COURT FINDS LEYLA ZANA AND COLLEAGUES GUILTY AGAIN, TO CONSTERNATION OF EU
On 21 April, the Turkish Court again sentenced the four Kurdish ex-Members of Parliament to 15 years imprisonment, at the end of a retrial called for by the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) that had ruled the first trial was “inequitable”. The three judges of the Ankara State Security Court (DGM), where the retrial has been taking place since March 2003, decided unanimously to pronounce an identical sentence to the original trial. This verdict, confirming the 1994 sentence, was immediately condemned by the European Commission, which considered that it could hinder Ankara’s aspirations to E.U. membership.
Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, former Members of Parliament for the pro-Kurdish Party for Democracy (DEP — banned in 1994) were sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment at their original trial in 1994 for alleged “support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)”. However, the sentencing of the four ex-M.P.s in 1994 was strongly condemned in Europe. The first Kurdish woman elected to parliament, Leyla Zana, now 43 years old, became a touchstone, for the European Union, of Turkey’s will to democratise itself, and in particular as a yardstick of its respect for the Kurdish people’s rights. In 1995, the European Parliament had awarded her the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights.

In 2001, the ECHR had criticised the fact that the accused had not be able to bring defence witnesses before the court and that the prosecution had failed to give them notice of fresh charges presented during the first trial. The Turkish Parliament, in the context of the pro-European reforms, has since authorised retrials for people whose original trials had been condemned by the ECHR.

Turkey is hoping, next December for a green light from the European leaders to start negotiating for membership of the E.U. for which it has been a candidate since 1999, and this trial, according to many observers, was intended to be a showcase for its will to democratise itself …

The four “convicts”, incarcerated for the last ten years, are in any case due for release by March 2005. They again boycotted the 14th hearing of their “retrial” by the DGM on 21 April in protest at the inequitable attitude of the judges. The four former M.P.s have, in fact, been boycotting their trial for several months past in protest at the attitude of the State Security Court.

They principal lawyer, Mr. Yusuf Alatas, attacked this new“inequitable” verdict and stated that the defence would be appealing to the Court of Appeals and, if necessary, to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. “The judges acted withprejudices (…)We have been working fruitlessly for the last 13 months” of the trial, at the rate of one hearing per month, declared Mr. Alatas, who considered that this retrial was no more equitable than the previous one. “I must, unfortunately, say that with regret that the European Court will overrule this new verdict, which will be an unprecedented event” he stated.

The European Commission “vigorously deplored” this new condemnation, saying that it undermined Turkey’s application for membership of the European Union. “The Commission vigorously deplores today’s verdict” declared the Commission’s spokesman, Jean-Christophe Filori. The verdict “creates serious concern in the context of the political criteria (of the E.U.) and casts a shadow on the carrying out of political reforms in Turkey” added Mr. Filori. Mr. Filori refuses to evaluate the impact of Leyla Zana’s sentence on the position Brussels would adopt regarding Turkey. “I do not want to speculate on the final evaluation, but it is a factor, amongst others, that will be taken into account in October” he declared during his daily press conference. Questioned on the possibility of the European Union starting negotiations for membership with country that has political prisoners in detention, Mr. Filori declared:”The answer is NO”.”Mrs. Zana was arrested and sentenced for having expressed her opinions in a peaceful manner. She is thus, in our view, a political prisoner” he added.

An Italian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) also sharply denounced the verdict. “The conclusions of this trial are shameful” stated Luigi Vinci, an MEP who had come to Ankara as an observer, before the journalists. He considered that the new trial had also been “shameful” for the E.U. and for the Strasbourg ECHR. Mr. Vinci declared his “solidarity” with the imprisoned former M.P.s in the name of the European Parliament, considering that “today’s verdict is an insult to this country, which does not deserve such a thing”.The MEP further attacked the Turkish State Security Courts, judiciary institutions that, in his opinion, were “a relict of fascism” and demanded their abolition.

The Speaker of the German Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, on a visit to Ankara, also attacked the verdict. “It will be very difficult for Turkey to overcome the effects of this trial abroad” he declared as quoted by German diplomatic sources.

Pro-Kurdish political circles joined the condemnations. “It was all a piece of political play-acting” remarked Osman Ozcelik, Vice-President of the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP) a legal offshoot of the banned DEP which may itself soon be banned by the courts.

