Fascism and state in Turkey

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

For your information: The person showed on world-wide television on May
1 that was mistreathed by MHP-members in Istanbul, was arrested after
the incident and is still in custody....

May 9, 1998

Ultranationalist violence is fast growing in Turkey

  * In the latest event, the writer Remzi Cakin was assaulted for the
 misdeed of strolling down the street and singing
_____________________________________________________________

  HAKAN ASLANELI

Istanbul - Turkish Daily News

During clashes between demonstrators and security forces at the May
Day rally in Istanbul, a young man trying to escape from the police
accidentally entered the local office of the extreme right wing
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The man was beaten and almost thrown out of the window.

Although party officials denied any wrong doing, a television
cameraman filmed the scene, showing the man being held out of the
window by his ankles and pounded by several people inside the party
office.

Then came the incident in Bolu, a city in northwestern Turkey:

A youth from the eastern province of Tunceli was beaten and stabbed
with a knife by alleged ultranationalists. The man died on the way to
the hospital. Several people with right wing affiliations have been
charged with the murder.

And on Tuesday, just two days after the Tunceli beating, the latest
target of the ultranationalists was the writer Remzi Cakin in
Istanbul.

  The crime of singing

After dining out with a girlfriend in a seaside restaurant in the
Kadikoy district late Tuesday, Cakin started to walk in the direction
of Sogutlucesme.

It was past midnight when he entered the Altiyol neighborhood, humming
a song, and approached the area where the MHP and the Grand Unity
Party (BBP) buildings are located.

At that point, he says, he was first assaulted verbally by two
individuals. Then the two quickly swelled to 15 people, forming a
circle around Cakin. Then the group started pummeling him.

Cakin said he and his girlfriend shouted for help but to no avail.
Police officers standing in front of the MHP and BBP buildings did
nothing more than watch.

As no help was to be had from the police, Cakin managed to escape by
his own means and went to the Numune Hospital. The doctors told him to
stay at home for seven days. Now that he no longer was in mortal
danger, Cakin went to the district police station to lodge a
complaint.

  Ill treatment at police headquarters

The Hasanpasa Police Station was closest to where Cakin and his
girlfriend were assaulted. When they entered the building, a bad
surprise was in store for them. Despite Cakin's battered condition,
police treated him as a criminal, he charges.

This time, Cakin went to the Kadikoy Central Police Station to
complain about the police who he says not only insulted him but also
beat him.

Police officers in Kadikoy treated Cakin in the same contemptuous
manner. They told him, "You are a Kurd, it is obvious that you are a
leftist, then you must be guilty," and he had to wait in the police
station until dawn. After investigating Cakin's file at police
headquarters, police finally released him.

In the meantime, the officers who had been involved in the beatings
and harassment had disappeared into thin air.

On Wednesday, Cakin went to the Human Rights Association to speak
about what happened to him. There was also a press conference. Cakin,
who was visibly bruised on his face, complained to the press.
Authorities from the Human Rights Association commented that it was
not pure coincidence that similar incidents had been happening in the
last few days.

So far police and MHP officials haven't commented on Cakin's charges.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org  
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