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

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RNISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
THE GUARDIAN
Monday August 23 1993
.. .. ~.-. -; .-~ -.- ";. -
ATROCITY
TIMES
Jonathan Rugman reportsfrom
Istanbul on the paper whose staff take
their lives in their hands for publicising
human rights abuses in eastern Turkey
74
TWO WEEKS ago 22.year-old
Aysel Malkac walked out of
her newspaper office into a
. tree.lined street in the centre
of Istanbul Her colleagues have not
seen her since. They assume she is
.dead,
, It is not an unreasonable assumption.
Since Ozgur Gundem (Free
Agenda) was launched May last year,
at least. eight of its journalists and
distributors have been killed in mys.
terious circumstances.
One, Hafiz Akdemir, was shot on
his way to work after receiving sev.
'eral death threats, His burial took
place under police supervision;whim
relatives tried to pick him up from
the morgue they saythey were
beaten. up. Other journalists have
been bundled into cars or shot in the
street by assassins who have never
beencaught
"I try not to go out on my own or at .
night," says Gultan Kisanak, aged32,
one of Gundem's editors. The paper's
representatives in Kurdish areas .of
:Turkey often sleep in their offices,
barriéading the door, but now that
Aysel Malkac is missing, journalists
in Istanbul are taking their own
precautions.
Ozgur Gundem has a staff of 200,
mostly Kurdish, and saysits mission
is to investigate and publicise human
rights abuses committed by the secu.
rity forces and PKK (Kurdistan
Workers' Party) rebels in the 12 provo
inces of eastern Turkey under emer.
gency rule. ,
"Anyone who wants to know
what's going on has to read it," says
Jonathan Sugden of Amnesty Inter.
national, ,which corroborates the
bulk of the hunianrights stories Gun.
•dem publishes.
For more than nine years PKK
,guerrjllas have been fighting for: a
;.
" ;; "" ;- ;. ;. .~ ". - ..
homeland for Turkey's estimated III
million Kurds. The conflict has
claimed around 7,000 lives and is the
country's hottest domestic issue, but
Gundem has been one of very few
papers daring to publish information
contradicting the official version of
events. It has an unrivalled network
of contacts in. thè impoverished
towns and viI1ages where the PKK
recruits; the PKK's commander, Abd.
'uI1ah 0ca1an. even writes a column.
.under a false name from his hideout
somewhere in the Middle East
when the Turkish prime minister
recently called in national news.
paper editors to ask for their support
on the Kurdishissue, Gundem was
not invited. Its critics say its an unac.
ceptable outlet for the views of the
PKK, and that all the dead journalists
were probably PKK members.
"Some terrorists could secretly
have gone into journalism," says Yil.
dirim Aktuna, a government spokes.
man. "This needs investigating."
President Suleyman Demirel's res.
ponse to last year's deaths was:
"Those killed were not real journal.
, ists. Thev kill each other."
Amnesty says the paper is undeni.
ably partisan and does not tend to'
follow up reports of 'human lights
abuses committed by the PKK. but
that this is hardly just cause for eight
Gundem workers to be killed in mys.,
terious circumstances, without con.
clusive investigations into their
deaths. , '
When asked if Turkish security.
forces are deliberately' killing her'
staff, or sanctioning'others to do it~
for them, Gultan Kisanak replie~
chillingly "of course". She says: "It's
no good just saying they were pK!{
mWtants. The government should in;
vestigate their deaths and provide
evidence."
,
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PKK ate~kcs ilan edcrken, devlet güçleri saldmlara devam ediyor. 1.Nis:m'da
pazarcùc'ta katledilen 1J gerillamn cesetlerine j~kencc yapllàlgl belirtildi
;lil=~7iijji
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GUNDEM has a national cir.'
culation of 30.000, plus an.
other 10,000 in Europe,
where Kurdish workers in
Germany form the bulk of the reader.
ship. According to its general man.
ager, Gurbetelli Ersoz, the paper
could selll00,OOOcopies if its readers
an~ ~s~b~tors were, not subjected
to mtinudation campaigns.
More than 80 issues have been con.
fiscated, On one occasion police
turned up with a confiscation war .
rant before the issue hadeven been
printed. In January, the paper volun.
tarily closed down for four months _
the killing, prosecutions, harassment
aM surveillance had liecome too
much. ,
Earlier this month the body of another
Gundem journalist.. Ferhat
Tepc, was found buried in a grave-.
.yard in the south-eastern Turkish
province of Elazig, The' official
~utopsy said it was death by dro~n.,
,mg. but Ferhat's father (who had to'
dig up .his son) S