Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RNISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi<br />
THE GUARDIAN<br />
Monday August 23 1993<br />
.. .. ~.-. -; .-~ -.- ";. -<br />
ATROCITY<br />
TIMES<br />
Jonathan Rugman reportsfrom<br />
Istanbul on the paper whose staff take<br />
their lives in their hands for publicising<br />
human rights abuses in eastern Turkey<br />
74<br />
TWO WEEKS ago 22.year-old<br />
Aysel Malkac walked out of<br />
her newspaper office into a<br />
. tree.lined stre<strong>et</strong> in the centre<br />
of Istanbul Her colleagues have not<br />
seen her since. They assume she is<br />
.<strong>de</strong>ad,<br />
, It is not an unreasonable assumption.<br />
Since Ozgur Gun<strong>de</strong>m (Free<br />
Agenda) was launched May last year,<br />
at least. eight of its journalists and<br />
distributors have been killed in mys.<br />
terious circumstances.<br />
One, Hafiz Ak<strong>de</strong>mir, was shot on<br />
his way to work after receiving sev.<br />
'eral <strong>de</strong>ath threats, His burial took<br />
place un<strong>de</strong>r police supervision;whim<br />
relatives tried to pick him up from<br />
the morgue they saythey were<br />
beaten. up. Other journalists have<br />
been bundled into cars or shot in the<br />
stre<strong>et</strong> by assassins who have never<br />
beencaught<br />
"I try not to go out on my own or at .<br />
night," says Gultan Kisanak, aged32,<br />
one of Gun<strong>de</strong>m's editors. The paper's<br />
representatives in Kurdish areas .of<br />
:Turkey often sleep in their offices,<br />
barriéading the door, but now that<br />
Aysel Malkac is missing, journalists<br />
in Istanbul are taking their own<br />
precautions.<br />
Ozgur Gun<strong>de</strong>m has a staff of 200,<br />
mostly Kurdish, and saysits mission<br />
is to investigate and publicise human<br />
rights abuses committed by the secu.<br />
rity forces and PKK (Kurdistan<br />
Workers' Party) rebels in the 12 provo<br />
inces of eastern Turkey un<strong>de</strong>r emer.<br />
gency rule. ,<br />
"Anyone who wants to know<br />
what's going on has to read it," says<br />
Jonathan Sug<strong>de</strong>n of Amnesty Inter.<br />
national, ,which corroborates the<br />
bulk of the hunianrights stories Gun.<br />
•<strong>de</strong>m publishes.<br />
For more than nine years PKK<br />
,guerrjllas have been fighting for: a<br />
;.<br />
" ;; "" ;- ;. ;. .~ ". - ..<br />
homeland for Turkey's estimated III<br />
million Kurds. The conflict has<br />
claimed around 7,000 lives and is the<br />
country's hottest domestic issue, but<br />
Gun<strong>de</strong>m has been one of very few<br />
papers daring to publish information<br />
contradicting the official version of<br />
events. It has an unrivalled n<strong>et</strong>work<br />
of contacts in. thè impoverished<br />
towns and viI1ages where the PKK<br />
recruits; the PKK's comman<strong>de</strong>r, Abd.<br />
'uI1ah 0ca1an. even writes a column.<br />
.un<strong>de</strong>r a false name from his hi<strong>de</strong>out<br />
somewhere in the Middle East<br />
when the Turkish prime minister<br />
recently called in national news.<br />
paper editors to ask for their support<br />
on the Kurdishissue, Gun<strong>de</strong>m was<br />
not invited. Its critics say its an unac.<br />
ceptable outl<strong>et</strong> for the views of the<br />
PKK, and that all the <strong>de</strong>ad journalists<br />
were probably PKK members.<br />
"Some terrorists could secr<strong>et</strong>ly<br />
have gone into journalism," says Yil.<br />
dirim Aktuna, a government spokes.<br />
man. "This needs investigating."<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Suleyman Demirel's res.<br />
ponse to last year's <strong>de</strong>aths was:<br />
"Those killed were not real journal.<br />
, ists. Thev kill each other."<br />
Amnesty says the paper is un<strong>de</strong>ni.<br />
ably partisan and does not tend to'<br />
follow up reports of 'human lights<br />
abuses committed by the PKK. but<br />
that this is hardly just cause for eight<br />
Gun<strong>de</strong>m workers to be killed in mys.,<br />
terious circumstances, without con.<br />
clusive investigations into their<br />
<strong>de</strong>aths. , '<br />
When asked if Turkish security.<br />
forces are <strong>de</strong>liberately' killing her'<br />
staff, or sanctioning'others to do it~<br />
for them, Gultan Kisanak replie~<br />
chillingly "of course". She says: "It's<br />
no good just saying they were pK!{<br />
mWtants. The government should in;<br />
vestigate their <strong>de</strong>aths and provi<strong>de</strong><br />
evi<strong>de</strong>nce."<br />
,<br />
i<br />
'<br />
','<br />
• h •. n," " ~~". '-a-" "'« u- - x:n.---'-:" - ~ ;; e' ., '•...<br />
,. " .,' -",'''',':':--: . -'"<br />
: .. ~ . .... "',' ~ ;"'~".14;..:.c.'" _ ............~.,.. •.::;.. bo., •• , ....... .;<br />
frJ..' .. , • ::=-~:.':it:4::.:-::~f:0;:~":;~t;~,.<br />
i' - ::):" ..:. ~~::7.:::~~;~~;:~~{~:~~ .. -i~-.;.._.<br />
i........ ~.... 'Ir.-..'- •• .,..-~ •..• _•••• )I ••••• r~. '-_ ••<br />
PKK ate~kcs ilan edcrken, <strong>de</strong>vl<strong>et</strong> güçleri saldmlara <strong>de</strong>vam ediyor. 1.Nis:m'da<br />
pazarcùc'ta katledilen 1J gerillamn ces<strong>et</strong>lerine j~kencc yapllàlgl belirtildi<br />
;lil=~7iijji<br />
1~~Ö}~. ::n~~~~;'~::,'.-:<br />
GUNDEM has a national cir.'<br />
culation of 30.000, plus an.<br />
other 10,000 in Europe,<br />
where Kurdish workers in<br />
Germany form the bulk of the rea<strong>de</strong>r.<br />
ship. According to its general man.<br />
ager, Gurb<strong>et</strong>elli Ersoz, the paper<br />
could selll00,OOOcopies if its rea<strong>de</strong>rs<br />
an~ ~s~b~tors were, not subjected<br />
to mtinudation campaigns.<br />
More than 80 issues have been con.<br />
fiscated, On one occasion police<br />
turned up with a confiscation war .<br />
rant before the issue ha<strong>de</strong>ven been<br />
printed. In January, the paper volun.<br />
tarily closed down for four months _<br />
the killing, prosecutions, harassment<br />
aM surveillance had liecome too<br />
much. ,<br />
Earlier this month the body of another<br />
Gun<strong>de</strong>m journalist.. Ferhat<br />
Tepc, was found buried in a grave-.<br />
.yard in the south-eastern Turkish<br />
province of Elazig, The' official<br />
~utopsy said it was <strong>de</strong>ath by dro~n.,<br />
,mg. but Ferhat's father (who had to'<br />
dig up .his son) S