Yeni Politika Weekly Briefs

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu
From: kcc at magi.com (Kurdistan Committee of Canada)
Subject: Yeni Politika Weekly Briefs

Weekly Briefs -- News from Kurdistan -- 4

May 29, 1995 / Istanbul -- The families of the prisoners in Erzurum
jail have gone on hunger strike in Istanbul at the headquarters of
New Democracy Movement (YDH). They want to draw the attention of
the authorities to the deteriorating conditions of their loved
ones. Reports coming out of the prison note worsening conditions
since August 15, 1994, forcing some of the prisoners to commit
suicide. One such person, 
Selami Zoro, committed suicide on August 30, 1994.

May 29, 1995 / Mardin -- 20 houses were set on fire in Mesken
(Camyurt in Turkish) village in the Midyat district of Mardin
province. Sehmuz Altekin, an uprooted villager, noted that, "We
were asked to be village guards or face the prospects of migration
and the destruction of our homes."

May 29, 1995 / Mardin -- The village of Cinato Miho (Buyukkardes in
Turkish) is under a quarantine by the Turkish soldiers. For a week
now, no one has been allowed to enter the village or leave his or
her house. It is assumed by the people in the region that the
residents of Cinato Miho are being tortured so as to become village
guards.

May 29, 1995 / Mardin -- Suleyman Kaplan, a civil servant at the
Turkish Ministry of Construction in Midyat, a town in Mardin
province, was kidnapped yesterday. Eye witnesses note that he was
taken away at about 5:30 PM by four men who were driving a white
Renault car. His bullet ridden body was found 20 kilometres away
from his home at a place known as Kayapinar. He was a well-known
activist with pro-Kurdish sentiments.

May 29, 1995 / Dersim (Tunceli in Turkish) -- A Republican Populist
Party (CHP) deputy, Sinan Yerlikaya , made a well-known confession
today. He said that the government had no prior knowledge of
Turkish military operations against Kurdish villages.

May 31, 1995 / Ankara -- the Turkish Ministry of Culture revoked
the licenses of 7 music studios that were specializing in Kurdish
music. These were Ozdemir Plak, Stran Plak, Sevkan Ticaret, Kaya
Plak, Ataman Plak, Diyar Music, and Mazlum Plak.

June 1, 1995 / Istanbul -- Ridvan Karakoc, a 34-year-old alleged
PKK sympathizer, was apprehended by the police on February 15,
1995. To date, the authorities have not accounted for him. His
loved ones and their lawyers found his grave where the "unknowns "
are buried in Istanbul. Records show that his tortured and dead
body was first found at a forest near Beykoz town in Istanbul.
About two weeks ago, the grave of Hasan Ocak, another political
activist, was found at the same "unknowns" grave site with a
similar story matching that of Mr. Karakoc.

June 1, 1995 / Sivas -- Salih Doganturk, a student at the
University of Cumhuriyet is Sivas, was apprehended by police. He
was later taken to Urfa where he was interrogated about enlisting
men to the ranks of the PKK. His family fears for his life.

June 1, 1995 / Sirnak -- Two village guards from the village of
Bilbis (Pinarbasi in Turkish) at Beytusebab town in Sirnak province
were sent to jail yesterday. They were accused of aiding Kurdish
fighters.

June 2, 1995 / Mardin --  Masked contra-guerrillas raided Kineke
village at Nusaybin in Mardin province. Numbering some 15 armed
men, they warned the villagers to stay away from PKK fighters. They
then grabbed Suleyman Yalcin and murdered him before leaving the
village.

June 3, 1995 / Diyarbakir -- Muhittin Olmaz, a resident of Bismil
in Diyarbakir province, was taken into police custody in early
February 1995. He has not been heard of since. His family is
fearing for his life.

June 3, 1995 / Mardin -- Abdulaziz Turan, a former resident of
Kuruke village (Yavrukoy in Turkish) in Nusaybin, Mardin province,
has been missing since May 10, 1995. Mr. Turan, who now resides in
Izmir, had gone to Stile (Akarsu in Turkish) to visit his
relatives. He was taken away by Turkish soldiers and no one knows
anything of his whereabouts.

June 3, 1995 / Siirt - A bus full of visitors on its way to the
tomb of Veysel Karani was machine gunned by Turkish soldiers
yesterday. 3 people were killed and many others were injured,
according to bus driver Metin Cetin. The Turkish authorities have
said that the attackers were members of "separatist forces".

June 3, 1995 / Dersim (Tunceli in Turkish) -- The villagers who
have been forced to seek refuge in Dersim were offered conditional
help yesterday by Turkish officials, that is, if they sign a
petition distributed by the Governor's office noting that because
they were village guards they had to seek refuge in the city to
escape from PKK pressure.

(Translated by the Comite du Kurdistan in Brussels from the pro-
Kurdish daily newspaper Yeni Politika.)