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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
KDP refutes PKK claims on assistance from Turkey
Turki.~hDaily News
ANKARA- The Kurdistan Democrat Party
(KDP) of Iraq categorically rejected on Sunday
claims put forward by the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) that it received money from
Turkey to fight the PKK.
Safeen Dezayee, the Ankara representative of
the KDP, told TON that the accusation was "totally
without foundation." "The agreement for the
$13.5 million of humanitarian aId to Kurdistan
(Kurdish controlled northern Iraq) was signed between
the Kurdish leadership and the Turkish government
last April," he said. "The assistance continues
in the fonn of medicine, food and educational
material."
Dezayee added that the assistance was not given
to any party in northern Iraq but to the parliament
fonned by elections last year for the benefit of all
people living in the region. .
The director 01 security of the Iraqi Kurdish leadership
had issued a warning to the PKK last week
saying that the PKK .should stop violating an
agreement between them, or "face the consequences."
The Director has also closed down all PKK-related
offices in northern Iraq, as a political stand
against the PKK activities there.
h'aqi Kurds accuse the PKK of violating a security
agreement between them. by increasmg military
presence in areas close to the Turkishborder.
This "triggers Turkish air raids into northern
Iraq," in which nine civilians were reportedly killed
recently.
They also say that the PKK militants in border
areas ambush and killlraqi Kurdish security teams,
raid stations and steal/sheep from villages in
the area.
. Following a conflict between the Iraqi Kurds
and the PKK in the summer of 1992, when the
PKK imposed an embargo on international humanitarian
assistance reaching Iraqi Kurds through
Turkey, by sabotaging lorries carrying aid supplies,
Turkish armed forces carried out a major
operation against PKK bases in northern Iraq in
the autumn of 1992.
PKK bans Turkish press:
Diyarbakl r news
offices ta close
on Tuesday
• Militants say closure to last until second
notice, demand journalists also resign
• Governor offers guns to newsmen, Minister
insists Turkey will protect them .
• Journalists say PKK retaliating to pressure on
(jzgOr GOndem tind.one-sided reporting
Turkisli Daily News
DIYARBAKIR/ANKARA-
At least
nine news organizations including
Turkey's mass circulation dailies
are expected to close their offices
in the southeastern provincial
capital of DiyarbaIar on Tuesday,
acting under a new orderissued by
the leadership of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
Ertugrul Pirinççio~lu, representative
of the daily MilTiyetfor the region,
said a joint decision had been
taken to close the offices during a
Saturday night me~ting at whIch
Regional Governor Unal Erkan also
participated. The PKK w3I1)ingwas made on Friday.
The PKK relayed its instructions to representatives of nine
news organizations at a meeting on Friday reportedly held al
a ~uerilla camp close to the city.
'They were polite and they treated us well," Pirinççioglu
said. "But my attempts to change their decision failed. The)
said the orders had come directly from the party leadershi~
(an expression nor.mally used to describe PKK Secretary
General Abdullah Ocalan)."
A PKK representative identified only as Cekdar charged
the journalists with remaining silent with regard to "oppres.
sion targeting the socialist press" and said their orgamzati.
ons were reporting regional developments in a one-sided
wa~, bending the truth.
'This is true," a local journalist who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said. "Those in Istanbul almost always change
what we file and we are not free to report on realities. We
have really been single-sided."
The PKK's ban OQ the Turkish press follows a ruthles~
clandestine campaign against Kurdish journalists in the regi.
on which has left 14 newsmen assassinated. Recently, local
security forces were engulfed in aUempts to ban the distribu.
tion and sales of the pro-Kurdish Ozgür Gündem.
"I believe !~ey (the PKK) will soften their approach if the
pressure on Ozgür Gündem is lightened," Pirinççioglu said.
Curnhuriyet's DlyarbaIar bureau thief Ziya Aksoy said the)
had been treated well but had been threatened harshly. "I be.
lieve they are sincere in what they say," Aksoy said.
According to the newsmen they were first IIlvitedto meel
with two PKK fighters at the Diyarbaklf Journalists Associ.
ation in the heart of the city. The anned men later escorted
them to a minibus which, 'after passing the district of Silvan,
let them off before the Malabadi bridge. From there, the)
only needed to walk for a little over an hour to reach the ma.
in PKK camp. "I tried very much to influence them to make
this ban one of a temporary nature. We explained that despite
everything, journalists were a channel for news out Qfthe
region.But they said npthing could.be done," Pirinççioglu
saId.
He added, however, that the PKK had originally decided
on Monday for the deadline but agreed to add another 24
hours, allowing time for the newspapers to pull out and the
journalists to resign. .
ThePKK ban, which starts Tuesday, also applies to the
semiofficial Anatolia news agency but it was not clear on
Sunday whether this organization would abide with the joinl
decisio!l taken by other representatives.
"It is impossible for us to continue to work under such circumstances,"
the Milliyet representative said. Headded thai
even if they wanted to stay on, neighbors in the same apart.
ments with news~aper bureaus had requested them to leave.
"They fear assasslllations and bombings," he said.
According to regional sources, the PKK will place all reo
porters remaining III the region other than those working fOI
the pro-Kurdish Ozgür Gündem among its targets.
Cekdar reportedly told the newsmen during their meeting
that "the bourgeois press and its pens have become the spokesman
of the dirty war which the state has launched in the
region ... We are in favour of the press reP.Ortingin an objec.
tive way. But the newspapers have untIl now... prevented
the public opinion from their right of receiving news."
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