Weekly report 3 – 9 August 2015

North Kurdistan Diary 

• A delegation from the HDP (People’s Democratic Party) has reported that during the Turkish Air Force strikes 8 civilians were killed and 15 seriously injured in Kandil’s Zergele village.  In the statement made by the delegation they declared that there is clear evidence that a massacre is taking place.

• Kars is the latest area to be declared a ‘Special Security Area’ and joins Kilis, Şırnak, Ağrı, Dersim and Hakkari as regions already given this status.  In Dersim soldiers are forcefully trying to evacuate villages in areas declared as ‘Special Security Areas’.
• PKK Operations Committee member Duran Kalkan has stated that the PKK do take seriously the calls for a ceasefire and stated that the guerilla’s movements so far were nothing but limited reprisals.  He said, ‘Prime Minister Davutoğlu declared that he had hit 400 targets on the first night of attacks.  Guerillas have the right to retaliate against each one of those.  The guerillas have not even pressed the trigger yet, what has happened so far is just a limited retaliation.’

• In Cizre one civilian was killed when the vehicle they were travelling in came into contact with A4 plastic explosives layed in the road.
• Three people were killed in morning police raids in the Zap neighbourhood of Şırnak’s Silopi province.  Eight people were also injured.  Police attacks continue.

For more information: https://isyandan.org/english/state-terror-from-lice-in-1993-to-silopi-in-2015/

• The YDG-H and YDG-K have declared the need for resistance (serhildan) and self-defence against the warring politics of the AKP.

Turkish diary

• The Internal Security Package, designed to tighten up security in the streets has made changes to the ‘Assembly and Protest March Law’.  Arbitrary bans, arbitrary arrests and ‘tagging’ have been legalised.

• Criminal charges have been lodged against 18 journalists, among them Cumhuriyet newspaper’s Chief Editor Can Dundar, accusing them of participating in ‘propaganda related to a terrorist organisation’ and calling for prison sentences of 7 years for each of them.
• Musa Çitil, suspected of rape and massacre has been promoted to the Supreme Military Council.

• Vatan Budak, who was gravely injured in the Suruç massacre has lost his fight for life in the hospital in which he was being treated.  This increases the total deaths in the Suruç massacre to thirty two.

• Azizoğlu, the suspect in detention in the case of the murder of journalist Nuh Köklü made the following statement in his defence during the first sitting of the court, ‘I didn’t stab him, he fell on the knife’.  Lawyer Erdem revealed that the suspect’s brother had written a letter to President Erdoğan.

Workers diary

• The number of sub-contractors in the health sector has increased from 20,000 in 2002 to over 150,000 in 2015, making Turkey the Republic of subcontractors.

• The time period in which the explosions warning system used in coal mines in Turkey must be brought up to international safety standards has been extended to 2019.

Prisons diary

• Of the 131,172 children brought to secure units as victims of trauma in Turkey in 2014, 11,095 of them were subjects of sexual crimes.

Women’s diary

• In the first seven months of 2015, 160 women were killed by men in Turkey.  In July, 19 women were killed, 12 women and children were raped, one woman was forced into prostitution, 36 women were injured and 10 women and children were the subjects of abuse.
• In Afyon this week, a trans sex worker called Buse was stabbed.   Buse’s housemate revealed that the assailant was a client who had tried to rob her.  Police announed that they have arrested the attacker.
• Islamic Youth Science and Philosophy Association General Chairman Rafet Ermiş has been arrested on suspicion of having raped four children.

Eco diary

• A leakage of nitric acid has occurred at the premises of Ekomar Chemical Materials Packaging Co. based in Tuzla’s Organised Leather Trade Zone.  Istanbul Medical Chamber representative, Tellioğlu called for the organisation to immediately delcare how much of the chemical had been released into the air, saying that nitric acid, used in the tanning, bleaching and reduction process of leather production was an extremely harmful chemical.

• In the Çamlıhemşin province of Rize the first protests have taken place against the ‘Green Road’ project in Upper Kavron Pastures.  Statements have been taken concerning those who have come out against the project, delcaring that their homes and bed and breakfast businesses are operating without licences and are illegal.

The Saturday Mothers/ People

The Saturday Mothers, now gathering for the 541^st time, called for the trial of the murderers of Süleyman Cihan who died after being tortured.  Ahmet Cihan, the brother of the deceased spoke at the gathering stating that the prosecution dossier in the case claiming that Cihan had been killed after being tortured had been closed once again due to ‘insufficient legal grounds’.  Ahmet Cihan stated, ‘The State are trying to silence those who wish to speak out against this.  This is how the legal system works.  If you tried the protagonists of the 12^th September coup it would turn out that 17,000 unsolved murders never happened.  It would be denied that Diyarbakır, Suruç and Roboski ever took place.  Even if you deny it, you are still a murderer.’