Torture in Istanbul
The lawyer Metin Iriz, representing the youths C.A. and Ö.Ö., has revealed that they were tortured in Istanbul’s police headquarters following their ar-rests on May 5th. Doctors at the Haseki Hospital and the coroner in Beyoglu initially said that they were in good health despite having been beaten and sub-jected to electric shocks. This was contested by an attest from the forensic medical department at the University of Istanbul. The lawyer said that he would be bringing charges against the police and doctors. (Source: Özgür Gündem from 15.09.2002)
 

Torture in Mersin
On September 11th a case began before Mersin’s 3rd criminal court against 207 people who had partici-pated in Newroz celebrations in March of this year. Of those charged, 169 were being held in custody. They have been charged with taking part in an unauthorized demonstration. The case continued on September 13th with 111 of the defendants being released. However, because many of them were also being held for supporting an illegal organiza-tion, only a few were actually set free. Following their release Selahattin Polat, Salih Zirek, Ahmet Temel, Mahmut Kaya, Metin Alkan and Güzel Serin said that they had been tortured while in po-lice detention. Selahattin Polat claimed that 4 of his ribs had been broken. He also still had blood in his urine. Salih Zirek said that he had been arrested with his father and uncle at home and that they had all been beaten in the vehicle that took them away.. Ahmet Temel (62) said that he was tortured for two days and still had stomach and bladder problems. Mahmut Kaya and Güzel Serin (19) have also brought charges of torture. (Source: Özgür Gündem from 14.09.2002)
 

Transvestites Raped in Prison
The transvestites E.Ç., Ö.N., I.D. and H.A. were taken into custody in July on suspicion of burglar-ing of vehicles and then placed in prison in Bayrampasa. Eren Keskin, from the IHD in Istanbul said that they were in quarantine. The public prose-cutor in Eyüp later began an investigation because of allegations that they had been raped by 9 prison staff. This allegedly happened before the eyes of political prisoners who later informed their families. The transvestites have meanwhile been transferred to the prison in Kartal.  (Source: Hürriyet from17.09.2002)
 

Torture Case in Manisa
On 18th September, the case against 10 police offi-cers continued in Manisa’s criminal courts. They have been charged with torturing 16 youths be-tween 26.12.1995 and 05.01.1996. A letter was submitted to the court, allegedly from one of the complainants Münüre Apaydin. This claimed that the youths had not been tortured but that they had been persuaded to bring charges by their lawyers, Pelin Erda and Sema Pektas, and a member of par-liament at the time, Sabri Ergül. Münüre Apaydin told the press that the letter was not from her. The judge said that the letter was written by somebody and that he would keep to the decisions from the court of appeal. This court has twice judged the police to be not guilty. Appeals had been made against two judgments. Following a judgment from 15th December 2000, in which the accused police officers Turgut Demirel, Turgut Özcan, Atilla Gür-büz, Halil Emir, Levent Özvez, Engin Erdogan, Fevzi Aydog, Musa Geçer, Mehmet Emin Dal and Ramazan Kolak were sentenced to between 5 and 10 years imprisonment, the court of appeal claimed that the defendants had not been able to exercise their right to a defense and therefore revoked the judgment. Serhan Özbek, head of the lawyers’ association in Manisa, repeated his misgivings that the police could escape unpunished because the statutory period of limitation had expired in May 2002. The case had been observed by Dr. Barbara Neppert from Amnesty International. (Source: Radikal from 18.09.2002)

Seven Judgments Against Turkey in Two Months
The European Court of Human Rights have passed a total of 7 judgments against Turkey during July and August, and ordered them to pay 127,000 Euros and 5,200 Pounds Sterling to the complainants.
The court decided in favor of Mehmet Aydin, Özgür Yildiz and Yalcin Önder, who had alleged “torture while in custody”, and fined the state 79,289 Euros.
In the case of Yusuf Ekinci, the court fined Turkey a total of 15,590 Euros and 5,200 Pounds Sterling for “failing to uphold the right to life”.
In the case of Seher Karatas, who had been con-victed by Istanbul’s state security court because of a magazine article, the human rights court ordered Turkey to pay the complainant 7,000 Euros.
In the case of the lawyer Kamil Tekin Sürek, who had also been convicted for things he had written, the court ordered the state to pay him 18,700 Euros in compensation.
In the case of Ali Izler, who had been detained for a speech he made at an event by the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), the court ordered a pay-ment of 7,000 Euros (Source: Radikal, 19.09.02)
 

