Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE. LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
Turkish Probe October 19, 1993
Human Rights Diary
I)
• Social Democrat People's Party (SHP) Hakkari
deputy Esat Cenan claims on a public affairs TV
program that Turkish troops are burning down and
evacuating Kurdish villages in the Southeast. Cenan,
also a member of Parliament's investigative commission
on the Southeast, tells the 32.Gün (32nd Day)
program that the situation in the region is desperate
and most village raids are in fact conductedby security
forces.
(32nd Day, Oct. 11)
• Separatist'Kurdish terrorists ambush a bus carrying
discharged soldiers in 'Bingôl province, Idlling five
and wounding 23 others.
(Newspapers, Oct. 12)
• Democracy Party (DEP) $Irnak Deputy Mahmut
Allnak distributes copies of aletter prepared by the
office of the chief prosecutor of th!3 state security court
(DGM), requesting that his parliamentary immunity
be lifted so can be tried on penalty of capital punishment.
At a press conference in Parliament, Allnak
says the prosecutor wants to file a case against
him for a speechhe made during the DEP convention.
Allnak is charged with "spreading separatist propaganda
threatening the integrity of the country and
nation."
(Newspapers, Oct. 13)
• Government troops armed with heavy weapons
and transported in armored personnel carriers have
raided two villages in the southeastern province of
Mus and set them aflame, pro-Kurdish DEP Deputy
SIHI Saklk says, adding all of the villagers, including
women and children, were forced into a nearby forest
at gunpoint.
(Turkish Daily News, Oct 13)
• The villagers detained by troops on the previous
day after their villages were torched have beenreleased,
DEP Deputy SlrrlSaklk tells the TON.
(Turkish Daily News, Oct. 14)
• A high-school student is killed by a gunman in
$anllurfa's Siverek district. The Erzurum police say a
cab driver has been found dead in his car.
, (Newspapers, Oct. 14)
• Anlcelandic woman goes on a hunger strike to
force Turkish authorities to allow her to see her two
daughters, awarded to her ex-husband in a bitter
custody wrangle. I am determined to see my girls,
and I will apply to the Human Rights Commission in
Strasbourg if I have to," Sophia Hansen, 34, on a
three-day hunger strike, tells reporters.
(Newspapers, Oct. 14)
• A member of a Parliamentary investigative commission
on the' Southeast says security forces in the
region have in many incidents opened fire on settlements
and are responsible for the recent death of
three civilians.
Algan HacaloQlu, Istanbul deputy of the Republican
People's Party (CHP), says that their fact-finding mission
to the region has revealed there is no local confidence
in the state and the people are shifting their
sùpport to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) out of fear.
(Newspapers, Oct. 15)
• The PKKsays it has kidnapped an American
and a New Zealander in eastern Turkey, where at least
16 tourists have been abducted this year. The
German-based Kurd-Ha news agency quotes a PKK
statement as saying that PKK militants have seized
the two men at a roadblock on the main road between
the eastern cities of Erzincan and Erzurum on October
9.
It says the American, named as Patrick Connor,
and the New Zealander, identified as Ernis Dougar,
are being held until,their governments officially contact
the PKK.
'
(Newspapers, Oct. 16)
• Turkey's Christians, unnerved by PKK activity
and government counter-activity, are reported to be
abandoning their homes in the Southeast.Only
3,000 Christians still inhabit the southeast, home to
most of the 250,000 who lived in Turkey just after
World War One. They are drifting away, partly for
economic reasons but also for fear of anti-Christian
sentiment and the surging conflict.
They say community members have been arrested
and tortured by security forces battling the PKK. Some
have been murdered;
While hardly any Christians have joined the PKK,
government charges that Armenians are fighting
along with the organization have put all Christians
under suspicion,' residents say. "Here, there is only
the military in control, there are no freedoms or human
rights. You can't be a Christian, you can't be a
Kurd, you can only be a Turk."
(Turkish Daily News, Oct. 16)
• Main opposition Motherland Party (ANAP) leader
Mesut Y,lmaz says that Turkey must use military
force against neighboring countries that'support terrorism,
if peaceful deterrent measures fail in the future.
Yllmaz says "a rebellion" is what is happening in
the Southeast, and the only measure against a rebellion
is "for the state to use force against it."
(Newspapers, Oct. 16)
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