1 December 2005

1. "Situation in Southeast Still Tense", Mazlumder's Bilgen thinks that the officials use the demonstrations to cover up the Semdinli bombings, reporter Selek conveys the people's demand for a civilian investigation commission and according to columnist Magden the state of emergency continuies.

2. "Turkish soldiers arrested in probe into bomb attack", Turkish authorities have arrested two soldiers in a high-profile probe into a bomb attack widely blamed on members of the security forces in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.

3. "Abdullah Ocalan: I congratulate the people of Semdinli", the lawyers of the Kurdish national leader Abdullah Ocalan were on Wednesday able to meet their client for the first time since July 1. Ocalan's lawyers Ibrahim Bilmez, Ömer Günes, Zeynel Degirmenci and Mustafa Eraslan were searched five times in a provocative way by Turkish military officials before they were allowed to meet with Ocalan.

4. "We salute the People’s Resistance", Interview with Cemil Bayik member of KKK Executive Council.

5. "WAR REPORT: Nov. 16 - 26", clashes between Kurdish HPG and Iranian military forces, sabotage attacks on a Turkish military train in Hakkari and Turkish military telecommunication access points in Osmaniye and hot clashes between Turkish military and HPG guerrillas all over Botan, were reported by the HPG Press and Liaison Office (BIM) in communiques between Nov. 16 and Nov. 26.

6. "IHD Diyarbakir head faces charges over Roj-TV interview", Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor's Office files suit against rights group head Demirtas. Demirtas says his statement on channel was a call for peace.


1. - Bianet - "Situation in Southeast Still Tense":

Mazlumder's Bilgen thinks that the officials use the demonstrations to cover up the Semdinli bombings, reporter Selek conveys the people's demand for a civilian investigation commission and according to columnist Magden the state of emergency continuies

HAKKARI / 30 November 2005 / by Tolga Korkut

Rights activists Ayhan Bilgen, deputy head of Solidarity Association for the Oppressed and Human Rights (MAZLUMDER), and journalists Pinar Selek and Perihan Magden, who have been investigating the bombings in Hakkari and the developments that followed, spoke to bianet about their observations.

"The cause-result relationship has turned upside down in Hakkari," said Bilgen. "The incidents at the demonstrations and funerals, and the police's violent intervention are almost being used to cover up the Semdinli bombing."

"Although legally lifted, the state of emergency has been continuing in Hakkari without any interruptions," said Magden. "They are fiddling with people's nerve buttons. The sovereignty of the state official is unbelievable."

On 9 November 2005 at 12.15 pm in the town of Semdinli, in Hakkari province, southeast Turkey, a bookshop (Umut Kitabevi) was bombed, killing one man and injuring others.

The owner of the bookshop and others managed to apprehend the suspected bomber and two other men after the former had got into a car nearby where the two other men were allegedly waiting for him.

In the car were discovered weapons, lists of names of political oppositionists, information about individuals in Semdinli, maps and other documents. The bookshop owner's name allegedly appeared in one list and a plan of his home and workplace were found among other such plans.

After the apprehension of the three by the crowd, it was revealed that two men were members of the security services, with identity cards indicating that they were plainclothed gendarmerie intelligence officers (JIT).

The alleged bomber was subsequently revealed in the press to be a PKK informant (there has been no official denial of this). The three men were escorted away from the scene by police and the alleged bomber detained in relation to the bombing and murder.

Subsequently, as the prosecutor carried out a scene-of-crime investigation, the assembled crowd was fired upon from a car, resulting in the death of one civilian and injury of others. The prosecutor's crime-scene investigation was postponed. A gendarmerie special sergeant has been detained on charges of disproportionate use of force resulting in death.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Justice Minister and Interior Minister have expressed strong determination to uncover all dimensions of this incident and to expend every effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice, with Justice Minister Cicek characterizing the current period in Turkey as being "a period in which incidents do not remain in the dark".

Selek emphasized that the people in Hakkari have no faith in the administration or justice. "There is an unbelievable mistrust," said Selek. "They say 'we don't have faith in the legal process. They want a civilian commission to follow the legal process. They don't want the Semdinli incident to be covered up like Susurluk."

Magden: They are imprisoned in their own territory

"People in Hakkari are very tense because they are scared," said Magden. "When I tell them that they are in a way imprisoned in their own territory, they tell me, 'At least, when you are in prison, you go to sleep at night. We can't sleep. We can't go out in the streets.'" Magden summarizes her observations as follows:

* The state of emergency is legally lifted but continuous searches are being conducted. You have to show your identity card at every point. They register the identity cards to computers.

* They keep extending the permissions for conducting general searches.

