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
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
REVUE DE PRESSE. PRESS REVIEW.BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ.RIVISTA STAMPA.DENTRO DE LA PRENSA.BASIN OZETi<br />
NY Times blasts 'Kurdish<br />
Killing Fields' in Turkey<br />
L<strong>et</strong>ter to Washington Postjabs at 'Turkish propaganda'<br />
By U~ur Akmel<br />
Turkish Dail" Ne ....s<br />
WASHINGTON- In' a leading editorial<br />
published on July 4, "Kurdish Killing<br />
Fields;' The New York Times (NYT)<br />
blasted Turkey's militaristic approach to<br />
the terrorism problem in the Southeast. A<br />
reliable U.S. congressional source has<br />
told TDN that the powerful editorial was<br />
already making the rounds in the congressional<br />
offices.<br />
The title "Killing fields" allu<strong>de</strong>s to the<br />
communist Pol Pot regime in Cambodia<br />
after the movie "The Killing Fields"<br />
which <strong>de</strong>picted the genoci<strong>de</strong> perp<strong>et</strong>rated<br />
by Pol Pot on the Cambodian people. The<br />
movie received the 1984 Oscar for "Best<br />
Supporting Actor," given to Haing S.<br />
Ngor for playing his own life as a<br />
Ca~bodian escaping from Pol Pot's terronsm.<br />
The NYT noted the crimes committed<br />
by Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) but<br />
said their crimes did not absolve Turkey<br />
from responsibility in the anti-<strong>de</strong>mocratic<br />
measures adopted to fight the PKK.<br />
"True, leftist guerillas known as P.K.K.<br />
are responsible for hundreds of killings,<br />
including (in the words of Amnesty<br />
International) 'children, teachers, local<br />
politicians, and other civilians.' But<br />
whatever its offense, the P.K.K .... is not<br />
armed by the United States. Turkey is."<br />
The NYT referred to Amnesty<br />
International and said 300,000 Turkish<br />
troops and militiamen evacuated "600<br />
Kurdish villages ... with four s<strong>et</strong>tlements<br />
bombed on a single March day. Other<br />
human ril!hts groups <strong>de</strong>tail unpunished<br />
killings onournalists, the crimin!Ù!~ing of<br />
parliamentary speech, and the jaIlmg of<br />
Turkish Ku~9.s for eSp'ousing 'separatist<br />
propaganda.' Answenng Turkey s complamts<br />
of Western critIcism, the NYT<br />
noted that what is going on in Turkey was<br />
"a peculiar way of promoting a political<br />
seulement of a bad war."<br />
"Prime Minister Tansu Çiller threatens<br />
to end U.S. arms purchase if Congress<br />
persists in <strong>de</strong>manding a 25 percent cut on<br />
human rights grounds. But concern over<br />
an escalating conflict fought with U.S.<br />
weapons is scarcely a hostile act," the editorial<br />
said. "Americans have learned at<br />
tragic cost that scorching villages spreads<br />
the very nationalism governments wish to<br />
contain. And jailing Kurdish members of<br />
Parliament for speaking their minds<br />
seems a peculiar way of promoting a<br />
political s<strong>et</strong>tlement of a bad war."<br />
L<strong>et</strong>ter on 'Turkish Propaganda'<br />
A l<strong>et</strong>ter printed prominentlyon July 5<br />
in The Washington Post, accompanied by<br />
the photo of armed Turkish troops making<br />
a search at what seems to be a Turkish<br />
villa~e, was a response to a l<strong>et</strong>ter dated June IS by<br />
Turkish Embassy's Press Counselor Bulent Er<strong>de</strong>mgil.<br />
In his l<strong>et</strong>ter, Er<strong>de</strong>mgil was responding to a severe article<br />
by Colman McCarthy in which McCarthy talked<br />
about Tansu Çiller's "brutal regime." Er<strong>de</strong>mgil said<br />
McCarthy's article was full of errors and amounted to<br />
