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 Daily News llIURSDAY, JUNE 15. 1995
Prof. B~kayareleased after IS months in jail
Imprisoned for his thoughts, Baf?kaya.expresses
no remorse and vows to continue speaking out
Turkish Da.ily News .. Greeted outside Haymana priso~ near Ankara b a
Al':lK~RA- Professor Fluet. ~a~kaya, a leadmg large group of family, friends and admirers B~krya
Turkish mtellectual who w~alled for a ~ook he expressed no remorse for what he has writt~n or said
Prof. Fikret
Balikaya
~~, was.released o~ Wedn . y as the vanous par- in the past and declared his intention to continue
ti~ ID Parbament.continue to qUibbleover Whether.the expressmg the same ideas in the future.
!lf11cleunder which he was charged should be abol- Ba~kaya said that the TL 41 million fine that the
Ished or no~.
court imposed on hirri also put him in dire financial
. B~kaya s .release, however, was not due to an offi- straits. Asked by journalists about Article 8. B~kaya
Cial exone~on of any so~ but came because.he had said this was the product of the parties that emer ed
70mpleted his 20-month P!1so~,sentence for his book from the Sept. 12, 1980 coup. "Article 8 is the inv~n-
The C.ollapseof the Paradigm. .. tion of parties that are void of content," B~kaya said.
B~kaya only serv~d 15 months of hiS pnson sen- Ba~kaya argued .that today's Parliament is also
tence but u.nd~r.Turkis~l.awshould have served even "void of content" and expressed serious doubt that a
less due to JudiCialrenusslOn. .. ~emocrati~ti~n packa~e could be accepted by the leg-
. l:Ie~as forced t? serve 15 month.sund~r S~pu~~tions Islature as It IStoday. The parties are not working to
w~ch InCreasedhis sentence for dissenunating sepa-. lift obstructions but to lay down new ones ". B:l\:kaya
ratist propaganda." said. ' -,
B~kaya was tried by t~e Ist~nbul State Security Asked what he thinks about the fact that he was dis-
Court un~er the con~verslal. Articl~ 8 of ~e Law on O\ynedby the universities ~ven though he is an acade-
Combat~mg Terronsn\. Article 8 IS con~ldered .by nilc, B~kaya said, 'There are no longer any universihuman
nghts groups as one of the key articles which ties."
effectively p~ts a lid on the freedom of expression in "If the universities had acted as universities then no
Turkey an~ IScurren~y the ~ubject of a heated politi- schol:rr would be in prison today. The unive~ities are
cal debate ID and outside ParlIament.
working to make young minds blunt."
Finnish human rights expert visitsInterior Minister Men~e
Mente~e: Our struggle
is based on a just cause
By Çaglar Ünal
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Interior Minister Nahit Mente~e
received Christopher Panico, a research expert
from Human Rights Watch-Helsinki, at his office
. on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference after this meeting,
Mente~ said Panico had come to Turkey to
research the activities of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) and the suffering inflicted on innocent
people by this outlawed organization.
. Mente~e noted that the PKK had been formed
illegally in 1978, with the aim of damaging
Turkey. The Turkish government launched an
operatIon against militants of the PKK after the
latter carried out attacks on Eruh district in Siirt
province and Semdinli district in Hakkari.
Mente~e aaded that the PKK always targeted
innocent people. The interior minister continued
that 1,086 innocent people had been killed by
PKK militants in 1994. Last week, four babies
died at the hands of militants in Hakkari, he said.
"Our struggle is right and our aim is to protect
the innocent. Turkey is one country and no one
can divide this country," Mente~ stated.
The minister continued that the PKK was on
the decline and wasfinished. He said the Turkish
people had solved the terrorism problem, especiany
in ~Irnak. ~Irnak and its districts had
become a secure area and Sinak even had a football
team now, Mente~eadded.
He said the police and military forces were
successful in their operations, adding, "The
killers of 19 soldiers in Tunceli will certainly be
punished." \
The minister said the PKK was cooperating
with the outlawed leftist organizations and PKK
militants were involved in drug trafficking to
finance their outlawed activities. 'The PKK cannot
fight with the Turkish government, because it
is not stron~ enough to fight with the Turkish
government, , he added. Mente~e continued that
38 teachers had been killed last year, commenting
that this amounted to savagery and the whole
world should say "stop" to this savagery. He said
that teachers played a valuable and important role
in the country.
''There is no ethnic problem in Turkey now.
.All citizens are equal, no matter whether Kurdish
or Turkish. There are lots of our Kurdish citizens
in the western cities," Mente~e said. The interior
minister added that the PKK has started to disturb
the big cities and tourism resorts, but the Turkish
government has enough power to fight it.
He continued that the PKK was against the
development of eastern and southeastern districts,
but no one could prevent this development.
"It is impossible' for the PKK to resist against
the Turkish government," Mente~ said.
For his part, Panico said ~e ~ad come to
Turkey to observe the general situation of human
rights in the country and would research human
rights in general. He added that he would examine
all the violations committed by the outlawed
organization in the area of human rights.
Panico continued that he would not be releasing
any information to the press on his findings,
but a statement would be issued after the research
was completed.
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