The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), for its part, declared it was “dismayed” by the verdict. The FIDH, which has had observers at many of the retrial’s hearings, attacked the permanent infringements of the principles of independence and impartiality by the court.

The Collective for Human Rights in Turkey, that includes Action Chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture (ACAT — Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture), l’Assemblée citoyenne des originaires de Turquie, (ACORT — Civic Assembly of those of Turkish origins), Amnesty International (French Branch), France-Libertés, Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH), Médecins du Monde (MDM), Association Primo Lévi, and the Cimade condemned “with the greatest firmness the decision to convict”. The Collective considered that “the conduct of the trial, from its start, had been distinguished by its flagrant breaches of the right to a fair and equitable trial, in total disregard of the rulings of the European Court for Human Rights”.
 

EUROCOURT  FINDS TURKEY GUILTY IN THREE DIFFERENT CASES
On 20 April, the European Court for Human Rights found turkey guilty of not having conducted any effective enquiry into the death of a Kurd, shot down in unexplained circumstances. In 1994, in Istanbul, Savas Buldan and two of his friends were kidnapped by armed men and their bodies found a few hours later some 270 Km away. The three men had been shot down at point blank range. A suspect of these murders was later acquitted for lack of evidence. The petitioner, Nejdet Buldan, brother of one of the tree men, affirmed before the European Court that the three men had been kidnapped by State officials in plainclothes.

The European judges considered that “the evidence available did not allow them to conclude, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the petitioner’s brother had been killed by States agents”. On the other hand, they judged that the Turkish authorities “had not really sought to enquire into the possible implication of State agents in the murder”.

The European Court thus found Turkey guilty of failing to carry out “an effective and adequate enquiry” (Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and of an absence of any effective recourse (Article 13). Turkey was also sentenced to paying 6,000 euros in damages to the petitioner and 10,000 euros to Savas Buldan’s children.

Moreover, on 6 April, the ECHR sentenced Turkey to paying 7,500 euros damages to Mehdi Zana, husband of the former M.P. for the pro-Kurdish Party for Democracy (DEP), Leyla Zana, for “violation of the freedom of expression”.Mr. Zana, now 63 years of age, former mayor of the city of Diyarbekir, had been sentenced, in May 1994, to 4 years imprisonment by the Ankara State Security Court for “separatist propaganda”, reduced on appeal in 1995 to two years, for remarks made during a press conference held at the European Parliament in October 1992, and before a European Parliamentary sub-Committee on Human Rights in December of the same year.

During his speeches before the European Parliament, Mr. Zana, who had already served a 14-year sentence in the Turkish jails for his political opinions, related his personal struggle for the recognition of rights of the Kurds in Turkey, and had condemned the actions of the Turkish authorities in the Kurdish provinces, particularly with regard to the destruction of Kurdish villages and the violence against the Kurdish population.

The sentence against him was ruled to be an “infringement in his right to freedom of expression” by the ECHR, which also granted Mr. Zana 2,500 euros costs.

The same Court also found Turkey guilty, on 6 April, of “inhuman and degrading treatment” of villagers of Kurdish origin during a Turkish Army operation to find members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Petitioned by 32 people, it awarded each of them material damages varying between 170 and 97,010euros and moral damages of between 1,500 and 68,000 euros.

According to the petitioners, the armed forces, while searching for members of the PKK, had attacked the Kurdish village of Ormaniçi in February 1993.They had set fire to fourteen houses and arrested most of the men. The Court condemned the security forces for the “inhuman treatment” inflicted on the men of the village, who had been forced to lie face down in a mixture of mud and melting snow and be kicked by the troops. It also condemned Turkey for violation of the “right to life” of a little girl of six, who died as a result of wounds received during the assault on the village and of one of the villages who died during his incarceration as a result of pneumonia contracted after having been forced to march barefooted in the snow and mud.
 

KONGRA-GEL PLACED ON LIST OF TERRORIST ORGANISATIONS BY EUROPEAN UNION
The Kurdish KONGRA-GEL organisation, an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is protesting at its inclusion on the European Union’s list of terrorist movements. “The E.U.’s decision to place KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan People’s Congress) on its list of terrorist organisations is a blow to democracy and Human Rights as well as a slander of the Kurdish people” states a communiqué published in Berlin on 6 April. According to it, the E.U. has given way to pressure from Turkey to make it more amenable to the reunification of Cyprus. “The option of a democratic solution to the Kurdish question has been sacrificed to the advantage of little Cyprus. It is infamous that the E.U. thus play Turkey’s game. Once more, an opportunity for a solution has been wasted” the communiqué adds.

