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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi
Phonetaps are a way of life.in Turkey
IInur Çevik
EDITORIAL
lnneighboring Greece the Parliament
has sent a second prime minister to
be tried on wiretapping charges in
five years. Former Prime Minister
Constantine Mitsotakis will now face
charges for allowing illegal phonetaps
. on his political rivals. Thisleaves us green
with envy, because despite the fact that
phone tops are illegal in Turkey we are
aware that wiretapping is used extensively
to moriitor the activities of politicians,
activists, journalists and even businessman.
We do not want to point a finger at
anyone but we are well aware that all
the phones of the TurkishDaily News are
being tapped. On Thursday the interfer~
en ce was so bad that we could not.
communicate with the outside world
properly. At first there. were strange
sounds over our telephone lines because
whoever was tapping our calls was using
very crude methods. Then in the afternoon
we started hearing music over the
lines. It was interesting to learn that whoever
is tapping our phones listens to TRT-
FM radio.
We are aware that there are numer-
Ol:JS gadgets and mefhods we can use
to prevent phonetapping, but we do not
want to give the impression that we are
trying to hide anything from anyone. We
have nothing to hide or to be ashamed
of.
Yet we feel those who bug our lines
have much to be ashamed of. They do
not realize that such actions contribute
to Turkey's reputation as a semi-authoritarian
state. They do not realize that
what they are doing is morally wrong.
In free societies such things would be
regarded impermissible and those who
attempted to wiretap would be prose-
cuted. Yet, in semi-democracies such
things just become the part of the system
and people even take it for granted
that they are being bugged. That is why
when a newspaper managed to publish
the transcripts of a secret telephone
conversation between the prime minister
and two of her cabinet colleagues
recently, no one really objected to the
fact that someone was violating the individual's
right of free communication. So
those who bugged the prime minister
then leaked the transcripts fo the press.
So if you can wiretap the conversations
of the prime minister, you ore welcome
to listen to everything that we hove to
discuss with people on the TurkishDoily
News phones. All we soy is: for God's
sake please use some modern methods
and do not obstruct our conversations ...
One day when we reach the level of
Greek democracy we mayalso object
to being bugged.
[ AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - A.EP. - A.EP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - AEP. - ]
FRA0244 4 l 0202 TUR /AFP-KZ08
Turqùie-attentat .
Cinq personnes blessées dans une explosion à Istanbul
ANKARA, 19 juin (AFP) - Cinq personnes ont été légèrement blessées, .
dimanche à Istanbul, dans l'explosion d'une bombe peu avant une réunion en
plein air de l'ancien Premier ministre turc Bulent Ecevit, a rapporté la
première chaîne de la télévision publique TRT1.
Une bombe placée devant une boulangerie sur la place de Karagumruk, dans
la partie européenne de la ville, a explosé vers 17h00 locales (16h00 à
Paris). M. Ecevit, chef du Parti de la Gauche Démocratique (DSP), devait y
faire une intervention publique, selon la même source.
M. Ecevit n'était pas encore sur la place au moment de l'explosion.
L'attentat n'a pas pour le moment été revendiqué.
Les jours des blessés ne sont pas en danger, a pour sa part indiqué
l'agence Anatolie.
Samedi à Istanbul, une bombe avait explosé dans un bureau de liaison
d'une compagnie de transport routier sans faire de victime.
Les autorités attribuent généralement ce genre d'attentats à la bombe
dans des lieux publics au Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK,
séparatiste), en rébellion armée contre Ankara depuis 1984 dans le sud-est
anatolien à majorité k~rde.
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