Cabinet Reshuffle: Resignations from Interior Minister Tantan and Istanbul’s Chief of Police Abanoz
Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit has forced Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan to resign and has offered him the post as minister for customs’ issues, effectively a massive demotion for Tantan. His “transfer” to the Trade Ministry contradicts promises from Ecevit’s government to deal with widespread corruption. Corruption is seen as one of the key factors in the economic crisis which has led to a 40% devaluing of the Turkish currency in the past two months. The crisis has also resulted in two million Turks losing their jobs.
Tantan’s own party, ANAP, had turned against him after he permitted the police to investigate corrup-tion in the ANAP dominated Energy Mi-nistry and the state pipeline company, BOTAS. This led to resignations and arrests and criticism from the party leadership. Tantan’s replacement is Rüstü Kazim Yücelen, who until now has been responsible for the Turkish TV and radio institute, TRT, and the semi-official news agency, Anadolu AA. His closeness to Mesut Yilmaz is well known. The former minister for customs’ matters, Mehmet Kececiler, is now minister responsible for TRT and AA.
Istanbul’s chief of police, Kazim Abanoz, also resigned one day after Tantan. Abanoz beca-me known as Tantan’s accomplice in the fight against corruption. Last year, he tried to create a 3,000 strong anti-corruption police unit. But the plan was blocked by the government-nominated governor of Istanbul, Erol Cakir. Abanoz played a leading role in last year’s operations against the militant Islamic group, Hizbullah. Hundreds of Hizbullah members were arrested after police had discovered 65 of their vic-tims’ bodies.
The cabinet reshuffle also resulted in the resignation of the minister responsible for priva-tisation, Yük-sel Yalova, who was replaced with the ANAP member of parliament and economic expert, Yilmaz Karakoyunlu. (Sources: ap, 07.06.01; TDN 06.06.01)
 

Sezer Requests Party Law Amendments
In a message to a parliamentary symposium on political party and election laws, president of state Ahmet Necdet Sezer pointed out that in every democratic society, the regime was based on basic rights and freedoms. He said that democracies were regimes which gave the widest scope for these rights and freedoms to be practiced and which guaranteed them through rules and principles. He fur-ther said that it was difficult for political parties which do not practice democracy themselves, to pro-mote the democratisation of a state.
At the symposium, Justice Minister Prof. Hik-met Sami Turk called for the hurdle for entry to parlia-ment to be reduced from 10% to 5%. 
In his speech, the leader of the Parliamentary Union, Zeki Celiker, called for an end to the practice of party closures through court orders. (Source: TDN, 08.06.01)
 

Excellent “Image Lobby” for the EU
“Turkey has made a contract with the lobbying company, WMP Eurocom, to counter German resis-tance which may block the way for Turkish entry to the EU. A member of the company board is former foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who has in the past been against our efforts towards mem-bership. Among the advisers to the company are Klaus Naumann, Karl Otto Pohl former head of the German Central Bank, the author Peter Scholl-Latour, and the former head of the public TV broad-caster ZDF, Klaus Bresser. WMP Eurocom was founded by a group of journalists who had worked for the Bild newspaper. Thanks to their efforts, Turkey will be able to create a new image for itself and counter anti-Turkish policies, particularly in Germany.” (Source: Hürriyet, 04.06.01) 
 

Party Commission Reach Agreement on Constitutional Amendments In respect of Death Penalty and Kurdish Lan-guage
The Party Commission, concerned with amending the 1982 constitution, has made progress by reach-ing agreement on questions of the death penalty and the Kurdish language.
The death penalty would, in the main, be abolished but, following pressure from the MHP, crimes of “terrorism” would remain an exception. That means that the death penalty would continue to be al-lowed for terrorist acts. With this exception, the MHP has ensured that the death penalty may remain valid for Abdullah Öcalan.
Expression of opinion in Kurdish will no longer be considered an offence. Directives from a European human rights agreement, concerning freedom of expression, will also be included in the amendment proposal. However, this freedom will be limited if it endangers the unity of the state and nation. Ex-pression may be made in any language, including Kurdish. (Source: TDN, 07.06.01)
 