liule than "propaganda put forth by longtime opponents<br />
ofTurkey."<br />
The Washington Post l<strong>et</strong>ter written by a Nicholas<br />
Komninos, claimed that Er<strong>de</strong>mgil's argument does<br />
not hold because "Turkey's anti-Kurdish policies were<br />
in place long before the PKK even existed ... Human<br />
Rights Watch, in one of its recent yearbooks, documented<br />
a case in which Kurds were arrested at a wedding<br />
just for singing traditional Kurdish folk songs<br />
and dances. Do these steps taken by the Turkish government,<br />
as Mr. Er<strong>de</strong>mgil and other representatives of<br />
Turkey claim, sound like steps to quell terrorists? Or<br />
are they instead attempts to forcibly assimilate the<br />
Kurdish population?" the l<strong>et</strong>ter en<strong>de</strong>d.<br />
Serif Av~ar case started in Diyarbalar<br />
Turkish Daily News<br />
DIYARBAKIR- The trial of six people accused of the<br />
kidnapping and killing of Mehm<strong>et</strong> ~erif Av~ar, brother of<br />
the banned "Ozgür Gün<strong>de</strong>m" distributor in Europe, Behç<strong>et</strong><br />
Av~ar, started on Tuesday in Diyarbakrr.<br />
The six <strong>de</strong>fendants, five village guards and one government<br />
informer, signed confessions during their interrogat,i,on.The<br />
state prosecutor requested the aeath sentence for<br />
Omer Güngör, Fevzi Gökçen, Y~ar Günbattl, Aziz Erbey,<br />
Zeyat AkSlD, the village guards, and the informant Mesut<br />
Mehm<strong>et</strong>oglu claiming that the inci<strong>de</strong>nt had been carefully<br />
planned and carried out. During police questioning the<br />
guards reportedly admitted kidnapping and later lulling<br />
Av~ar following or<strong>de</strong>rs given to them by Gendarmerie comman<strong>de</strong>r<br />
Ertan Altmoluk.<br />
In court the guards claimed that their confessions had<br />
been extracted un<strong>de</strong>r pressure and they said that Av~ar had<br />
been brought to th~ Police Department for interrogation.<br />
One of the guards, Orner Güngör, said "the informer (Mesut<br />
Mehm<strong>et</strong>oglu) and another guy who was wearing glasses<br />
and had i<strong>de</strong>ntified himself as a police officer started the<br />
interrogation. Later on Mesut called me in and told me to<br />
kill Avpr. I followed the or<strong>de</strong>r since I was scared. I shot<br />
the vichm twice in the head."<br />
Another of the accused, Fevzi Gökçen stated that the<br />
group had carried out similar killings in the past un<strong>de</strong>r the<br />
or<strong>de</strong>rs of various comman<strong>de</strong>rs.<br />
Repeatedly emphasizing that he had been following<br />
or<strong>de</strong>rs in the case, Gökçen said "I am not able to talk right<br />
now, during our custody a sergeant, whose name I don't<br />
know, or<strong>de</strong>red us to give our confessions according to what<br />
we had been told." One of the other guards, Ya~ar Günbattl,<br />
claimed that they had been blindfol<strong>de</strong>d while in custody at<br />
Gendarmerie headquarters and said "we cannot talk very<br />
much about the inCI<strong>de</strong>nt. The government authorizes us to<br />
take some people and we do it. We are blamed for it. If we<br />
had not obeyed or<strong>de</strong>rs we would have been frred."<br />
Village guard Aziz Erbay said that they had confessed to<br />
save a seventh person, so far uni<strong>de</strong>ntified, in the inci<strong>de</strong>nt.<br />
The government infonner Mesut Mehm<strong>et</strong>oglu <strong>de</strong>nied any<br />
involvement in the kidnapping and killing of Av~ar. The<br />
court <strong>de</strong>ci<strong>de</strong>d to adjourn tlie trial to a later date. The six suspects<br />
will remain in custody.<br />
19