EU-Accession: Amnesty Pressurizes Ankara to Stop Torture
Amnesty International (AI) have appealed to the European Union to pressure Turkey into stopping torture and detention in isolation. In a report recently published in Brussels, the human rights organization revealed that torture and abuse is still prevalent in Turkish prisons. The recent law changes had “clearly” been inadequate.
The AI report documented more than 60 cases from the first half of the year, of prisoners who had been abused and tortured. In the majority of cases human rights violations happen on the very first day of detention. Amongst methods of torture are electric shocks, beatings to the soles of the feet and sexual abuse. AI official, Dick Oosting, said the EU must judge how far the reforms in Turkey have actually improved the human rights situation. This was also valid for other candidate countries. The Brussel’s commission intend to submit a progress report on candidate countries in October.  (Source: epd, 19.9.02)
 

EU-Commissioner Verheugen Demands an End to Torture in Turkey
According to the EU enlargement commissioner, Günter Verheugen, Turkey must put an end to tor-ture and release political prisoners prior to any accession to the European Union. "The actual situa-tion within the country must match the reality on paper”, said Verheugen recently in Paris at a meet-ing of the national assembly.
He said that Turkey had made “amazing progress” over the past 18 months but “there were still unre-solved problems which had to be addressed”. He pointed out that there were politicians and journal-ists amongst the political prisoners. For the EU commission, a date for accession negotiations could only be given “after all political requirements had been fulfilled ". (Source: dpa, 25.09.02)
 

European Council Reprimand Turkey
The European council has again harshly criticized Turkey. The parliamentary assembly said that the government in Ankara continued to fail to implement judgments from the European Court of Human Rights. This indicated a “clear disregard” for its international responsibilities.
The parliament supported the demand for a new trial against the Kurdish human rights activist Leyla Zana, who is serving a 15 year sentence for “separatism”. The July 2001 trial against Zana, held before a state security court, was judge to be unfair by the European Court of Human Rights. (Source: NZZ, 24.09.02)
 

“Speech Alleged to be Incitement”
Because a speech at a podium discussion in Co-logne was alleged to be incitement, the Turkish human rights activist Erin Keskin is liable to a prison sentence of up to 3 years in Turkey. The Turkish public prosecutor has accused the head of Istanbul’s Human Rights Association (IHD) of using the word "Kurdistan" and describing the people who live there as being “repressed” and had therefore been “inflammatory”. Keskin denied the accusations. (Source: Salzburger Nachrichten, 21.09.2002)
 

Kurdish Tuition Permitted in Turkey: Bureaucratic Hurdles to Prevent Language
The Turkish education minister has issued direc-tives on Kurdish tuition in private courses. These appear to have been drawn up simply to prevent language courses taking place. Only children from 12 are allowed to learn Kurdish and then only on school-free days.
Turkish education minister Necdet Tekin recently confirmed the intentions of his government to per-mit Kurdish tuition in private schools. A memo, which states the conditions for such courses, has been submitted to the prime minister for his signa-ture. Authorization for Kurdish tuition was intro-duced last August when the parliament in Ankara passed a series of reforms in connection with EU accession. Included here was the right of the Kurd-ish minority to be taught in their native language as well as the availability of Kurdish language media.
According to press reports, 16 conditions were outlined in the memo on the authorization of Kurd-ish tuition on a private basis. Only teachers may give lessons who also hold Turkish citizenship. Because Kurdish has until recently been banned in Turkey, and has not been a subject choice in uni-versities, there will not be enough qualified teachers available for the foreseeable future. Pupils must have completed primary school and be between 12 and 18 years of age. They can only attend Kurdish classes at weekends or during the school holidays. They must also provide a medical certificate prior to the course begin, stating that they are not men-tally or physically handicapped. “Ethnic” clothing, whatever this may mean, is not permitted in class.
For the education minister, the memo represents “The basic principles for school tuition in the vari-ous languages and dialects which the Turkish peo-ple require in their day to day lives”. For the head of the teachers’ union in Diyarbakir, Abdullah Demirtasch, it is a miscarriage. He said that on paper Kurdish courses had been permitted but that under these conditions they were in fact “simply impossible”. (Source: NZZ, 20.09.02)
 
Comments from the WIS Editorial Team:
The Turkish education minister’s directive does not permit Kurdish tuition within schools but only in private courses out of school hours, which then also require authorization by the education ministry and monitoring by inspectors from the ministry. Ac-cording to the Turkish newspaper “Milliyet”, under the directive children aged between 12 and 18 may attend these course and then only during the sum-mer holidays.
While the majority of the Turkish media reported that the courses could not be held because the teachers had to be qualified in both Kurdish and education, “Milliyet” did have a solution to the problem On its first page, it reported that the mili-tary could come to the rescue. The gendarmerie leadership has been training its personnel in Kurd-ish for the past 11 years.
The paranoia of the state is again clearly evident here. For 80 years the identity of 20 million Kurds in Turkey has been denied. The words “Kurd” and “Kurdistan” have been banned, people who have demanded recognition of Kurdish identity have been persecuted, tortured and killed, and now its been revealed that the military, the real power in Turkey, has been teaching its personnel Kurdish for the past 11 years in secret.
Why? According to the education ministry’s direc-tive, there would  not be any Kurdish teachers, who can read and write Kurdish, to run the courses because they would probably lack qualified teacher status, and that they would not teach the state ideol-ogy. Only teachers selected by the ministry would be permitted. Because there aren’t any trained Kurdish teachers, trained gendarmerie personnel will run the courses, and then only in a way consis-tent with a Kemalist ideology.

