Charges on Death in Custody 
The public prosecutor in Fatih (Istanbul) has brought charges against Sefik Kul, deputy chief of police, Mehmet Artunay, head of the political police, Osman Kursun, Saldiray Öztürk, Celil Zilyaoglu, Yücel Ceylan and Ahmet Asim Isik for the death of Yunus Güzel on October 23rd 2001. The case, on a breach of duty of care, will begin on September 19th before the 5th Criminal Court in Fatih. Yunus Güzel was arrested on 16.10.2001. He was supposedly planning a suicide bomb attack as a member pf the DHKP/C. According to official representations he committed suicide by hanging himself from a bed stood against a wall. However, there are apparently witnesses who claim he was tortured. (Source: Evrensel 20.07.2002)

Torture in Diyarbakir
Seyhmus Acu has claimed that he was tortured following his arrest on July 16th in Diyarbakir. During 6 hours of detention he claims to have been sprayed with high pressure water, beaten and to have had his testicles crushed. He was then forced to sign 15 papers without being able to read them. He made charges on July 19th. (Source: Yedinci Gündem 20.07.2002)

Penalized for Kurdish Music 
Abdullah Yagan has been sentenced to 45 months imprisonment by the State Security Court in Diyarbakir. In August 2001 he allegedly played Kurdish music in his minibus and therefore had encouraged his passengers to support an armed organization. (Source: Evrensel 20.07.2002)

Number of Name Queries Increases 
The Turkish language authority has been active in court cases concerning Kurdish names. In 2000 there had been 45 queries, in 2001, 125, and in the first 5 months of this year, 160. Queries have been received from courts, the Interior Ministry and Residents’ Registry Offices on whether names, for example, are compatible with national culture. (Source: Özgür Politika, 23.07.2002)

Lawyers Abused - Also by Prison Head
During a visit to their clients in the prison of Metris (Istan-bul) on 19.07.2002, 2 lawyers were firstly sworn at by the prison head and then, with the aid of around 15 further prison employees, they were physically attacked and seri-ously beaten and could only save themselves by fleeing. In a widely supported press conference in front of the prison, demands were made for the prison head’s immediate dis-missal and action to be taken by the Justice Ministry as well as the government. The abused lawyers also received sup-port from a leading member of Istanbul’s Lawyers’ Association. A few weeks ago the Lawyers’ Association (Istanbul) found it necessary to launch a poster campaign against torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees. The lawyers’ clients had been tortured while under arrest. A few days ago in a police station in Zeytinburnu (Istanbul), a person under arrest and in a critical condition after having been tortured, was taken away– he was not allowed to die in the station. He was treated in 2 hospitals and was written off sick for several weeks. (Source:  Özgür Politika, 23.07.2002)

Medical Treatment Only Available as an Ex-ception 
Medical provision in the Kurdish provinces is steadily be-coming worse. A doctor must care on average for 2154 patients; a specialist must care for 5822 patients; a GP must care for 3418 patients. A dentist must care on average for 19225 patients. Specialist doctors are saying that to solve the health system problems, doctors should not be involved in management but rather out there in “the regions”. Meas-ures were required to encourage health workers to remain in “the regions”. (Source: Özgür Politika, 23.07.2002)

Incident in Batman
The governor of this region (state of emergency) has re-vealed that 3 PKK fighters have been killed and one injured while they were underway in a tanker on the road from Batman to Mardin. They had allegedly returned fire after having been stopped. Hürriyet reported that 4 were dead while eye witnesses said that missiles had been fired at the vehicle. The name of the injured person was given as Ab-dullah Çetinkaya. (Source: Hürriyet/Yedinci Gündem 24.07.2002) 

F-Type Prisons 
There are 6 F-type prisons in Turkey, in Edirne, Tekirdag, Bolu, Kocaeli-Kandira, Ankara-Sincan and Izmir-Kiriklar. There is space for 2208 prisoners in 1 to 3 man cells. Prison staff complain that because of the isolated locations, where they must also live, they also feel imprisoned. They also dislike being constantly observed by cameras. Families and lawyers point to the psychological effects of isolation while doctors’ associations are concerned about ill prisoners be-ing kept in isolation. Among the sick prisoners being held in isolation are: Ali Yalçin, Nevzat Kalayci, Aziz Dogan, Turgut Köklü, Güldede Çeven, Fevzi Saygili, Bekir Simsek and Haydar Ceylan. To date 293 prisoners have been re-leased early. The courts released 80 remand prisoners, and the president of state pardoned 19 prisoners because of ill health. There are still 34 prisoners on death fasts and 5 on hunger strikes. 24 of these are in hospital.  (Source: Cumhuriyet vom 24.07.2002) 

