Action For Kurdish Women: Release N

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: kcc at magi.com (Kurdistan Committee of Canada)
Subject: Action For Kurdish Women: Release Necmiye Arslanoglu!

Release Necmiye Arslanoglu!!

Trial date: October 3, 1995

"The Kurdish women I spoke to seemed more determined than ever,
they feel like they now have nothing to lose."
     - Marie Ryan, British journalist, Diyarbakir, August 1995  

     Necmiye Arslanoglu, 22, a young Kurdish journalist from
Diyarbakir, is on trial for trying to report on the increasingly
barbaric nature of the atrocities being committed against her
people, the Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
     Thousands of Kurdish villages have been razed in the most
gruesome fashion. Torture, rape, and state-sponsored murder
against journalists, lawyers, trade unionists, and anyone who
dares to speak of the daily increasing repression in Turkey today
are common.
     Rape is used as a systematic weapon against Kurdish women.
Truncheons and other objects are routinely used in this dirty
war, which has gone beyond the boundaries of conventional
warfare. Yet, shamefully, the silence continues.
     Necmiye, in a letter to a friend in London, says: "The dirty
war continues to take the lives of innocent people every day, and
we only want to announce this to the public. As journalists,
there is nothing else we can do. I can't stop this blood from
flowing. Believe me, I am very unhappy about all of this."     
Necmiye is painfully frank about the consequences of trying to
report the truth: "Death is an inevitable end, death cannot be
avoided, but to die having been successful and having done
something for humanity is the best way to die, isn't it?"        
Necmiye was first arrested in November 1993 while visiting a
burnt down Kurdish village with a British trade union delegation
and has been detained four times since, severely tortured on each
occasion. Yet when released she defiantly goes back to work,
refusing to be intimidated by the military. She has been charged
with being a member of an illegal organization and with the
dissemination of separatist propaganda. Under prolonged torture,
she signed a confession which she later retracted. She denies
both charges.
     A delegation supported by the National Union of Journalists
(NUJ) observed her last hearing on August 15, 1995. It was
adjourned until October 3, 1995.
     Article 19, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists,
and the NUJ have all sent letters of protest demanding the
release of Necmiye.

YOU CAN HELP: Please send a fax or letter to Prime Minister Tansu
Ciller asking that her government release Necmiye Arslanoglu and
allow her to continue her work. Please do it today!! Necmiye is
back in court on October 3, 1995 in Diyarbakir Security Court.  
Send letters to:

Ms. Tansu Ciller
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey

fax: +90.312.417.0476 or +90.312.230.8896

For further information, please contact:

Action for Kurdish Women

tel: +44.171.250.1315
fax: +44.171.250.1317

In Canada, send letters of protest to:

Embassy of Turkey
197 Wurtemburg Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 0J9

fax: (613) 789-3442

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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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