27 headless bodies

[Gavur]

New autopsy of German girl murdered in Turkey confirms she was also raped

.c The Associated Press


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A new autopsy report confirmed that an
11-year-old German girl who was killed while vacationing in Turkey
last year was raped and then suffocated, a lawyer for the girl's
family said Thursday.

The new report was issued by the Istanbul judicial medical institution
at the request of a court that is overseeing the case in the southern
town of Alanya after two earlier autopsy reports conflicted.

``The new autopsy report proved our claims,'' lawyer Zafer Kayakiran
said by telephone.

The report said that the girl died after having her nose and mouth
covered, and that she was raped shortly before her death, he said.

An autopsy report from Hanover, Germany, had also said that she was
raped. But an earlier report prepared in Alanya, Turkey, had said
that the marks on her body could have come from the doctors'
post-mortem examinations, and not from rape.

The girl's body was found in a forest near the Mediterranean town of
Alanya in October 2004.

Bulent Gulbay, who owned a clothing shop near her hotel and had a
record of sexually abusing juveniles, was arrested the next day and
later charged with her murder.

Gulbay, who maintains his innocence, has been in prison since his
arrest. He was transferred from the prison where he was initially held
after other inmates attacked and injured him.

The next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 28.



11/10/05 14:05 EST

[Gavur]

What's going on in Şemdinli?

Saturday, November 12, 2005



TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI


Yusuf KANLI
There are serious charges regarding the latest incidents in Şemdinli. We don't want to believe that these charges are true. However, everything we hear points out that some diehard bad habits of the 1980s and 1990s continue to exist in this country despite all the reforms, improvements in democracy and human rights, and the comparative transparency in governance.

We are of the opinion that Turkey is no longer the Turkey in which summary executions can be carried out. We are of the opinion that Turkey is no longer the Turkey in which the Susurluk-style mafia-politics bureaucracy (including security apparatus) “happy triangle” exists. We are of the opinion that, including the struggle against terrorism, the “equality of all before the law” was applied and there were no longer any people in this country “more equal” than others.

It appears we were grossly mistaken. It appears we have underestimated the power and ability of the “dark forces” within the “state system” and have engaged in an early jubilation of the advances achieved in individual rights, democratization and institutionalization of the notion of the supremacy of law.

We are afraid, but it appears that we owe an apology to those critics of Turkey in Europe whom we strongly opposed when they pointed out that Turkey has a long way to go before it can become a truly democratic country where clandestine activities within the state system no longer continue, where and end has been put to corruption, favoritism and nepotism, and where the notion of justice and equality of all before the law is fully respected.

We owe those critics an apology for condemning their criticism as products of prejudice towards this country.

How could it happen?

A shop owner who had served a prison sentence on conviction of membership in the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) gang was killed in a bomb attack in Şemdinli. Local officials and the security immediately forces blamed the incident on the separatist gang. It was presented as if there was some sort of internal feud within the gang and that the shop owner was a victim of a “typical” PKK summary execution.

Later, through initial investigations that were carried out despite obstructions by some local security personnel, it was established (according to reports) that a car registered to a military unit but bearing civilian plates was used in the attack. What else? Three "unidentified" persons detained (two were later released) in connection with the attack were members of a military anti-terror squad.

It smells bad, doesn't it?

But there's more to it. Hand grenades, rifles, materials that could be used in building or defusing bombs and other evidence were found in the car by the investigating prosecutor.

All this happened on Wednesday. The people of Şemdinli revolted, suspecting a Susurluk-type gang might be behind the murder. Police and Şemdinli locals were involved in street confrontations. People attacked a police station.

Then, on Thursday evening, both the interior and justice ministries as well as the Office of the Chief of General Staff ordered a separate probe into the Şemdinli developments. That's a good development, but Parliament should launch a probe into the developments as well.

There are complaints of attempts at a cover-up. We hope that won't be the case and that the plain truth about really what happened in Şemdinli can be disclosed immediately after the investigation is completed. Some people in some key posts in the security network of this country must be responsible for this shameful development, which cannot be condoned on the basis of any explanation.

Despite all our anger over what happened in Şemdinli on Wednesday, however, we can still act in line with the “one failure is often more productive than hundreds of successes” rubric and convert this terrible development into a launching pad for further judicial and security reforms.

Turkey cannot be a country of summary executions and state-sponsored murders.

