil Yilmaz (25) held in Sakarya Prison, has lost her life as a result of brain hemorrhage. The resistance and hungerstrikes are continuing in various prisons as harassment, violence, and torture increase in Turkish prisons. Serpil Yilmaz was arrested in August 1996 and charged under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code in Istanbul. At the end of the trial she was sentenced to life imprisonment and transferred to Sakarya Prison. Her appeal was still to be heard at the Supreme Court. Serpil Yilmaz stated at her trial that she was tortured in prison. She died of brain hemorrhage in Sisli Etfal Hospital on January 5, 1998. Eren Keskin, lawyer for Serpil Yilmaz, said: "I have spoken to the doctors and am told that the illness which caused Serpil's death is called 'Anevrizma'. Doctors have said that Serpil's life could have been saved if she had been treated earlier. She died because she was refused medical treatment by the prison authorities. According to the European Convention on Human Rights, all prisoners have the right to proper medical treatment. However, we know that Serpil was not allowed to receive the medical treatment that she needed. If her family gives me the permission I will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights after all domestic legal procedures have been exhausted." The Democratic Struggle Platform (DMP), the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), and the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Prisoners (TUHAD-DER) pointed out in a joint statement that prisons in Turkey have become execution squads, and that the screams of the prisoners must be heard because tomorrow it may be too late. The systematic harassment and torture of political prisoners are only a small reflection of Turkey's policy of intimidation and elimination of the Kurds. The Turkish state, through violence, is aiming to intimidate and crush the Kurdish national movement, and to silence the growing opposition. We call on the international community to act against this policy of extermination of the Kurds. (Source: Kurdistan Information Center, Amsterdam ) List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Wed Jan 7 19:32:22 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 07 Jan 1998 19:32:22 Subject: Kurdish War Refugees Head For Italy Message-ID: Kurdish War Refugees Head For Italy The realities of Turkey's dirty war in Kurdistan are making the international headlines once again, as hundreds of Kurdish war refugees make their way to the shores of western Europe, often in very dangerous and over-crowded vessels. Turkey's reaction to this sudden flurry of media attention was predictably two-faced: although human trafficking in Kurdish refugees is generally carried out by the Turkish mafia and right-wings gangs, with the full knowledge of the Turkish police and the blessings of the Turkish state which wishes to de-populate Kurdistan, Turkish officials have suddenly called on Europe to "stop the problem", while also blaming the Kurdish national liberation movement for organizing the exodus. Predictable, too, was the response from Germany, a nation which supplies a large amount of the weapons which the Turkish army uses to destroy Kurdish villages, and which virtually abolished the right to asylum within its borders back in 1993. Rather than joining Italy is calling for the EU to seek a political response to this issue, Germany, as ever, has simply responded with force, boosting its police forces and border patrols to keep the Kurds out. It seems the Schengen Agreement's so-called "open borders" are fine for international capital, but not such a great thing for the powers that be when immigrants' lives are at stake. The PKK has always been opposed to human trafficking and the de-population of the Kurdish regions of Turkey, but at the same time the movement recognizes that many people are left with no other option than to flee and it has called upon the countries of Europe to pressure Turkey to seek a political solution to the Kurdish question, thereby ending the dirty war so that the people can return to their homes [see the re-posted ERNK statement below]. The following are a few mainstream news articles on this issue. Freedom For Kurdistan! Open Borders For All! Arm The Spirit - January 7, 1998 ----- Italy Awaits More Kurds, Says Human Rights A Worry By Jude Webber ROME, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Italy told Turkey on Saturday, as it braced for new boatloads of Kurds seeking political asylum, that Europe was worried about human rights and if Ankara believed there was no problem, it should halt their flight. While Italy was defending its controversial offer to grant asylum to hundreds of Kurds who have reached its shores in the past week, Bonn issued an international appeal to try to prevent them from joining half a million of their kin in Germany. France sent police reinforcements to tighten its border against Kurds but Austria said Italy needed help from its European Union partners to cope with the flood of immigrants which shows no signs of abating. Coast guards and the pro-Kurdish DEM news agency in Turkey say three more boats with some 1,300 people between them may already be en route to Italy. President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro has said Italy's arms are "wide open" to genuine refugees. "Whether it likes it or not, the (Turkish) government must realize that there is a problem for the attention of European governments -- the problem of human rights," Italian Interior Minister Giorgio Napolitano told La Repubblica newspaper. "The Turkish authorities say those who are fleeing are not persecuted? All the more reason for them to oppose the traffic." The Kurdish problem -- many of more than 1,200 refugees who have arrived in southern Italy in the past week are Kurds from Turkey and Iraq -- has put Rome in a delicate diplomatic spot. It is caught between obligations to its EU partners under the Schengen agreement, which abolished border controls within signatory countries, and its relations with Turkey, which has opposed its asylum offer. Italy was more enthusiastic than some of its partners to closer ties between the EU and Turkey, but the 15-nation bloc last month quashed Ankara's hopes and left it off a list of membership candidates, in part over its human rights record. Sukru Sina Gurel, a state minister in the Turkish government, put it bluntly: "Because of this friendship between our two countries, we expect a correct attitude from your side. The position of our government is that in Turkey, there is no Kurdish question," he told La Stampa newspaper. While he said there were some refugees looking for a better life in Europe, many were "terrorists and criminals" on the run. "At a time when many European countries are closing the doors to this dangerous class of person, Italy, by guaranteeing political asylum, offers itself as a new refuge. But it is dangerous to take in criminals along with refugees," he added. In Istanbul on Saturday, Anatolian news agency said Turkish police detained 18 people, most from the mainly Kurdish southeast, who intended to leave the country illegally on their way to seek asylum in Germany. They had intended travelling by ferry across the Mediterranean to Italy, before applying for asylum in Germany. Each had paid two thousand marks ($1,110) to the organizers of the trip, the agency said. Anatolian quoted officials as saying border controls had been tightened after last week's flood of refugees leaving the country. Giannicola Sinisi, undersecretary at the Italian interior ministry, told reporters on Saturday that Italy was not a "colander country" and was dealing effectively with the Kurds. "We are not just handing out political asylum, we're looking at individual situations. That means that there are Kurds who have the right to asylum but others who do not," he said. Italy's centre-left government, which has taken a hard line against illegal immigrants, says it has "no doubt" Kurds are persecuted in parts of Turkey and Iraq and so should be helped. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Schloegl said Rome could not be left to tackle the Kurdish problem alone. He told state television Austria would be prepared to help and would pave the way for "a dividing up of the burden" within the EU if Italy made sure only genuine Kurdish refugees were granted asylum. But German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called on Italy to tighten its coastline against "criminal smugglers" and urged Turkey to alleviate the causes of the exodus. Many Kurds living in isolated eastern Turkey have sought to flee a 13-year-old conflict between government security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in which an estimated 27,000 people have died. Kinkel said Bonn supported Ankara against PKK guerillas but said the Kurdish issue could only be solved by political means. "It's a political question -- a question of human and minority rights, and should be treated as such," he said. ----- Italy Opens Doors To Kurds -- What Happens Next? ROME, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Italy, awaiting the imminent arrival of another two boatloads of immigrants reported to have left Turkey carrying up to 800 people, has said its arms are "wide open" to genuine Kurdish refugees seeking political asylum. Following is a guide to how Italy deals with the thousands of immigrants who flock to its 8,000-km (5,000-mile) coastline, mostly from north Africa, Albania and via Turkey. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS + Illegal immigrants without legal residence permits -- known in Italian as "clandestini" -- who are stopped at Italy's borders are immediately sent back. The interior ministry says more than 38,000 such immigrants were sent home in 1997. + Illegal immigrants found without papers within Italy are served with an expulsion order. They have 15 days to appeal, otherwise they are required to leave Italy. Under current laws, the illegal immigrants are not held in special centres for those two weeks. Thus many give authorities the slip and head to other parts of the European Union. Italy's partners in the Schengen pact -- which allows passport-free travel between Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Austria, and Italy -- worry they are open to a flood of immigrants via Italy. However, new legislation now before the Senate (upper house) aiming to tighten Italy's immigration policy would keep illegal immigrants in special centres before expelling them. Full interior ministry data for 1997 is not available but a spokesman said some 50,000 people were expelled last year. Some 1.1 million are living in Italy with legal permits, he added. POLITICAL ASYLUM + Immigrants seeking political asylum are dealt with differently. They are required to apply for asylum in the first country they reach -- in the case of the Kurds, Italy. + Their requests are evaluated by a special interior ministry commission. Italian interior ministry undersecretary Giannicola Sinisi has said Italy is being discerning and that not all the recently-arrived Kurds will automatically qualify. + While the requests are being processed, they must remain in special centres or their asylum request is discounted. + Those granted political asylum in Italy cannot leave Italy unless they asked to go elsewhere when they requested asylum. The interior ministry spokesman said Italian authorities have received "several hundred" asylum requests following the arrival of more than 1,200 immigrants -- many of them Kurds from Turkey and Iraq -- on two ships on December 27 and January 1. He had no data on Italy's record of granting political asylum. "It's the first time we have seen so many people applying at once," he said. Last year, some 16,000 Albanians fled to Italy in a series of rusting boats to escape the armed upheaval sweeping their Balkan country after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes. Some 40,000 had made the same journey in 1991 after the collapse of communism in Albania. ----- France And Austria Act To Keep Out Kurds BBC News - Sunday, January 4, 1998 France and Austria have reinforced their border controls over concerns that the many Turkish and Iraqi Kurds arriving in Italy may enter other countries illegally. An extra 100 police have been drafted in by France to oversee the Vintimilla border with Italy. The move comes as Italy faces growing pressure to take action to stem the tide of Kurdish migrants from Turkey and northern Iraq and stop them entering other parts of the European Union from Italy. Germany and France are among several countries which have expressed concern after more than 1,200 Kurds arrived in Italy over the past week, with reports of more possibly on their way. Italian officials have indicated that many of the new arrivals could be given political asylum. However, Italian police have arrested two Azerbaijanis whom they suspect of belonging to the crew that abandoned a ship carrying almost 400 illegal immigrants off the southern coast of Italy on Wednesday. The two men were reported to have been hiding in shelters provided for the mainly Kurdish passengers of the ship. Kurdish Exodus Continues One Kurdish group, the Kurdistan National Liberation Front (ERNK), says another ship with about 300 would-be migrants from the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Iraq has set off from Istanbul for western Europe. ----- ERNK Press Release On Human Trafficking Press Release National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) Kurdish Refugees In Italy And The Dirty Business Of Trafficking In Human Beings By The Turkish Mafia We know that the Turkish mafia is trafficking in human beings with the aim of depopulating the Kurdish regions and financing the dirty war against the Kurds. Nothing has changed in the intensity of this "business". The mafia, instructed to carry out the dirty plans of the Turkish state, has now even created havoc with the domestic politics of Italy. Since the beginning of last year hundreds of people have died as a result of the trafficking of drugs and human beings by the Turkish mafia in the Middle East. Despite all preventive measures taken, on November 2nd, 769 migrants were detained in the bay of Santa Maria Di Leoco after drifting at sea for days on the 162-ft Lebanese vessel, the Hussam. The mafia sank the vessel Youhan near Leolinde, Sicily at the end of 1996 and killed 289 people - almost all Kurds. With the income from this business they subsidize the dirty war. They charged $3,000 per person and $6,000-$7,000 per family. The Italian police have arrested and detained 86 members of the Turkish mafia who are also involved in drug dealing. This latest incident led to fierce political rows between the leftist coalition parties and the right-wing opposition, but at the same time produced a civil protest movement The far-right opposition called for the deportation procedures to be tightened arguing that "Italy is outside the Schengen agreement". The aim was to prevent a big wave of refugees entering Italy. It accused the government of having misused the agreement. The chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Italian Parliament, Mario Brunetti, commented: "We should not forget that the Kurds come from war regions. It is unthinkable that these people should be handed back to the Turkish state which massacres Kurds...We should rather concern ourselves with the dirty war that the Turkish state is carrying out in the region." The depopulation policies of the Turkish state in Kurdistan and the resulting trafficking of human beings is intensifying daily and is becoming increasingly a problem which effects the whole of Europe. One initiative proposed by about 50 parties, institutions, and associations has stated that the wave of refugees resulting from the dirty war in Kurdistan can only be countered and fought by putting pressure on the Turkish state. Even the Italian state and press accused the Turkish state of smuggling human beings in order to finance its dirty war. The refugees who have fled Kurdistan said: "The Turkish mafia operates under the protection of the Turkish state. Our journey from Turkey went without encountering any problems. All those who pass on information about the mafia are interrogated when they return to Turkey." On November 4, 1997, the Turkish mafia members Ahmet Cagmak, Ibrahim Yilmaz, Muhittin Yilmaz, and Fuat Palabiyik were arrested. Also among this group was Ali Amcat, a mafia member from Pakistan. They had tried to hide among the refugees. The above mentioned facts alone are sufficient enough to show far-reaching effects of the war in Kurdistan. The depopulation policies of the Turkish state are not only effecting Kurdistan but are increasingly becoming a problem for European states. It is very likely that, in future, more vessels carrying Kurds will land in the harbors of other European countries. This problem can only be solved by pressing for an urgent democratic resolution of the Kurdish question. Only when the war is ended in Kurdistan will the Kurds have a chance to build a dignified life. National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) November 7, 1997 (Source: Kurdistan Information Center, Amsterdam) ---- For A Free And Independent Kurdistan! KURD-L Archives - http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Jan 8 08:18:47 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 08 Jan 1998 08:18:47 Subject: Appeal to join a delegation to the gazi trial in Turkey Message-ID: HALKIN HUKUK BUROSU 02/ 01/ 1998 People`s Law Bureau Tel: 0090 212 631 36 94 Millet Caddesi Dedepa?a Sokak No 5/1 Findikzade ISTANBUL APPEAL TO JOIN DELEGATION TO TRIAL IN TURKEY An investigation was carried out by the Gaziosmanpa?a Prosecutor's Office in relation to the incident which occurred on 12-15 March 1995 in the Gazi Neighbourhood (Istanbul), this incident was on the agenda of all Turkey. After the