Turkey: 400 Arrests in Istanbul

[english at ozgurlluk.xs4all.nl]

FEBRUARY 4, 1998

NEW ATTACKS LAUNCHED AGAINST OPPOSITION IN TURKEY
ARRESTS IN ISTANBUL

On January 29, 1998 in Adana, southern Turkey, three revolutionaries
were killed by a special police unit carrying out extra-judicial
executions.
According to information from local inhabitants, the police fired about
500 bullets into the flat, in order to make it appear as though there
had been an armed clash. While Mehmet Topaloglu, the official
representative of the newspaper Kurtulus in Adana and another person
died instantly in the flat, which belonged to Topaloglu's uncle, a third
person in the flat died later of wounds in hospital. Members of
democratic organizations, lawyers and Kurtulus representatives from
Istanbul, along with friends of Topaloglu, in all about 250 people,
travelled to Adana to begin investigations and take part in the funeral.
It has been learned that the bodies of the other two, who were in a
mortuary for autopsies to be held, were removed by the police yesterday
and buried in a grave for unidentified people.

After these events, the police carried out operations over a two-day
period in various parts of Istanbul. Countless flats were raided by the
police and according to available information, at least 400 people were
arrested.
Among them was Ahmet Latif Tiftikci, who is a worker in the IKM (Idil
Cultural Centre), an artist in the Ayse Gulen People's Theatre as well
as being a member of the People's Council in the Istanbul/Okmeydani
neighbourhood. The attacks were targeted on people who had taken part in
actions in Adana and Trabzon recently (1). The Turkish state loses no
opportunity to use terror against the population. Prime Minister Mesut
Yilmaz, who claims to be "democratic" in contrast to his predecessors,
and who carries on playing games concerning a "special report" on the
1996 Susurluk scandal, has shown himself once more to be a hypocrite.
For the state's instruments, whether they kill 22 people like in Gazi in
1995 or take part in other pre-planned executions like in Adana, are
invariably
acquitted of whatever they do. 

It is perfectly legitimate for the people to demand a reckoning for all
these state crimes, and for the whole of democratic public opinion in
the world to support them. Please send a declaration demanding the
release of those arrested:

INFORMATION CENTRE FOR FREE PEOPLES

Please send protest faxes quickly to:
Istanbul police chief Hasan OZDEMIR
Fax: 0090 212 635 4381

Justice Minister Oltan SUNGURLU
Fax: 0090 312 417 3954

President Suleyman DEMIREL
Fax: 0090 312 427 1330

Thank you for your support!

(1) Trabzon: Sham legal proceedings against police on January 23, 1998
held in Trabzon, eastern Turkey. Hundreds of people came from Istanbul
to observe the trial and demand the punishment of those responsible for
the Gazi case in 1995.
Adana: Scene of January 29, 1998 burial of murdered Kurtulus
representative Mehmet Topaloglu.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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