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 Probe October 5, 1993
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Batman: A City of Fear
Emre Gökalp
Batman, Turkey's southeastern refinery city
which in the past offered jobs for thousands
of Kurds, is now a city of fear. Everyone living
here asks the same question: Will I live tomorrow?
An "alarming increase" in death squad-style killings
and "unsolved murders. of Kurdish activists
has been recorded recently. The killing of a member
of parliament representing the Kurdish-based
Democracy Party (DEP) in the city last month, has
been followed by a series of attacks.
Now, Batman, long regarded as a crucial regional
center owing to its economic value that stems from
the petroleum refineries, is somewhere anyone can
die, at any moment.
Despite official reports and statements, many locals
believe that the Iranian-affiliated Hezbollah is
not responsible for most of the attacks currently being
attributed to this organization.
Even the city's Motherland Party (ANAP) Mayor
Ataullah Hamidi, who has been in the mayoral post
for nine years, puts the number of dead at more
than 300 and says people are being killed every
day.
For Hamidi, there may be three separate causes
for the "murder terror" that has turned Batman into a
city of fear. First is the clash that has erupted between
the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and a
Kurdish flank of the Hezbollah organization. Second,
is the blood feuds between the families who
hide behind these clashes. And last, the state forces.
"Even I am scared to go out. I don't know if I'm
next in line or not," Hamidi said last week during a
meeting with DEP deputies.
But, many pro-Kurdish politicians in Ankara and
locals of the region have charged that the organization
responsible for the assassinations, known there
as the Hezbol-contra -- in reference to its contraguerrilla
nature -- has officiai links and is supported
by local officials in its plight against separatism. As
in the words of DEP Van Deputy Remzi Kartal,
most of the Kurdish politicians and people believe
there was "definitely no connection between the Iranian
supported Hezbollah organization and those
operating in the region under the same name." According
to one pro-Iranian Hezbollah source in Batman,
the mainframe organization has no relation
with such clandestine activities and maintains close
ties with the PKK.
"The so-called Hezbol-contra," he says "appears
to enjoy an official tolerance in the region if not
open support." Not only pro-Kurdish activists or politicians,
but also civil servants, teachers and many
others representing various occupational groups
and political ideas believe that the Hezbol-contra is
involved in various forms of clandestine activities including
the abduction and killings of pro-DEP residents,
journalists, politicians.
"Activities on behalf of the Hezbollah have been
tolerated by security forces in some areas because
they hinder the activities of the PKK," a high school
teacher says.
In all cases committed to date, the gunmen who
launched brutal clandestine activities in the region
have managed to make an escape and the security
forces have failed to find any evidence leading to
this radical organization.
According to many in Batman, The Hezbol-contra
enjoys immunity in the region and since its activities
target pro-Kurdish activists who are automatically labeled
as "PKK-supporters," officials do not bother to
take any measures against it. What is more obvious
now is that the Hezbol-contra has concentrated its
activities mainly in and around the regional capital of
Diyarbakir, in the refinery-city of Batman, in several
villages and towns of Mardin.
What do the officials here feel? They complain of
the lack of cooperation from the local people. "People
are not
collaborating. They fear the consequences and
thus refuse to testify against murderers," says Batman's
newly appointed Governor, Salih Sarman.
A total of 13 DEP deputies who investigated unsolved
murders last week visited the place where on
Sept. 4 Mardin deputy Mehmet Sincar was murdered.
As the delegation laid flowers on the site,
loudspeakers from a nearby shop started to blast
out a pro-Hezbollah march calling for "Victory for
Hezbollah." None of the over 200 policemen who
were present on the street could do anything but advise
the DEP deputies not to respond. This alone
showed how dramatic the situation has become in
Batman. It is, as if the state has pulled off the
streets.
"Those attacking the Kurdish activists in the region
and using the name Hezbollah were part of the contra-guerrilla
organization, and the security forces are
either directly involved in this or tolerate it," Remzi
Kartal said in a recent press conference.
Although his claim or previous claims of the same
nature have never been taken up at the Turkish Parliament,
the London-based Amnesty International
noted in a recent report that "there is a strong evidence
of security force involvement, no action has
been launched to investigate it. Turkish authorities,
unfortunately, continue to deny the charge."
How many more unsolved murders do the people
in Batman have to tolerate? How long will they be
able to maintain their patience? How long will Ankara
be able to deny the charges and refuse to look into
them?
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