Turkish Government Decide Against Internet Censorship
The governing coalition have, at the last minute, omitted controversial regulations from the planned media law concerning control of the internet. Amongst the regulations was the requirement for provid-ers of web sites to obtain permits from the authorities, and to inform the state prosecutor of any changes to their web sites. Foreigners would have only been able to set up web sites in Turkey with permission from both foreign and interior ministries. 
These regulations had been severely criticised. Even the head of the broadcasting council RTÜK, Nuri Kayis, was against them.
The media law passed by parliament still addresses the Internet: the Internet remains subject to exist-ing press regulations against slan-der and disinformation. Turkish authorities argue that the Internet could be used by political extremists for activities against the state. Penalties of up to $85,000 are planned. (Sources: ap, afp, 07.06.01)
 

Mine Clearance Project Provides Hope For a Better Future
An 85 km² stretch of mined land between Antakya and Silopi is to be cleared, with the land then being distributed amongst local people. The head of the agricultural association in Nusaybin, Nizamettin Basak, greeted the project and said that the region was very fertile and that the distribution of 306,000 hectares of land would provide income for more than 30,000 families. Basak requested that the land be distributed at a zero price, otherwise only the rich would benefit and not the poor, who really need it. Bedhirhan Dinler, the head of the agricultural association in Kiziltepe, added that non-landowners have high expectations for when the clearance project ends. He said, “Poverty in our district will be alleviated with the ending of the project. The land is very fertile and hasn’t been touched in years. If the land is passed onto the locals, they would be able to contribute to the country’s economy”. (Sources: afp, 09.06.01; TDN, 11.06.01)
 

IHD Report on Expelled People
Following a meeting in Van with expelled people and a tour through forcibly cleared villages, the Hu-man Rights Association (IHD), the Human Rights Foundation (TIHV), the Organisation for Cultural and Social Aid for Expelled People (GÖCDER) and other Turkish non-governmental organisations, as well as political parties including HADEP, came to the following conclusions:
The forced evacuations from villages in south-eastern Turkey began at the beginning of the 1990s and continued through to 1999. This resulted in the forced expulsion of up to 3 million people from over 3,700 communities. The report stated that following 16 years of conflict with the PKK, many villages had been razed to the ground and thousands of hectares of woodland had been burnt down. The re-gion’s entire infrastructure had been destroyed– streets, electricity, water supply. Farming on the plains was forbidden and empty houses had been destroyed by village guards.
The report also referred to the threats and ob-stacles experienced by villagers who wanted to return to their homes. This included mine fiel-ding and the general attitude of the security forces.
The application form to return to a village con-tains a statement saying that the applicant had been expelled by terrorists. The applicant is forced to acknowledge this statement. They must also guaran-tee that they will not make any claim for compensation against the state. The report is a breach of a constitutional right.
The report recommends that voluntary return to the villages is made possible, providing a free choice of location. It demands compen-sation for the loss of land and material goods resulting from forced expulsion. It further demands guarantees that those returning will be helped with food, housing, work, health provision and education. Material and technical support should also be made available.
The report considered that aid programmes from province and district governors were hop-elessly inadequate and must be improved to meet requirements. Equipment required for bee-keeping, animal rearing and tobacco plantations needs to be made available.
The organisation calls for an end to the system of village guards. The state should work together with NGOs to create an atmosphere of trust and work opportunities. They were critical that security forces not only distrusted those wanting to return, but also those who were active in trying to finding a solu-tion to the problems.
The organisations also stated in the report that the delegation had been under constant observation and had been subject to excessive sear-ches at the meeting and during the tour. Their notes had been seized and they had personally been badly treated. The villagers they had visited had been subjected to raids by security forces both before and after the visits. Numerous attempts to have talks with the governor of Van had been resisted. (Source: TDN, 01.06.01)
 