* People told me their houses are continuously searched. According to what they say, first masked policemen come and make a mess in the house. Then unmasked police arrive.

* They say that armored tanks have been going out in the streets after midnight for months now. They say military anthems are being played.

Selek: Fear and sense of citizenship goes together

Selek said they met with state officials, witnesses, tradespeople, relatives of the victims. "There is a serious sense of citizenship in Hakkari," said Selek. "People saw the plans of their houses in the documents found in the official vehicle involved in the Semdinli bombing. They saw their names on the list."

"We had a very fruitful meeting with the Hakkari Democracy Platform," she said. The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are in that platform. They work together. The AKP provincial head, for example, was beaten by the police."

Bilgen: Hakkari is a bomb ready to explode

Bilgen stated that the incident should be solved no matter where it will lead. "If the incident is covered up, there will be a serious loss of trust."

"Bulletins are being distributed in the city almost since the end of August. These bulletins state that the revenge of the killed soldiers will be taken. 'The revenge of the martyrs will be taken, their blood will not remain on the floor,' they say."


2. - AFP - "Turkish soldiers arrested in probe into bomb attack":

ANKARA / 29 November 2005

Turkish authorities have arrested two soldiers in a high-profile probe into a bomb attack widely blamed on members of the security forces in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.
The arrest of Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz brings to four the number of suspects in custody after the November 9 bombing of a bookstore owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla in the town of Semdinli, Hakkari province.

Both are gendarmes, members of military units that police rural areas.

An angry crowd almost lynched Kaya, Ildeniz and a third person after the attack on the bookstore, which killed one person.

The third man, who reportedly threw the bomb, was identified as a former Kurdish guerrilla turned informer and was arrested immediately after the incident.

Weapons, hand grenades, a sketch of the shop and a list of people, including its owner, were found in a car in which the three tried to escape after the blast.

A third gendarme officer was arrested for shooting at the crowd and killing another person in the unrest.

The incident triggered deadly riots across Hakkari and proved a serious political embarrassment for the government at a time when it is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to democracy and the rule of law in its bid to join the European Union.

The authorities had drawn criticism particularly for failing to arrest Kaya and Ildeniz immediately after the blast.

The bombing raised questions over whether Turkey has suceeded in purging rogue elements from the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the southeast during the early 1990s, the peak years of a Kurdish rebellion.


3. - DozaMe.org - "Abdullah Ocalan: I congratulate the people of Semdinli":

30 November 2005

The lawyers of the Kurdish national leader Abdullah Ocalan were on Wednesday able to meet their client for the first time since July 1. Ocalan's lawyers Ibrahim Bilmez, Ömer Günes, Zeynel Degirmenci and Mustafa Eraslan were searched five times in a provocative way by Turkish military officials before they were allowed to meet with Ocalan.

Ibrahim Bilmez gave reporters from the Kurdish news agency DIHA a brief interview about the meeting:

"Our client's health issues continues. We could clearly see the swellings on his head which he had mentioned in prior complaints. During our meeting, Mr. Ocalan told us that the stance taken by the people of Semdinli was very important and that everybody must take them as a model. Mr. Ocalan congratulated the peoples of Semdinli, Yuksekova and Hakkari. He also pointed out that the grave isolation conditions he was put under could deepen the already existing conflict," Bilmez told the reporters.

The meeting with Ocalan was supervised and logged by a Turkish official assigned by the Turkish Justice Department.

The lawyers of Abdullah Ocalan had not been allowed to meet their client since July 1 with arbitrary reasons given by Turkish military officials.


4. - Ozgur Gundem - "We salute the People’s Resistance":

Interview with Cemil Bayik member of KKK Executive Council

26 November 2005

What do you have to say to the people of the region about the events that have taken place around and since the Semdinli incident? There are more and more protests everywhere: what is your assessment of the situation?

The people are using their natural rights. They are reacting along democratic lines. We salute the people’s resistance: they want light to be shed on what has happened. It seems that the events will be covered up, and they are marching to prevent this. What could be more natural? But what are the security forces doing? They are showering bullets and bombs on the people. In Yuksekova they are even putting pressure on hospital staff not to treat people who have been injured. Orders have been given to this effect. Threats are being made. The people there had to make the doctors to admit this was happening, and then force them to do their job and treat people. First they are being beaten and injured, then being refused treatment. What traces of humanity are there here, or human rights, or legality? This needs to be appreciated by everybody.

Why do the EU countries say nothing? The forces who are declare that they are behind the state and its policies have been caught red-handed together with the state in the incidents in Semdinli, Yuksekova and Hakkari. That’s very clear.