[Gavur]

Turkish academic commits suicide in prison

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
13 Nov 05

Van [eastern Turkey], 13 November: Yuzuncu Yil University (YYU) Deputy
Secretary-General Enver Arpali, who was under arrest in prison in
southeastern city of Van committed suicide, sources said on Sunday [13
November].

Arpali was arrested and put to jail in Van on 11 July 2005. He
committed suicide by hanging himself today, sources stated.

Arpali and YYU Rector Prof Dr Yucel Askin were staying in the same
ward.

Yuzuncu Yil University Rector Prof Dr Yucel Askin, who was in prison
in eastern city of Van, was hospitalized and actually is in the
intensive care unit, sources said on Sunday. Prof Askin fainted and
was taken to YYU Hospital immediately.

Askin and YYU Deputy Secretary-General Enver Arpali, who committed
suicide by hanging himself today, were staying in the same prison
ward.

[Gavur]

Turkish police may have planted bomb

Irish Times; Nov 12, 2005
Nicholas Birch in Istanbul

TURKEY: Turkey's powerful security forces are at the centre of a
growing scandal as evidence grows that a fatal explosion in the remote
Kurdish town of Semdinli was the work of their own men.

The bomb which killed a shopper in a bookshop on Wednesday was the
16th to go off in Turkey's most southeasterly province in the last two
months.

As they had for the others, the authorities at first blamed the blast
on the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which renewed its
20-year guerrilla war against Turkey last year.

This time, though, locals caught the suspected bomber as he attempted
to get into a car and drive off. Only prompt police intervention saved
him and two other men with him from a lynching.

A search of the car revealed that the three men were members of
Turkey's feared military police intelligence, or Jitem. As well as
identity cards, investigators also found machine guns, a map with the
location of the bookshop outlined in red, and a list of local
notables.

"The bombing was the work of people who stand to gain from a return to
war," said bookshop owner Sefer Yilmaz, voicing a belief widespread
among Kurds that the PKK's new campaign is the work of anti-democratic
forces in the Turkish state.

"It is clear some elements are trying to stir things up here, and the
state must ensure they fail," added local MP Esat Canan, a member of
Turkey's chief opposition party.

The bombing, he added, was "worse than Susurluk". He was referring to
the 1996 scandal that first revealed links between Turkey's
intelligence services and the criminal underworld.

Of the three people killed in a car crash that night, one was a Jitem
officer, another a notorious ultra right-wing gangster carrying two
diplomatic passports signed by the interior minister.

In a documentary released this spring, a former Jitem operative
claimed that 80 per cent of the 600 unsolved assassinations carried
out in southeastern Turkey between 1990 and 1996 were the work of his
organisation.

A parliamentary investigation into Susurluk fizzled out in 1997 after
senior military and civilian leaders signalled they would not
co-operate.

There is a risk the same thing could happen in Semdinli, where the
investigation into the bombing remains shrouded in secrecy.

While the suspected bomber remains in custody, the other two men were
released on Thursday after they told investigators their presence in
the town centre was a coincidence. The news enraged locals, who
barricaded the road leading into Semdinli and set fire to a police
checkpoint.

Security forces responded by opening fire, killing one man and
seriously injuring two others.

Protests spread yesterday to other towns in the mainly Kurdish
southeast.

But Turkey has changed since 1996, one of the darkest years of the PKK
war.

With half an eye on the European Union, which awarded the country
candidate status in October, politicians from all parties show signs
of taking the Semdinli affair very seriously.

"Those responsible for this will pay the price, no matter who they
are," Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan promised yesterday.

He added that a team of investigators from the interior ministry would
be joining two delegations of MPs already in Semdinli.

[Gavur]

Imprisoned university deputy secretary commits suicide

Monday, November 14, 2005


ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Deputy General Secretary Enver Arpalı committed suicide in prison on Sunday. He was imprisoned as part of an ongoing investigation by the Van Prosecutor's Office, concerning corruption claims in a tender contract worth $25 million.

The prosecutor's office began the investigation against Van University Rector Prof. Yücel Aşkın, Deputy Rector Prof. Ayşe Yüksel, Rector's Office General Secretary Işık Tepe, Deputy General Secretary Enver Arpalı and several others on April 5, 2005, accusing them of forming a criminal organization, corruption in an official tender and tampering with documents.

Arpalı was arrested on July 11. It was learned that Arpalı had yet to appear in court, because the prosecutor's office was still investigating the case.