120 Arrested For Alleged Propaganda in Support of the PKK
Numerous cultural, sporting and other activities from HADEP continue to be hindered. A recent football tournament in Van had been obstructed, as well as a youth festival in Adiyaman. The most recent case was the arrest of 120 people, 95 of whom were amateur footballers, at a football tournament by  the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party (HADEP) in the southern Turkish town of Adana. They were accused of distributing separatist propaganda at the “Peace and Brotherhood Tournament”. The tournament had also not been authorized, said Adana’s state prosecutor. HADEP claim that notifica-tion of the event had previously been made and that events of this kind, according to the political party law, required no special authorization.
117 people were eventually  released following a hearing before the State Security Court in Adana for violating Article 18 of the Anti-Terror Law. (Sources: Evrensel, 10.06.01; dpa, 11.06.01; Cumhuriyet, 12.06.01)
 

Hunger Strikes: No End in Sight Despite Numerous Appeals and Interventions
Despite many appeals and interventions by foreign politicians, still no end is in sight to the 7-month long hunger strikes. The government is still not willing to make any concessions in their prison reforms or to any of the prisoners’ demands. 
The prisoners appear determined not to ease up on their demands. Meanwhile, 24 hunger strikers have now died. According to the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), Veli Günes is amongst the dead. He was a member of the Revolutionary Peoples Freedom Front (DHKP-C) and had been trans-ferred from prison into a clinic but had refused any medical treatment. Those still alive are completely emaciated, they suffer from memory loss, loss of consciousness and sense perception and have de-composing wounds to their bodies.
International groups have persistently, but unsuccessfully, attempted to mediate between the state and the prisoners.
In a letter to the members of the Turkish National Assembly on 8.6.2001, 70 members of the German Bundestag, made up of the majority of political parties (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, PDS, SPD and CDU), appealed for a quick and peaceful solution to the hunger strikes in Turkish prisons. Amongst other things, they pointed out the duty of care every state has towards its citizens, even when they are in prison serving sentences for political or terrorist offences. “Your parliament’s amendment to para-graph 16 of the Anti-Terror Law and the decision concerning prison ombudsmen, have apparently not achieved the desired aim. It remains to be seen whether the decision planned for this week on intro-ducing a prison advisory board will be better received. It is not about whether or not the new F-Type prisons correspond to European standards. It seems to be more about the fear of isolation detention which will be possible in the new prisons and which is making an immediate end to the hunger strikes difficult. It has been reported within the European public that isolation detention means prisoners will be at the mercy of prison staff. There are reports that this has already been the case in the F-Type prisons. In view of the fact that torture and abuse – against which, as we are aware, you have made strong efforts - is unfortunately still being practised in Turkey, the prisoners’ fears should not be com-pletely rejected. Medical experts have reported that isolation detention is a form of torture. [...] We appeal to you to therefore again work towards a solution together with medical and legal experts and official human rights activists; a solution which would exclude the need for anymore blood to be spilt.”
The Turkish parliament passed legislation on 14.6.2001 giving observers access to the prisons.  These government-nominated observers are to monitor conditions within the prisons. However, their inspection reports may only be made available to the public with permission from the authorities.
The efforts have also been in vain of a delegation from the Turkish-European Parliamentary Commis-sion from 5-6-2001 to 8.6.2001. Under the leadership of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the dele-gation visited the Istanbul-Bayrampasa prison and the Kandira F-type prison. They spoke with all hunger strikers except for Oya Acan, whose was in too poor a condition. A second group, under the leadership of the former European parliament’s rapporteur for Turkey, Johannes Swoboda, visited the children’s prison in Keciöran, Ankara. The current European parliamentary rapporteur for Turkey, Alain Lamassoure, was also part of the delegation. 
At a press conference in Ankara on 8.6.2001, Swoboda revealed that the prisoners did not want a return to the old dormitory-style prison system. But they did complain about the limited possibilities for social activities and reported their fear of isolation detention. The European parliament member, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, suggested possible solutions at the press conference. He indicated that around 9,000 of the political prisoners alone were imprisoned only because of their thoughts and should be released. Cohn-Bendit also called for an end to the repression of civil organisations for their stance towards the hunger strikes and further said, “We believe that dialogue is required between the prison-ers’ spokespersons and the government. The government must make efforts to enter into dialogue with the leaders. Of course, the prisoners have to respond by suspending their hunger strikes. The present situation does not necessitate more deaths”. (Sources: German Bundestag Press Statement, 08.06.01; dpa, 15./17.06.01; Radikal, 09.06.01). 
 

