Newspaper under attack in Turkey.

[mbayram at igc.apc.org]

Ozgur Ulke is a progressive newspaper in Turkey which supports the
Kurdish struggle for equal rights and against oppression. Because of
its stand it became a target for continuous harassment and attacks by
the government forces. To date more then a dozen reporters have been
killed (some in the hands of the police) and several distributors burned
alive and/or butchered. Almost every employee of the paper  was
arrested at least once and almost 3 out of 4 issues have been banned
by the government.
Below is a press release by the editor of the paper about the latest
harassment by the government forces. Although it is relatively small in
magnitude compared to previous ones, I believe it exemplifies the
harassment.
We urge every concerned person to show their support to
newspaper's struggle against this oppression. Please send a
fax/e-mail to the paper or its San Francisco bureau. Although it
may look like an unimportant action,  this kind of publicity has been
effective against the Turkish Government in many cases.
 
                                San Francisco Bureau of Ozgur Ulke
                                Fax: (408) 247 0695
                                e-mail: mbayram at ipc.apc.org
 
                                Ozgur Ulke Newspaper
                                Fax: 011-90-212-518 85 54
______________________________________________________________________
 
POLICE RAIDED OUR OFFICE IN VAN
 
Our office for Van City has been raided by teams from Anti-Terror
Department. The raid took place at about 14.15 yesterday. In addition
to a search of about half an hour, the police also harassed and
threatened with death Mehmet Dogan, who is a reader of our
newspaper and was in the office when the raid occurred. The police
who took photographs of our 8 personnel one by one, also seized 3
videocassettes, which contained a discussion between clan leaders
aired on TRT1, the case about Ismail Besikci and a film of Tarik Akan,
named "Suru". Also taken away by the police were some news and
audio cassettes.
 
We can not get any information about our distributor Ismail Agaya,
who has been kidnapped by three persons after leaving his home on
May 29. No result could be taken from the applications by Agaya's
family and the lawyers of our newspaper. Mehmet Askin who has been
detained by the Anti Terror policemen of Urfa Police Department on
June 4 th and taken to JITEM (Gendarme Intelligence) in Mardin two
days later is still kept in custody.
 
Also going on are the detainment's and questioning of our distributors
Zafer Tuzun, Deniz Bayram, Mensur Daslik and Mehmet Kurt at the
Diyarbakir Gendarme Regiment Headquarters.
 
        Sincerely
 
                                A. Baki Karadeniz
 
                                Editor in chief