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Des personnalités demandent la libération des Kurdes emprisonnés et la levée
de l'interdiction de leurs associations
PARIS, 10 fév (AFP) - Plusieurs dizaine de personnalités dont Mgr Jacques
Gaillot, les at"tistes MalJt"ice Béjat"t, Jean Fet"t"at, Costa Gavt"as, les
scientifiques Jacques Testard, Théodore Monod, les écrivains Gilles Perrault,
-Antoine Spire, demandent dans une pétition la libération des Kurdes
emprisonnés ~ la suite de la rafle policière du 18 novembre et la levée de
l'interdiction des associations culturelles kurdes, a annoncé jeudi le
,collectif de soutien aux prisonniers kurdes au cours d'une conférence de
pt"esse.
"QIJatorze Kut"des sont toujours empt"isonnés et quatt"e aub"es assi.gnés à
t"ésidence et c'est tJn scandale cat" lelJt"sdossiet"s sont totalement vides" a
affirmé Me Jean-Jacques De Félice, membre de la Ligue des Droits de l'homme et
défenseurs de certains de ces Ku~des.
Il a précisé que plusieurs recours avaient été déposés contre les
assignations ~ t"ésidence et la dissolution des associations culturelles tandis
qu'~h appel contre le rejet d'une demande coll.ctive de libération des 14
kurdes emprisonnés sera examiné par la Cour de cassation dans une quinzaine de
JOUt"s.
Au cours de cette conférence de presse le dessinateur Si né et Christine
Daure-Serfati, épouse de l'ex-prisonnier politique marocain Abraham Serfati,
ont tenu a eXpt"i.met"lel..lt" "soutien natut"el à la CëHlse du peuple 1-(IH'de".
SZB/ml'
/ Tuesday. FebruiIIY /5. /99-+ turki8.h daily news
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Fear fuels Christian exodus from southeast Turkey
By Alistair Lyon the state to fight the PKK, and the Hizbollah in pre-World War One Ottoman Turkey, About
Reuters Moslen'! group, which they say works with the secu- 12,000 stilllive in western Turkey, mainly in
DEIR AL-ZAFARAN- Five months ago Father, rity forces, The government denies that accusation, Istanbul. "Many times I tried to stop people leaving
Tomas Bekta~ predict~d that migration wo~ld empty, whi~h is also made by Kurdi~h nationalists". , for Europe, but I ~ouldn't," sa!? A.kta~,a vi~orous
his Christian village In southeast Turkey In one or, Villagers say the PKK kIlled four Ch~lstIans 10 black-bear~ed clenc aged 49. FI~s~they mIgrated
two years, ' ; Bülbül In 1990, allegedly because the VIllage had' for economic reasons, then the famIlies followed the
HISforecast has proved too optimistic, Turkish. acceptedgovernment guns, Only a dozen houses are workers, Now everything is Retting worse and we
authorities ordered the last 200 Syrian Orthodox, still Inhabited in Bülbül, where most of the remain- , don't know what will happen, he said. "We live by
Catholic and Protestant inhabi,tants of Hassana, or i~g p~ople have applie~ for visas to join their rela- hope." Not far from the ~onastery gate lies a truck
Kosrah in Turkish, to leave theIr ancestral homes on tlves In Gennany, BelgIUmor Sweden. blown up by a landmIne a few days before,
November I. "We can't go on hving here," said one farmer. Christmas, Possibly intended by the PKK for village
Hassana lies in th~ foothills of the Cudi Ev~n the aged priest, Yaacoub Günex" has stopped guards, it killed.a civilian driver. Las,t mo~th Akta~
Mountains, where Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) tryIng to per~uade people to stay on, I d go too If I led eff?rts to WIn the ,release of a.pnest kid~apped
guerrillas have strongholds, "It was one of several could,~'he saId. . near Idll town, The pnest was buned up to hIS neck
villaO'es we evacuated because it was under too He shows the way to Bülbül's 1,300-year-old and hung upside down by chains during his four-day
much pressure from the PKK," said Huseyin Avni church, where he takes down a huge handwritten captivity. A year ago kidnappers abducted a Syriac
Mutlu, state-app,0inted administrat~r of the nearby ~ible and ~eads fluently in ~yriac ~nd Arabic fr~m language teacher on th,esame road whe~e the priest
town of Silopi. 'The PKK kept comIng and demand- Its yellOWIng pages of Synac scnpt. The Synan was seIZed and held him for seven or eIght months
inO' food women and recruits." Hassana people Orthodox presence in southeast Turkey dates back before releasing him, Akta~ said,
ag~ee that ~earby Kurdish Moslem villages had also to the sixt~ centu.ry, when the church was founded "We are living in fear," ,said villagers ,in a hamlet •
been emptied, but deny that the PKK had harassed after a schIsm WIth the Orthodox church over the near the lown of NusaYbl,n on the Synan border.
them. "We had no problems with the ~KK or the divine nature o~ Christ. Th~ c,ommunity has sur. "Anything can happen." Mos,twe~ewalt~ngfor visas
government" said the head of one of SIXHassana vived persecutIOn by ChrIStIan Crusaders and to Europe, but saId fanners In nelghbonng Moslem
families wh'ich took refuge i,n Deir al-~afa:.an, an M~ngols, clinging on even after,the massacres of the' yillages, were refus!ng ,tobuy their land, e~en though
ancient monastery near the,city of ~ardIn. It was dymg days of the Ottoman EmpIre. , It was nch ~nd fertile." They know they'WIllsoon be
wronO' to kick us out In wInter," saId the old man, Today, the sense of menace In an area gnpped by able to get It for free, muttered one VIllager darkly,
blinlin one eye and wearing baggy peasant clothes guerrilla war has speeded up what has become an A dusty Christmas tree stood forlorn in the comer of
and a red head~lot11.Government compensation had. Inexorable exodus, Metropolitan Bishop Samuel the simple room where villagers squatted, on. matbeen
promiseG.l1Ufnot delivered., Akta~, who leads his dwindling flock from Mar tresses around a wood-buf!lln~ stove, "It' s been
"We can't tell you everything," said one Hassana GabrIel monastery near the town of Midyat, says there for two years," one joked, 'Tell us one thing,"
villager. Syrian Orthodox viflagers complain of only about 1,000 Syrian Orthodox remaIn in the, he demanded, "Why is it that you Europeans have
intimidation, ranging from theft to kidnapping, by southeast. The once-flourishing community has taken in 99 percent of our people, but aren't giving
.Moslem neighbors, Kurdish village guards paId by shrunk from 70,000 in the 1930s and about 250,000 •visas for the one percent left?".
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