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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RWISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÎ
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Turkish Probe December 2, 1993
Human Rights Diary
The trial of Yurt publishing house owner Ünsal
Oztürk,. who published outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan's book "12th September
Fascism and the PKK rebellion" in November
1992, ended at the Ankara State Security Court
(DGM). Oztürk has been sentenced to one year in
prison and fined TL 100 million. ÖztQrk insists the decision
is unjust. "I have been sentenced as if I were
the book's writer," he said.
(Newspapers, Nov. 24)
Education authorities paid homage to 70 teachers
killed by the PKK in nine years of a violent separatist
campaign. "It is inhuman to kill teachers who carry not
arms but books and the light of knowledge," Mustafa
Gazalcl, head of a teachers union, saici. PKK militants
have targeted teachers who are seen as perpetuating
Turkish cultural dominance. No Kurdish is taught at
schools as Turkish is the officiai language. PKK terrorists
have killed at least 40 primary school teachers in
remote villages and hamlets of the region this year including
at least 10 female teachers. They have
torched scores of schoolhouses and more than 1,500
institutions in the Southeast remain closed for fear of
attack.
(Newspapers, Nov. 25)
The DGM ordered the closure of the pro.PKK daily
Ozgür Gündem for 15 days and sentenced its former
editor 1~lkYurtçu to two years in prison for publishing
PKK views. This is the second court order in four days
against the newspaper. On Monday the court ordered
the newspaper to be closed for 15 days for publishing
an interview with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. On
Thursday the court also imposed fines on Yurtçu and
the newspaper's imprisoned publisher, Ya~ar Kaya.
The court has brought more than 70 charges against
the newspaper since it began publishing in April 1992.
Six reporters from Ozgür Gündem have been killed
under mysterious circumstances. Four of its editors
are already in jail. Publisher Kaya, who is head of the
pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP), was sentenced
to two years in prison for making pro-separatist
speeches. (Newspapers, Nov. 26)
Fifteen pro-Kurdish DEP members, including DEP
Ankara provincial administrators, have been taken into
custody by security forces in Ankara, a DEP statement
said. (Newspapers, Nov. 27)
Nine British trade unionists briefly detained in
southeast Turkey returned home accusing the Turkish
authorities of persecuting the region's Kurdish community.
The nine say they were held by militaryofficials
Friday with another British trade unionist, a French national
and a Dane. The group had traveled to the
Kurdish village of Birik to investigate reports that the
military and police were torching the village and
murdering the villagers. They said a group of sol.
diers surrounded them and "marched us out of the
village and into a field. We thought we were going
to be shot."
(Newspapers, Nov. 29)
The Ankara State Security Court (DGM) sentenced
playwright Numan Bakta~ to 20 months imprisonment
and fined him TL 208 million for the
publication of "Canon for Rebellion and Rejuvenation,"
a book that relates the 1982 experiences of
PKK convicts in a Diyarbakir prison. The court ruled
that Bakta~ was guilty of spreading subversive
Kurdish propaganda.
(Cumhurlyet, Nov. 29)
Sabiha D~an, mother of Selma DoQan -- a high
school student killed alongside Erol Yalçln, an alleged
leftist militant, last Friday in a police raid in Istanbul
-- claimed that her daughter was not a terrorist
and that police were lying. "My daughter was neither
a militant nor a member of any organization.
"Police killed her as she was hiding behind an armchair,"
she said. Selma's brother Can alleged that
police tortured him, forcing him to sign documents
that said his sister was a terrorist.
(Cumhurlyet, Nov. 29)
Adnan 1~lk,30, a worker at the Diyarbakir distribution
office of the'pro-PKK Ozgür Gündem daily,
was gunned down by unidentified gunmen.
(Cumhurlyet, Nov. 29)
An Istanbul court released six Manchester United
soccer fans, saying they were free to leave the
country. Their passports were returned. The court
took four hours to reach its decision to allow the six
to retum home, but did not drop the charges against
them. The judge adjourned the case until Dec. 8.
The six, charged with damaging property and
drunken and disorderly behaviour, were arrested
before their team's European Cup tie against Istanbul's
Galatasaray on Nov. 10.
(Newspapers. Dec. 1)
A statement by the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) said that Turkish warplanes indiscriminately
bombed on Monday two Kurdish villages in
the Barzan region inside Iraqi Kurdistan. "The latest
air raid killed three civilians and wounded six children
in the villages of Hiezen and Siena. These villages
are located nearly 40 kilometers inside northern
Iraq.
(Newspapers. Dec. 1)
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