The European blacklist of terrorist organisations, of which a revised version was published in the European Community’s official gazette on 3 April, now contains, alongside the PKK the reference “alias KADEK, alias KONGRA-GEL”. The movement is protesting at being put on the same footing as the PKK and asserts that “it is committed to a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question, as anyone can see by reading its programme, accessible on Internet”.

The United States have also decided to put KONGRA-GEL on its list of terrorist organisations. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had welcomed this stand in January 2004. The State Department had considered that KONGRA-GEL, founded in 1999, was just a reincarnation of the PKK and should, in consequence, be placed on this list.

Clashes have increased since this announcement. On 16 April, Kongra-Gel stated that in the previous few days it had killed 10 Turkish soldiers and seven Kurdish auxiliaries, the so-called “village guardians”, during fighting in the mountainous Kurdish region of Sirnak, on the Iraqi borders. “The Turkish attack began on 6 April, in the region of Sirnak, where our forces are well established, and fighting is still continuing” stated Zubeyir Aydar, the representative of the ex-PKK in the Kurdish city of Suleimanieh. “In the course of the fighting, 10 Turkish soldiers, including an officer, and seven Kurdish mercenaries were killed as well as one of our fighters” he added.

On 15 April, a local source in Diyarbekir had stated that five Kurdish fighters of Turkish origin had been killed as well as three soldiers, in a vast operation by security forces in Sirnak. Ten soldiers and “village guardians” (Kurdish militia armed and paid by the Turkish State) had been wounded.

According to officials, the operation, in which 6,000 security forces, backed by helicopters, took part began four days after the authorities learnt that a group of 60 PKK (renamed Kongra-Gel) activists had infiltrated into Turkish territory from Iraqi Kurdistan.
 

TURKISH HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION DENOUNCES RESTRICTIONS ON FREE EXPRESSION
On 19 April, the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TIHV) published its “2003 Report on Freedom of Opinion in Turkey”, taking into account the recent adoption of legal reforms in the context of harmonisation with the European Union.
According to this report, 774 legal cases regarding written or oral opinions, expressed in books, newspapers or periodicals were recorded last year. Over 70 actions have been initiated for violation of Article 159 of the Turkish penal code “regarding attacks on the State, the Republic, the security forces or the Army”. There were seven sentences and 14 acquittals amongst the 21 cases tried in 2003. Article 312 of the Penal Code, regarding “incitement to racism and to religious or linguistic discrimination” gave rise to 68 cases, with 10 sentences passed and 16 acquittals amongst the 26 cases tried in 2003.

Still according to this report, Article 6 of the Anti-Terrorist Act, punishing “the publication of statements from illegal organisations” served as the basis for 175 legal actions. Of 91 verdicts handed down in 2003, 84 were sentences. As for the notorious Article 8 of the same Anti-Terrorist Act, punishing “propaganda against the unity and indivisibility of the country”, 38 trials took place resulting in 13 condemnations. Article 7 of the same Act regarding “propaganda of an illegal organisation” gave rise to 39 legal actions. The report also stresses that 40 books were brought before the courts in 2003.

The Foundation showed that Article 169 of the Penal Code, repressing “aid and assistance to an illegal organisation” was the most widely used by the Turkish legal system, despite the reforms passed in August 2003, restricting the area of its application. This article has continued to be the most important threat to any person, press or party political organ that expresses itself on the Kurdish question. According to the report, several cases were initiated on the sole basis that a statement contained the words “Mr. Ocalan”. The Public Prosecutor’s Office considering that the combination of these two words constituted the offence of “aid and assistance to an illegal organisation”. The report points out that there were 58 condemnations on this score alone.

The report highlights the situation of the pro-Kurdish daily Yeniden Ozgur Gundem, that was sentenced to fines amounting to 476 billions Turkish lire and so forced to cease publication. Various dailies and periodicals were banned from appearing for a total of 370 days, and the RTUK, the Turkish Higher Audio-visual Council, issued 480 days of broadcasting bans against various radio and TV stations in the course of 2003.