Publicist Found Guilty 
The State Security Court in Istanbul has found Fatih Tas guilty, owner of the Aram publisher, because of a book  called “The Language of Life in the Mountains” by Halil Uysal. He was sentenced to 45 months imprisonment on a charge of  “propaganda for an illegal organization”. The sentence was then converted to a fine of 6.5 billion TL. (Source: Yedinci Gündem  25.07.2002) 

Alleged Anarchists Found Not Guilty 
On 25.07.2002, the State Security Court in Izmir found Muammer Özgür Küçüktekin, Ahmet Serkan Tomar, Sabri Serkan Kazak, Onur Ayaz and Rahmi Tiril not guilty on allegations of being members of an anarchist organization, according to Article 7/1 of the ATG. They had distributed fly sheets at a workers’ demonstration on 01.12.2001 and had then been held in prison until April 3rd. The court judged that no offense had been committed. (Source: Evrensel 26.07.2002)

Demonstrators to Pay 
The Ministry of the Interior has demanded payment of 8.6 billion TL from 29 people who had been arrested in Diyar-bakir as they planned to drive to Ankara for a rally in con-nection with World Peace Day on September 1st 2001. This is the sum that the ministry paid to injured police officers Kubilay Yücesoy, Atilla Özyürek, Yusuf Arslan, Adem Beyazit, Semih Yilmaz, Yusuf Güner, Ergün Kasap and Halil Subasi. (Source: Yedinci Gündem 26.07.2002)

Setback in Ankara
The Turkish government tightens up media laws and now wants stricter control over the Internet. 
Fikret Baskaya knowingly took the risk. In an article from 01.06.1999in the daily newspaper "Özgür Bakis", the foun-der of the “Turkey and Middle East Forum” publicly que-ried Turkish policies towards the Kurds. Unsurprisingly the outcome was 16 months imprisonment in June 2001 for “spreading separatist propaganda”. It was not his first prison sentence..
Restrictions on press freedom and freedom of opinion on the Bosphorous, are being critically observed by the Euro-pean Union. The parliament in Ankara has now tightened up the media law. The law failed to be passed in June of last year because of a protest by president of state Ahmet Necdet Sezer. In his opinion around half the law’s paragraphs did not comply with democratic traditions or constitutional principles. Furthermore, the law contradicted an agreement the government had given Brussels when democratic reforms had been announced. Despite Sezer’s criticism, the majority of the National Assembly passed the law, without amendment, on May 15th following a 10-hour contentious and turbulent debate. Sezer could not veto it a second time. The only way open to the president is the constitutional court. According to the president, who was himself once a judge of Turkey’s highest court, several prohibitions in the law are so vaguely formulated that the media would be prevented from “accurate and objective” reporting.
This political quarrel will then continue over the coming weeks and months. However, there is also criticism coming from abroad – and not only from Brussels. According to the organization "Reporter ohne Grenzen" (ROG), the law will lead to even more repression. In particular, new penalties will put press freedom at risk because fines of around 200,000 Euros will endanger the survival of smaller pub-lishers or broadcasting stations. The penalties are up to a thousand times higher than in the old law from 1994. 
Amongst other things, articles can now be penalized which spread “false and offensive content”, "incite pessimism and hopelessness", "damage Turkey’s image abroad”, offends Turkey’s founder Atatürk or spreads "separatist propa-ganda". Under the latter, articles on the Kurdish problem or texts just in the Kurdish language could be penalized if required. Along with financial penalties, censorship meas-ures, with broadcasting bans, can also be imposed.
Members of the government or their representatives will in future make up the majority of the current board of control, RTÜK, which deals with media issues. Not only "Reporter ohne Grenzen" are therefore concerned of increasing state control by RTÜK. ROG general secretary Robert Ménard said that this could not even be offset by the future inclu-sion in RTÜK of the 2 largest journalist associations. He had been refused entry into Turkey on the day following the passing of the law where he had wanted to hold a press conference. 
Even without the tightening up of the law, the situation for journalists is not easy. It is true that over the past decade a diverse media landscape has developed on the Bosphorous, where many committed and critical editors work. Corrup-tion and political scandals are scrupulously researched and ruthlessly uncovered. However, Amnesty International see in particular 3 issues which remain a problem: articles on Kurdish problems, criticism on the high security prisons and demands for the strengthening of Islam quickly come under the scrutiny of the authorities. In the past year charges have been brought against 50 Turkish journalists and publishers, mostly regarding these taboos. At least 6 media workers are currently imprisoned according to ROG. This figure could increase because the same benchmarks for newspapers, magazines, radio and TV are to soon be also valid for the Internet. Control of the Internet would, according to a parliamentary decision, then come under the new media law. News sites and Kurdish sites are viewing this development with concern. If the constitutional court does not stop the legislation, Internet providers must then in future obtain authorization for all their sites. They would even be made responsible for their chat rooms. Harald Gesterkamp (Source: ai-Journal July/August 2002 Turkey)

