Press statement: Newspaper Kurtulus in Istanbul attacked

Tue Feb 17 17:52:39 GMT 1998

PRESS STATEMENT

RAID BY THE POLICE ON THE HEAD OFFICE OF THE NEWSPAPER KURTULUS IN ISTANBUL 

Istanbul, Turkey, February 17: For several hours the head office of the
newspaper Halk Icin Kurtulus (Liberation for the People) was occupied by the
Istanbul police. 
The repression against the newspaper Halk Icin Kurtulus, which has been
rising to great heights in recent days, reached its culmination at a press
conference held at the head office of Kurtulus by the newspaper's staff. 
Last Saturday in the Istanbul district of Kadikoy seven workers for the
newspaper were arrested when they tried to read out a press statement. 
Then, yesterday, there were attacks by the police when workers for Kurtulus
expressed their public opinion of the murder of the newspaper's Adana
correspondent Mehmet Topaloglu, who was the victim of an extra-judicial
execution last month during a raid on his flat by the police.
The protests were above all made against the mass arrests which have been
going on for days. In the course of these, the police have arrested many
people, among them Kurtulus workers, and beat them, sometimes while they
were made to lie on the floor of police buses. 
Today, at 1330, a press conference was held at the Kurtulus head office on
Cagaloglu in order to protest against the attacks the previous day. Once
again the police attacked, and, as was shown on several Turkish TV channels'
evening news broadcasts, that afternoon the police arrested  more than 40
people. The police surrounded the building and barged in on the pretext that
they were „looking for someone". The iron door was opened with a halogen
torch by the police. Then the people inside tried to throw up barricades,
but these were broken down with violence. More than a hundred Kurtulus
readers and journalists gathered outside the building to protest, and were
themselves attacked by the police. Several people were wounded and arrested.
Various journalists who wanted to make reports on the spot about the
incident were also attacked by the police. It was reported in the news that
one of the journalists attacked in this way is in danger of losing the sight
in his left eye.
So far the names of 30 people arrested have been confirmed. These were
Kurtulus workers or people who showed solidarity. All those in the building
and gathered outside were arrested. 

The following were arrested in the building and taken to hospital as a
result of the injuries they received.

VAHAP KAYA 
UFUK DOÐUBAY 
YAÞAR DÝLÝBAY 
BÜLENT TEGÜN 
ZEHRA KURTAY
BARIÞ BAYAR 
BANU GÜDENOÐLU

Of these, ZEHRA KURTAY is in a coma. One other person whose name is unknown
was also arrested in the office. 

Our latest information is that the following people were also arrested in
the building.

HAMDI KAYSI
AYNUR CIHAN
SENGUL AKKURT
AYNUR KORUCU 
MUSTAFA BALCI 
MAHMUT KILILI
TUNAY AKAN
FETHI DOGRU
SEVDA GOKTAS
YUKSEL DOGAN
OMER TUNCER
ECEVIT ULAVUR
LAZER FIDAN
SAHIN ERDOGAN

The following people are known to have been arrested in front of the
building.

TULIN SOYHAN
NURHAN YILMAZ
SAFFET ERCAN 
EBRU TURKOGLU
AYDIN AKTAS
KIYMET KILIC
YUSUF ARACI
MEDIHA ARACI

Please send your protest messages to stop the oppression of the press in
Turkey and release the journalists and others whose lives are in danger. 

Send protest messages to 
Ýstanbul Police HQ: 0090 212-635 4381 
Ministry of Internal Affairs: 0090 312-418 1765   

Could you also please send the copy of your message to the Information
Centre for Free Peoples, Cologne, Germany  Fax 0049 221 760 2887  

With best regards,
Sandra Bakutz 
for the 
Information Centre for Free Peoples
Kalkarer Str. 2
50733 Cologne
Germany
Tel 0049 221 760 7656
Fax 0049 221 760 2887  
e-mail: informationzentrum at kurtulus.com

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