[Gavur]

Masked Kurdish protesters attack police with firebombs in Istanbul

ANKARA (AP):
A couple of hundred Kurdish demonstrators, many wearing masks, set an armored police car on fire in Istanbul on Sunday as tension ran high across the country over allegations of summary executions of supporters of Kurdish guerrillas by Turkish security forces.


Tension is high in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, which has seen violent street protests following allegations that Turkish security forces may have been behind a Nov. 9 bombing targeting a convicted Kurdish guerrilla in the town of Semdinli.

Kurdish protesters, armed with firebombs and rocks, attacked police in Kucukcekmece, an Istanbul suburb, footage from private CNN-Turk and NTV televisions showed.

Police detained 12 demonstrators, who were chanting slogans in support of the imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Similar clashes across the country have killed at least three people and injured 36 people, including a dozen police officers.

The government urged calm and promised to bring those responsible for the Nov. 9 bombing to justice. The allegations of involvement by security forces raised fears they might have been carrying out a summary execution _ common in the early 1990s in the fight against Kurdish rebels _ and prompted the government to investigate.

Authorities have charged three sergeants from the paramilitary police and a PKK informant in the bombing.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people since the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, launched a bitter war for autonomy in 1984.

[Gavur]

Bombing throws spotlight on Turkey's "deep state"

Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:35 AM GMT
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By Gareth Jones

ANKARA (Reuters) - A bombing allegedly carried out by members of the security services has shone a spotlight on Turkey's shadowy "deep state" and raised questions about whether the country's EU-inspired liberal reforms have really tamed it.

The "deep state" is made up of elements in the military, security and judicial establishment wedded to a fiercely nationalist, statist ideology who if need be are ready to block or even oust a government which does not share their vision.

"They believe they act on behalf of the nation and the state and so may sometimes be willing to ignore the law," Semih Idiz, a commentator for CNN Turk private television, told Reuters.

Ankara began its European Union entry talks last month after a flurry of reforms that included greater civilian control of the armed forces after four military coups in 40 years. In their last intervention in 1997, the generals ousted an Islamist government deemed a threat to Turkey's state secularism.

The detention of three members of the security services after the November 9 bombing of a bookshop in the town of Semdinli in Turkey's troubled, mainly Kurdish southeast, reawakened suspicions that the "deep state" is still alive and well.

When prosecutors then freed two of the men, and Yasar Buyukanit, head of Turkey's land forces, described one of them as "a good soldier", the suspicions deepened.

"There are two states (in Turkey)," former President Suleyman Demirel told NTV television, commenting on the bombing and making clear he believed Turkey had not changed very much.

"There is the state and there is the deep state ... When a small difficulty occurs, the civilian state steps back and the deep state becomes the generator (of decisions)."

Though there is no evidence suggesting the involvement of senior military personnel in the Semdinli bombing, diplomats and analysts say the government's ability to bring the bombers to justice will demonstrate just how much Turkey has broken free of the "deep state" and become a more open, transparent society.

LITMUS TEST

"This is a litmus test for Turkey ... because of our European Union candidacy," said Idiz.

The European Commission said in its latest progress report published last week that Turkey had to do more to rein in the military, eliminate torture and boost Kurdish cultural rights.

The government, clearly rattled by allegations that members of the security forces may have taken the law into their own hands, has ordered a full parliamentary inquiry into the Semdinli incident and has urged the public to remain calm.

But angry locals fearing a coverup have clashed daily with police in Semdinli and other towns in the impoverished southeast, chanting pro-Kurdish rebel slogans. Several people have been killed and many more injured in the protests.

"Semdinli is of course in the southeast, near Iraq, so you have the Kurdish issue too to contend with. The "deep state" has always been most visible in that region because it is more lawless and harder for Ankara to monitor," said one diplomat.

Turkish security forces have been battling an armed campaign by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeast since 1984. Violence, strongest in the 1980s and 1990s, has recently increased after the PKK ended a 6-year unilateral ceasefire.

Senior army commanders have complained that the government, in its efforts to bring Turkey into line with EU practices, has prevented them cracking down more effectively on the PKK.

Some Turkish media have speculated that elements in the "deep state" are trying to provoke instability in order to win a freer hand in the southeast. Others see only the hand of the PKK in the Semdinli and the many other bombings in the region.

Adding to the complexity of the situation, the military establishment deeply distrusts Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party because of their roots in political Islam.

William Hale, a veteran specialist in Turkish affairs at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said the Semdinli affair recalled a 1996 scandal which erupted after a car carrying a top policeman, a wanted mobster and a parliamentarian crashed in western Turkey.