investigation, a lawsuit at the Criminal Court of Major Cases was brought against 20 police officers who were seen as the perpetrators of the death of only seven people and the wounding of five others. (In fact, more people were killed.) Supposedly, ``public security'' considerations caused the lawsuit to be sent to the Trabzon Criminal Court of Major Cases (several hundred miles from Istanbul). The first hearing was held on 15 November 1995 at Trabzon. At the court no one was given the rght to speak. A ``decision to suspend the hearing'' was made. According to the court, the police who were being prosecuted could not be charged by the prosecution without permission for this being received from the police officers' own superiors. This meant the court would have to be postponed until such permission was forthcoming. The law which the court bound itself to was passed in 1913 - in other words, well before Turkey became a republic. We, as the wronged lawyers, fought for two years to lift the court's decision. After our persistent struggle, the High Court accepted our appeal and a decision was made that permission was not needed for the police officers to be prosecuted. So the prosecution continued on 15 September 1997 where it had left off. There was an unnecessary pause during this period. Even though the accused police officers were claimed to be responsible for the death of seven people, an administrative investigation was not carried out. At the trial on 15 September 1997, a decision was made for the arrest of eight police officers. Seven out of the eight police officers surrendered 10 days before the second trial, which was on 17 November 1997. For the police to surrender themselves in this way created a doubt in our minds: we saw this as meaning ``they must have received some guarantees''. The reason we state this is that during the Susurluk investigation (resulting from a car crash in November 1996 which revealed links between the Turkish state, the far right and organised crime), police officers wanted in connection with that case had also surrendered in the same manner, and after a couple of months they were all acquitted. During the second trial on 17 November and the third trial, because of the way we were treated we saw that we ourselves had no guarantees of our safety. On the way to the second trial in Trabzon we were stopped on seven occasions by the police and gendarmes. Each time the coach was stopped we were all made to get off the coach and searches were carried out. By doing this they were trying to prevent us from following the trial. We saw a different motive when we were mistreated at the exit for the town of Akcaabat, which is just before Trabzon. When the coach was stopped for no apparent reason in Akcaabat city centre at about 07:00 hrs a group of civilians, police officers and gendarmes were shouting out slogans: the slogan shouted was ``Catli will not die''. (Abdullah Catli was a man responsible for the murders of revolutionary people, a mafia chief who was wanted in Turkey and also by Interpol. He died in the Susurluk accident described earlier. Catli was a Grey Wolves fascist who had in his possession a green Turkish diplomatic passport and gun at the time of his death.) This slogan-shouting was an attempt to provoke the people going to the trial, and an attempt to create a pretext to attack. We reminded the officials present of what was happening, and continued with our journey. Shortly afterwards the coach was stopped six times, and searches and I/D checks were carried out. The police and gendarmes stated that they were not going to allow us to go to the trial. The trial was scheduled to start at 10:00 and at around 09:00 hrs they made us wait there. We were kept there until 12:00: we were then allowed to enter Trabzon: this was two hours after the trial had started. This unnecessary and arbitrary action prevented us from hearing the first half of the trial. After the trial we were on our way to the coach when it was stated that they knew that there were people amongst us who were wanted, and these were later arrested and sent to Trabzon prison. Even though there was a lot of security, a group of people in civilian clothes started throwing stones at the eight coaches a short while after we had departed. Due to the throwing of stones, all the coach windows were smashed. A big heavy stone was dropped from a bridge and the roof of the coach was punctured. It was only by chance that there were only a few minor injuries as a result. When going to the third trial, the coaches were once again stopped with the excuse that a search was to be made. After making us wait in an arbitrary manner they allowed us entry to the town after the trial had begun. After leaving the trial the police attacked the people who had come to watch the trial in the garden of the court. 21 people were taken into custody. We made a decision that the coaches would not move until the people taken into custody were released: after two hours 19 of the 21 were released. It was seen that these people had been tortured and mistreated. Even though we informed the prime minister, the secretary of state, the minister of justice and Trabzon Prosecutor's Office about what we had endured, no action was taken. The trial of the Gazi incident took a long time to start, and as if this was not enough, everything was done in the most bare-faced manner to prevent people from going to the trial as described, everything was out in the open. Only 20 police officers of those accused were present at the trial and the true perpetrators of Gazi - the prime minister at the time, the secretary of state, the governor of Istanbul and the state security chief of Istanbul were not present. All our pleas for them to be brought to court were rejected by the court. We as the People`s Law Bureau call upon you to participate in the trial on 23 January 1998. The delegation will be organised by the People's Councils which have been set up in Gazi and other shantytown districts of Istanbul. As can be seen, we are subject to unjust judicial procedures. We believe that if you could come to this trial we will create a public impact and be able to achieve results. For further information please contact 0171 254 1266 or you could contact Steve on 0402 377483. We thank you in advance, and hope to see you at the trial. -- 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 Jan 8 11:38:01 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 08 Jan 1998 11:38:01 Subject: Oppression of revolutionary inmates in French prisons Message-ID: OPPRESSION OF INMATES IN FRENCH PRISONS - UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF 'MONSIEUR' RICARD, PUBLIC PROSECUTOR. To prisoners under the supervision of the well-known public prosecutor Ricard special rules apply. This man has been in the spotlights several times thanks to his arbritary actions. A prisoner who sympathized with the Kurdish organisation KAWA ,and whose case was given to Ricard, committed suicide a few weeks ago. At his so-called 'big operations', which were obviously carried out with the purpose of wiping out the DHKP-C sympathizers, hundreds of people were assaulted in their homes and threatened. Monsieur Ricard is also very devoted to terrorizing alleged supporters of the PKK . We would like to illustrate the conditions in French prisons by a letter written by a political prisoner in a Paris jail and addressed to the French Communist Party : "After I was arrested on 20th September 1997, I managed to write a letter to you on the 17th October. Because of the prevailing circumstances, it is hard to say when my message will actually be sent. I'm a Kurd and I sympathize with the DHKP-C, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party - Front, that fights against the inhuman fascist regime in Turkey. Around noon of the third day of my stay in France I and a friend of mine were attacked at gunpoint by a group of French policemen. We were arrested and brought to the police station. And on what grounds ? Only because we are left-wing and visit places that are known to be left-wing. We have witnessed the 'big operation' with amazement. The taking of pictures, the tailing of suspects, the lot ... . It was aimed at people who visit the Arts Centre. Police stations were filled with about 40 people who committed this 'crime'. Even housewives who never visited the Centre were among them. The only purpose of the interrogations is to attack people and to make them co-operate by putting them under pressure. About 10 people were tortured with just that aim. As far as I can tell ,one of our friends is in the possession of a medical file. How are these attacks and tortures by the French police to be explained ? If you don't speak the language, nobody could care less about you. They slam the cell doors behind them and go away. Any form of communication is strictly forbidden. Airings are supervised with the strictest military discipline. Arms are tied together. In places where there are no Turkish books, it is forbidden to swap any . Every two hours we are woken up for inspection, night after night. To cut a long story short : prohibitions more than enough. Shivering in a cold place where 700 to 800 people are forced to live and where germs and bacterium can freely grow rank, I try to survive in spite of the taunts and the repression by 'Monsieur' Ricard. What I have been describing are only some of the things I have gone through in this place." * -- 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 glparramatta at peg.peg.apc.org Sat Jan 10 04:46:00 1998 From: glparramatta at peg.peg.apc.org (glparramatta at peg.peg.apc.org) Date: 10 Jan 1998 04:46:00 Subject: ASia Pacific Conference Message-ID: <568874784@glparramatta.peg.pegasus.oz.au> From: owner-asietnews-l at peg.apc.org Subject: Discount rego for Asia Pacific conference ending soon Date: Fri Jan 9 15:28:42 1998 Received: (from majordomo at localhost) by pegasus.com.au (8.8.7/8.8.7) id OAA12358 for asietnews-l-outgoing; Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:57:14 +1000 (GMT+1000) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:57:14 +1000 (GMT+1000) X-Authentication-Warning: peg.pegasus.oz.au: majordomo set sender to owner-asietnews-l at peg.apc.org using -f Discount registration for the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference to end soon. Sender: owner-asietnews-l at peg.apc.org Precedence: bulk The special discount of $60 waged and $30 unwaged for the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference will end on January 30. 1998. All persons wishing to avail themselves of this special offer should send a cheque or money order to the adress below as soon as possible. Cheques should be made out to the ASIA PACIFIC INSTITUTE. We attach below the latest update of organisations sending representatives who will speak at the conference. Please note the new additions from Pakistan and Turkey. A full agenda, including non-organisation and specialist speakers will be published in February. It is expected there will be at least 60 workshops to choose from during the course of the conference wit the majority of speakers being international guest speakers. ************* ASIA PACIFIC SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE Glebe High School, Sydney Opening public meeting, Glebe High School, 7.00pm Thursday, April 9 Conference sessions April 10-13. **************************************************************************** All welcome Register now by sending a cheque for $60 ($30 conc) and save $20 and $10 respectively. Send/make cheques to: Asia Pacific Institute, P.O. Box 515, Broadway 2007, Australia. The conference will take the form of a series of feature talks, panels, question and answer seminars and workshops. All sessions are open to registered participants. Speakers will include over 30 leaders and activists from around the Asia Pacific as well as Australian based solidarity activists and academic researchers. The current list of participating organisations has been sent as a separate email message at the same time as this message. Feature panels and campaign workshops by international and local activists include: * Australia and the Asia Pacific: for profit or for people? * International Free East Timor campaigning * "Overthrow Suharto with Peoples Power": Solidarity with the PRD and the Indonesian democratic movement * The struggle for liberty in Burma * APEC and counter-APEC: strategies for the peoples movements * The crisis with Asian Tigers and NICs _ who's benefiting, who's battling * Indigenous people's struggles and land rights in Australia and New Zealand * The international campaign against Nike and other MNCs * BHP and CRA in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville * Campaigning for a nuclear free and independent Pacific * The campaign for environmental justice in the region * Women's place is in the struggle * Global capital's economic police - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade * Regional trade union solidarity * The Asia Pacific student movement * Building Asia Pacific wide political networks * Socialism in Asia: viewpoints from the region * Building revolutionary parties: India, the Philippines, Indonesia ********************************************************* PLUS reports and Q & A sessions on current struggles in each of the 25 participating countries ********************************************************** Night of political solidarity, Saturday April 11 Celebrate this unique gathering of organisations and activists around the region. A Southeast Asian banquet; greetings and speakers from around the region; music and entertainment. A chance to mix and mingle in an atmosphere of solidarity and friendship. ************************************************************* Cabaret and cultural evening, Sunday April 12 Music and performances from around the region and Australia. Songs of struggle' manifestos of sovereignty. *************************************************************** Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Sydney, Australia April 9-13, 1998 organised by Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development, c/- P.O. Box 515, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Fax: 61-(0)2-96901381 Tel: 61-(0)2-96901230 Email: apiaustralia at peg.apc.org ASIA PACIFIC SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS UPDATE, January 9, 1998. (organisations) ASIA. BURMA * National Coalition Government Union of Burma (NCGUB), UN representative, Dr Thuang Htun * All Burma Student Democratic Front * All Burma Student League (India and Thailand) INDIA * Dr Jayanta Rongpi, MP, elected to Indian national parliament, representing the Autonomous State Demand movement, Assam, India and part of a broad, militant mass movement for social change INDONESIA * Peoples' Democratic Party (PRD), including Sarasvati, central woman leader, * Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia. * National Democracy Struggle Committee (KNPD) KOREA * Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) MALAYSIA * Malaysian Peoples Party (PRM) NEPAL * Communist Party of Nepal (UML) PAKISTAN * Labour Party of Pakistan PHILIPPINES * Prof Francisco Nemenzo, founding chairman, Union for Socialist Ideas and Action (BISIG); former Vice-Chancellor, University of the Philippines (Visayas); Professor of Political Science, University of the Philippines. * Renato Constantino Jr., National Chairperson SANLAKAS democratic movement (largest democratic movement in the Philippines) * Anna Maria Nemenzo, Filipino women's movement, Womens Health, Foundation ; Vice-President, Citizen Action Party, * KAMALAYAN national students organisation. THAILAND * representatives of the Thai grass-roots, democratic movement SRI LANKA * Dr Sunil R., Director, Sri Lanka Institute of Occupational Health and Safety; national executive member, New Socialist Party of Sri Lanka (NSSP) TAMILS * Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations Note: The conference will als be covered for Japan by a senior journalist from the newspaper of the Communist Party of Japan. PACIFIC BOUGANVILLE * Bouganville Interim Government EAST TIMOR * Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate * Mari Alkatiri, head of FRETILIN foreign affairs department, FRETILIN - Revolutionary Front for Independent East Timor, * Filomena Almeida, head Information Department, FRETILIN Australia; women's issues * Bella Galhos, Canada based East Timor activist FIJI * Steven Ratuva, President, Fiji Anti-Nuclear Group; researcher University of South Pacific NEW CALEDONIA/KANAKY * Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers (USTKE), Louis Uregei, Secretary-General. NEW ZEALAND * Matt Robson, MP Alliance Parliamentary foreign affairs spokesperon PAPUA NEW GUINEA * Powes Parkop, civil liberties lawyer. ICRAF TAHITI * Tavini Huiraatira (Polynesian Liberation Front) WEST PAPUA * Free Papua Movement (OPM) INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA * Doreen Kartinyeri, Aboriginal Land Rights Movement, Native Title * Jenny Munro, Sydney Metropolitan Aboriginal Lands Council AUSTRALIA * Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) * Resistance Youth Organisation * Green Left Weekly * Democratic Socialist Party * Zohl de Ishtar, Pacific solidarity activist for Micronesia; Greenham Common activist UNITED STATES * Indonesia Alert! * Solidarity (US socialist organisation) EUROPE RUSSIA * Ms Mitina Darid A, Communist Youth League of Russia NETHERLANDS * Socialist Party of the Netherlands GERMANY * Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) TURKEY Freedom and Solidarity Party NICARAGUA * Dorotea Wilson, Directorate Member, Sandinista National Liberation Front Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Sydney, Australia April 9-13, 1998 organised by Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development, c/- P.O. Box 515, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Fax: 