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

Hasan Ocak'smurder
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provokes strong reactIons.
Turkish Daily News
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ANKARA- The case of Hasan Ocak, who went
missing after his alleged detention by police on
March 21 and was discovered dead in Istanbul on
May 16, has led to angry reactions from human
rights groups.
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Ata joint press conference held in Ankara on
Wednesday, Akm Birdal, the chairmanof the
,Human Rights Association (IHD), and Yavuz Onen,
chairman of the Human Rights Foundationof
Turkey (TIHV), said the government was responsible
for Ocak's murder. Önen also said Prime Minister TansüÇillerwas
"the murderer of Hasan Ocak." , 'who have ~(lnc:;lissing," they said, and for prosecutors to set up rnvesti-
''The prime minister has to fmd out w?o murdered Hasan Ocak ?r she gations to nnd out who is re~p~nsi~lefor people going missin~. .
' has to resign. We willnot allQ.wcertam forces to turn Turkey mto a ' . Hasan Ocak, 27, went nussmg m Istanbul on March 21 aner calhng
'country ofunsolved murders," Onen added. Birdal, who spoke on behalf his sister to say he would shortly be home. Nothing was heard from him
of both the IHD and 'fI.HV at the press cönference, spoke .of ~e effort 'after that. ,
made by human rights groups to find Hasan Ocak after his dlsappear- Although at least two people, who were detained at the Istanbul police
ance and the lack of results. ' department and later released, testified that they had seen Hasan Ocak in
"In '1994 a total of 327 people were reported missing to the nID and the police center, officials denied they had detained Ocak. '
unfortunat~ly none of the prosecutors i~ this cpuntry take action to The campaign to shed light on Ocak's whereabouts brought no results
investigate the cases of missmg people," B1!dalsaid. . and finally on May 16 his relatives identified his body from a photo-
"It is said that villagers found hi~ bodY.I~the forest area of Istanbul- graph in the police forensic medicine department. Sources said a nurse
' Beykoz and took him to the forenSIc medlcme department, then he was working in the department, who did not want to be identified, called
buried in the Küçük~ekmece paurers' cemetery. The go~ernment has to Ocak's family and informed them about the corpse. The family then
launch an investIgatIon and quesl1o~ tho~e ..yhofound his c?rpse, .those went to cheek the photographs. It emerged that Ocak's body was found
who carried out the autopsy and buned him m a very short tune Without on March 26, five days after he disappeared, and he was buried on April
'Conductingany checks," Brrdal demanded. - 13 in Istanbul's Kü,ükçekmece distnct. '
, The IHD chairman also pointed out that Hasan Ocak's case ..yasvery The Beykoz distnct prosecutor also confirmed that the corpse was that
well known publicly and it was very hard ~ounderstan~ the offiCialswho of Hasan Ocak, thatit had been found in Beykoz, and had remained at
decided to bury someone without mfomung the public that a body had the forensic medicine department for 29 days, then was buried in
been found.' . Küçükçekmece cemetery.' .
He claimed that there was an organized group carrymg out torture and The prosecutor's office said Ocak's family identified him from phomurders.
. . . tographs, that the body had been examined before it was buried, and a
" Both the IHD and TIHV caIled on nongovernmental orgarnzatlons to court order was necessary to exhume the body and carry out a second
set up a civil commission to investigate the H~sa~ Ocak case. Th.ey 'autopsy. '
repeated their demand for human righ~ n?w and myiled everybody'wlth, With Hasan Ocak's murder the list of people who have gone missing
any piece of information about those Inlssmg to testIfy. '
"We call on the government to disclose what has h~ppened to those
in Turkey has been shortened but the list of unsolved killings has
increased by one.
Now, Ocak'sfamily is waiting for Irisgrave to be reopened and for an
autopsy to discover how and when he was killed. ,.,
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Columnist Altan charged
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for satire about Kurds
. By AIiza Marcùs I Reuter'
ISTANBUL- A Turkish columnist who satirized
the country's restrictions against Kurdish cultural and
political rights has be.en charged with provoking
racism,court officiaIs said onWednesday. .
Ahmet Altan, who was fired from hisjob at the
daily Milliyet because of the column, was charged
this week with article 312 of the penal code, under
which it is a crime to promote differences among people
based on race, religion, class or region.
He faces up to six yearS in prison if convicted. The
Ahmet
Altan
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