Bans on Many Turkish Politicians
Participating as Candidates
in the Elections
The highest electoral authority in Turkey recently decided that the leader of a moderate Muslim or-ganization, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, would not be permitted in the elections scheduled for November 3rd. The official reason for the decision has not yet been given. The head of the electoral authority, Tufan Algan, has several times allowed leaks to the press suggesting that Erdogan’s exclusion from the election has something to do with a 1998 conviction against him. According to the constitution, any person convicted of an “ideological” offense may never again be elected as a member of parliament.
In 1998, Erdogan was sentenced to 1 year impris-onment under Article 312 of the Penal Code and spent 4 months in prison in Kayseri.
Article 312, which penalizes incitement “on the grounds of social class, religion, race, language and/or religious difference”, is becoming a problem between Turkey and the EU. Its vague formulation means it has been used over the past 2 decades to put dozens of the political opposition behind bars. On August 3rd of this year, Ankara gave into pressure from Brussels; the notorious Article 312 received minor amendment under the “EU compliance package” of reforms. However, the changes have only caused confusion in the courts. On September 6th a court in Diyarbakir removed Erdogan’s criminal record because of the changes to the law. But the court of appeal then decided that the ban on Erdogan was still valid. The electoral authority has now followed the court’s judgment.
Along with Erdogan, the following have also been excluded from the elections under Article 312: the former Muslim leader Necmettin Erbakan, 2 candi-dates from the pro-Kurdish HADEP party, Murat Bozlak and Akin Birdal, as well as the leader of the pro-Kurdish HAK-PAR party, Abdulmelik Firat. 

Warnings from Ecevit and General Staff Head
It remains unclear which organ of the state actually initiated his crude attack into Turkey’s political life. Government head Ecevit had already warned some months previously that election victories by Muslim parties or the pro-Kurdish party HADEP’s entry into parliament, could create “a regime crisis”. The new head of the general staff, , Hilmi Özkök, also warned against the influence of Islam. At a cere-mony at the end of August he said that forces of fundamentalism and isloationalism had existed in Turkey since the days of the Ottoman Empire; they multiplied like a fungus following the rain. The renowned liberal journalist and columnist, Mehmet Ali Birand, said that the bans gave a clear message to voters that “the state” will not permit anyone to become a partner in state power who thinks differ-ently to the official ideology. The “state” in Turkey is often seen as being the military leadership and the bureaucracy... (IMK e.V.)
 

Campaign for Austrian Held in Custody: "Kurdish Fighter " at Risk of Deportation to Turkey
Sofia/Wien –The Austrian citizen, Mustafa A., recently flew with friends on holiday to Bulgaria. He was arrested on arrival and has since then been held in custody in the Bulgarian town of Varna. The reason: in Turkey there is an arrest warrant against the man - a Kurd by birth. Bulgaria must now de-cide whether he is to be deported or whether he should return home.
His wife Sibel said that the whole affair began back in 1978. "He was a Kurdish fighter and had been convicted of killing a women in a bomb explosion. He was then pardoned after serving 2 years in prison". Then came the military putsch in Turkey and the case was again reopened.
A., who is now 42, fled to Austria where he was granted asylum and has possessed citizenship since 1990. His lawyer, Gabriel Lansky, said that on Turkey’s instigation the case was dealt with in Austria but closed because of lack of evidence. Lansky said indignantly, "I was then given verbal assurances that the warrant for his arrest would be revoked, which clearly has not been the case”.
Mustafa A.’s custody has been extended, but Turkey has not yet made an official deportation request. Lansky is now hoping for a similar outcome to a previous incident. Before his case was heard in Austria, A. had been arrested in Switzerland: at that time the Swiss who did then send him back to Austria.
Austria’s ambassador in Sofia, Georg Potyka, has approached the Bulgarian foreign ministry but it is still unclear what the Balkan country will decide. The diplomat confessed that, "I’ve never come across an incident where an Austrian has been de-ported from a foreign country " (Michael Möseneder) (Source: Der Standart,, 20.09.02)
 