61-(0)2-96901381 Tel: 61-(0)2-96901230 Email: apiaustralia at peg.apc.org From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Sat Jan 10 07:31:56 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 10 Jan 1998 07:31:56 Subject: Turkey: Bergama/Eurogold-update Message-ID: Fresh War of Words over TR's Eurogold Mine ANKARA, Jan 9, (Reuters) - The mayor of a western Turkish town on Friday touched off a fresh war of words over a foreign-owned gold mine, where efforts to extract ore with cyanide have been tied up in a bitter court case. Mayor Sefa Taskin of Bergama, near the site of a mine operated by the Canadian Australian firm Eurogold, denounced the company for invoking Turkish national symbols in an advertising campaign to win over public opinion. "As a company which brings poison and death to Turkey, the multinational company Eurogold's use of the Turkish flag, a symbol of Turkish independence, is disrespectful," the mayor told the state-run Anatolian news agency. About 700 local villagers, fearful the planned use of cyanide to extract the ore will pollute their land and damage the tourist trade, have so far successfully blocked Eurogold operations in court. An administrative court issued a suspension order last October, formally barring further activity at the site. Despite the ban, Eurogold has placed advertisements in leading Turkish newspapers, featuring the national flag and a quotation from Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, about the need to develop the nation's natural resources. Fevzi Karaoglu, hired recently to promote Eurogold's image in Turkey, said the use of the flag and other symbols was designed to convey how important the extraction of underground resources was to national development. "Gold has been pinpointed in 500 places in Turkey but everyone is looking to what happens in Bergama to proceed," Karaoglu told Reuters. "We cannot fall into the mistake of allowing mineral wealth not to be developed." And he dismissed the mayor's prediction that Eurogold would ultimately fail in its long effort to extract ore. "For seven years he has been used to being the only voice around and now he is scared that someone will realise the emperor has no clothes on," Karaoglu said. Eurogold is a local joint venture two-thirds owned by an Australian-French venture controlled by Normandy Mining Ltd and one-third owed by Canada's Inmet Mining Corp Mining Corp. -- 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 Jan 12 05:53:18 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 12 Jan 1998 05:53:18 Subject: Hardship, conflict fuel Turkey's Kurd migration Message-ID: TDN: Jan 12, 1997 Hardship, conflict fuel Turkey's Kurd migration _________________________________________________________________ By Daren Butler / Reuters Diyarbakir - A mixture of economic hardship and separatist conflict in southeast Turkey swells the waves of Kurdish migrants currently lapping Europe's shores. In the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, residents spoke at the weekend of pressures to migrate from an impoverished region beleaguered by 13 years of armed conflict between Kurdish separatists and security forces, supported by "village guard" militias. "We were forced to come here after refusing to be village guards," said 30-year-old Ilhani Yegin from the yard of a small, ramshackle house where a family of seven live in a muddy shantytown outside the city's Byzantine walls. Her husband scratches a daily income of a few dollars by carting fruit and vegetables through rundown city streets where migrants' young children wander, selling tissues to passers-by. They are among hundreds of thousands who fled to Turkey's cities and beyond in recent years to escape fighting between the military and the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The two sides accuse each other of forcibly evacuating villages. Pressure on Ankara to resolve its festering Kurdish problem has been revived by the recent arrival on the Italian coast of about 1, 200 refugees, many of them Turkish Kurds. Turkey says they are economic migrants, charged thousands of dollars by unscrupulous smugglers. Human rights groups say harsh tactics against Kurdish separatists drive civilians abroad. Shantytown residents described being forced from villages only to become trapped in grinding city poverty. "Conditions here are wretched. There's no work and the state does nothing for us," said Mehmet Saityoldas, village headman in the shanty district of Gordogan. For many migrants, Diyarbakir is only a transit point. "Many of those coming see Diyarbakir as a bridge and only stay for six months. They head on to the big centres such as Mersin, Antalya, Ankara or Istanbul," local doctors' union chairman Necdet Ipekyuz told Reuters. "If that fails the only solution is seen as going abroad." Migration has worsened poor living conditions and inadequate health care, encouraging diseases like malaria, dysentry and typhoid. Lack of opportunity has fuelled a "brain drain". A chronic shortage of teachers has prevented some 2,000 schools from opening in the southeast, leaving around 130,000 children without education this year, according to officials. Employment is scarce and average annual household incomes of around $3,500, compared with more than $11,000 in Istanbul. Diyarbakir Chamber of Commerce chairman Mehmet Sirin Yigit says the region's once-thriving agricultural economy has been crippled by neglect and security concerns. "Diyarbakir has effectively become an uninhabitable city," he said, calling for more state support to encourage investors and improve infrastructure. Power cuts, caused by illegal use of a poor electricity system, frequently plunge it into darkness. But many see economic factors as only one part of the equation. "The problem can't simply be solved economically. Overall development is necessary," Ipekyuz said, citing the need for more tolerance, democracy and freedom of expression. Kurdish politicians say the only solution is ending conflict, in which more than 27,000 people have died since 1984. Emergency rule has been in force in much of the southeast since 1987, giving the military wide powers to curb suspected separatist activities. "The basic reason for migration is war. As long as there is war, regional and foreign migration will continue," said Osman Ozcelik, deputy leader of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP). He said village evacuations, forest burning and destruction of arable land formed part of a conscious state policy, citing December military raids on a Diyarbakir village as an example of repression. Security forces detained villagers, destroyed food and property and imposed a food embargo on Benin village. Authorities said the villagers gave support and shelter to the PKK. Ozcelik quoted a gendarme commander as telling them they should migrate if they do not fall in line. -- 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 Jan 13 13:07:23 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Jan 1998 13:07:23 Subject: Turkey: hunger strike has reached the 55th day Message-ID: Hunger strike reaches 55th Day * A hunger strike has reached the 55th day when 13 prisoners, two in hospital and 11 in prison, have reached the threshold of death. Eyes are now on Erzurum Special Type Prison. _________________________________________________________________ By Hakan Aslaneli / Turkish Daily News Istanbul - A total of 91 prisoners continue the hunger strike at Erzurum Special Type Prison which is occupied mainly by people convicted of being Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists. The strike has now reached its 55th day and two prisoners were hospitalized after they became unconscious. Eleven prisoners at the prison came to the threshold of death. Prisoners, who could not agree with the prison management on improving living conditions, announced that they would die one by one in their cells unless the conditions they requested were fulfilled. The names of those prisoners who have come to the threshold of death are Serikan Kara, Murat Celik, Ibrahim Bozay, Mustafa Demir, Aydin Adiyaman, Muhlis Altun, Resul Akkol, Ramazan Nazlier, Suleyman Eleftor, Sevket Aslan, Yasin Aydin, Yusuf Demir and Ali Mitil. The persons mentioned above will not be able to continue normal life even if they accept to eat and drink from today. Doctors state that the body and the brain is subject to serious damage after 40 days and that even if the person on hunger strike returns to life, he will not be able to use most parts of his body. The reason for the hunger strikes at Erzurum Special Type and E Type Prison was that prisoners believed that they were not being treated humanely. The prisoners requested humane treatment from the prison administration in a letter that included 46 articles. They also asked for permission for sports activities and for the combination of two blocks and for meetings that those responsible for the wards would attend once a week. These were all refused by the administration. Negotiations between the prisoners and the prison administration reached a dead end after 15 days of discussion and this caused the start of the hunger strike. The other prisoners are also expected to reach the threshold of death in the coming days. Support continues Buca Prison is supporting the hunger strike at Erzurum Special Type and E Type Prison. 20 prisoners convicted of various crimes have announced that they would support the hunger strike and they started a hunger strike as well. While these strikes spread all over Turkey, officials from the Justice Ministry are still keeping their silence. Prisoners' families and friends who want the bad treatment of prisoners especially at closed and special type prisons to be stopped, started demonstrations in several places. Officials were asked to interrupt the hunger strikes at demonstrations in Taksim Square and Sarigazi the other day but the police, if not the officials, interrupted demonstrations and attacked protestors with truncheons. Several shop windows were shattered, 20 protestors were taken under custody and many protestors were injured. The hunger strike that started at Bayrampasa Prison 1.5 years ago for the same reasons spread all over Turkey. Magic prosecutor Necati Ozdemir who was appointed to Bayrampasa Prosecutor's office by Sevket Kazan, the Justice Minister of that time had a very good dialogue with the prisoners and many prisoners were saved from the threshold of death. Ozdemir commented on the recent hunger strikes to the TDN: "In fact, it is very simple to solve the problem. The prisoners are right in most of their demands. None of the officials in prisons and Justice Ministry officials directly talk to prisoners. The prisoners are left to inhuman people inside. Their only wish is to live humanly. Even if they are prisoners, they are human beings and they will return to us one day. We should not forget that. The primary issue of Turkey is prisons today. We should concentrate on the issue unless we want to terminate our contact with Europe. When I came to Bayrampasa, the prisoners said that they had never seen a prosecutor before. The duty of prosecutors is to form dialogue with prisoners. This had never been done before for whatever reason. I was considered to have committed a crime when I started talking to prisoners in their own wards. I only did my duty. The result is clear; nothing happened at Bayrampasa as long as I was there." -- 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 ScotFOP at aol.com Wed Jan 14 01:02:19 1998 From: ScotFOP at aol.com (ScotFOP at aol.com) Date: 14 Jan 1998 01:02:19 Subject: ScotFOP #3 Message-ID: From: ScotFOP Information Bulletin=0ACountdown to Catastrophe=0AScottish Friends of Pal= estine 8th January 1998=0A=0AInformation concerning sources can be obtain= ed from Scottish Friends of=0APalestine =0A=0A=93Is it not now the time t= o be rid of them? Why continue to keep in our midst=0Athese thorns at a t= ime when they pose a danger to us?=94 Diary entry of Yosef=0AWeitz of the= Jewish National Fund=0A=0AYosef Weitz was responsible for =93local evict= ions and expulsion operations=94=0Aagainst Palestinians and for allocatin= g land to Jewish colonial settlements.=0AFrom January to March 1948 Weitz= was responsible for expelling the local=0APalestinian population from Ra= mot-Menashe, Beit Shean Valley and Western=0AGalilee.=0A=0AAs director of= the Jewish National Fund, Weitz served on the Population=0ATransfer Comm= ittee of the Jewish Agency. In a report he wrote that the=0A=91transfer= =92 of the Arab population from Jewish areas=0A=0A=93does not serve only = one aim - to diminish the Arab population. It also serves=0Aa second purp= ose by no means less important, which is to evacuate the land now=0Aculti= vated by Arabs and thus release it for Jewish settlement.=94=0A=0ADr. Yac= ov Thon, who served on the same Committee and was, ironically, a=0Afoundi= ng member of an =91ultra-liberal=92 group which sought reconciliation and= =0Aaccommodation with the Arabs revealed his intentions at secret committ= ee=0Ameetings=0A=0A=93Without transferring the Arab peasants to neighbour= ing lands, we will not be=0Aable to bring into our future state a large n= ew population. In short without=0Atransfer there can be no Jewish immigra= tion.=94=0A=0AThese sentiments were shared by Irgun leader and Israeli pr= ime-minister to-be,=0AMenachem Begin=0A=0A=93My greatest worry in those m= onths was that the Arabs might accept the United=0ANations plan. Then we = would have the ultimate tragedy, a Jewish state so small=0Athat it could = not absorb all the Jews of the world=94.=0A=0AAs a terrorist leader Begin= was well placed to ensure that the Palestinian=0AArab would never reach = agreement with the Zionists. He was also well placed to=0Afacilitate thei= r =91transfer=92 elsewhere.=0A=0AJan 9 1948=0AA group of Zionists from Ya= vne attacked =91Wadi Sukrayr=92 (Suqrir) [pop. 390] to=0Athe north of Gaz= a. A counter-attack was launched by the police. 8 Arabs and 12=0AHaganah = scouts were reported killed. A Haganah intelligence report, dated 2=0Aday= s later, recommended that =93the village should be destroyed completely a= nd=0Asome males from the village should be murdered.=94. This was the fir= st=0Aoperational proposal by the Haganah to demolish and level a village.= =0A=0AThe first attack on an isolated Zionist settlement took place at Ke= far Szold,=0Aa kibbutz in the north of Palestine, by a unit of the Arab L= iberation Army=0A(ALA) from Syria.=0A=0A3 Zionist settlements were attack= ed by about 600 fighters from the ALA.=0ABritish troops and aircraft disp= ersed the attackers.=0A=0AJan 11=0AZionist forces demolished a bridge ove= r the River Jordan, a transit route from=0ASyria to Palestine. At a meeti= ng with Ben Gurion, Arab affairs adviser, Ezra=0ADanin, while commenting = on the effectiveness of the Arab forces in controlling=0Athe main roads a= nd the use of retaliation against local villages to combat=0Athis, advise= d that =93our friends among the Arabs inform us that a severe blow,=0Awi= th a high rate of casualties to the Arabs would increase Arab fear and wo= uld=0Arender external Arab intervention ineffective.=94 Ten days earlier = Gad Machnes=0Ahad advised Ben Gurion along the same lines =93we need a cr= uel and brutal=0Aretaliating policy, we have to be accurate in time, plac= e and number of dead.=0AIf we know that a family is guilty, we should be = merciless and kill the women=0Aand the children as well, otherwise the re= action is useless. While the forces=0Aare in action, there is no room for= checking who is guilty and who is not.=94=0A=0AWhile Elias Sasson, direc= tor of the Arab Division of the Jewish Agency=92s=0APolitical Department = observed of the main towns and the rural hinterland=0A=93Hunger, high pri= ces, and poverty are rampant in a frightening degree. There=0Ais fear and= terror everywhere. The flight is painful. from house to house,=0Afrom ne= ighbourhood to neighbourhood, from city to city, from village to=0Avillag= e, and from Palestine to the neighbouring countries.=94=0A=0AThe settleme= nt of Kfar Uriah, on the Jerusalem - Jaffa railway was attacked by=0AArab= forces. The British forces drove off the attackers. =0A=0AThe FBI uncove= red a fund of =A3194 000 for purchase of explosives in the USA in=0Asuppo= rt of the Zionist cause.=0A=0AJan 12=0A3 Palestinian Arabs killed and 7 B= ritish soldiers wounded in a village outside=0AJerusalem while trying to = uncover snipers.=0A=0AIn an armed robbery attributed to the Stern Gang, a= branch of Barclays Bank=0Awas raided.=0A=0AJan 13=0AThe body of a Pole, = believed to have been =91executed=92 by a Zionist firing squad=0Awas foun= d in Tel Aviv.=0A=0AHaganah =91black squads=92(bomb squads) attacked the = Sheikh Jarrah Arab quarter on=0Athe outskirts of Jerusalem, gaining contr= ol of the northern approaches to the=0Acity. In the Kidron area they torc= hed or blew up 25 Arab houses. In this=0Aaction, one of the heaviest atta= cks to date, a mortar bombardment rained down=0Aon the densely built hous= es with road approaches being mined to hinder Arab=0Areinforcements. Zion= ist forces positioned in Nahalat Itzhak, an adjacent=0AJewish community, = swept the area with machine gun fire. =0A=0ATo the south of the city, Ara= b forces besieged the Jewish colony of Kfar=0AEtzion.=0A=0AA Jewish bus t= erminus in Haifa was bombed. The deaths of 6 Jews and 2 British=0Awas rep= orted.=0A=0AA number of Arab attacks on Jewish settlements were reported.= In northern=0APalestine, in the Hulah area, British troops came to the r= escue of the=0Asettlers. One settler was killed near Haifa. A Jewish conv= oy was ambushed=0Abetween Jerusalem and Hebron with two Jewish fatalities= . Once again, British=0Atroops gave assistance to the Zionists.