Turkey to Agree to “Limited” Military Action in Iraq 
According to newspaper reports, Turkey have indicated for the first time their agreement to limited US military action. The respected newspaper "Cumhuriyet" reported that this was the outcome of talks between the government and military in the Turkish National Security Council. Accord-ing to the newspaper, the council did support Ankara’s doubts concerning a US strike to disempower the Iraqi state head Saddam Hussein. However, the deputy US defense minister Paul Wolfowitz made clear Washington’s determi-nation on this issue in a brief visit to Ankara. Therefore, the council indicated that any US military operation should be “as limited as possible”. Under these conditions Turkey would agree to military action. (Source: AFP, 26.o7.02)

State of Alarm in Ankara
The Turkish newspaper "Hürriyet" has reported on US war preparations against Iraq. Patriot defense missiles are to be positioned within the country. There has be no denial from the Turkish government 
The signs are increasing in Turkey that the USA are already making concrete military preparations for an attack against Iraq. Recent evidence is a report from the largest Turkish daily newspaper, Hürriyet. Accordingly, a group of Ameri-can specialists have been in the country  preparing the sta-tioning of Patriot defense missiles. The 15 strong group were to investigate which towns and industrial areas in the country’s southeast should be protected from possible Iraqi missile attacks. In the last Gulf War Iraq’s president, Sad-dam Hussein, had attacked Israel and Saudi Arabia with Scud missiles. At the time there had also been talk of trans-ferring Patriots from Germany to Turkey.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not want to confirm the report but did refer to a NATO delegation who were rou-tinely in the country. However, anything other than the routine is currently taking place in Ankara. There had been so many Iraq conferences recently that some observers believed that an operation was imminent. US Ambassador Robert Pearson appeared twice at the Foreign Ministry and each time had hectic meetings with Foreign Minister Gürel, Prime Minister Ecevit and Chief of General staffs Hüseyin Kivrikoglu. This all then led to a visit by the Prime Minister and Chief of General Staff to President Sezer. In the eve-ning Ecevit said before cameras that there were cautionary meeting on a possible war against Iraq.
Already at the end of last week, the Turkish National Secu-rity Council, the decisive body in Turkish politics, had said for the first time that a US attack against Iraq would be conditionally supported in order to avoid any possible dam-age to Turkey. In a visit immediately beforehand by US Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz, a decision had been requested from Ankara in line with his president’s quote, “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”. Apparently, the Turkish military is now prepared, alongside logistical sup-port, to provide troops specifically to enter northern Iraq to establish a buffer zone there. Turkey has a number of aims concerning such a buffer zone, whose extent has only be speculated at. On the one hand, there should be an Ameri-can promise that no Kurdish state will be permitted in northern Iraq, and on the other, that protection zones for refugees should be set up there so that refugees do not, as in 1991/92, enter Turkey.
Despite all the commotion in Ankara, the Turkish military remain true to its routine. Despite speculation to the con-trary, Chief of General Staffs Kivrikoglu handed over office to the former Military Head, Hilmi Özkök,. JÜRGEN GOTTSCHLICH (source: taz 1.8.2002)