The crash pointed to shady links between politicians, police, the military and criminal gangs, but the investigation petered out due, he said, to a lack of political will.

"The difference is that then we had a government only half in control (due to the "deep state"). Now, the government has no excuses. The AKP is a party of outsiders, anti-deep state, even anti-state in some respects," he told Reuters, in an allusion to the government's Islamist leanings.

"Erdogan needs to show the EU that things have changed."



80,000 Kurds in burial ceremony for Kurdish civilians killed by Turkish forces

[Gavur]

'Martyrs are Immortal'

NEWSDESK, Nov 17 (DozaMe.org) - 80,000 Kurds in the city of Gever (Yuksekova) in the Hakkari province of northern Kurdistan joined on Thursday the burial ceremony of three Kurdish civilians killed by Turkish security forces in the city of Gever on Nov. 15. (Pictures with the courtesy of the Kurdish news agencies DIHA and ANF.)

Kurds started to gather in the early hours outside the 'Haci Ubeyt' mosque of Yuksekova, decorating the coffins of the martyred civilians with Kurdish confederation flags and flowers in the colors of red, green and yellow, representing the Kurdish nation. Security was upheld by representatives of different Kurdish NGOs making regular announcements to the participants to fall for the provocations of the Turkish army.

Turkish security forces were not deployed to the ceremony, but three Turkish F-16 fighters flew low over the gathering disturbing the statements and announcement made by the organizers. A number of Turkish Sikorsky and Cobra attack helicopters were also flying or hovering above the gathering. Kurds answered by booing or whistling whenever the Turkish Air Force units flew or hovered over the ceremony.

Slogans such as 'Martyrs are Immortal', 'Long Live Ocalan', 'This is Gever's Plains, Home of the Apocis [PKK sympathizers]' and 'Find the Gangs, Settle the Score', were chanted in Kurdish and Turkish by the participants who had attended from Colemerg (Hakkari), Gever (Yuksekova), Shemzinan (Semdinli), Çukurca, Van, Amed (Diyarbakir), Elih (Batman), Bilis (Bitlis), Mus and Tatvan.

Statements were made by officials from the Kurdish DTP party and by other NGOs before the end of the ceremony.

Schools in Yuksekova, Semdinli and Hakkari were boycotted by students and shop owners in these cities had pulled down their shutters in protest of the attack on Kurdish civilians by Turkish security forces.

[Gavur]

Turkish military suspected of summary executions against Kurds

Prime minister promises to do 'whatever is necessary' after three arrested


Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, November 22, 2005



The Turkish premier assured the restive Kurdish population in Turkey's southeast Monday the government will investigate allegations of summary executions by security forces that have sparked violent protests.

Tensions have escalated in Hakkari province bordering Iraq and Iran since a November 9 bombing blamed by many on members of the security forces. Three members of the gendarmerie, responsible for rural security, were detained in connection with the deadly blast in Semdinli. Six people have since been killed in related protests, sparking renewed concern about the troubled, mainly Kurdish southeast.

The government has demanded a parliamentary inquiry into the bombing and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to the eastern city of Van on Sunday night, traveling to Semdinli town by helicopter on Monday. He was accompanied by Interior Minister Abdel-Qadeer Aksu and Justice Minister Cemil Cicek

"While the legal process is continuing we will monitor it and do whatever is necessary on the administrative front," Erdogan told a crowd of hundreds gathered in a Semdinli street, in an address appealing for national unity.

"Let's be calm in the face of these incidents. Hate will not bring anything good to us. What will happen to this region after then? Let's join our hands and remove this hatred." The government wants to show it is determined to investigate allegations that Turkish security forces may have been behind the November 9 bombing.

The allegations raised fears that security forces might have been carrying out a summary execution, a common practice in the early 1990s in the fight against Kurdish rebels.

The investigation is sensitive because it involves members of the military, one of the most powerful institutions in Turkey. Turkey, meanwhile, has begun EU membership negotiations and must address concerns about the country's human rights record. The EU, which started entry negotiations with Turkey last month, has already been critical of Turkey's poor human rights record. The European Commission recently issued a progress report that said it was still uncovering evidence of torture and ill-treatment of minorities. EU membership negotiations are likely to last at least a decade.

In his speech, Erdogan vowed that all citizens would be free to express their ethnic identity within the limits of Turkish citizenship.

