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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN OZETÎ
Turkish Probe February 24, 1994
17
Human Rights Diary
Turkey's Appeal Court on Feb. 17 confirmed a
one-year jail sentence for a magazine editor convicted
of publishing separatist propaganda, a colleague
said. The court upheld the State Security Court sentence
on Adnan Akflrat, news editor of the now defunct
2000'e Dogru magazine, for publishing a report
on a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist camp
in southeast Turkey. Publishers of the leftist magazine,
which was last year converted into the daily
newspaper, Aydmllk. Aydinlik's responsible Editor
Hale Soysu in a written statement said the court
found the article, published in May 1991, to be propaganda
for a "terror organization.n
(Turkish Daily News, Feb. 18)
The Ankara Prosecutors office has launched an investigation
against the executives of the Turkish Union
of Doctors (TIB) and the doctors unions in 43
provinces for preparing a report "on the psychological
state of Prime Minister Tansu Çiller." The doctors
launched a campaign against the health policies of
the Çiller government on Oct. 18, 1993 and on Jan. 7
visited State Minister Bekir Sami Daçe as part of
their campaign and presented him a petition about
their demands. They also gave him a doctor's robe
and a psychological report about the prime minister.
The police were asked to question all the doctors
who signed the report. The prosecutor also launched
a case against the doctors for staging an unauthorized
demonstration. In the report the doctors said
Çiller fails to "comprehend" realities and cannot assess
situations properly. The report also said Çiller
should be given a rest after the March 27 local elections.
(Cumhurlyet, Feb. 18)
Education Minister Nevzat Ayaz issued a stern
warning to teachers not to beat up their students. Ayaz
said in recent weeks there have been a growing
number of complaints from parents that their children
are being mistreated by their teachers. He said
spanking or mistreating students cannot be used as
a form of training. Ayaz said he had already issued a
memorandum banning the mistreatment of students.
He said despite this there were still complaints, and
that inspectors from the Ministry of Education are
probing such cases. He said beating up students is
unacceptable and those who do this will be punished.
(Cumhuriyet, Feb. 20)
Mahmut Ailnak, independent deputy from the
Southeastern province of $Irnak, protested the parliamentary
commission's proposed decision to lift his
legislative immunity by presenting to Parliament and
party leaders a petition wrftten in English. Because
Alrnak was being charged with having committed an
offense by speaking Kurdish during his election campaign,
the $Irnak deputy decided to protest this action
by usin~ another language, English, in official
government business. In his petition, which he had
'translated
from Turkish
to English,
Alrnak urged
the Parliament
speaker
and party
leaders to
give priority
to debating
the commission's
proposed
decision
to remove
his immunity.
In a
press conference,
Almak
MahmutAlmak
said that his
only offense
was to speak Kurdish during his election campaign.
He said that the state security court's decision to pursue
his case contradicted statements made by state
officials who stressed that anyone was free to express
themselves using the Kurdish language. He
said that speaking English, German or French or
even conducting official government business with
petitions written in those languages was not considered
an offense. Almak noted that since he did not
speak English, he had paid TL 250,000 to an agency
for the translation of his petition.
(Turkish Daily News, Feb. 22)
Kurdish terrorists kill six people from the same
family and wound three others in southeastern Turkey.
The villagers were killed when a group of PKK
terrorists attacked Bilge village in Mardin province
with machine guns and grenades. The terrorists escaped
after the attack.
(Turkish Daily News, Feb. 2)
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