It is important that the people are not abandoned and left alone. This is a people that has brought all these extra-legal organisations out into the open and is demanding that they be held to account. This is what they are battling for. Nothing could be more natural. The struggle they are waging is a legitimate one, it is a natural and human one. Everybody needs to understand this and show solidarity with the people in Semdinli, Yuksekova and Hakkari. As a human being I call on all our people, in all parts of Kurdistan and outside, to support the people who are risking all these dangers and who are putting their lives on the line for this resistance they have undertaken.

If everyone can join with the people there, the repression and state terror can be stopped. Similar incidents could be prevented in other places in the same way. The people of Semdinli, Yuksekova and Hakkari are paying a high price. But after what has happened here we want to stop future such events before they happen and avoid such a price having to be paid again. If this struggle continues, perhaps such a price will have to be paid again, but perhaps such a severe one can be avoided. There is no other path that will succeed.

Translation from Turkish original by KNK London


5. - DozaMe.org - "WAR REPORT: Nov. 16 - 26":

28 November 2005

Clashes between Kurdish HPG and Iranian military forces, sabotage attacks on a Turkish military train in Hakkari and Turkish military telecommunication access points in Osmaniye and hot clashes between Turkish military and HPG guerrillas all over Botan, were reported by the HPG Press and Liaison Office (BIM) in communiques between Nov. 16 and Nov. 26.

Nov. 16, 2005 - A sabotage attack was carried out by HPG guerrillas on a Turkish military transport train in the Hakkari province close to the border with eastern Kurdistan (northwestern Iran). One carriage was totally destroyed and the train was derailed. There were no human casualties.

Nov. 16, 2005 - A clash between Turkish troops and HPG guerrillas on the 'Shehid Cilo' hill at 07:00 (7 a.m. EET) resulted in one Turkish soldiers being killed and another one wounded.

Nov. 19, 2005 - The HPG female guerrilla Diana Berin (Hevi Hannan) were martyred in a clash with Turkish soldiers in the Besta district of the Sirnak province. The clash occurred at 09:30 (9:30 a.m. EET).

Nov. 20, 2005 - A military vehicle belonging to a Turkish officer was blown up in the Derik district of Mardin. HPG called the attack 'a warning'.

Nov. 21, 2005 - The HPG guerrillas Salar (Ferhat Danis) and Berxwedan were martyred in a clash with Iranian forces close to the Bingol village of Meriwan in eastern Kurdistan (northwestern Iran). Six Iranian Pasdaran soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in the same clash.

Nov. 21, 2005 - HPG guerrillas ambushed at 11:45 (11:45 a.m. EET) a Turkish unit conducting military operations in the Bagok areas of the Mardin province. One Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in the attack.

Nov. 21, 2005 - Two Turkish military telecommunication access points in the Osmaniye province were destroyed in a sabotage attack by HPG guerrillas.

Nov. 25, 2005 - HPG guerrillas attacked around 21:00 (9 p.m. EET) the Idil Turkish police headquarters in the Sirnak province with RPGs. The number of Turkish casualties are yet to be obtained.

Nov. 26, 2005 - HPG guerrillas ambushed a Turkish military vehicle on the road to the Maden brigade in the Sirnak province. Four Turkish soldiers were killed and three soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack.


6. - The New Anatolian - "IHD Diyarbakir head faces charges over Roj-TV interview":

Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor's Office files suit against rights group head Demirtas. Demirtas says his statement on channel was a call for peace.

ANKARA / 30 November 2005

Human Rights Association (IHD) Diyarbakir head Selahattin Demirtas is facing charges for an interview he did with Roj-TV.

Roj-TV has been the subject of debate since Turkey requested that Danish officials ban the Danish-based broadcaster, on the grounds that it had proven links with Kurdish rebels. Earlier this month Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a news conference with his Danish counterpart Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Copenhagen to protest the presence of Roj-TV journalists.

While the live broadcast of the Semdinli bombings on Roj-TV also fueling debates, Republican People's Party (CHP) Hakkari Deputy Esat Canan faced a strong outcry following his interview on the channel.

Diyarbakir Public Prosecutors' Office filed a lawsuit against IHD Diyarbakir branch head Demirtas following his interview with Roj-TV on July 5.

Demirtas made a statement defending himself and said that he made a call for peace in his interview with the channel. "I presented our suggestions for the resolution of the Kurdish problem," Demirtas said, and added that he also said that not allowing imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to meet his attorneys is a violation of human rights.

Stating that he made the same statement to the media in general as he made on the channel the same day, Demirtas claimed that the charges aren't about the content of his speech but were filed because the statement was made on Roj-TV.

Justice and Development (AK) Party Adiyaman Deputy Ahmet Faruk Unsal said on Monday that he made a statement on Roj-TV and that there are many deputies who have conducted interviews with the channel.