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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVlEW.BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RlVlSTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
in the meeting went to Salahuddine in
Northern Iraq, where they were
"warmly welcomed by the KDP leader
Mr. Massoud Barzani."
"I am planning to return to Iraqi
Kurdistan within the next few days
and I will certainly meet Mr. Massoud
Banani there. EffOlts are being made
to hold a meeting in Turkey arid I am
ready for this," he said. .
A spokesman for Bmani's KOP,
meanwhile, was quoted by Reuten as
saying the agreement sipd by PUl
and KDP leaders in Silopi was hold.
ing. "We hope that all differences will
be solved throu~ dialogue," he said.
Several prevIous cease-fire agreements
have failed to halt fighting
which has claimed several huadred
lives in parts of Nortbem Inq.
A U.N. official in BI2hdàd said on
Monday that fighting 'ad spread to
Irbil, the regional capitallnd the
seat of the Kurdisb Parliament, fOr
the fIlSt time since the clashes began
on May 1.
Talabani said he was returnin& to
Northern Iraq through Turkey wiÜ1in
the next two days and that he would
meet with Banani "to reinforce tbe
agreement" .
The PUK leader told Reutas he bad
been unable to go back to Northern
Iraq earlier because security was not
guaranteed. ''The situation now is different,"
he added. Talabani said tbe
Kurdish regional government should
remain in power but hinted some ministers
should be changed and portfolios
given to Arabs. I
"A serious reconsideration of the
whole working programme in the area
should be conducted by the PUl., the
KDP and the Iraqi National Congress
in order to adopt a new policy tbat
would reinforce stability and democracy,"
he added.
Talabani said there was no need to
rush for new elections u polls would
be held in July, 1995. The comin.
months will be "a test for all to see
how they are reacting to the new situa.
tion," he said.
'Terrorist' union leader to go tojail today
By Sinan Yllmaz
Turldsh DIllr New.
ANKARA. The decision by-the U.S. House of
Representatives to link one-fourtb of Turkey's
foreign aid to human rights and the Çyprus issue
is currently one of the most widely de6àted topics
in the country.
"Turkey does not have a buman rights ~lem'
what it does have is a serious tenorism J?foblem,;:
has been the official reply to these cillms from
several political parties as well as the government.
In reality, the issue of human rights bas
never been absent from Turkey,'s political agenda
and it appears as though it WIll remain a salient
domestic concern for some time. The most recent
incident to affect Turkey's human rights record
will take place today wIth the imprisonment of
Münir Ceylan, former chainnan of the Petroleum
Workers Union (Petrol-I~), in tbe Saray prison
located in Tekirda' where he will serve out bis
20-month sentence.
Ceylan has been tried under Article 312 of the
Turkish Penal Code following the ~blication.of a
controversial article he wrote for the Yeni Ülke
newspaper during his tenure as Petrol-I, chairman.
The former chairman was accused of fueling
separatism in his article, although his link to a terror
organization was never ~roven by the court.
Ceylan is not the tirst example of a human rights
violation in Turkey and certainly will not be the
last... Ismail Be~ikci, known for his numerous
books on the Kurdish problem, has s~t a total
of 13 years in jail and is waiting for the day he
will be released.
However, new cases regarding his writings are
still being processed by the National Security
Court (NSC) making an early rel~ase appear
unlikely since he is expected to receive an additional
70 years or so.
The author is also one of the few - if not the
only - prisoners of conscience to have been sentenced
twice for the same book. Assistant
Professor Fikret Ba~kaya also belongs to tbe
newly formed group of prisoners of conscience
branded as "terrorist professor assis1lDts" .by the
government who bave been tried at the NSC and
sentenced to prison under that title. Bqkaya, who
used to lecture at the Abant Izzet Ba~sal
University, was sentenced to 20 months in pnson
and was fined TL 41 million after publisbiDg his
book entitled
"The Failure of the Paradigm." The assistant
professor continues to serve his sentence at the
Haymana Prison. .
The above listed individuals are those who are
publicly known, but there are also the unknown
names of people wbo have ~n tried and sentenced,
along with the 75 journalists and writers
still serving m various state prisons.
All these victims were convicted under the
anti-terrorism law. These days, Assistant
Professor Haluk Gerger and Human Rights
Association (HRA) Secretary-General HdsnU
ÖndUl, both convicted because of their political
views, are preparing to . serve their sen.
tences.
Professor Gerger was sentenced to 20 months
in prison due to a message he bad sent to a meeting
held in commemoration of Deniz Gezmi~,
woo was hanged for his alleged involvement in
terrorism ÏD the 19701.
HUsnU Ondül was sentenced to a 6-month jail
tenn after Ismail ~~ikçi's artiçle wu published
in the HRA bullehn, of which Öndül was the editor.
Besides infringing upon the freedom of expression,
the state is also committing other human
rights violations, such as torture, extrajudicial
executions and even murder.
Most of the time, serious investigations and trials
are not conducted since the ~overnment security
forces involved in such incJ(ients are protected
by the law. In cases where these incidents are
pursued, the consent of the Provincial
Administration Board must first be obtained in
order to try government security forces according
to the law governing the prosecution of civil servants.
In most cases, the administrative board
denies the requests to prosecute. And evea if the
cases do make it to court and the defendants are
found guilty, the punishments tend to be ineffective.
.
For example, the punishment for a death resulting
from torture is a 5-year prison term, whicb is
usually reduced so that the prisoner rarely has to
serve out his entire tenno
Even if the government claims that the country
bas a "terrorism problem and not a human rights
problem," it has yet to convince the public oftOat.
Human rights violations are now ~n1y committed
and cannot be pusbed under the clJ'P.Ct
an~ by ~ps whO prefer to deny the existence
of sucb Incidents.
One question must be asked: "Do all these
journalists, writers, union members and others
who have been accused of separatism and terrorism
by the government even bow how to fire a
guIl?
The government's "democratization package"
bas bein announced but an effective proposal
designed to rectify human rights abuses bas not
been included in die pI'OpC!SIl.
The Social Democrat People's Partts (SHP)
lack of respc>nseto the OmiSSIOllof the crimes of
conscience" clause from tbe democratization
package bas been criticized harshlf althoup the
p-arty bas repeatedly stated its position in favor of
ihe clause.
UnfOl1unately these critics have not mentioned
the SHP' s efforts to transfer prisor.en of conscience
convicted under the anti-terrorism law
from "E-~" .Prisons - maximum security pris.
ons desiped for the deteo1ion of terrorists - to
normal. , with the bel of the SHP .ustic:e
minister~ liP. of tbet!'IdJ, it iselk that
1'wtey must CODl1nueto wort on its human rights
problem.
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