=0A=0AOn t= he outskirts of Haifa one Jewish land labourer was killed. Two bodies wer= e=0Afound close to Palestinian villages, one Jewish, one unidentified. = =0A=0AIn Jaffa, 4 Palestinian Arabs, including a 4 year old girl, were sh= ot dead=0Awith 7 wounded. =0A=0A4 settlements north of Hebron were attack= ed by Arab raiders not, it was=0Areported, as a result of any pre-planned= action. Apparently it was led by a=0APalestinian who had escaped from Ac= re prison when it had earlier been attacked=0Aby Zionist forces.=0A=0AA n= umber of street murders took place in Jerusalem with Jews, and one Britis= h=0Aofficer with a Jewish wife, being the victims. Palestinians planted = a bomb in=0Aa post office van resulting in the death of 6 Jews.=0A=0AThe = London Times posed the $64 000 question:=0A=0A=93Are there any prospects = of settlement in Palestine after Britain=92s=0Aabandonment of the mandate= and subsequent withdrawal?=94=0A=0AA Czech arms deal, worth over $12 mil= lion, was concluded with the Haganah.=0AArms purchased included 24 500 ri= fles, 5 000 light machine guns, 200 medium=0Amachine guns, 54 million rou= nds of ammunition and 25 Messerschmitts.=0A From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Tue Jan 13 19:37:21 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 13 Jan 1998 19:37:21 Subject: Mehdi Zana's "Prison No. 5" Message-ID: V.G. Ghahraman wrote: Press Release "PRISON NO. 5: ELEVEN YEARS IN TURKISH JAILS" A NEW PUBLICATION BY BLUE CRANE BOOKS Watertown, Massachusetts - Blue Crane Books has announced the publication of Prison No. 5: Eleven Years in the Turkish Jail by Mehdi Zana a Kurdish leader and the former mayor of Diyarbakir, principal Kurdish town in Turkey. Part of Blue Crane Books Human Rights and Democracy Series, this book is the autor's account of the dreadful terror and brutality of prison life in Turkey, with a preface by the renown Holocaust scholar, Elie Wiesel, and an extensive postscript by the director of Institute Kurde de Paris, Kendal Nezan. An independent candidate, Mehdi Zana was elected by popular vote as the first Kurdish mayor of a major city during the 1977 elections in Turkey. Surprised by the election results, the Turkish government resolved to thwart this experiment, which it judged as dangerous by its popularity. But it was not until the coup of 1980 that the opportunity presented itself. "On September 12, 1980, under the pretext of restoring law and order," writes Mehdi Zana, "the army provoked another coup with its customary brutality. Parliament was dissolved, and the political parties, associations, and unions were banned. . . . The army and police started arresting, according to a system of concentric circles, members of Parliament, ministers, heads of political parties, unions, municipal governments, academics, legal or illegal militant organizations, and journalists-in brief, all elements that seemed undesirable and harmful to the ideal Kemalist Republic." On September 24, twelve days after the coup, Mehdi Zana was arrested and jailed. "Overwhelming on a political scale and humanly intolerable, this desperate and appalling testimony of the Kurdish leader Mehdi Zana is especially so when it discusses the recent history of the 1970s and the 1980s," writes Elie Wiesel in his preface. "Solitary confinement, guards' insults, the obligation to salute the captain's dog, the beatings, the sleep deprivation, the falaka, the fainting, the trampling, the electrodes attached to genitals, German shepherds trained to bite the private parts of naked prisoners. How does one understand? How can we explain the institutionalization of these brutalities, this humiliation, this dehumanization?" A prominent figure in the Kurdish community, Mehdi Zana has always pursued a conciliatory approach to the resolution of the Kurdish question. In a statement to the European Parliament in 1992 he said, "Like all the Kurds sentenced for the 'crime of separatism' I have been stripped of my political rights for life . . . I should, perhaps, make it clear that while I continue to campaign peacefully for the recognition of the rights of the 15 million Kurds living in Turkey, I am not part of any party or movement." Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian, the leading expert on the subject of the Armenian Genocide and the author of German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide writes about Prison No. 5, "In this graphic account of barbarism one is struck by the persistence and survival of a culture of torture. In the very inferno of the lethal elements of that culture the intellectuals, teachers, clergymen, political and other leaders of the Armenian community in Ottoman Turkey were mercilessly done to death by the perpetrators of the World War I Armenian Genocide. . . . In this gripping details of Kurdish resistance against these unabating cruelties of the State Security functionaries and prison guards one cannot help but discern another macabre similarity. Like many Armenians in World War I, a number of incarcerated Kurds are described as victims of unspeakable torture methods as a result of which the subjects are seen resorting to grisly acts of self-immolation-out of despair, but also heroic defiance. This book is another link in the chain of countless links documenting the historically unchanging lesson that the impunity accruing to the past authors of a crime of mass murder is that crime's own reward. At the same time, the book is an implicit but abiding indictment of the civilized world predictably allowing such impunity over a long period of time." In an extensive postscript, Kendal Nezan provides historical perspective and political analysis. He concludes with the following: "Bogged down in a bloody war in Kurdistan that it is financing, at least in part, by drug trafficking, Turkey is going through the greatest economic, social, and political crisis in its history. Its political system has broken down; its political caste, lacking in breadth of vision, is disunited and in disarray. Repeating its warnings about the Islamists, the army is again proclaiming itself the guardian of the Republic and ultimate master of all power. The army bans any initiative, any ideas about a settlement of the Kurdish problem. The Turkish regime is locking itself into a purely military approach." "Yet the generals know that there is no military solution to the Kurdish question . . . Population growth, geography, and history all argue in favor of the search for a political solution that would allow Kurds and Turks to live together within a democracy that would respect the rights and identity of each people. . . ." "With the war raging in Kurdistan, Turkey has been driven into the most serious economic, social, and moral crisis of its history. The Turkish regime has entered a new era of ideological glaciation, confronting its 15 million Kurdish citizens with a terrible choice: forced assimilation, that is, renouncing their identity; revolt; prison; or exile. Once again the official voices have been asserting that there is no Kurdish problem in Turkey but rather one of terrorism, fomented abroad. Parliamentary representative Coskun Kirca, a self-proclaimed interpreter of this new atmosphere, declared in plain language, on March 3, 1994, at a House hearing, to applause from his peers: 'The Kurds only have a single right in this country: that of being quiet.' . . . The Kurdish land has lived forty-eight of its last seventy-one years under special regimes, states of siege, and martial law-a sort of no-law zone left to the goodwill of the Turkish generals." "All this is happening in a state that is a member of NATO and the Council of Europe, a close ally of the United States, associated with the European Union, a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and to the Charter of Paris, which is supposed to guarantee freedom of opinion and of association, as well as the right of minorities to preserve their identity. That state tortures its Kurdish population with the financial, political, and military aid of Western democracies, indifferent to public opinion. Mehdi Zana's book is an outcry-his own outcry and that of his tortured people. Will it break the wall of silence surrounding the Kurdish tragedy in Turkey and shake our consciousness on the abominable practices of our 'Turkish friends and allies'?" After serving eleven years in the notorious military prison in Diyarbakir, Mehdi Zana was released in 1991 following a conditional amnesty, only to be sentenced again in 1994 to four more years and in 1997 to ten more months of imprisonment for his testimony to the European Parliament Human Rights Sub-Committee and for publishing a poetry book, respectively. Mehdi Zana's wife, Leyla Zana-a Noble Peace Prize candidate and winner of Sakharov Prize for Freedom-is one of the six Kurdish deputies in Turkey who were charged with "separatism," stripped of their parliamentary immunity, and arrested in March 1994. She is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence in Ankara Prison. Prison No. 5 may be purchased at local bookstores or ordered directly from the publisher: Blue Crane Books, P. O. Box 291, Cambridge, MA 02238, Tel: (617) 926-8989, Fax: (617) 926-0982, email bluecrane at arrow1.com. ---- American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) 2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 Washington, DC 20008-1522 Tel: (202) 483-6444 Fax: (202) 483-6476 E-mail: akin at kurdish.org Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org ---- The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public service to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Jan 15 05:08:31 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 15 Jan 1998 05:08:31 Subject: Turkey: Govt must speak before prison hunger strike claims lives Message-ID: * News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International * AI INDEX: EUR 44/03/98 9 January 1998 Turkey: Justice Ministry must speak before prison hunger strike claims lives Political prisoners -- hunger striking in several Turkish prisons -- are demanding that the Justice Ministry abandon any plans they may have to impose a regime of isolation. In Erzurum Special and E-type prisons, where the right of prisoners to associate is the key issue, the hunger strike has reached its 50th day and at least seven prisoners are reported to be in a critical condition. "The Justice Ministry must clarify as soon as possible whether or not it intends to operate a regime of isolation," Amnesty International said. "The operation of such regime would constitute a violation of international law." "We call upon the Justice Ministry immediately to disclose detailed plans for the association and activities programs that will accompany the opening of the small dormitories in Turkish prisons, and to give clear guarantees that it has no intention of operating a regime of solitary or small group isolation," Amnesty International said. Construction of wings based on a small dormitory system have been completed in several prisons but have not yet been put into use on a large scale. Amnesty International believes that any such system must ensure that it provides for an adequate period each day in which prisoners can associate with others outside the confines of the dormitory. The prisoners and their families, however, fear that the dormitories will be used as cells in the context of a system of small group isolation. Their fears are well founded given that the Article 16 of the Anti-Terror Law lays down a draconian regime of intense isolation for those held in custody for political offences, in which "convicted prisoners will not be permitted contact or communication with other convicted prisoners." The Anti-Terror Law covers many non-violent offences. An attempt to establish such a regime took place in 1991 at Eskisehir Prison, where cells had been constructed so that prisoners would not even see their jailers. The first transfers were accompanied by brutal attacks on the prisoners. After an outcry inside Turkey and abroad, the transfers were halted and the cells at Eskisehir Prison modified. The danger to the physical and mental health of prisoners presented by prolonged isolation (including small-group isolation) is generally recognized. As the European Commission of Human Rights states, "The international literature on criminology and psychology indicates that isolation can be sufficient in itself gravely to impair physical and mental health. The following conditions may be diagnosed: chronic apathy, fatigue, emotional instability, difficulties of concentration, diminution of mental faculties, disorders of the neuro-vegetative system." Operation of small dormitories along the lines laid down by the Anti-Terror Law would result in prison conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. As such they would be prohibited by international human rights treaties to which Turkey is a State Party -- specifically Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and Article 16 of the United Nations Convention against Torture. Amnesty International today wrote to the Justice Minister Oltan Sungurlu asking for information about the planned changes to the Turkish prison system, and expressing urgency in the light of the hunger strikes. Twelve people died during a hunger strike in Turkish prisons in 1996. ENDS.../ **************************************************************** You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main text is not altered in any way and both the header crediting Amnesty International and this footer remain intact. Only the list subscription message may be removed. **************************************************************** To subscribe to amnesty-L, send a message to with "subscribe amnesty-L" in the message body. To unsubscribe, send a message to with "unsubscribe amnesty-L" in the message body. If you have problem signing off, contact List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Jan 15 06:23:25 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 15 Jan 1998 06:23:25 Subject: Activists: No Improvement in Turkish Rights Record Message-ID: Activists: No Improvement in Turkish Rights Record By Jon Hemming ANKARA, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Turkish human rights activists on Tuesday blamed the government for prolonging a Kurdish prison hunger strike and said there had been no improvement in Turkey's human rights record over the past year. About 170 imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists have been on hunger strike in the eastern city of Erzurum for up to 54 days, demanding more space, weekly meetings with prison officials and sporting activities, activists said. "If today or tomorrow a few people die in Erzurum, full responsibility will be with the justice minister and the government," Akin Birdal, head of the Human Rights Association (IHD) told a news conference. Turkey has come under pressure to solve its Kurdish problem since hundreds of illegal migrants -- mostly Kurds from Turkey and Iraq -- arrived in Italy in the last month. Rights activists say Turkey is conducting a dirty war against the PKK, forcibly emptying villages, torturing and killing suspects, leading to a wave of migration from the mainly Kurdish southeast to Turkey's big cities and Europe. More than 27,000 people have been killed since the terrorists took up arms to fight for Kurdish independence in 1984. An IHD report for 1997, released on Tuesday, said 114 people had died from extra-judicial killings or torture in custody last year, while another 66 had disappeared after being arrested. Some 366 people said they had been tortured by police, it said. Broadly similar figures were recorded by the group for 1996. "The only difference in 1997 was that human rights were more talked about... But there has been no change to the political, constitutional or legal system which opens the way to human rights violations," the IHD report said. A poor human rights record was among the reasons cited by the European Union (EU) for excluding Turkey from membership at a Luxembourg summit last month. Turkey said it would not discuss the matter with the EU after the decision. In a sign of its hardening attitude, the Turkish government said on Monday it would never give in to the Kurdish hungerstrikers' demands, dashing hopes for an end to the dispute. "All of our meetings whether in Ankara, or in Erzurum have come to nothing... Yesterday's decision was a deception," said Birdal who has been trying to mediate in the strike. Turkey's justice minister said last week he would not allow any of the prisoners to die, pledging to intervene if necessary. Birdal said three of the strikers sent back to prison on Monday after receiving treatment in hospital had again refused to eat. Doctors said they had willingly accepted treatment. "Some of the prisoners are not in a good condition. Within a few days some of them could die," said Birdal. -- 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 Jan 15 06:24:58 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 15 Jan 1998 06:24:58 Subject: Turkey: Demand free university: receive 96 years in prison Message-ID: Demand free university: receive 96 years in prison * 'Bring a child up with care, concern, be afraid of his being hurt, and one day, a creature smelling of alcohol does whatever he wants to him... Tortures...' * 'The decision from the trial did not take the testimonies into consideration. The result of the trial was clearly decided before the end of the prosecution,' said Mehmet Tufekci, expressing his doubts over the objectivity of the court's decision * These days, everybody is very angry with the 'sons of fire, sun and rebellion,' --with the 'only gang in prison...' Why did you ask for your rights, instead of filling your pockets with money, as your brothers from Susurluk have done? _________________________________________________________________ By Saadet Oruc / Turkish Daily News Ankara - Universities are in a deep silence nowadays. After the punishment meted out to five university students of up to a hundred years' imprisonment, the