European Court of Human Rights Rules Against Turkey in 131 Cases Out Of 141
Following a question from an FP member of the Turkish parliament on cases brought before the ECHR concerning Turkey, the deputy prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, revealed that court has fined Tur-key sums totalling 4.5 million Pounds Sterling, 706,000 US-Dollars, 8 million French Francs and 60,000 German Marks. Yilmaz further said that the court had ruled against Turkey in 131 cases out of 141. The proven cases mainly concerned expulsions or the burning down of villages, torture, disap-pearances, abuse, arrest, length of custody, freedoms of opinion and speech, fairness of court trials, decisions from the general staff, closures of political parties and the violation of freedoms of assembly.
In the meantime, Turkey has paid 582 897 US Dollars, 7 839 610 French Francs, 1 568 883 Pounds Sterling, 57 639 German Marks and 11 billion 633 400 Turkish Lira. Turkey still has to pay 2 896 514 Pounds Sterling, 123 520 US Dollars and 75 000 French Francs. (Source: AA, 08.06.01)
 

Turkey For Dialogue with Baghdad Differences With Washington on Policy to Iraq
Turkey has reacted with extreme reticence to the British-American plan of “intelligent sanctions” against Iraq. Prime minister Ecevit suggested dialogue with Baghdad, to American defence minister Rumsfeld. 
Before his arrival in Ankara on 4.6.2001, Donald Rumsfeld said that Turkey was “a close friend and true ally of the USA”. Turkey has had a significant role in the Pentagon’s strategic planning, having mutual borders with unstable countries within the middle east, the Caucasus and the Balkans. In nego-tiations with Turkey, Rumsfeld raised politically sensitive questions such as the implementation of the London/Washington planned so-called intelligent sanctions against Iraq, as well as the inclusion of Turkey in a new missile defence system. According to press reports, this system would be developed jointly with the USA, Turkey and Israel and installed in the south east of Turkey as defence against Iraqi and Iranian missiles.
Rumsfeld stated that Washington’s desire to upgrade US military installations in Turkey was because Baghdad might possess weapons of mass destruction and was therefore “very dan-gerous”. However, this time round, his frequent referrals to the “evil Saddam Hussein” fell on deaf ears in Ankara. Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit took the view that the international community should not keep Iraq at a dis-tance but rather include them, through dialogue, in a process of democratisation. Ecevit made it clear that his government were not enthusiastic on any British/American plan to introduce “intelligent sanc-tions”.
The former Turkish foreign minister, Mümtaz Soysal, said that the USA and Turkey have now taken diametrically opposed positions concerning the Iraqi question. According to Soysal, it has been a con-stant within Turkish foreign policy for Ankara to maintain good relations with Baghdad, irrespective of whether “a king, a democratic regime or a bloody dictator” held power. Soysal said that Baghdad had been Turkey’s most important trading partner for decades. Iraq had supplied the country with oil and had worked closely with Ankara on the Kurdish issue. This tradition was first broken by Turgut Özal in 1991. Özal, who was prime minister at the time, unconditionally allied Turkey to the west at the out-break of the Gulf War in 1991. He promised his country’s citizens that every Lira Turkey lost then would be doubled after the war. Ten years following the war, Turks are weary of Özal’s prophecy.
Turkey reopened its embassy in Baghdad last year, much to Washington’s disappointment. Ankara would basically welcome the lifting of all UN sanctions. This change of course has economic and po-litical origins. Prime minister Ecevit told his guest from Washington that because of the sanctions, Turkey had suffered economic losses of 35 billion dollars over the past decade. The recent decision in Baghdad to cut back oil exports could lead to an increase in the global price for crude oil which would have negative influences on a fragile Turkish economy, already severely weakened by a financial cri-sis. Furthermore, according to Ecevit the political after-effects of the war, such as the creation of an independent Kurdish entity in northern Iraq and the economic weakening of Kurdish inhabited south eastern Turkey, could be disastrous for Turkey in the long term. The Turkish government have again recently stated loudly and clearly that the declaration of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq would be Causus Belli for Turkey. (Source: NZZ, 06.06.01)
 

