linked - Institut kurde de Paris

n° 261 • December 2006 Information and liaison bulletin • 17 •
essentially calling on Ankara to
negotiate. On the same day, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
rejected this out of hand,
demanding that the PKK lay down
its arms and surrender. Military
operations against the PKK had
been increased when, at the end of
June 2004 the PKK had ended an
earkier unilateral cease fire, which
it had been observed for five years.
On 8 December, the Turkish
General Staff stated that the crash
of an army helicopter the day
before, which had caused the
deaths of a non-commissioned
officer and wounded five other
soldiers had been due to Kurdish
fighters in the region. The aircraft
had landed in a mountainous
region of Bingol Province in the
course of combing operation
against the PKK and was damaged
on takeoff by a remote controlled
explosion. Additionally, on 5
December three Turkish soldiers
were killed and 14 others
wounded by the explosion of two
mines near the locality of
Güclükonak, in Sirnak province.
Furthermore, on 5 December the
Iranian governmental daily paper
Iran reported that the security
forces had arrested 87 members
and sympathisers of Kurdish
organisations and killed nine
others in the province of West
Azerbaijan since the previous
March. “Twenty-two members and
65 sympathisers of terrorist groups
have been arrested since the beginning
if the Iranian year” (which begins on
20 March) declared Hassan
Karami, commander of the
province’s police force, as quoted
by the paper. “Nine other members
were killed during clashes with the
police”, he added. He also made
the point that seven members of
the police forces had been killed,
three of whom by stepping on
mines. The province of West
Azerbaijan is mainly inhabited by
Kurds, who also inhabit the
neighbouring province of
Kurdistan as well as those of Ilam
and Kermanshah. The first two
provinces are regularly the scene
of armed clashes between Iranian
troops and activists of Kurdish
parties, particularly those of
PEJAK, an Iranian Kurdish group
close top the PKK (Kurdistan
Workers’ Party)
In another context, on 5 December,
the Maastricht court rejected a
demand by Turkey for the
extradition of Nedim Seven, who
is accused of murderous terrorist
attacks on behalf of the PKK.
Nedim Seven, 38 years of age, was
arrested in the South of the
Netherlands during a routine
identity check in August.
Following the appeal against the
first refusal to extradite him in
October, he was placed in
detention, but the court ordered
the immediate lifting of this
detention. The judges justified
their decision on the grounds that
it had been established that he had
been tortured by the Turkish
security forces after his arrest in
Adana in 1989, shortly after a pro-
Kurdish demonstration. The
“demand of extradition (…) was
linked” to his alleged membership
of the PKK, the court considered.
Yet “it has been sufficiently
established that Mr. Seven’s torture
occurred in relation” to this political
membership, which constitutes a
violation of his fundamental
rights, the court continued. On 15
September, the Netherlands
Supreme Court had already
forbidden the extradition of a
woman leader of the PKK, Nuriye
Kesbir, considering that she was in
danger of being tortured and that
the guarantees given by Ankara
were insufficient.
• DAMASCUS: THE SYRIAN
COURTS ARE GAGGING ALL
DISSENT. On 10 December, the
National Organisation for Human
Rights in Syria (NOHRS) indicated
in a communiqué that a Syrian had
been sentenced to twelve years
imprisonment for being a member
of the Moslem Brotherhood, a
banned organisation. “Muhammed
Thabet Helli was sentenced to 12
years in prison for membership of
the Moslem Brotherhood by the
High State Security Court”, an
Emergency Law court whose
verdicts are without any right of
appeal, pointed out Ammar
Qorabi, leaders of NOHRS. Syrian
law awards death sentences for
membership of the Moslem
Brotherhood. However, since the
mid-90s members of the Moslem
Brotherhood are no longer
executed, their sentences being
commuted to long terms in prison.