demands of university youth for autonomous universities and public education seems to have ceased for a while. Apart from the fighting between leftist and rightist groups in the universities, and the follow-up protests against the fighting, no action is being taken for free education. These days, everybody is very angry with the "sons of fire, sun and rebellion," with the "only gang in prison..." Why did you ask for your rights, instead of filling your pockets with money, as your brothers from Susurluk have done? Ozgur Tufekci, Mahmut Yilmaz, Bulent Karakas, Metin Murat Kalyoncugil and Ahmet Askin Dogan were sent to Cankiri Prison following a historic demonstration at Parliament in April 1996. They had displayed placards in Parliament protesting the increase in university tuition, after they realized that the government was ignoring their demands. But instead of listening to them, Parliament let them be sentenced to a total of 96 years' imprisonment. Askin and Ozgur were studying at Ankara University's Faculty of Political Science. Mahmut and Metin were studying social sciences at Hacettepe University. Bulent was from Ankara University's Faculty of Languages, History and Geography (DTCF). The five have one point in common: they were the first in protesting and opposing the anti-democratic and anti-autonomous university system in Turkey, Ozgur's father, Mehmet Tufekci, said. Ghost organizations One day the door of Mahmut's house was broken down and posters from illegal organizations and molotov cocktails [fire bombs prepared by putting gasoline in glass bottles] were found -- evidence of the students' belonging to an illegal organization. According to Tufekci, "ghost" illegal organizations were created and the five young students were taken into custody without being charged. In his appeal to a higher court, Eralp Ozgen, attorney for the youths and the head of the Turkish Bar Association (TBB), claimed that both the molotov cocktails and the placards were placed in Mahmut's home after the arrest of Mahmut and Bulent. Ozgen, who has been working as a criminal lawyer for 35 years, said that he cannot even understand why the trial was initiated. "The activities of the students are organized, disciplined and aiming to pacify and discourage, and are not innocent actions," said the court decision, referring to the crime with which they were charged under the Turkish Penal Code. The decision emphasized the strong possibility of the students becoming terrorists in the future. After the decision, thousands of supporters of the students gathered in demonstrations in front of the Court of Appeals building in Kizilay to express their reactions against the almost one hundred years of punishment meted out to the students. The governor of Ankara, and even Interior Minister Murat Basesgioglu, on the other hand, accused the students of being members of illegal organizations. [INLINE] Parents of the year With hope still in their eyes, Nukhet and Mehmet Tufekci, parents of one of the students, seemed optimistic in their long talk with the Turkish Daily News. Through defending his son, which has become the task of his life, Tufekci became a well-known figure. "All the university students call me 'Uncle Mehmet,' and all my stress goes away," said Tufekci. Perhaps, in a world where people worship the powerful and the rich and forget about the oppressed, such a sincere response has been a real "kiss of life" for Tufekci. Describing the story of their son Ozgur, from the minute it began until the present time, the Tufekcis were calm. But when I wanted to ask questions about Ozgur's detention period, Mehmet Tufekci stared at me, "I have never asked my kids about that period. I could not, I cannot and I will not!" The students were tortured for nearly a week and forced to sign papers without knowing anything about their content, Tufekci said. They were faced with systematic torture, which according to their friends, included "Palestine hanging," beating, and more. "Nuh Mete Yuksel, the chief prosecutor of the State Security Court (DGM), heard the testimonies of the children at the police station, but not in court. Then, everybody waited for the signs of torture to disappear," Tufekci continued. The ten-day-long detention of the five students, during which time they were reportedly tortured, was a separate nightmare, Nukhet Tufekci says. "Bring a child up with care and concern, be afraid of his being hurt, and one day, a creature smelling of alcohol does whatever he wants to him... Tortures..." she says. After his release, Ozgur described his experience to his parents: "I was put in a cell in Ankara Security Department's anti-terrorism branch. They were trying to discourage me. The police decided to leave me alone in the cell for three days and monitor my behavior. I tried to guess what my father would have done if he were me... I, myself, put a one-person play on stage in the cell! I didn't get bored." Doubts over DGM decision Mehmet Tufekci expressed his doubts over the objectivity of the court's decision: "The decision of the trial did not take the testimonies into consideration. The result of the trial was clearly decided before the end of the prosecution." He continues: "We wanted the judges to listen to Mahmut's father, but they did not see the necessity of listening to him. The decision of the police was implemented. This cannot happen in a state of law, but can only be encountered in a police state." "Even the children's testimonies, which were taken under torture, were unlawful. My son, Ozgur, does not know some of the old Turkish words used in his testimony. Before Nuh Mete Yuksel listened to them, the police threatened the children," Tufekci said. "Criticism is the basis for science, and freedom is the basis for criticism. So, in a society where university students asking for better conditions are imprisoned, nothing can be achieved for improvement. Those young men love their country more than the people governing it. They are the future of the country," he continued. They were planning to be as grand as possible, to shout as loud as possible, "Receiving an education is one of the basic human rights." "So why do students have to pay billions of lira each semester?" they asked. Being the leader of the protests organized by university students was a difficult task. Now, Ozgur Tufekci, Mahmut Yilmaz, Bulent Karakas, Metin Murat Kalyoncugil and Ahmet Askin Dogan are waiting for the decision of the Court of Appeals to be announced on March 18. Finally, when I asked Tufekci, with a pessimism gained after my own painful life experience, if he really was optimistic about the early release of the five students, he responded: "There are thousands of political prisoners in Turkey and thousands of free students seeking their democratic right for an autonomous university. They are my source of hope." "There is growing international support for the students. A group of university students in the United States are preparing to demonstrate on Jan. 21 and demand the release of the five," Tufekci said, with a tired, but deep, expression in his eyes. -- 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 ScotFOP at aol.com Thu Jan 15 22:10:23 1998 From: ScotFOP at aol.com (ScotFOP at aol.com) Date: 15 Jan 1998 22:10:23 Subject: ScotFOP #4 Message-ID: From: ScotFOP Information Bulletin=0ACountdown to Catastrophe=0AScottish Friends of Pal= estine =0A=0AWEB PAGE =3D http://members.aol.com/scotfop=0A=0A15th Januar= y 1998 =0AInformation concerning sources can be obtained from Scottish Fr= iends of=0APalestine=0A=0ABy mid-January units of the Arab Liberation Arm= y from Syria were in action in=0APalestine, with little success. They wer= e undoubtedly hindered by the=0Adestruction of bridges over the River Jor= dan by the Zionist forces. However=0Atheir efforts in the face of the det= ermined Zionists - members of both the=0AHaganah and the Irgun had been t= rained under the British - were never going to=0Aachieve much at this sta= ge. And as long as Palestine was still being governed=0Aunder the British= Mandate, the armies of the surrounding Arab states were=0Aloathe to brea= k international law and intervene.=0A=0AThe perception of the struggle ah= ead by the two major protagonists was always=0Agoing to be a major determ= inant of the final outcome.=0A=0AA number of quotes from Aluf Ygal Yadin,= Israel=92s first chief of operations=0Aclearly outlines the Zionist posi= tion=0A=0A=93We had made an intelligence survey. We went through every vi= llage in=0APalestine, and estimated its character, whether it meant troub= le or not; and=0Awe had a map in which the strategic characters of every = Arab village and the=0Aquality of its inhabitants were indicated. We had = a library of files with the=0Adetails. We made an air-photographic survey= of most of the country; we used to=0Ahire a plane at =A34 an hour. We kn= ew in the early months of the trouble that=0Athe Palestine Arabs had nobo= dy to organise them properly, but we had not taken=0Aaccount of the Briti= sh. The moment we brought up a platoon the British would=0Acome and arres= t our men. We could have taken Jaffa quite easily, but the=0ABritish stop= ped us. If not for the British we could have quelled the Arab riot=0Ain o= ne month.=94=0A=0A=93We had in November 1947 30 000 members of the Hagana= h and about 3 000 in the=0APalmach.=94=0A=0A=93In the Air Force we had si= x or seven obsolete reconnaissance planes. We=0Abought the remains of twe= nty Austers from the British. We used them as=0Abombers. There were two m= en in each plane. One man carried on his knees home-=0Amade bombs weighin= g 50 kilos, and dropped them over the target. They had a=0Agood moral eff= ect, because before 15th May the Arabs had no planes.=94=0A=0AAnd the Pal= estinian Arab reality=0A=0A=93Suddenly, overnight there grew a black mark= et in light armaments, mostly the=0Atype which were useless in actual com= bat.. People used there own money to buy=0Aarms; Uncle Ibrahim bought him= self a Colt .45, Ali a Walther .38, Mousa a 8mm=0ABeretta. The prices the= y paid were exorbitant, not only by the standard of=0A1946 and 1947, but = even by today=92s. They handled the guns with affection,=0Acleaning them = too often.=94=0A=0A=93There was no one to tell them that the war in the m= aking would demand=0Adifferent arms, organised bodies of men and military= training. Their=0Aconception of training was to own a gun, perhaps a sma= ll hand gun, and to be=0Aable to use it, not to prepare for war. Even the= ir wives remembered the names=0Aof their guns and recited their husbands= =92 exaggerated claims of their=0Aeffectiveness.=94=0A=0Aand, the formati= on of the Holy Strugglers, the Mufti of Jerusalem=92s militia:=0A=0A=93Pr= actically everyone offered their services, but Ibrahim had no uniforms fo= r=0Athem let alone arms and he had no clear idea of where their salaries = would=0Acome from.=94=0A=0A=93They brought with them ill-fitting second h= and uniforms and rusty arms=0Aconsisting of the discarded light equipment= left behind in the Western Desert=0Aduring the Second World War - Italia= n, German British, American, Canadian and=0Aother makes. Ibrahim was also= allocated a certain amount of cash each month,=0Awhich he distributed to= his volunteers more in line with need than in=0Aaccordance with rank and= competence - in fact there were no ranks beyond=0Acommander and deputy c= ommander.=94=0A=0A1948 Jan 15=0A=0AThe aftermath of the van explosion the= previous day in Haifa brought life to a=0Astandstill, with firing intens= ifying as daylight arrived. The British military=0Ainstalled outposts on = rooftops and upper storeys thus bringing sniping, by=0AArab forces, to a = virtual halt.=0A=0AAn Arab bus was fired upon, resulting in one dead pass= enger and 6 injured.=0ASome passengers returned fire, with two - armed wi= th a Tommy gun - escaping=0Afrom the police. At the same time, on the eas= tern side of Haifa a Jewish bus=0Awas fired upon resulting in two dead an= d 1 injured.=0A=0ADuring the day Haifa came to a standstill as buses and = cars fell victim to=0Asniper fire. Jews and Arabs battled for control of = the road that led from the=0AJewish quarter. One report put the Arab deat= hs at ten, Jewish deaths at five.=0A=0AJerusalem was the focus of much fi= ghting. Military estimates pointed to as=0Amany as 500 members of the Hag= anah, and the terrorist Irgun and Stern Gang=0Aoperating under one comman= d. The 1 500 Jewish residents in the Jewish Quarter=0Awere subject to inc= essant sniper fire but refused to evacuate.=0A=0AJan 16 =0A=0AA British r= eport to the UN estimated 1 974 deaths or injuries between November=0A30t= h (the day after the UN partition resolution was passed) and January 10th= .=0AThose killed included 295 Arabs, 262 Jews and 30 British. Increasingl= y British=0Aforces were being called upon to protect Jewish convoys trave= lling to outlying=0Aareas, with the RAF playing an increasingly important= role. Jewish convoys=0Aconveying potash between Jerusalem and Jericho ha= d the protection of a single=0Aplane. Six spitfires together with tanks a= nd other ground support dispersed an=0AArab force of up to 3 000 who had = surrounded 4 settlements in the Hebron area.=0A=0AThe Haganah blew up 3 P= alestinian houses in Haifa as a reprisal for bombing of=0Athe Jewish bus = terminal the previous week. In the first house eight children=0Abetween t= he ages of 18 months and 12 years were slaughtered. One woman, aged=0A25 = years, was killed. It was alleged that this house was a =91centre for Ara= b=0Agangsters.=92 In the second house 5 Palestinians were killed with 5 r= eported yet=0Ato be recovered from the rubble. In the third house there w= ere no reported=0Acasualties.=0A=0ADuring the course of the day, in attac= ks attributed to Arab assailants, 2=0ABritish soldiers were shot, one fat= ally. A goods train was held up and robbed=0Aby presumed Arab assailants.= A policeman was killed when his bus came under=0Afire. Eleven Jews, in p= ossession of armaments ranging from pistols to=0Agrenades, were arrested = by police. Zionist sources claimed to have killed 82=0APalestinian Arabs = [Ed note: presumably including women and children] in the=0Aprevious 24 h= ours.=0A=0AJan 17=0A=0A35 Haganah fighters and 4 Arab fighters were kille= d in the proximity of the=0Asettlement of Kfar Etzion near the village of= Surif, 12 miles south-west of=0AJerusalem. Reports vary, with the Zionis= ts claiming that their forces were=0Aambushed while on their way by foot = to reinforce the settlement. In total, two=0AZionist parties were ambushe= d. Later in the day a further Zionist force of=0Aabout 100 men was report= ed to have attacked Surif, the HQ of the Arab=0Aguerrilla leader, Abdul K= ader Husseini. =0A=0AA Jewish convoy travelling from Jaffa was ambushed o= utside Jerusalem. One=0AJewish death was reported, 1 missing and 9 wounde= d.=0A=0AThe Palestinian village of Dayr Aban [pop. 2 100] was surrounded = by force of=0Aat least 100 Zionists. There was no record of casualties re= sulting from what=0Awas described as a =93punitive expedition.=94=0A=0AOn= e British soldier was shot dead, by assailants believed to be Arab, while= =0Atravelling by truck along the Acre-Safad road.=0A=0AIn Haifa most Arab= and Jewish businesses had closed by 2pm. Buses with armour=0Aplated or n= etted windows had started to run again between the upper Jewish and=0AAra= b lower parts of the town.=0A=0AJan 18=0A=0AThe village of Salama with a = population of 6 730 was attacked by the 3rd=0ABattalion of the Alexandron= i Brigade (3 houses were blown up). The Arab=0ALiberation Militia sent 20= reinforcements to join the 30 strong village=0Amilitia. The operational = orders of the assault force read =93The aim is to=0Aattack the northern p= art of the village of Salama.... to cause deaths, blow up=0Ahouses and to= burn everything possible.=94 1=0A=0AAn estimated force of 80 Zionists at= tacked the village of Kuwaykat [pop. 1=0A050].=0A=0ABy the 18th, the situ= ation in Jaffa was described thus=0A=0A=93there is no work. Whoever could= leave, has left, there is fear everywhere,=0Aand there is no safety. Rob= bery and theft are common.=94=0A=0AA convoy was sniped and ambushed on th= e Jaffa-Jerusalem road, two Jews were=0Akilled including the Haganah chie= f, Maale Hashiman. The Haganah blew up four=0Ahouse near the suburb of Ho= lan.=0A=0AThe Haganah policy of brutal reprisals resulted in the =93tempo= rary evacuation=94=0Aof the semi-Bedouin community of Mansurat al Kheit o= n the River Jordan.=0A=0AA 100 strong Haganah party, searching for the 35= dead as a result of the=0Aambush days earlier, clashed with Arab forces = near Beit Jamal. There were=0Aconflicting reports of casualties. The dead= included the first American to be=0Akilled in the conflict.=0A=0AJan 19= =0A=0AThe Haganah attacked the villages of Shafa Amr (Haifa area) and Tam= ra ( in the=0ANazareth district). In the case of Tamra, an attacking forc= e of about 200=0Akilled 2 Palestinian Arabs and wounded 3 seriously, incl= uding a 10 year old=0Aboy. The Irgun were prevented from perpetrating a p= otentially devastating car=0Abomb attack in the Old City of Jerusalem. A = car packed with gelignite and=0Arivets, connected to a timer, tried to en= ter the city at Jaffa Gate driven by=0AJewish bus driver dressed as an Ar= ab and carrying false identity papers. He=0Asuccessfully passed through t= he checkpoint but was recognised by an Arab bus=0Adriver. His burnt and d= ismembered body was found in the city.=0A=0AFour Stern Gang members, incl= uding a girl, were sentenced to life imprisonment=0Afor taking part in il= legal military training. =0A=0AIt was stated that the 4 settlements in th= e Hebron area were in constant=0Adanger due to their isolated position.= =0A=0AJan 20 =0A=0ALord Montagu of Beaulieu suggested, in the House of Lo= rds, that the United=0ANations should obtain a solemn pledge from the =93= new Jewish State=94 that it had=0Ano further territorial ambitions in the= Middle East.