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

REVUE DE PRESSE. PRESS REVIEW.BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ.RIVISTA STAMPA.DENTRO DE LA PRENSA.BASIN OZETi
NY Times blasts 'Kurdish
Killing Fields' in Turkey
Letter to Washington Postjabs at 'Turkish propaganda'
By U~ur Akmel
Turkish Dail" Ne ....s
WASHINGTON- In' a leading editorial
published on July 4, "Kurdish Killing
Fields;' The New York Times (NYT)
blasted Turkey's militaristic approach to
the terrorism problem in the Southeast. A
reliable U.S. congressional source has
told TDN that the powerful editorial was
already making the rounds in the congressional
offices.
The title "Killing fields" alludes to the
communist Pol Pot regime in Cambodia
after the movie "The Killing Fields"
which depicted the genocide perpetrated
by Pol Pot on the Cambodian people. The
movie received the 1984 Oscar for "Best
Supporting Actor," given to Haing S.
Ngor for playing his own life as a
Ca~bodian escaping from Pol Pot's terronsm.
The NYT noted the crimes committed
by Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) but
said their crimes did not absolve Turkey
from responsibility in the anti-democratic
measures adopted to fight the PKK.
"True, leftist guerillas known as P.K.K.
are responsible for hundreds of killings,
including (in the words of Amnesty
International) 'children, teachers, local
politicians, and other civilians.' But
whatever its offense, the P.K.K .... is not
armed by the United States. Turkey is."
The NYT referred to Amnesty
International and said 300,000 Turkish
troops and militiamen evacuated "600
Kurdish villages ... with four settlements
bombed on a single March day. Other
human ril!hts groups detail unpunished
killings onournalists, the crimin!Ù!~ing of
parliamentary speech, and the jaIlmg of
Turkish Ku~9.s for eSp'ousing 'separatist
propaganda.' Answenng Turkey s complamts
of Western critIcism, the NYT
noted that what is going on in Turkey was
"a peculiar way of promoting a political
seulement of a bad war."
"Prime Minister Tansu Çiller threatens
to end U.S. arms purchase if Congress
persists in demanding a 25 percent cut on
human rights grounds. But concern over
an escalating conflict fought with U.S.
weapons is scarcely a hostile act," the editorial
said. "Americans have learned at
tragic cost that scorching villages spreads
the very nationalism governments wish to
contain. And jailing Kurdish members of
Parliament for speaking their minds
seems a peculiar way of promoting a
political settlement of a bad war."
Letter on 'Turkish Propaganda'
A letter printed prominentlyon July 5
in The Washington Post, accompanied by
the photo of armed Turkish troops making
a search at what seems to be a Turkish
villa~e, was a response to a letter dated June IS by
Turkish Embassy's Press Counselor Bulent Erdemgil.
In his letter, Erdemgil was responding to a severe article
by Colman McCarthy in which McCarthy talked
about Tansu Çiller's "brutal regime." Erdemgil said
McCarthy's article was full of errors and amounted to
liule than "propaganda put forth by longtime opponents
ofTurkey."
The Washington Post letter written by a Nicholas
Komninos, claimed that Erdemgil's argument does
not hold because "Turkey's anti-Kurdish policies were
in place long before the PKK even existed ... Human
Rights Watch, in one of its recent yearbooks, documented
a case in which Kurds were arrested at a wedding
just for singing traditional Kurdish folk songs
and dances. Do these steps taken by the Turkish government,
as Mr. Erdemgil and other representatives of
Turkey claim, sound like steps to quell terrorists? Or
are they instead attempts to forcibly assimilate the
Kurdish population?" the letter ended.
Serif Av~ar case started in Diyarbalar
Turkish Daily News
DIYARBAKIR- The trial of six people accused of the
kidnapping and killing of Mehmet ~erif Av~ar, brother of
the banned "Ozgür Gündem" distributor in Europe, Behçet
Av~ar, started on Tuesday in Diyarbakrr.
The six defendants, five village guards and one government
informer, signed confessions during their interrogat,i,on.The
state prosecutor requested the aeath sentence for
Omer Güngör, Fevzi Gökçen, Y~ar Günbattl, Aziz Erbey,
Zeyat AkSlD, the village guards, and the informant Mesut
Mehmetoglu claiming that the incident had been carefully
planned and carried out. During police questioning the
guards reportedly admitted kidnapping and later lulling
Av~ar following orders given to them by Gendarmerie commander
Ertan Altmoluk.
In court the guards claimed that their confessions had
been extracted under pressure and they said that Av~ar had
been brought to th~ Police Department for interrogation.
One of the guards, Orner Güngör, said "the informer (Mesut
Mehmetoglu) and another guy who was wearing glasses
and had identified himself as a police officer started the
interrogation. Later on Mesut called me in and told me to
kill Avpr. I followed the order since I was scared. I shot
the vichm twice in the head."
Another of the accused, Fevzi Gökçen stated that the
group had carried out similar killings in the past under the
orders of various commanders.
Repeatedly emphasizing that he had been following
orders in the case, Gökçen said "I am not able to talk right
now, during our custody a sergeant, whose name I don't
know, ordered us to give our confessions according to what
we had been told." One of the other guards, Ya~ar Günbattl,
claimed that they had been blindfolded while in custody at
Gendarmerie headquarters and said "we cannot talk very
much about the inCIdent. The government authorizes us to
take some people and we do it. We are blamed for it. If we
had not obeyed orders we would have been frred."
Village guard Aziz Erbay said that they had confessed to
save a seventh person, so far unidentified, in the incident.
The government infonner Mesut Mehmetoglu denied any
involvement in the kidnapping and killing of Av~ar. The
court decided to adjourn tlie trial to a later date. The six suspects
will remain in custody.
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