Gulnaz Baghistani: Killed By Berlin

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: kcc at magi.com (Kurdistan Committee of Canada)
Subject: Gulnaz Baghistani: Killed By Berlin Police

Hungerstrike Committee Berlin
Zossener Straae 41
10961 Berlin, Germany

Tel: +49-30-69002696
Fax: +49-30-69002600

Press Release
July 29, 1995

The following is a documentation of the flight of Glnaz
Baghistani and her family to Germany:

     Glnaz was born in 1954 in Dahok, South Kurdistan. Sixteen
years ago, she married Hadi Baghistani, and together they had
five daughters.
     In 1988, Glnaz and her children had to flee from Dahok to
escape the terror of the Saddam regime. Glnaz was forced to
leave behind her 6-year-old daughter Derya with relatives in
Derkar Acem near Zaxo. After the Iraqi army's destruction of
Derkar Acem in 1989, after which all the men in the village were
killed, Derya came to Germany with the other surviving relatives. 
    After a short stay in Zaxo, the rest of the family, without
Glnaz's husband, travelled to Silopi, Cizre, Kiziltepe, Bismil,
and other parts of North-West Kurdistan. The history of the
Baghistani family is the history of the expulsion and
dispossession of the Kurdish people. They could not find any
peace and safety from Turkish state terror. The villages where
they were able to stay with relatives were burned down by the
Turkish military and depopulated. With the consciousness that
their situation was the same as that of their people, Glnaz
participated in acts of resistance against Turkish state terror.  
   The flight to safety separated Glnaz from Hadi. They did not
hear from one another for three years.
     In 1991, Hadi Baghistani came to Germany as a political
refugee and then was able to locate his family.
     Hadi was able to save his daughter Derya from being deported
and he then asked the authorities to allow his wife and his other
four daughters to enter Germany as well. This request was denied. 
    In August 1994, the four daughters came to Germany without
their mother. But the family were still separated. Glnaz had to
stay behind in Kurdistan because she did not have enough money to
leave. She finally made it to Germany in March 1995. For the
first time in more than six years, the whole family was reunited. 
    Glnaz Baghistani had survived Saddam's poison gas attacks
and Turkish state terror with German weapons. But Glnaz
Baghistani was killed by a German police attack on Kurdish people
living in exile on July 27, 1995 in Berlin.

Hungerstrike Committee Berlin
July 29, 1995

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Kurdistan Committee of Canada		Tel: (613) 733-9634
2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203		Fax: (613) 733-0090
Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9		E-mail: kcc at magi.com
		http://infoweb.magi.com/~kcc
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