=0A=0AIt was stated that no searches for arms were now being= made except when there=0Awas evidence of misuse. Zionist =91self defence= =92 organisations would not be=0Aobstructed while they acted in purely de= fensive roles.=0A=0AA combined force of Palestinians and the ALA, estimat= ed at about 500 fighters,=0Aattacked the =93colony=94 of Yehyam in wester= n Galilee. British troops came to the=0Arescue.=0A=0AThe village of Lubya= [pop. 2 350] situated to the west of Tiberias was=0Aattacked by Zionist = raiders during the night. One villager was reported dead=0Aas a result of= the attack. At Jehiam, Upper Galilee, a force of 100 Zionists=0Afortifie= d in a crusader castle, were under siege by an Arab force of about=0A500.= Nine Zionists were killed before being relieved by British troops and=0A= police.=0A=0AIn Jerusalem, the relative calm of the previous few days, wh= ile religious=0Aleaders met to consider the position of Jerusalem, was sh= attered. The Haganah=0Afired upon members of the Highland Light Infantry = as they evacuated inmates of=0Aa Jewish home for the aged. One soldier wa= s seriously injured, three less so.=0AOne Zionist was killed and three in= jured in the return fire.=0A=0AJan 21 =0A=0AIt was reported that a second= contingent of ALA volunteers arrived in=0APalestine.=0A=0ABritain inform= ed the UN Palestine Commission that it was not possible to=0Acomply with = the UN request that a major seaport be opened to speed up the=0Atransfer = of Zionist immigrants to Palestine. The policy of 1 500 immigrants=0Aper = month was reaffirmed. =0A From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Mon Jan 19 08:55:44 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Jan 1998 08:55:44 Subject: Kurds on hungerstrike in the Netherlands Message-ID: Press Statement Groningen, January 15, 1998 KURDS FROM SCHENGEN OC'S "TER APEL" AND "LUTTELGEEST" ON HUNGER-STRIKE IN GRONINGEN AGAINST THREATENING DEPORTATION Since Wednesday January 14, 1998, 13 Kurds in the city of Groningen are on hunger-strike for an undetermined period. The refugees, from the Reception Centre (OC) in Luttelgeest and the expulsion centre Ter Apel, are protesting their threatening expulsion to Germany, the country where they first applied for asylum. After this was rejected, they fled to the Netherlands. These so-called reception centres are in fact Schengen-OC's where refugees are isolated who entered the Netherlands by a so-called safe or third country. The OC Ter Apel, like Luttelgeest, has in time become the centre piece of the deportation policy of the Dutch government. Officially, the Netherlands do no expel Kurdish refugees to Turkey, because this is considered inhumane and life threatening, seen the terror and annihilation policy of the Turkish government against the Kurds. However, from the OC's Ter Apel and Luttelgeest, Kurdish refugees are indirectly handed over to the Turkish government, through the German police. Germany does expel Kurdish refugees to Turkey. In Germany, these deportations take place in a context of a policy which is aimed at oppressing all expressions of Kurdish identity, among others by closing down cultural centres and banning demonstrations by Kurds. By this indirect method of deportation - expulsion to Germany -, the Dutch government tries to increase the deportation figures without getting dirty hands in the eyes of the outside world. All this at the costs of the Kurds and other refugees. >From Ter Apel and other places, during the last months many Kurdish men, women and children were expelled to Germany from whom it is known that they went directly to jail, awaiting deportation to Turkey; others were sent to Turkey directly, and it's unknown what happened to them. Some disappeared in Germany, or went into hiding: they prefer a life in illegality, without the right on housing, education, medical care, et. cetera, to being sent back to Turkey, a country where human rights are systematically violated and where a dirty war has been going on for years against the Kurds. Last Monday, January 12, a family from Ter Apel was handed over to the German police. The man went into hiding, his wife and children were expelled to Turkey. The wife and the children will be pressed by the Turkish police, known for there gross violations of human rights, to betray their husband and father. Fort Europe is closing its borders to refugees. After it became known that 1.200 Kurds escaped to Italy by boat, the Dutch government decided last week to increase controls at the borders to "limit the influx of Kurdish asylum seekers". 250 extra people are deployed by the cabinet to serve with the Customs, the military police ("marechaussee") and the river police. Another 400 MP's and custom officers will be deployed for mobile controls behind the borders. An extra-proportional effort to open the hunt on all refugees and to start the election campaign. Not a word about the human rights in Turkey, not a word the rights of the Kurds to a humane life. We call upon all who resist the violations of human rights to support us and to increase the pressure on the Dutch - as well as the German - government, so the Kurdish refugees can not be expelled as long as they must fear for their lives. RECOGNITION OF KURDS AS REFUGEES IN THE NETHERLANDS STOP ALL DIRECT AND INDIRECT DEPORTATIONS OF REFUGEES RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION OF THE KURDS Kurds on Hunger-strike in Groningen Solidarity Committee Kurds on Hunger-strike in Groningen For more information: Tel: (++) 50-549 39 67 or 06-557 30 939 or postbus 1472 9701 BL Groningen the Netherlands -- 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 Jan 19 15:38:04 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 19 Jan 1998 15:38:04 Subject: Turkey closes TV station for interviewing relatives of POW's in hung Message-ID: TR Closes TV Station for Kurd Terrorist Programme DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have temporarily shut down a television station in the mainly Kurdish southeast for alleged incitement to violence, a broadcasting watchdog said on Monday. The Supreme Board of Radio and Television closed the local Metro TV under itts powers to ban "broadcasts which create feelings of hatred in the community by encouraging violence and ethnic separatism," the board said in a statement. The ban, to last 30 days, was imposed for a programme featuring interviews with relatives of imprisoned Kurdish terrorist hungers strikers earlier this month, the statement said. The prisoners ended the strike last week when it became clear their demands for better conditions would not be met. Turkey has often come under sharp criticism for alleged human rights abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression arising out of its battle with terrorists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), fighting for independence in the southeast since 1984. More than 27,000 people have been killed in the conflict. -- 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 Wed Jan 21 17:53:43 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 21 Jan 1998 17:53:43 Subject: Fight To Create Anti-fascist Usenet News groups Moves Forward Message-ID: Message-Id: <3.0.32.19980121174111.009133f0 at mail.nyct.net> Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 20:02:32 -0500 To: "TINAF list 1 via" From: Paul Kneisel Subject: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Wednesday, 21 Jan 98--2:03 (#57) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ______________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Wednesday, 21 January 98 Vol. 2, Number 3 (#57) ______________________________________________________________________ ANTI-FASCIST ACTION ALERT #20 Fight To Create Anti-fascist Usenet News groups Moves Forward Myself, M. A. Steir of the National Lawyers Guild, and T. A. Turner of Radical Women just posted the 7th edition of a proposal to create three anti-fascist news groups. TINAF will cover the story as it unfolds. Meanwhile, excerpts from the document, formally defining the groups are included below. "... the word "anti-fascism" should be taken as a generic opposition to policies reflected in the activities of the political groups controlled by A. Hitler, F. Franco, and B. Mussolini, Salizar, the K.K.K., as well as those acts defined as Crimes Against Humanity by the International Tribunals on War Crimes held in Nuremberg, Germany. 'Anti-fascism' also includes opposition to contemporary groups following those policies including 'updated' material like 'Holocaust Revisionism.' ... " is intended as a moderated forum for the debate and discussion of anti-fascism and artistic/aesthetic, economic, ethical, historical, legal, philosophical, political, psychological, and sociological topics related to it. These discussions should logically include errors that different anti-fascist tendencies made in defining 'fascism' itself. It is not a 'dial-a-demo' group nor a focus for discussions specifically designed to develop anti-fascist activism. " is intended as a focus for announcements of real-time anti-fascist activities. " is intended as the anti-fascist time/space antipode of soc.politics.anti-fascism. It is for discussions and debates of real-time anti-fascist activities (NB: the triple plural)" The full Request For Discussion document defining these groups is at: ______________________________________________________________________ -- tallpaul Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. back issues archived via: (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction.) List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Fri Jan 23 18:46:41 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 23 Jan 1998 18:46:41 Subject: Turkey: fascists found the internet (Not for publication!) Message-ID: http://www.mhp.org.tr/ List info: english-request at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Tue Jan 27 07:24:16 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 27 Jan 1998 07:24:16 Subject: WSJ: Turkish Probe Links Old Government to Death Squads Message-ID: Turkish Probe Links Old Government to Death Squads Prime Minister Launches Harsh Attack on Security Services and Chief Rival by Hugh Pope The Wall Street Journal Monday, January 26, 1998 Istanbul, Turkey--Agents in the pay of the Turkish state have been involved in death squads used against ethnic Kurds as well as in drug trafficking, extortion and botched secret operations abroad, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz has charged in an extraordinary indictment of his country's security services--and a savage attack on his chief political rival. "It's the anatomy of a disgraceful mess," Mr. Yilmaz told millions of Turkish television viewers as he detailed the results of a seven-month-long investigation into Turkey's Susurluk scandal, named after a provincial town where a November 1996 car crash first showed the close ties between the state, organized crime and killings of political dissidents. In the car were key members of "gangs" the report says filled a "state vacuum": a wanted right-wing hitman turned secret agent, a police chief, a Turkish Kurd politician and the hitman's girlfriend; all but the politician died. Mr. Yilmaz's "Susurluk report" is also the latest salvo in a political war being waged by his weak coalition government and its backers in Turkey's secularist establishment and armed forces. Their objective is to discredit the former coalition government of the pro-Islamic Welfare Party, banned by court order on Jan. 16, and the conservative True Path Party, led by Tansu Ciller, Mr. Yilmaz's rival for leadership of Turkey's center right. The report has been published in part in several Turkish newspapers, and Prime Minister Yilmaz confirmed its highlights in a marathon television interview late Thursday night. The report blames Mrs. Ciller's period as prime minister from 1993 to 1996 for the worst abuses. Despite Mrs. Ciller's close working relationship with Dogan Gures, who was then the military's chief of general staff, the report clears the Turkish armed forces of complicity. It says the only officers involved were attached to the para-military gendarmerie, which acts as a rural police force. "This is not an investigation. It's like a document serialized in the press for the personal gratification of the prime minister," said opposition leader Deniz Baykal. But Mr. Yilmaz and his coalition partners say they will clean up the mess with a special court, protection for informers and an end to feuding among Turkey's many security services. Perhaps more pressing, Turkish businesspeople and the International Monetary Fund want Mr. Yilmaz to tackle annual inflation now running at 99% and urgently needed macroeconomic reforms neglected by his seven-month-old administration. The government seems unlikely to act decisively soon. Only part of the report has been made public, so other skeletons remain in the closet. And Turkey's politics remain volatile following the banning of the Welfare Party, the country's biggest political movement, and given uncertainty about how far the republican establishment will go against other pro-Islamic groups and Mrs. Ciller. A key test will be enforcement of an order by the Constitutional Court to close down the country's $2 billion-a-year casino industry on Feb. 11, which would placate the public. Official efforts to curb more than 75 casinos have proved short-lived in the past. The Susurluk report contends that agents of the state security apparatus have extorted money from casino owners--and murdered one who didn't pay up. The secret agents named in the report were mostly recruited among right-wing gunmen active in the 1970s. Some have been in the pay of the state since 1973, according to the report, including periods of military rule, a sensitive area not fully explained in those parts of the Susurluk report published so far. The report's portrayal of the Susurluk scandal as mainly the fault of Mrs. Ciller and her husband, Ozer, from 1993 to 1996 also ignores the fact that death squad-style killings of ethnic Kurds began in 1991, about the time Mr. Yilmaz began his first stint as prime minister. Nevertheless, the Susurluk report is the first confirmation by a senior Turkish official of longstanding allegations that state-sponsored death squads were indeed used in a dirty war that grew out of the 13-year-old struggle against Turkish Kurd separatist guerrillas. After 1991, more than 1,500 Kurdish nationalists, journalists, politicians and businesspeople were murdered in what officialdom previously had called "unsolved crimes," a wave of killings that ebbed only last year. "An execution squad was formed within the state," says a partial transcript of the Susurluk report carried in several newspapers. "It's obvious that there is no 'unsolved crime' when people who have even appeared in court are passed from hand to hand by the state and found dead under bridges. All parts of the state were aware of what was going on." The report was compiled by the chief inspector of the prime minister's office, Kutlu Savas. Mrs. Ciller said in a televised speech that her openly hard-line policies at the time were in the country's best interest, saying at one point, "It's an honor to shoot for the state." Her interior minister, Mehmet Agar, who was forced to resign after the Susurluk car crash due to his friendship with some of those in the car, said over the weekend, "If it's a crime to fight against terror, then I shall commit that crime all my life. Are we supposed to fight terrorism by using bug spray?" In another extension of the war against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the report says, Turkish agents cooperated with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in an unsuccessful attempts on the life of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria. The agents the report names would pass muster in any action thriller. The most notorious of them, Abdullah Catli, one of those killed in the Susurluk car crash, was on the run after being convicted of organizing the torture and killing of eight young leftists in Istanbul in 1978. Despite being wanted by Turkey's courts, Mr. Catli was hired by the secret services and put to work in Europe after a 1980 coup in which the Turkish military seized power, according to published transcripts of the report. The version of the report published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper says he played a role in 11 counterattacks on Armenian terrorists who attacked Turkish embassies and diplomats abroad. The report suggests that during the Turkish state's struggle against ethnic Kurdish rebels in the 1990s, the gangs, of which Mr. Catli was a leader, saw an opportunity to become rich through extortion of casino owners and drug smugglers. "While officials who have worked in the [Kurdish] regions may be right to see the PKK terrorists' lives and property as the state's, it's probably not right to say the same of forcing Kurdish [drug-smuggling] groups to take [the secret agents] as partners in illegal activities in the western provinces," says the Susurluk report. The report also says Mr. Catli and senior Turkish officials played a key role in a 1995 coup attempt in Azerbaijan, where previously published Turkish reports say the Susurluk gang hoped to install a leader who would allow them to take advantage of a new drug-smuggling route through Baku to the West. Azerbaijani President Haidar Aliyev has said the coup was foiled when Turkish President Suleyman Demirel heard of the plot and tipped him off. -- 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 Jan 27 17:37:16 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 27 Jan 1998 17:37:16 Subject: working class in Turkey Message-ID: ________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ ________________________________________________ PUBLIC WORKERS RAISE THE STRUGGLE IN TURKEY Yesterday (24 January) more than 25.000 public workers came together in Ankara (the capital of Turkey) once again to show their determination to obtain right for establishing their trade unions with strike and collective bargaining. Public workers in Turkey have been fighting for trade union rights within last eight years, standing out as an outstanding part of working class struggle. Despite the existing Constitution and labour codes don't mention the right for establishing trade unions, they have established their trade unions virtually through highly militant struggles. Throughout the years of struggle, they have filled squares of the capital again and again, once occupied the Kizilay Square during two days. Each time they have been severely attacked by police; thousands of trade union activists have been sentenced to disciplinary fines; thousands have been exiled from one city to another. Some have been tortured. Their trade unions were brought to courts to be closed down, and the union in telecommunication sector was closed. But, they never gave up, and, ultimately, the state was forced to accept their right for establishing trade unions. The draft law of the gowernment, however, doesn't accept their right for strike and collective barganing. This is why the public workers were once again in Ankara yesterday. They know that any trade union right without right for strike and collective barganing will not make any sense. One of the most important aspects of the struggle of public workers (widely called "civil servants") is that these struggles have put an end to the theroretical discussion whether they should be considered as a part of working class. Bernar ****** A-Infos News Service ***** News about and of interest to anarchists Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO at TAO.CA with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS Info -> http://www.ainfos.ca/ Reproduce -> please include this section -- 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 9011731o at student.gla.ac.uk Wed Jan 28 16:58:13 1998 From: 9011731o at student.gla.ac.uk (9011731o at student.gla.ac.uk) Date: 28 Jan 1998 16:58:13 Subject: Critique Conference Message-ID: From: "Thomas O'Gorman" <9011731o at student.gla.ac.uk> Dear Comrades, Just a reminder of the Critique 25th anniversary conference 'New Labour - New Left?' in London. 