New Turkish Regulations Restrict Trade in Southern Kurdistan
The Turkish government have recently introduced new restrictions on Turkish citizens who wish to travel into southern Kurdistan over the Habur border crossing. Turkish traders and vis-tors will be pre-vented from crossing the border to Iraq unless they have paid for a travel permit from the Iraqi Em-bassy in Ankara. Such travel restrictions, and the financial costs attached to them, will severely limit trade in southern Kurdistan and reduce earnings. In previous years, there has been practically no re-strictions on cross-border trading. 
Because relations have improved between Turkey and Iraq, this ruling has to be seen as an act against the Kurds and the Iraqi opposition.
Foreign Minister Ismail Cem revealed that a further border crossing would be opened within the next two years. This new crossing would act like a “bypass” through Kurdish controlled regions, enabling direct trade with Iraq.
Southern Kurdish officials believe that Turkey want to reduce Kurdish income from the oil tra-de be-cause they fear that Iraqi Kurds are moving towards independence. (Source: Kurdistan Observer, 13.06.01)
 

International Appeal to Save Political Prisoner in Iran
In a letter to Maurice Copithorne, UN special envoy for human rights, the organisation SMCCDI (Stu-dent Movement Coordination Committee For Democracy In Iran) appealed to him to take up the case of the political prisoner Ezzatollah Sahabi (75), author of the monthly newspaper “Iran-e-Farda” (Iran of Tomorrow) who is at risk of death. 
Sahabi has spent the last 6 months in solitary confinement in Prison No. 59 of the Revolutionary Guards, with no evidence against him or any judicial explanation for the reasons for his detention. In January, he had been sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for participating in a conference.
He has been refused the right to see his wife or children. He has been subjected to severe physical and emotional torture by Saeed Emami’s torture gangs. The administering of mind altering drugs has seriously damaged his health. Contradictory reports of a heart attack and his death was cause for great concern for students and the public.
SMCCDI inform the public worldwide of political prisoners at risk of death, and request immediate intervention through the dispatch of investigators. They have called on the world community to in-crease pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran so that human rights are respected and that all politi-cal prisoners may be released. (Source: Student Movement Coordination Committee For Democracy In Iran, 6 June 2001)
 

Amnesty International Urgent Action for Baki Yas
Baki Yas (32) has been abused and tortured in detention. He has apparently been beaten and held in a windowless cell. In Amnesty International’s opinion, such prison conditions amount to abuse.
Amnesty International has learnt that Baki Yas, who has been in prison since 1994 for being associ-ated with a banned organisation, has been held since April 2001 in a small window-less cell. The key-hole and a small hole in the cell wall have been blocked-up to prevent any communication with other prisoners. Baki Yas is not allowed into the prison yard, nor is he allowed to receive letters from his family. Amnesty International are of the opinion that such conditions represent deplorable, inhuman and degrading treatment and that Baki Yas is at risk of physical or mental harm. Such treatment vio-lates the ban on abuse contained within the United Nation’s basic articles concerning the treatment of prisoners, and the UN’s list of principles for the protection of persons subjected to any form of deten-tion or imprisonment.
Baki Yas is being held in a prison in the province of Tekirdag. The prison is one of the controversial F-type prisons where prisoners are held in small cells and not in the old-style dormitory type cell. Prior to his transfer to Tekirdag in March of this year, Baki Yas was held in another F-type prison in the prov-ince of Edirne. He had been taken to Edirne after security forces had stormed the prison in which he was being held, in December 2000. 
In connection with the security forces action against the hunger strikers, 30 prisoners and 2 gen-darmes lost their lives (see also UA 385/00 from 20.12.2000). During his transfer to Edirne, Baki Yas was, according to reports, brutally beaten and had his hair ripped out. According to his family, who had seen him following the transfer, Baki Yas had darkly coloured injuries to his face. He has since then been beaten again because he did not cooperate in a roll-call. He has also been subjected to the method of torture known as “falaka”, whereby prisoners are beaten to the soles of their feet.
In 1999, Baki Yas was sentenced 2 years isolation detention by the state security courts in Ankara. However, the authorities have only just begun to implement the punishment. According to reports, Baki Yas spends 15 days at a time in isolation detention without any contact to the outside world. On the 16th and 17th days he may see a doctor, his lawyer and his family. He is then held for a further 15 days in isolation. Recent information reveals that Baki Yas has joined the prisoner hunger strikes against the F-type prisons, in protest at his own treatment. Since then, his state of health has apparently seri-ously worsened.