Increased Concentration of Iranian Army in Eastern Kurdistan
Iran has stationed thousands of soldiers in eastern Kurdistan on the Iranian-Iraqi border. The regime has justified this by the imminent US attack against Iraq. New military bases have been set up, checks have been intensified and soldiers have been hindering the daily traffic between Kurdish villages. The daily life of the villages has been practically paralyzed by this. Any protest is answered with repression and arrest.
In this way the regime intends to intensify their polices of repression against the Kurdish people. Repression has anyway increased over the past few months.
We call on all human rights organizations to pres-sure the Iranian government into pulling back their troops and to ending the repression of the Kurdish people. (Source: KomalaPress Statement,  28.08.02)
 

Death Squads Still At Work
According to information from the newspaper “Kurdistan”, the body has been found of the 19-year-old married Kurd, Mohssen Mosstefazadeh, near the mountain “Jnereh“ near Baneh. He had been tortured, his legs were burnt, acid had been poured over his face and he had been shot five times in the head. Iranian death squads are again suspected of being behind the crime. (Source: Kurdi-stan, Foreign edition No. 13, 22.08.02) 
  

Renewed Attacks by Iranian Military Against Kurdish Traders
On 07.09.02, several Kurdish truck drivers were ambushed by the Iranian military between the vil-lages of “Neje” and “Peschtkochan”. Many of them were arrested and their loads confiscated. Some did manage to avoid the ambush and fled to the village of “Neje Chwaru“. They were chased by the mili-tary right up to the village.
The villagers protested against the military’s ac-tions and took the traders into protection.. There were then clashes between the military and villagers with the military eventually firing their weapons. A man and woman were subsequently injured. (Source: Press Report from Komala, No. 81, 14.09.02)
 

Child Driven Over
On 06.09.02, in the town of Baneh, a child was driven over by a car from the Iranian intelligence service “Etlaat”. The child died from its injuries shortly afterwards. Attempts by the parents to take legal action have been in vain. The perpetrator remains free. (Source: Press Report from Komala, No. 80, 07.09.02)
 

Kurdish Trader Killed by Iranian
“Passdaran”
On 01.09.02, the Iranian “Passdaran” (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) attacked a group of Kurdish traders near the village of “Hanjiran” in the region of Marivan. One trader was killed and a further one injured. Their entire stocks of goods were seized. The body of the dead trader has not yet been handed over to his family. The “Passdaran” have demanded payment of 500,000 Iranian Toman before they hand it over . This is equivalent to 8 months salary.(Source: Press Report from Komala, No. 80, 07.09.02)

Kurdish Village Compulsorily
Evacuated
All inhabitants in the regions of Hauraman and Salassbawajani are to be forced to evacuate their villages under orders from the army because of possible violent disturbances in the town of Halabja in Iraqi-Kurdistan, which might then escalate into Iranian-Kurdistan. 
The situation in the town remains tense following clashes between PUK and “Ansar Al-Islam”, a terror organization linked to Al-Quaeda. The village of “Hanegermleh”, in the region of “Hauraman”, has already been forcibly evacuated. (Source: Komala Press Report , No. 81, 14.09. 02)
 

Murder of a Kurd on the Iranian Border
On 19.08.02, Iranian soldiers murdered the 17-year-old Kurd, Massud Karimian, from the town of Sar-dascht, who lived as a refugee in Arbil/Iraqi-Kurdistan. He was an active regime opponent and was wanted by the Iranian intelligence services. (Source: Kurdistan, Foreign Edition No.. 13, 22.08.02)
 

80 Illegal Immigrants Discovered in Greece
Greek coastguards have discovered a group of 80 illegal immigrants on an island in the Aegean. Greek radio reported that the 72 men, 6 women and 2 children were taken by fishing boats and coast-guard ships to the island of Euboea. The refugees said that they had sailed with a fishing boat from Turkey. The people who had smuggled them across disappeared after they had landed on the island of Kavaliani. According to the coastguard, the “il-legals” are Kurds from Iraq and Turkey. (Source: dpa, 22.09.02)
 

 
Dear Readers,
IMK e.V. in cooperation with the Medizinischen Flüchtlingshilfe Bochum is to carry out a series of events on the theme of “Trauma and Treatment”. The first event is to take place on 21st September 2002 in Cologne. The complete programme is available on our Website..

The programme is also available on the weekend conference on “Kurds in Iraq and Turkey – their future between Agas, Sheiks and oil multinationals” from 6.12. until 08.12.2002, in the Ev. Akademie Bad Boll, Germany. It can also be downloaded from our WEB-Site www.kurden.de.

Call to demonstrate on 12th October in Cologne
The “Platform for Organisations from Kurdistan in Germany- HEVKARI” made up of 18 Kurdish political parties and organisations, call for participation in a demonstration on 12th October 2002 in Cologne. Begin: 12 o’clock at Köln-Ebertplatz
Ends: 1400 at the Roncalliplatz
The call for this event is available on the following web sites:
www.komkar.org or www.kurden.de