7 February, 1998 Conway Hall, Red Lion Square. 10am - 5pm. =A310 waged, =A35 unwaged. Registration begins at 9am. This conference will provide an opportunity for debate and discussion on the end of Social Democracy as well as on the possibilities for the emergence of a genuine, socialist left. See you at the conference! Tom O'Gorman From greenscreen at mailexcite.com Thu Jan 29 06:27:34 1998 From: greenscreen at mailexcite.com (greenscreen at mailexcite.com) Date: 29 Jan 1998 06:27:34 Subject: Nobel Peace Prize Nomination Message-ID: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. You need a MIME compliant mail reader to completely decode it. --=_-=_-GKKCDDNOIPCBAAAA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 4458 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit received from: akin at kurdish.org 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 ============================= >Dear friends, >This letter was sent this week to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in = >Norway seeking the nomination of Leyla Zana for the 1998 Nobel Peace = >Prize. >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= >~~~~~ > > >January 23, 1998 > >The Nobel Peace Prize Committee >Nobelinsintuttet >Drammensvein 19 >N-0255 Oslo, Norway > >Dear Committee Members: > >Over the past century, an intractable problem on the world stage has = >confounded those policy makers that have attempted to achieve its = >resolution. The 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, = >felt that this matter should be treated as a question of self = >determination. Today, it is also viewed, as it must be, as a = >profound humanitarian crisis. I am referring, of course, to the = >plight of the Kurdish people. > >These ancient people continue today to face extreme diffuculties. = >Their land continues to be the setting for war and destruction that = >has lasted, now, for decades. This situation seems to center, = >ultimately, on the tension and debate over the rights of native = >cultures versus the authority of the nations of the region. Yasar = >Kemal, Turkey=B9s most famous author, has suggested for his part that = >both racism and greed play major roles in perpetuating the status = >quo. Lord Eric Avebury, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Human = >Rights Group, who has extensively visited this region of the globe, = >invokes a famous quote by Tacitus to describe the present situation: = >=B3they made it a desolation and called it peace.=B2 In my own visit = >to Turkey this month, I saw palpable evidence of the human misery = >generated by the policies of war. > >Many brave Kurdish souls have made the ultimate sacrifice to leap = >into the realm called peace for the benefit of themselves and their = >loved ones. Leyla Zana is one such individual. She has become a = >symbol of the yearning of the Kurds for a state of peaceful = >coexistence with their neighbors. Because of a lifetime of = >advocating peaceful coexistence, however, she has been imprisoned and = >now is serving the fourth year of a fifteen year sentence in Ankara = >prison. At my initiation, 153 members of Congress signed a letter to = >President Clinton asking that he raise Leyla Zana=B9s case with = >Turkish officials and that he seek to secure her immediate release = >from prison. In December of 1997, Amnesty International declared her = >a prisoner of conscience. In numerous European cities, she has been = >awarded honorary friendship and peace prizes. > >I met with Leyla Zana in the course my visit to Turkey. I met with = >members of the fledgling human rights communities in Istanbul and = >Ankara. I also spoke with government officials. I heard long and = >painful recriminations but I also heard a deep longing for peace. It = >is plain that the Turks and the Kurds must talk to one another. > >I am, accordingly, asking that you give your utmost consideration to = >the nomination of Leyla Zana for 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, an act that = >could pave the way for the initiation of a dialogue that could bring = >peace. Such an award would symbolize both the hope for peace in the = >region and the degree to which the world is troubled by the lack of = >such peace. Such courageous action by the committee would serve to = >light a candle in a part of the world that has been kept in the = >darkness for too long. I hope you will agree that such a light is = >needed to bring an end to the long misery of the Kurds. > > > Sincerely, > > > > John Edward Porter > Member of Congress > > > >---- >American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) >2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 >Washington, DC 20008-1522 > >Tel: (202) 483-6444 >Fax: (202) 483-6476 >E-mail: akin at kurdish.org >Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org >---- > >The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public = >service to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship > > > Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com --=_-=_-GKKCDDNOIPCBAAAA Mime-Version: 1.0 Received: from [206.173.56.102] (ts007d42.per-md.concentric.net [206.173.56.102]) by illustrious.concentric.net (8.8.5/) id IAA07005; Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:58:08 -0500 (EST) [ConcentricHost SMTP Relay] From: Date: Wed, 28 Jan 98 09:01:45 -0400 X-Mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v2, June 6, 1997 X-Sender: akin%kurdish.org at pop3.kurdish.org Subject: Nobel Peace Prize Nomination Message-Id: <199801281358.IAA07005 at illustrious.concentric.net> To: Errors-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Length: 4030 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear friends, This letter was sent this week to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in = Norway seeking the nomination of Leyla Zana for the 1998 Nobel Peace = Prize. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ~~~~~ January 23, 1998 The Nobel Peace Prize Committee Nobelinsintuttet Drammensvein 19 N-0255 Oslo, Norway Dear Committee Members: Over the past century, an intractable problem on the world stage has = confounded those policy makers that have attempted to achieve its = resolution. The 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, = felt that this matter should be treated as a question of self = determination. Today, it is also viewed, as it must be, as a = profound humanitarian crisis. I am referring, of course, to the = plight of the Kurdish people. These ancient people continue today to face extreme diffuculties. = Their land continues to be the setting for war and destruction that = has lasted, now, for decades. This situation seems to center, = ultimately, on the tension and debate over the rights of native = cultures versus the authority of the nations of the region. Yasar = Kemal, Turkey=B9s most famous author, has suggested for his part that = both racism and greed play major roles in perpetuating the status = quo. Lord Eric Avebury, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Human = Rights Group, who has extensively visited this region of the globe, = invokes a famous quote by Tacitus to describe the present situation: = =B3they made it a desolation and called it peace.=B2 In my own visit = to Turkey this month, I saw palpable evidence of the human misery = generated by the policies of war. Many brave Kurdish souls have made the ultimate sacrifice to leap = into the realm called peace for the benefit of themselves and their = loved ones. Leyla Zana is one such individual. She has become a = symbol of the yearning of the Kurds for a state of peaceful = coexistence with their neighbors. Because of a lifetime of = advocating peaceful coexistence, however, she has been imprisoned and = now is serving the fourth year of a fifteen year sentence in Ankara = prison. At my initiation, 153 members of Congress signed a letter to = President Clinton asking that he raise Leyla Zana=B9s case with = Turkish officials and that he seek to secure her immediate release = from prison. In December of 1997, Amnesty International declared her = a prisoner of conscience. In numerous European cities, she has been = awarded honorary friendship and peace prizes. I met with Leyla Zana in the course my visit to Turkey. I met with = members of the fledgling human rights communities in Istanbul and = Ankara. I also spoke with government officials. I heard long and = painful recriminations but I also heard a deep longing for peace. It = is plain that the Turks and the Kurds must talk to one another. I am, accordingly, asking that you give your utmost consideration to = the nomination of Leyla Zana for 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, an act that = could pave the way for the initiation of a dialogue that could bring = peace. Such an award would symbolize both the hope for peace in the = region and the degree to which the world is troubled by the lack of = such peace. Such courageous action by the committee would serve to = light a candle in a part of the world that has been kept in the = darkness for too long. I hope you will agree that such a light is = needed to bring an end to the long misery of the Kurds. Sincerely, John Edward Porter Member of Congress ---- American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) 2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 Washington, DC 20008-1522 Tel: (202) 483-6444 Fax: (202) 483-6476 E-mail: akin at kurdish.org Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org ---- The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public = service to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship --=_-=_-GKKCDDNOIPCBAAAA-- From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Jan 29 07:00:29 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 29 Jan 1998 07:00:29 Subject: Report Confirms Turkey Murder Claims Message-ID: Report Confirms Turkey Murder Claims By Yalman Onaran Associated Press Writer Wednesday, January 28, 1998; 3:37 p.m. EST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish officials spent millions on assassins and were involved in murders, kidnappings and bombings -- many targeting Kurds -- according to a report Wednesday 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, it said. The government also was behind the bombing of the Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem in 1994 and the murder that year of a Kurdish businessman who helped finance it. The report, parts of which were leaked last week, focused on incidents from 1993 to 1996, under Tansu Ciller's government. She and Turkey's current prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, who appointed the investigator, are old political enemies. The 120-page report was published Wednesday -- minus 11 pages withheld for security reasons -- in Turkish newspapers, the small type filling four full pages of the Radikal daily. Even though it noted 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 named 30 people killed by security forces and concluded they 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.'' The Turkish government has banned Sugden from entering Turkey since 1994 because of Amnesty's criticism. Many Turkish human rights advocates have been jailed, tortured and killed by security forces. Most unsolved murders are in southeast Turkey, where Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy since 1984. Among Kurdish deaths blamed in the report on security forces were lawmaker Mehmet Sincar, writer Musa Anter and human rights activist Sevket Epozdemir. Epozdemir, a representative of the Human Rights Association in the eastern town of Tatvan, was kidnapped in 1993. His bullet-riddled body was found under a bridge the next day. ``People who were found dead under bridges soon after they left court buildings could not be victims of mystery murders,'' the report said. The Human Rights Association had published books on government involvement in killings, but the books were confiscated and the authors charged with ``separatist propaganda.'' The report grew out of an investigation into state links with organized crime after a scandalous 1996 traffic accident in which a police chief, a wanted terrorist, a lawmaker and a beauty queen were riding in the same car. Only the lawmaker survived. One of the state-hired assassins was Abdullah Catli, the fugitive in the car, according to the report. It was not clear what action, if any, would be taken against police officers, intelligence officials and bureaucrats accused of involvement. Mehmet Agar, a former national police chief and interior minister who allegedly orchestrated some of the operations, was the highest-ranking official directly implicated in the scandal. His parliamentary immunity was lifted last month, so he could face trial. ``You have to go after those responsible,'' said Sugden, of Amnesty International. ``That's where the government's seriousness will be really tested.'' ? Copyright 1998 The Associated Press -- 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 Thu Jan 29 09:56:07 1998 From: greenscreen at mailexcite.com (greenscreen at mailexcite.com) Date: 29 Jan 1998 09:56:07 Subject: Haluk Gerger Returns to Prison Message-ID: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. You need a MIME compliant mail reader to completely decode it. --=_-=_-DEJECGGLOFOBAAAA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 5709 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit received from: akin at kurdish.org posted by: Umit Ozturk =============================== Green Screen News PO Box 10386 London E17 7RG, U.K. tel: +44-(0)956-656937 e-mail: greenscreen at gn.apc.org =============================== >Turkey Jails Dissident Who Praised Rebel Kurds >By STEPHEN KINZER >Wednesday, January 28, 1998 > >ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a sign of Turkey's determination to limit public >praise for Kurdish guerrillas, an outspoken essayist and political >scientist has been jailed to begin serving a 10-month sentence. > >The dissident, Haluk Gerger, 50, who is not Kurdish, was jailed on >Monday. He was convicted last year in connection with an article he wrote >in 1993 praising the rebels and accusing the army of bombing villages and >burning farms in the Kurdish region. > >Soon after the article appeared in the newspaper Ozgur Dundem, the paper >was declared a guerrilla organ and closed. > >Speaking in Ankara before he complied with a police order to surrender, >Gerger said he was moving "from the open-air prison of Turkey to a closed >penitentiary." > >"We began our struggle even though we realized that there is a high cost >for remaining human," Gerger told journalists and supporters at the Human >Rights Association headquarters. "Standing against the impositions of >this system is the only way to keep alive the individual within us. We >will continue to tell the truth and shelter the innocent. We cannot stay >indifferent to the fanatic terror of this dirty war." > >The 14-year-old war between the Turkish army and separatist Kurds is >estimated to have killed 27,000 people and cost billions of dollars. The >government describes the guerrillas as terrorists, and cannot tolerate >hearing its own soldiers described that way. > >Officials say those who condemn the war are in effect supporting efforts >to divide the country. To suppress them, courts have sent scores of >writers and other intellectuals to prison. > >One of the most prominent among them, the blind lawyer and playwright >Esber Yagmurdereli, 52, was released on health grounds shortly before >Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz