Kurdish Oppression On The Rise.
Since the attack in December 2011 on the Roboski village in the Kurdish area of Turkey where 34 civilians were killed no proper investigation has taken place and the government has imposed a ban on media reporting of the massacre. They have refused the demands of the families for a proper investigation and their excuse is that the more the issue is discussed the more PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan-Kurdistan Workers’ Party) can take advantage from the situation. But who is taking advantage of the situation?
On his way to Pakistan the Turkish Prime Minister gave his longest explanation on the massacre, “I heard of the operation immediately, I don’t have direct connections with the attack, overall responsibility is with the general commander. Our armed forces have genuinely done their duty. There could be a mistake, we have explained this mistake, made an apology, but some people are exploiting the situation, if its compensation then it will be paid, more than formal compensation has been paid.” Essentially he is saying that we killed people by mistake, we have apologised, paid a lot of compensation, so now what else is there to do!
Writing is terrorism for Turkish government
However the government is capable of arresting many people without any evidence or proof. One example is Cihan Kirmizigul. Cihan was a student at Galatasaray University, studying industrial engineering. In 2010 he was detained on the grounds that he threw a Molotov cocktail in Istanbul and that he is a member of the PKK.
{module Propaganda 30 anos}There was no evidence and the only ‘proof’ the police had was a secret witness who said that the perpetrator was wearing a posu (a scarf also known as a keffiyeh). Cihan was at a bus stop wearing a posu that day. He was detained for 25 months before being tried and then sentenced to 11 years and 3 months.
Another example is Muge Tuzcuoglu, a respected anthropologist and a writer, who has been arrested. She originates from the Black Sea but moved to Diyarbakır after the murder of Ugur Kaymaz, a twelve-year-old, by the police on November 21, 2005. She wrote a book about the children who resist and throw stones, Ben Bir Tasım ‘I’m a stone.’
She was arrested under the Anti-Terror Law, on grounds that she attended training workshops organized by the BDP (Barıs ve Demokrasi Partisi-Peace and Democracy Party) and her presence at two public demonstrations in support of Kurdish rights allegedly link her to the PKK.
These examples are unfortunately not exceptions. According to the Minister of Justice Ergin, as of January 31, 2,824 students are being held in Turkish prisons and there are many intellectuals and journalists who are imprisoned for expressing their views in opposition to the government.
These arrests have aroused a wave of protests throughout the country as well as in the US, France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.
We call on the student and trade union movement in Britain support these protests, release all these prisoners!