Background: According to reports, prisoners who were transferred to the new F-type prisons during the storming of Turkish prisons in December 2000, had been beaten and tortured. Amnesty Interna-tional consider that the isolation cells in the new prisons amount to treatment which is deplorable, in-human and degrading and enable abuse and torture to take place. 
Article 16 of the Turkish Anti-terrorism Law, concerning detention in isolation, was amen-ded in May of this year to allow prisoners access to communal areas within the prison. Amnesty International wel-comed this amendment, but expressed their concern to the authorities that the prison authorities would be given such wide discretionary powers limiting implementation of the law. Amnesty demand that conditions in the prisons come into line with international standards and the recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, which requires that prisoners should spend at least 8 hours per day outside their cells, with a variety of meaningful activities being available to them.

Recommended Action
Write, Fax or Airmail in which you
· Declare your concern on the reports that Baki Yas is being tortured in prison and is being held in conditions which amount to abuse.
· Demand that Baki Yas should no longer be held in isolation, that he should not be abused or tortured, that he is guaranteed access to his family and lawyer, and that he receives all necessary medical treatment.
· Declare your concern on reports that Baki Yas was abused and tortured during his transfer to the Edirne prison, as well as in the prison itself in Edirne and in the prison in Tekirdag (F-type).
· Demand that the accusations of abuse and torture should be the subject of an independent inquiry whose outcome would be made public and whose aim would be to investigate those responsible and to bring them before a court of law.
· Urge the lifting of isolation detention imposed on Baki Yas in 1999, or that it be converted to a reprimand corresponding to international standards.
· Demand an end to isolation detention and request the authorities to guarantee that prisoners can spend at least 8 hours per day outside of their cells in accordance with the requirements of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment.
· Request that an inquiry be set up into the deaths and injuries that took place in the storming of the prisons in December 2000, and that the outcome of such would be made public, and to bring before a court anyone re-sponsible for human rights abuses.
· Urge stricter monitoring of prisons by human rights observers, doctors and law-yers, to verify whether they comply with Turkish law and international standards for the dignified treatment of prisoners.

Write to:
Justice Minister Prof. Hikmet Sami Türk, Ministry of Justice, 06659 Ankara, Republic of Turkey, Tele-fax: (00 90) 312-418 5667; (00 90) 312-417 3954
Minister of the Interior Rüstü Kazim Yücelen, Interior Minstry, 06644 Ankara, Republic of Turkey, Tele-fax: (00 90) 312 418 1795
Mr. Ali Suat Ertosun, Head of Penal Institu-tions, Ministry of Justice, 06659 Ankara, Republic of Tur-key, Telefax: (00 90) 312 425 4819
Copies to: The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, Rungestr. 9, 10179 Berlin, His Excellency Mr. Osman Taney Korutürk, Telefax: 030-2759 0915; E-Mail: turk.em.berlin@t-online.de
Please write as soon as soon as possible in English or German. Because the information on Urgent Actions can quickly become outdated, we would ask you not to send any further letters after 19th July 2001. (Sources: UA 145/01, ai-Index: EUR 44/037/2001, 07.06.01)
 