visited Washington last month. He protested >that he was not ill, and last week prosecutors informed him that he is >likely to be sent back to jail for refusing to submit to medical >examinations. > >In a telephone interview Tuesday from a location he would not identify, >Yagmurdereli suggested that he was in hiding. "As soon as the police see >me," he said, "they will take me." > >Yagmurdereli and Gerger are leftist critics of the Turkish political >system and of the military's role in it. They have called for an end to >the Kurdish war and unrestricted freedom to speak, broadcast and teach in >the Kurdish language. > >The government says it will grant such freedoms when the war ends, but >cannot do so now because they would be misused by those who want to fan >the flames of Kurdish nationalism with the aim of dismembering the >country. > >Restrictions on freedom of speech, especially those enforced against >Kurds and their supporters, are often cited by foreign leaders and others >who question the fullness of democracy in Turkey. > >In Bonn, Germany, human rights advocates demanding the release of Hamdi >Turanli, a Kurdish leader who is said to be seriously ill, picketed >Tuesday meetings between German officials and Turkish Foreign Minister >Ismail Cem. Turanli, who has lived in Germany for more than 30 years and >holds German and Turkish citizenship, was arrested on Jan. 12 in Ankara >and has not yet been charged. > >In speeches and articles, Gerger has based his opposition to the war on >what he says is its corrosive effect on Turkish society. The article that >led to his sentencing violated a strict taboo by urging that the Turkish >government negotiate with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the >PKK. > >The government describes the party as a gang of cut-throat terrorists, >but Gerger said they represent the Kurdish people. He also asserted that >"Kurdish villages are being bombed and homes, fields and forests are >being burned." > >"This bleeding wound which we call the Kurdish problem has its roots in >the objective realities of history, culture, politics and social >relations," he wrote. "The Kurds and the PKK are so closely tied that >whoever tries to extinguish the fire inside the Kurdish soul finds his >hands burned by the PKK." > >Gerger was dismissed from his university professorship after the 1980 >military coup and later served two years in prison for making what was >deemed a statement of support for Kurdish rebels. > >At his news conference in Ankara on Monday, the president of the Human >Rights Association, Akin Birdal, who was himself recently acquitted of >charges that he supported terrorism, hailed him as a martyr to free >expression. > >"In civilized countries writers wait at the doors of theaters and opera >houses with tickets in their hands," Birdal said. "In Turkey they wait at >prison gates with verdicts in their hands." > > > > >---- >American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) >2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 >Washington, DC 20008-1522 > >Tel: (202) 483-6444 >Fax: (202) 483-6476 >E-mail: akin at kurdish.org >Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org >---- > >The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public service >to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship > > > Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com --=_-=_-DEJECGGLOFOBAAAA Mime-Version: 1.0 Received: from [206.173.55.177] (ts004d21.per-md.concentric.net [206.173.55.177]) by repulse.concentric.net (8.8.5/) id IAA13769; Thu, 29 Jan 1998 08:42:46 -0500 (EST) [ConcentricHost SMTP Relay] From: Date: Thu, 29 Jan 98 08:46:24 -0400 X-Mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v2, June 6, 1997 X-Sender: akin%kurdish.org at pop3.kurdish.org Subject: Haluk Gerger Returns to Prison Message-Id: <199801291342.IAA13769 at repulse.concentric.net> To: Errors-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Length: 5251 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Turkey Jails Dissident Who Praised Rebel Kurds By STEPHEN KINZER Wednesday, January 28, 1998 ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a sign of Turkey's determination to limit public praise for Kurdish guerrillas, an outspoken essayist and political scientist has been jailed to begin serving a 10-month sentence. The dissident, Haluk Gerger, 50, who is not Kurdish, was jailed on Monday. He was convicted last year in connection with an article he wrote in 1993 praising the rebels and accusing the army of bombing villages and burning farms in the Kurdish region. Soon after the article appeared in the newspaper Ozgur Dundem, the paper was declared a guerrilla organ and closed. Speaking in Ankara before he complied with a police order to surrender, Gerger said he was moving "from the open-air prison of Turkey to a closed penitentiary." "We began our struggle even though we realized that there is a high cost for remaining human," Gerger told journalists and supporters at the Human Rights Association headquarters. "Standing against the impositions of this system is the only way to keep alive the individual within us. We will continue to tell the truth and shelter the innocent. We cannot stay indifferent to the fanatic terror of this dirty war." The 14-year-old war between the Turkish army and separatist Kurds is estimated to have killed 27,000 people and cost billions of dollars. The government describes the guerrillas as terrorists, and cannot tolerate hearing its own soldiers described that way. Officials say those who condemn the war are in effect supporting efforts to divide the country. To suppress them, courts have sent scores of writers and other intellectuals to prison. One of the most prominent among them, the blind lawyer and playwright Esber Yagmurdereli, 52, was released on health grounds shortly before Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz visited Washington last month. He protested that he was not ill, and last week prosecutors informed him that he is likely to be sent back to jail for refusing to submit to medical examinations. In a telephone interview Tuesday from a location he would not identify, Yagmurdereli suggested that he was in hiding. "As soon as the police see me," he said, "they will take me." Yagmurdereli and Gerger are leftist critics of the Turkish political system and of the military's role in it. They have called for an end to the Kurdish war and unrestricted freedom to speak, broadcast and teach in the Kurdish language. The government says it will grant such freedoms when the war ends, but cannot do so now because they would be misused by those who want to fan the flames of Kurdish nationalism with the aim of dismembering the country. Restrictions on freedom of speech, especially those enforced against Kurds and their supporters, are often cited by foreign leaders and others who question the fullness of democracy in Turkey. In Bonn, Germany, human rights advocates demanding the release of Hamdi Turanli, a Kurdish leader who is said to be seriously ill, picketed Tuesday meetings between German officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem. Turanli, who has lived in Germany for more than 30 years and holds German and Turkish citizenship, was arrested on Jan. 12 in Ankara and has not yet been charged. In speeches and articles, Gerger has based his opposition to the war on what he says is its corrosive effect on Turkish society. The article that led to his sentencing violated a strict taboo by urging that the Turkish government negotiate with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. The government describes the party as a gang of cut-throat terrorists, but Gerger said they represent the Kurdish people. He also asserted that "Kurdish villages are being bombed and homes, fields and forests are being burned." "This bleeding wound which we call the Kurdish problem has its roots in the objective realities of history, culture, politics and social relations," he wrote. "The Kurds and the PKK are so closely tied that whoever tries to extinguish the fire inside the Kurdish soul finds his hands burned by the PKK." Gerger was dismissed from his university professorship after the 1980 military coup and later served two years in prison for making what was deemed a statement of support for Kurdish rebels. At his news conference in Ankara on Monday, the president of the Human Rights Association, Akin Birdal, who was himself recently acquitted of charges that he supported terrorism, hailed him as a martyr to free expression. "In civilized countries writers wait at the doors of theaters and opera houses with tickets in their hands," Birdal said. "In Turkey they wait at prison gates with verdicts in their hands." ---- American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) 2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 Washington, DC 20008-1522 Tel: (202) 483-6444 Fax: (202) 483-6476 E-mail: akin at kurdish.org Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org ---- The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public service to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship --=_-=_-DEJECGGLOFOBAAAA-- From english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl Thu Jan 29 20:14:23 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 29 Jan 1998 20:14:23 Subject: Haluk Gerger Returns to Prison References: Message-ID: Turkey Jails Dissident Who Praised Rebel Kurds By STEPHEN KINZER Wednesday, January 28, 1998 ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a sign of Turkey's determination to limit public praise for Kurdish guerrillas, an outspoken essayist and political scientist has been jailed to begin serving a 10-month sentence. The dissident, Haluk Gerger, 50, who is not Kurdish, was jailed on Monday. He was convicted last year in connection with an article he wrote in 1993 praising the rebels and accusing the army of bombing villages and burning farms in the Kurdish region. Soon after the article appeared in the newspaper Ozgur Dundem, the paper was declared a guerrilla organ and closed. Speaking in Ankara before he complied with a police order to surrender, Gerger said he was moving "from the open-air prison of Turkey to a closed penitentiary." "We began our struggle even though we realized that there is a high cost for remaining human," Gerger told journalists and supporters at the Human Rights Association headquarters. "Standing against the impositions of this system is the only way to keep alive the individual within us. We will continue to tell the truth and shelter the innocent. We cannot stay indifferent to the fanatic terror of this dirty war." The 14-year-old war between the Turkish army and separatist Kurds is estimated to have killed 27,000 people and cost billions of dollars. The government describes the guerrillas as terrorists, and cannot tolerate hearing its own soldiers described that way. Officials say those who condemn the war are in effect supporting efforts to divide the country. To suppress them, courts have sent scores of writers and other intellectuals to prison. One of the most prominent among them, the blind lawyer and playwright Esber Yagmurdereli, 52, was released on health grounds shortly before Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz visited Washington last month. He protested that he was not ill, and last week prosecutors informed him that he is likely to be sent back to jail for refusing to submit to medical examinations. In a telephone interview Tuesday from a location he would not identify, Yagmurdereli suggested that he was in hiding. "As soon as the police see me," he said, "they will take me." Yagmurdereli and Gerger are leftist critics of the Turkish political system and of the military's role in it. They have called for an end to the Kurdish war and unrestricted freedom to speak, broadcast and teach in the Kurdish language. The government says it will grant such freedoms when the war ends, but cannot do so now because they would be misused by those who want to fan the flames of Kurdish nationalism with the aim of dismembering the country. Restrictions on freedom of speech, especially those enforced against Kurds and their supporters, are often cited by foreign leaders and others who question the fullness of democracy in Turkey. In Bonn, Germany, human rights advocates demanding the release of Hamdi Turanli, a Kurdish leader who is said to be seriously ill, picketed Tuesday meetings between German officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem. Turanli, who has lived in Germany for more than 30 years and holds German and Turkish citizenship, was arrested on Jan. 12 in Ankara and has not yet been charged. In speeches and articles, Gerger has based his opposition to the war on what he says is its corrosive effect on Turkish society. The article that led to his sentencing violated a strict taboo by urging that the Turkish government negotiate with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. The government describes the party as a gang of cut-throat terrorists, but Gerger said they represent the Kurdish people. He also asserted that "Kurdish villages are being bombed and homes, fields and forests are being burned." "This bleeding wound which we call the Kurdish problem has its roots in the objective realities of history, culture, politics and social relations," he wrote. "The Kurds and the PKK are so closely tied that whoever tries to extinguish the fire inside the Kurdish soul finds his hands burned by the PKK." Gerger was dismissed from his university professorship after the 1980 military coup and later served two years in prison for making what was deemed a statement of support for Kurdish rebels. At his news conference in Ankara on Monday, the president of the Human Rights Association, Akin Birdal, who was himself recently acquitted of charges that he supported terrorism, hailed him as a martyr to free expression. "In civilized countries writers wait at the doors of theaters and opera houses with tickets in their hands," Birdal said. "In Turkey they wait at prison gates with verdicts in their hands." ---- American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org ---- -- 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 Jan 29 11:16:31 1998 From: english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl (english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl) Date: 29 Jan 1998 11:16:31 Subject: Turkey: Statement from DHKP/C-prisoners Message-ID: FREE PRISONERS: THE WARNING CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE ISOLATION CELL POLICY Our people know the state has been attacking the revolutionary prisoners again. Fascism wants to move the prisoners from the collective cells to prisons with small cells to crush their organisation. For this goal, special prisons according to the European model were and are set up throughout the entire country, existing prisons are converted. The Central Co-ordination of the Prisons (a nation-wide co-ordination of prisoners from the DHKP-C, TKP(ML), TKEP-Leninist, MLKP, TKP/ML, TIKB, Direnis Hareketi and HKG) organised a three-week action program against this policy. The actions started on December 8, 1997, and ended on December 28, 1997 with the refusal of being counted and checked. The following program was sent to all prisons by the Central Co-ordination: Week 1: Announcements are published in the press, slogans are being yelled on visiting days, statements are made, letters are sent to the press, the democratic institutions and individuals. Requisitions are sent to state institutions, leaflets are distributed among prison personnel and social prisoners and posters and banners are hung in the prison yards. The slogan is: We will not enter the cells, we will resist! Week 2: The actions of the first week will be continued and in addition the doors to the yards will be kept open till midnight. The families will hold talks with the prison administration and the chief prosecutors. Week 3: The actions of the first two weeks will be continued and in addition the counting during the day will be boycotted. Slogans will be yelled on visiting days while the families will organise press conferences outside the prisons on these days. During the press conferences, the slogan ``the cells must be destroyed, freedom for the prisoners'' will be yelled and written on banners. On the last day, the action will be ended with a refusal of all counts and another announcement in the papers. This program was also accepted by the HD?, the TDP and Ekim in all the prisons. The actions of the first week were supported by the PKK in all prisons and by DY, TKEP, TDKP, PYSK and DHP in Bayrampasa only. The public statements of the Turkish Physicians Chamber, the Istanbul Lawyers Chamber and the IHD against the state prison policy also constituted a minor support for the prisoners' actions. Several planned actions in the context of this campaign could be realised, but the major weakness which became apparent was the weak organisation of the Central Co-ordination of the Prisons. Its member organisations should foremost strengthen their lower structures inside the prisons and advocate consciousness of organisation and discipline. The enemy will try next to paralyse the prisoners' organisation. Fascism takes the prisons and the resistance of the prisoners seriously. It is afraid and prepares new attacks and obstacles. This campaign aimed at warning fascism for new attacks in the prisons and at demasking its plans. Despite some problems, this was realised. In order to organise an even stronger resistance and to push back fascism, it's important to build up self-confidence, to oppose the enemy irreconcilably and to reject every submission. The organisational weaknesses have to be removed as well, the communication between the prisons must be improved and the central co-ordination must be strengthened. DHKP-C Prisoners -- 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