20.08.2015

Weekly Report 10 – 16 August 2015

North Kurdistan Diary

The first declaration of ‘self-rule’ came from Silop and the reaction of the government to this was to arrest all of the governing board members of the HDP/DBP (People’s Democratic Party/Democratic Regions Party) and take them into custody. As soon as the Kurdish people became aware of this the areas of Cizre, Nusaybin, Şırnak, Yüksekova, Bulanık, Varto and Edremit also declared self-rule. This week also Farqîn People’s Parliament also made a declaration of self-rule.

During dawn police raids on homes in Hakkari, Mardin, Erzurum and Mersin one person was arrested in Siirt. In the raid on homes in Hakkari the HDP Co-Chairperson and Council co-Mayor were among those arrested.
Enforcement actions continue on the border in Rojava with police firing at Rojavans who wished to cross the border near to the village of Girê Sor to the west of the village of Girê Spî. Tens of people were injured. Two women were killed in the incident and a young boy of fifteen, Mihemed Hesen Bunyamîn lost his life in hospital where 10 bullets were recovered from his body.

Turkish diary

Special Forces police carried out raids on homes of members of the SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Associations). They beat the young people and made them lie on the floor. Police showed no search warrants and left the houses without taking anything. No arrests took place.

The funeral of the young man, Mert Cömert, who lost his life in the intensive care unit in hospital this week, took place with heavy police presence in Samsun. He was the 33^rd fatality in the Suruç bombing.

Comrade Mert Cömert

In Alanya, Tokat and Ordu racist-fascist groups attacked Kurds, using as an excuse the recent deaths of soldiers and police. In Antalya racist groups attacked the HDP provincial head quarters and the 50 people trapped inside had to be evacuated under police control.
The TGC (Turkish Journalists’ Association) has protested the attacks upon and insults aimed at journalists by Special Forces police in Mardin. The Government and Parliament was called upon to cease its policy of not punishing police violence against journalists.
A protest by the Armenian people of Tuzla in which they are demanding that the Armenian orphanage of Kamp Armen is not demolished and that the deeds to the building are handed over to the Armenian people has now been continuing for over 100 days.

Kamp Armen’s wall with a graffiti of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink

Workers diary

Pictures showing the torture of workers who were arrested after a raid on a construction site by Special Forces police on the 5^th of August at Yüksekova have been revealed. One of the Special Forces teams forced workers to lie in a row, face up on the floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs whilst they were threatened by police shouting, ‘What has this state done to you, boy? I know each and every one of you. Whichever of you engages in traitorous behaviour will get their just punishment! You will witness the might of the Turk!’

Four workers were arrested in the raid in Yüksekova, two of whom had been made to lie on the floor and had been tortured.
A report has been completed by Izmir Chamber of Construction Engineers into the work-related deaths suffered when scaffolding collapsed, killing four workes, at the Izmir-Çannakale highway viaduct construction site near Menemen Koyundere. In the report the Chamber found that the incident was both forseeable and preventable. Four people lost their lives in the incident where it was found that work safety procedures such as planning, use of materials, process and supervision where both insufficient and incorrect.

Prisons diary

It has been revealed that Mehmet Zeki Karataş, a prisoner in Dinar T Type Closed Prison, who suffers from diabetes and epilepsy was denied treatment and admission to hospital when he refused to comply with a full strip search whilst still in the prison’s infirmary awaiting transfer to hospital.
Sick prisoner Abdullah Kalay is awaiting his third report from Forensic Science. His previous two reports from Kocaeli University regarding his poor health and declaring him unfit for detention were overturned by Forensic Science who decided that he was fit to ‘remain in prison’.
Democratic People’s Federation (DHF) prisoner Akın Odabaş who is being detained in Silivri L Type Prison has been subject to an attack by prison guards.

Women’s diary

A report entitled ‘Refugee women, Victims of War’ has been published by the Legal Advice Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse and Rape whilst in Detention. Lawyer Eren Keskin, who presented the report said that the Bureau’s aims are to outline the fundamental problems suffered by refugee women who have been forced to seek refuge in Turkey whilst fleeing the war in Syria and the terrible violence of ISIS in the period since November 2014.
A man in the Keçiören county of Ankara killed his wife with a shotgun upon discovering that she was about to divorce him. He then committed suicide.

Eco diary

The Council of State Board of Administrative Affairs has made an important decision regarding the establishment of a gold mine on land where olive crops are farmed. The decision, in relation to the Balıkesir Havran site stated that ‘Due to the potential harm to olive crops from smoke and dust, no mine can be located within 3 kilometres of an olive crop’.

Saturday Mothers/People

At the 542^nd gathering of the Saturday Mothers/People Özgür Gündem correspondent Ferhat Tepe who was 19 years old when he disappeared whilst in custody was remembered along with the two young people, Orhan Aslan and Emrah Aydemir who were killed by police last week.

Ferhat Tepe’s father İshak Tepe spoke at the assembly, saying: ‘These children are not just the children of we fathers and mothers, they are your children too, the children of the people. This grief is shared by us all. The blood spilled in this country, from that day until this, is the blood of the people. Stopping the flow of this blood is our responsibility alone, it falls on the shoulders of we, the people’.