Right to Stay for Stateless Kurds from Lebanon!
In the German District of Northeim and Elsewhere!
Many families, who have lived in the district of Northeim for up to 16 years, have faced the prospect of deportation to Turkey since the beginning of the year. A total of 110 people are affected by deportation plans from the district authorities, many of them children and adolescents who have either been born or who have grown up in Germany, have gone to school there or are already working, and for whom deportation would be a catastrophe – irrespective to which country.
The families, who fled to Germany from the Lebanon in the 1980s, are accused of having Turkish ori-gin and of having “obtained” residency by providing false identities. In a malicious public attack, they have been accused by the local authorities of “abuse of asylum” and “benefit fraud”. There was talk of “large-scale fraud” and “a loss” to the district of Northeim of “at least 6 million German Marks”. 
The families now face disaster only because refugees do not have the same kind of travelling privi-leges as diplomats. 
The ancestors of the families fled to the Lebanon in the mid 1920s, following the founding of the Turk-ish Republic. They lived there mainly as stateless people without citizens rights or passports. Threat-ened with the Lebanese civil war in the mid 1970s, the descendants of these families were again forced to flee. Some fled directly to Germany, others through Turkey. They could obtain Turkish pass-ports there with which to continue their flight and legally travel into western Europe. On arrival, some applied for asylum under their Arabic names as stateless Lebanese, and were rejected. Others who had been able to obtain passports in Tur-key, applied for asylum firstly using their Turkish names. They later made applications under their “true” Arabic names under which they had lived in the Leba-non. None of the families had ever obtained double social security benefits – which the accusations of social fraud have suggested.
Now that all attempts have failed to deport the stateless Kurds as Lebanese to the Lebanon, the Ger-man authorities have resorted to playing the “Turkish card”:
· they are to face disaster because they used Turkey as a transit point in their flight from the nightmare of a civil war, and had obtained documentation there only as a means to make further travel possible.
· unreliable entries in Turkish registers are to be used as evidence of their Turkish origin. To enable deporta-tion to Turkey, the Northeim authorities are pasting new names onto the families and changing their dates of birth.
A research trip by the families’ lawyer and an employee from the Hildesheim district authorities, who had participated in the trip at the suggestion of Lower Saxony’s Interior Ministry, revealed that the registers provided little information on state citizenship and nothing on the actual origins of those regis-tered. Furthermore, a reform of the Turkish registration system was demanded a few months ago by the minister responsible, because it was known that a mass of fictional entries had been made. Whole districts and streets were invented by localities in order to obtain increased subsidies based on the numbers of registered persons. One locality had registered three times the number of actual people living there.Those responsible are as disinterested in these facts as in the families’ explanations, pa-pers and documents which prove their Lebanese origin. Turkish citizenship has still not be proven. The only important thing is to deport them – no matter where.
In a similar way, there are many thousands of stateless, civil-war refugees from the Lebanon in many German cities and districts who are being threatened with deportation, e.g. in Bremen, Essen, Diep-holz, Berlin…..there are estimates of up to 30,000 stateless Lebanese refugees in Germany who could be at risk of mass deportations. They are all mainly children and young adults who have either been born in Germany or who travelled as children to Germany with their parents 10 or 15 years ago. They are at risk of being reduced to a life of misery in Turkey, of being excluded because they do not speak Turkish and of being sent to a region where they will not be able to find any kind of starting point. 
The Northeim families are being subjected to ever increasing repression. Because of racist regulations concerning German asylum applicants, their stay in Germany is being turned into hell:
· Their residency permits have been with-drawn, effectively meaning a ban on working
· Social benefits for the families have been drastically cut. They no longer receive cash, only vouchers which can only be used in certain shops and for certain goods
· Financing has been stopped for children with learning difficulties attending special schools. They only have access to “essen-tial medical care”
· Continual police surveillance of some families leave them in constant fear; child-ren do not feel safe to leave their homes
In respect of the planned mass deportations in Northeim and elsewhere we demand the right to stay for the Lebanese refugees.
Because of racist special laws, we stand together with the refugees in their protest against state ra-cism and for their dignified treatment. (Aufruf der AK Asyl Göttingen, AK Solidarische Welt Göttingen, Antiras-sismusplen. Göttingen, 08.06.01)
 

