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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÎ
turkish daily news Tuesday, October 19, 1993
PKK moves to consolidate hold on S. east
• Press in region to go silent as of today
• Sources report PKK ban on patties in Tuneeli.
• Major crackdown reported in six provinces
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) has taken a final step
to consolidatihg its hold on the Southeast region,
by banmng all news organizations,
Including the foreign press, from operating
there, and forcing the closure of political
party offices in at least one province.
More than 7,500 people have died in nine
years of fighting in the troubled region where.
the PKK has threatened to make targets
out of journalists and politicians who refuse
to obey to its orders.
Government troops this weekend launched
a massive cracKdown on PKK units in
the Southea~t as a result of Ankara's decision
to counter the separatist campaign for
supremacy and control, but the chances of
reaching any immediate results are seen as
nil.
Reliable sources said land and air operations
were underway in rural areas of at least
* provinces and that Regional Governor
unal Erkan had said "for the first time. we
havejressed the button for an operation on a
gran scale." Atleast5,OOO people have been
detained in urban settlements, the sources
said.
On Monday, sources reported preparations
in the eastern province of Tunceli to abide
by recent orders issued by the PKK for all
political party offices to lower their nameplates
and close shop. Those who refuse a
PKK c?mrnunique said, "will be regarded'as
revoluuonary targets."
Today, atleast nine news organizations in
the DiyarbakIr province will close their bureaus,
meeting a deadline imposed by the
PKK for the domestic "bourgeois" press to
move out of the region.
Sources in DiyarbaklT told the TDN on
Monday that the city's 50 plus newspaper kiosks
sold no papers on the first day of the
week, again acting according to a recent
PKK order. In other parts of the region,
newspapers were transported by military helicopters
to kiosks based in some areas and in wellprotected
government offices. .
Cemil BaYlk, commander of the PKK's Military
Council, told the G~rmany-ba~ed Kurd Ha agency
~hat the ban was valid for foreign news organizal1-
ons as well. In a sta!ement issued on Monday, BaYlk
was q~oted as lashing out at the foreign media for
reporting only on statements issued by the Emergency
Law governors' office. "Because of this and
other reasons, the foreign press is also included in
our decisio~," he s,aid. 9n F~day, P~K ~ghters took
repre~ental1ves ~t maJorI urklsh newspapers and
agencies from DlyarbakI.r ce~ter to ~ nearby guerilla
camp and gave.them untIl thiS morning toclose their
offices and resign. They warned that those who failed
to abide with the decision would be placed
among the .organization's targets.
In Washington on an offiCial visit, Prime Minister
Tansu Çiller said she was willing to cuther trip
sho~ and return t~ Turkey due to the crisis. The state
wlH protect the Journalists, she said.
A PKK spokesman said, however, the decision
had been .taken .as ~.result of recent pressures on the
pro-Kurdl~h déllly Ozgür 9ündem and the single-sided
r~portmg of the Turkish press. A total of 14 journalists
reporting on the Kurdish issue have been
kille~ in .the past I 8 ~o~ths along with fi.ye newspaper
dlstnbutors who lIIslsted on selling Ozgür Gündemdespite
warnings from security forces.
"We have decided to abide with this demand and
we will close the office on Tuesday," Milliyet newspaper's
local representative Ertugrul Pirinççioglu sa-
Iran tells Turkey it does not back the PKK
Complied from wire dispatches by TDN staff
ANKARA- Iran has told Turkey that the secessionist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has no
bases ih its territory, the Iranian news agency IRNA
reported on Monday.
Interior Minister Ali Mohammad Basharati, quoted
by IRN.A, told ohis Turkish counterpart M~hmet
GazlOglu III Tehran on Sunday that Iran did not
support opposition groups in any country.
GazlOglu, who is paying an official visit to Iran,
had called for cooperation between the two neighbors
to fight "terrorism" and drug traffic.
Anatolla news agency reporteâ from Tehran that
the Iranian medIa gave a good coverage to
Gazioglu's visitto that country. The agency quoted
a Teh~an Times commentary which said th~tlt was
essentIal for Turkey and Iran to cooperate III order
to eliminate "alien designs" to strain relations
id ...Namlk Du~ka~, a Journalist for.th~ same paper,
said other publicatIOns had taken a similar deCISion.
Pi.rinççioglu and Q.ther representatives met with
RegIOnal .Gov~rnor Un al Erkan on ~aturday to discuss
the situatIOn but turned down his proposalto issue
them gun licenses and give them special protection.
"If we have protection, we cannot work here,"
Pirin~çiogl~. explained. "Journalists do not trust the
state, ' the Ozgür Gündem banner headline read on
its front page story on the issue.
Monday evening State Minister and Government
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