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~BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RNISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi<br />
46<br />
Turkish Probe .. June 10, 1994<br />
'<br />
Mystery Mur<strong>de</strong>rs Prompt.<br />
EBNKWarning<br />
Sinan y,lmaz<br />
ERNK, the European based<br />
theoutlawed Kurdistan<br />
(PKK), openly announced<br />
political wing of<br />
Workers' Party<br />
on June 6 that<br />
parliamentarians, businessmen, police force members,<br />
military perso['lnel aM their relatives would be<br />
targ<strong>et</strong>ed by ERNK special assassination squads.<br />
"Until now the PKK has not ma<strong>de</strong> use of assassination<br />
squads although we had all the necessary<br />
means. But now we are forced to take action since<br />
we cannot bear to witness the killings of innocent<br />
Kùrdish partisans. The government<br />
is involved in systematic killings, therefore<br />
we will r<strong>et</strong>aliate in the same way in the big<br />
m<strong>et</strong>ropolitan cities," the ERNK announcement<br />
<strong>de</strong>clared. The ERNK announcement<br />
followed a series of mystery mur<strong>de</strong>rs in the<br />
past week which prompted allegations that<br />
some State forces in.Turkey are linked to a<br />
systematic campaign to ;intimidate pro-<br />
Kurdish businessmen and politiCians.<br />
On June 4 a group' of fishermen discovered<br />
the bodies of pro-Kurdish businessman<br />
Savas Buldan andtwo of his colleagues,<br />
Haci Koray and Adnan Ylldlrlm<br />
near the Melen -river in the YI~llca township<br />
of Bolu province. The three had been<br />
shot in the back of the head. Police sources<br />
said the three had also been tortured<br />
and were without i<strong>de</strong>ntification papers<br />
when found. . .<br />
Buldan was a wealthy Istanbul businessman<br />
who is in the hotel and restaurant ..'<br />
business. He comes from the township of<br />
Yüksekova in the southeastern province of<br />
Hakkan. His colleagues Koray wasalso<br />
from Yuksekova while Ylldlrlm came from<br />
the<br />
ince.<br />
township of Lice in Diyarbakir prov-<br />
Buldan's el<strong>de</strong>r 'brother Nec<strong>de</strong>t Buldan is<br />
the former mayor of Yüksekova and belongs<br />
to the pro-Kurdish Dem.ocracy Party<br />
(DEP). '.<br />
The mur<strong>de</strong>rs follow the killing of Muhsin<br />
Melik and his driver iri the southeastern<br />
provincial center of Urfa by four or five uni<strong>de</strong>ntified<br />
persons. Melik is th.e foun<strong>de</strong>r of<br />
the People's Democrat Party (HADEP), a<br />
new pro-Kurdish party s<strong>et</strong> up to eventually replace<br />
DEP.<br />
DEP.<br />
Melik was the former provincial chairman of.<br />
Before his <strong>de</strong>ath Me.lik reportedly told his brother<br />
that he had been shot by plainclothes policemen<br />
just outsi<strong>de</strong> his office. Melik allegedly shot and<br />
woun<strong>de</strong>d one of hisassailants. The governor of Urfa<br />
said two persons<br />
mur<strong>de</strong>r.<br />
were in custody related to the<br />
Buldan and his two companions were allegedly<br />
Haci Karay .<br />
Adnan Ylldlrlm<br />
Namlk ErdoQan<br />
taken into custody by a group of policemen outsi<strong>de</strong><br />
Istanbul's Çlnar Hotel. .<br />
The persons who apprehen<strong>de</strong>d them reportedly<br />
showed their police i<strong>de</strong>ntification cards and then<br />
took them away in unmarked cars, according to the<br />
personnel of the Çlnar Hotel who witnessed the inci<strong>de</strong>nt.<br />
The <strong>de</strong>ath of Buldan was the latest in a chain of<br />
mur<strong>de</strong>rs committed against persons who allegedly<br />
have links with Kurdish separatist militants.<br />
The mystery mur<strong>de</strong>rs started with the kidnapping<br />
of Mecit Baskin, responsible for<br />
citizens' affairs in Ankara's Altlnda~ township.<br />
The second case concerned pro-Kurdish<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rground figure Behç<strong>et</strong> Cantürk<br />
and his driver Recep Kuzucu who were<br />
found mur<strong>de</strong>red near the Sapanca section<br />
of the Istanbul-Ankara highway, Cantürk<br />
was also from Lice township.<br />
Later the body of Cantürk's lawyer Yusuf<br />
liya Ekinci was found near Ankara's<br />
Gölba~1 district in February. He had been<br />
killed by seven bull<strong>et</strong>s.<br />
In March another prominent figure from<br />
Lice, contractor Fevzi Arslan, and his<br />
brother $ahin were kidnapped at gun point<br />
in their Aksaray office in Istanbul and their<br />
bodies were .later found on the lstanbul-<br />
Ankara highway.<br />
In May, Namlk Erdogan, then <strong>de</strong>puty<br />
éhairman of the investigation committee at<br />
the Health Ministry, was similarly kidnapped<br />
and mur<strong>de</strong>red by unknown killers.<br />
Namlk Erdo~an was originally from Hakkari.<br />
Buldan was previously taken into custody<br />
in 1992 when police rai<strong>de</strong>d his house in<br />
Istanbul and discovered he was hosting<br />
DEP Diyarbakir Deputy Leyla lana, her<br />
husband Megdi lana' and seven other<br />
people who were allegedly linked to the<br />
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).<br />
There were claims that Buldan had provi<strong>de</strong>d<br />
PKK with guns and financial aid. He<br />
was later released. Conservative Turkish<br />
papers claimed Buldan may have been killed by the<br />
mafia because of drug traffic~ing.<br />
Pro-Kurdish daily Ozgür Ulke, however, pointed<br />
the finger at Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and said<br />
the prime minister had warned on November 4,<br />
1993 that the government has information about<br />
businessmen and other personalities who give extortion<br />
money to the PKK and had threatened to<br />
"make them pay." The paper claimed Çiller was now<br />
making the businessmen'''pay,'' Özgür Ülke quoted<br />
15<br />
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