Gene Testing on Refugees was Unlawful
The Data Protection Authority in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia considered it unlawful to use genetic finger printing in estab-lishing the origin of refugees. The was the view taken by Dr. Dieter Deiseroth from the offices of the Data Protection Authority, at a recent podium discussion on the sub-ject of “Refugee Policies in Essen”. Essen’s state prosecutor had taken saliva samples from around 40 people because the Foreigners Authority had doubts concerning their claims of being Lebanese refu-gees. Deiseroth severely criticised this practice, which had made headlines throughout the country: “It has not been shown that molecular genetic investigation can prove nationality”. Similarities in geno-type can not reveal the country from which the people came, people in this case who have for the past year been under the general suspicion of having concealed their true identities by using forged docu-ments or by not supplying all information. 
Around a year ago, such alleged “severe breaches of German foreigner laws” were for Ludger Hinsen, head of the German public affairs offices, grounds enough to speak of a “massive asylum scandal” with social benefit fraud amounting to “losses in the millions”. The Essen Foreigners Authority then used saliva tests on the “alleged” Lebanese to corroborate Hinsen’s as yet non-proven accusations. On a petition from the state prosecutor, Essen’s District Court gave the necessary permissions to do the tests which, according to the Data Protection Office, were not in line with recent directives from the Federal Constitutional Courts.
Because court orders for gene tests and house searches “impinge on the basic right to self-determination”, there is a requirement to submit a detailed and case specific argument with relevant evidence. The Data Protection Authority in Düsseldorf considered that the state prosecutor and District Court had not fulfilled this requirement. The actions of Essen’s Foreigners Authority was not at fault in respect of data protection. However, Deiseroth stated clearly that the authority “had been active” in the case, “which it hadn’t had to be”.
The Data Protection Authority wish to make public further details of their investigations and to make the results available to the Land par-liament in Düsseldorf. It remains to be seen whether the events in Essen will become a case for the Justice Ministry.
Dieter Deiseroth has recommended that those affected by such dubious methods of investi-gation, take immediate legal action. The lawyer Eberhard Haberkem said that they intended to do so. He represents many of the Essen refugees, and spoke of “ruthless persecution by the backward thinking Foreigners Authority….which even affects the new-born”.
Prof. Michael Krummacher from Essen’s Technical College, called on the Essen City Administration to use its playing-room in respect of data protection, “in a humane way”. (Source: NRZ, 06.06.01)
 

Kurdish Exodus from South Kurdistan Continues
The Kurdish exodus continues from South Kurdistan. Greek coast guards recently arres-ted 134 illegal immigrants and 3 Greek traffickers near the Kykladen island of Naxos in the Aegean. According to Greek radio, there were mainly Kurds originating from Iraq on board the Greek tug coming from Tur-key.
A total of 430 refugees, mainly Kurds, also recently landed on the southern Italian coast. The har-bourmaster at Crotone in Calabria said that there were many women and children, including a 1-month old baby, on board the 30m long boat. The refugees were taken to a nearby reception camp. Initial inquiries reveal that they had paid around 5,800 German Marks per person for the crossing. According to reports, the boat had been underway from Turkey for a number of days. The refugees were appar-ently in good health.
At least 7 people have drowned in the Aegean attempting to cross from Turkey to Greece. According to a Greek radio broadcast on 15.6.2001, there was an unsuccessful search for at least 3 missing people. A further 59 illegal immigrants and a Greek trafficker could rescue themselves on rocks east of the Kykla-den island of Mykonos. Following engine damage, the traffickers speed boat became wreck-ed in strong winds.
In Italy, a newspaper has published for the first time a photo of the wreck of a ship that sunk during Christmas 1996 resulting in the deaths of more than 280 Asiatic refugees. “La Republica” reported that the “largest graveyard in the Mediterranean” is located at a depth of 108m between Malta and Sicily and contains dozens of skeletons. The tragedy happened as the people on aboard attempted to trans-fer to a smaller wooden vessel so that they could be landed on the Italian coast. (Sources: afp, 05.06.01; dpa, 10./15.06.01)