"We all have sub-identities ... no one should be offended by this," Erdogan promised. "A Kurd can say: 'I am a Kurd'. We have to continue living brotherly, shoulder-to-shoulder, no matter what ethnic group we belong or religion," Erdogan said.

That inclusiveness may be the norm in Europe but is a controversial concept in Turkey, where many see ethnicity as having the potential to break apart the nation.

There has been a rising tide of violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast since the PKK called off a six-year unilateral ceasefire last year and resumed its attacks on security and civilian targets.

One man was killed in the bomb attack on a bookstore in Semdinli, a small border town nestled below mountains. Another was shot dead in subsequent clashes with police.

In the nearby town of Yuksekova, three people were killed in a demonstration at the bombing last Tuesday and another was killed in a similar protest a day later in Hakkari.

Highlighting the tensions, around 40,000 people attended the funerals of those killed in Yuksekova and tensions there were further fuelled as Turkish warplanes flew overhead.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in 1984.

One man was killed on Sunday night in clashes between police and protesters in the southern city of Mersin on Sunday at a demonstration against the violence in Hakkari. - Agencies



Transalation Gavur-BTW This question still echoes in this land

If goverment kills people?,our life-security is entrusted to whome?

[Gavur]

TURKISH COMMANDER ORGANIZED "STATE TERRORISM" - KURDISH LEADER

Roj TV, Copenhagen
23 Nov 05

Cemil Bayik, a member of the Koma Komalen Kurdistan [Democratic
Confederation of Kurdistan, KKK] Executive Council, has issued an
important statement in connection with the state terrorism that was
caught red-handed in Semdinli.

Bayik charged: It is Gen Yasar Buyukanit, Ground Forces commander,
who planned and organized these incidents.

Speaking to Firat News Agency, Cemil Bayik said: Yasar Buyukanit
is a person who served as army corps commander in Diyarbakir in the
past. Since then, he has been one of the most active factors in the
war being waged in Kurdistan.

It is he who guides Turkey's policy in this regard.

Bayik recalled that last spring, Buyukanit had said that PKK forces
had crossed the border from Iraq into Turkey, that they had brought a
large amount of C-4 explosives, and that they would probably carry out
terrorist acts with the help of C-4 explosives soon. Bayik explained
that by repeating these allegations, Buyukanit had laid the ground
for accusing the PKK for subsequent attacks.

Bayik said: We received information that Korkut Eken, former head of
the counter guerrilla centre and a person convicted in the Susurluk
case [investigations into a crash in 1996 near the town of Susurluk
involving a car carrying a senior police officer, an organized crime
boss and a beauty queen revealed a conspiracy between state officials
and criminal gangs], has been training, together with confessors and
MHP [Nationalist Action Party] members, certain groups composed of
civilians and civil servants both in Duzce and in Golbasi in Ankara. We
have concrete information that these groups have been trained in the
use of C-4 explosives, on assassinations, and on massacres. We also
know how the explosives were acquired.

Bayik pointed out that the said activities have two basic aims. He
explained: The trained groups were supposed to hit certain Kurds
and the PKK was going to be blamed for that. In preparation, they
published a list of all Kurdish names that the PKK was supposedly
going to hit. This was the foundation of the massacres they were going
to perpetrate. The aim was to create antagonism between part of the
Kurds and the PKK. On the other hand, they were going to isolate the
PKK internationally by carrying out widespread bombings and murders
against civilians and by blaming the PKK for them. Ultimately, they
thought that this would prevent the PKK from being a power for the
solution of the Kurdish problem.

The KKK official charged that by blaming the PKK for many acts
perpetrated by the Turkish state, these circles deceived the Kurds,
the Turks, and the world until today. He added: Nevertheless, our
heroic people have now shown to the world, with documents and the
names of the perpetrators, who really carried out these incidents.

On the EU stand on the assailants, Cemil Bayik referred to the latest
Progress Report. He said: In its last Progress Report, the EU accused
the PKK of being the source of terrorism in Turkey. The Semdinli
incidents and the subsequent murders carried out by the state have
clearly shown who is the real source of terrorism. Consequently, the
EU must now rectify its mistake and apologize to the Kurdish people
and the Kurdish liberation movement.

Bayik also conveyed messages regarding the stand of the Kurdish people
in Semdinli, Yuksekova, and Hakkari in the face of the attacks. He
said: This resistance is one that must be respected. We greet the
resistance. This struggle must be supported in every way; it must not
be abandoned. If this struggle goes on, maybe a price will be paid once
again, but a heavier price will be prevented. There is no other way.