Scott Ritter, UNO-Weapons Inspector, 
Queries the Existence of weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and Warns Against a War in Iraq 
IPPNW demand evidence of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and a non-military solution to the conflict 
Berlin, 02.08.2002: The argument on the imminent war against Iraq is coming to a head. In a public speech, not yet published in Germany, from 23.07.2002 at the Suffolk Law School in Boston, Scott Ritter the UN Chief Weapons In-spector until 1998, said that there was no Iraqi threat and nothing to justify a new war. Iraq has for years been incapable of re-establishing any programmes on atomic, chemical or biological weapons. Between 90-95% of the Iraqi arsenal had been destroyed. Scott Ritter, who had carried out more than 40 inspections in Iraq between 1991-1998 - 15 of those as head of the mission - emphasized in his speech that in truth it was all about American internal politics. America’s national security lay in the hands of a few neo-conservative politicians who wanted to use their positions of power to achieve their ideological aims. "If Iraq was really manufacturing weapons today we would have hard evidence of this", said Ritter. Along with former UNSCOM head Richard Butler, a second high-ranking UNO-employee has now spoken out against the US gov-ernment and explicitly warned against a war. 
The IPPNW are therefore calling on the US government to produce evidence for the existence of weapons of mass destruction. Ute Watermann, spokesperson for IPPNW, said "We are concerned that the current debate is just a pretext for the USA to get public agreement to a war against Iraq”. There are alternatives to war, for example, the establish-ment of an international alliance of European states, Russia, China and India, under the UN, to seek a non-military solu-tion to the Iraq issue through a return of weapons inspectors and a simultaneous lifting of the embargo. We call on the German government to withdraw their “unconditional sup-port” in the so-called “Anti-terror war” and to call back German ABC-tanks from Kuwait and the "Breguet Atlan-tic" from Africa.

Iranian Revolutionary Court Bans Liberal Party 
An Iranian Revolutionary Court has recently dissolved a long-standing liberal party, the Freedom Movement. This was revealed by the state news agency IRNA. The Freedom Movement, who made up the first government following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, was declared illegal along with all its associated groups and organizations. 33 party members received prison sentences of between 4 months and 10 years. The agency did not name them. Eight of those charged received financial penalties and 21 party members were banned from any political activity for the next 10 years. The accused had been charged with endangering national security, planning the toppling of the Islamic sys-tem in Iran, contact with foreigners and the assembling of secret information.
Over 50 members of the Freedom Movement and associ-ated organizations had been arrested in March 2001. The party leader is the 70 year old Ebrahim Yazdi, successor to the first post-1979 revolution prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan, who died in 1992. Yazdi first returned in April following cancer treatment in the USA. It is unclear whether he is among those sentenced to prison. (Source: DPA, 27.07.02)

Iranian Judge Again Bans a Reformist News-paper 
Iran’s fundamentalist judges have again banned a reform orientated newspaper. “Noruz”’s publisher, a member of parliament, must also go to prison. "Noruz" would no longer be published, said an employee of the newspaper following the decision from a court of appeal in Teheran. The court had upheld a judgment from April which had banned "Noruz" for 6 months. The newspaper was seen as an important organ for reformist powers in this Islamic country.
The publisher Moshen Mirdamadi must go to prison for 6 months and 2 days. He was also banned from any journalis-tic activity for the next 4 years. The head of the foreign affairs committee of the Iranian parliament had been found guilty on 22 charges including libel, offending state repre-sentatives and attempting to incite the public. The politician is one the most noted contacts for foreign delegations to Iran.
The judiciary, dominated by radical Islamist, has banned at least 40 newspapers and publications over the past 2 and a half years, the majority being from reformist politicians. Many liberal journalists have also been imprisoned. (Source: News Bote, 25.07.02)

Turkey Stops Ship With 147 Refugees On board on Route to Greece 
Turkish coastguards have apprehended a ship with 147 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Iraq 7 nautical miles from the Turkish Aegean coast. The refugees in-tended to travel to Greece, said the Turkish news agency Anadolu. The Ukrainian captain was arrested. The 25 meter ship "Melissa", sailing under an American flag, had already been stopped in November. 99 refugees had then been ap-prehended. (Source: DPA, 29.07.02)
 

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