Weekly Report 5-12 July 2015

Turkey diary

* In Istanbul on the 10^th of July a perfunctory operation was carried out against IS.  In spite of this token operation scenes were televised by Dicle News Agency reporters showing IS militants passing with ease into Syria from  the province of Elbeyli which borders Kilis province where thousands of Turkish soldiers are stationed.

* Local people who have suffered due to the massacres perpetrated during the war in Syria, by AKP attacks on the area and by IS militants have taken matters into their own hands and by their own efforts workers’ organisations, political parties, unions, democratic NGOs and women’s organisations have stood up to the threat of war and announced the establishment of the ‘Peace Block’.

* During the investigation regarding IS member Orhan Gönder, who was apprehended at the scene of the bombing of the HDP’s Diyarbakır meeting, it has become clear that the state is guilty of wilful neglect.  Police arrested Gönder before the incident only to later release him.  Despite his being registered on the National Judiciary Informatics System  as ‘missing person – due to terrorist activities’ his record could not be located.  It also emerged that the official complaints lodged by Gönder’s family, warning that their son was involved with IS, were not evaluated.

* Following the reporting in the newspapers of the statements of Özcan Şişman, the prosecutor whos was arrested in the investigation into the National Intelligence Organisation’s (MIT’s) involvement for the trucks transporting weapons to Syria in 2013, in which Şişman alleged that ‘the National Intelligence Organisation and the state knew about the Reyhanlı bombings in advance and did nothing’, the lawyer for the families of those killed in the incident has said that he considers this statement to be evidence enough to bring NIO (MIT) and security staff to trial.  These matters came to light in the third sitting of the Reyhanlı Massacre Case into the two separate bomb attacks that were carried out on the 11^th of May 2013 in the town of Reyhanlı, Hatay province and in which 52 people died and 146 were injured.

* Thousands gather to remember Ali Ismail Korkmaz.  Ali Ismail Korkmaz who was attacked by Police and civilian fascists during the Gezi Park protests in Eskişehir and who later died of his severe head injuries was remembered at his graveside.  A memorial concert was held in Hatay and commemorative marches were held in Eskişehir and Dikili.  In Bursa, where the resistance continues in İhsaniye Park, an event was also held.

Northern Kurdistan Diary

* Burial services were held for those who recently lost their lives whilst fighting against IS militants in Rojava and Şengal.  These include YPG combatant Aykan Cengiz (Firat Mêrdîn) in the town of Erciş, Van province,  Mustafa Turhan (Mervan Özalp) in Özalp, Van province,  Osman Atmaca (Zinar Şoreş Serhat) in the town of Bulanık, Muş province and the  HPG guerilla İbrahim Özyolcu (Azad Agiri) who was buried in Patnos, Ağrı province.

Kurdish fighters who lost their lives

* The YPG Press Centre has released the names of 16 fighters who died in clashes along a wide area south of Kobanê stretching as far as Hasekê.

Photo of Kamber Morkoç

* A minibus transporting villagers in Ardahan was attacked by soldiers.  As a result of the attack Kamber Morkoç, the father of a Kurdish guerilla, was killed and two other people were injured.  The provincial authorities tried to blame the incident on the PKK but Harika Morkoç, daughter of Kamber Morkoç stressed that the state were behind the attack.

* The HPG Press Communications Centre has announced that activities surrounding the building of  new police headquarters and detention centres have intensified and speeded up as have Turkish military and operational activities in recent weeks.

* It has been revealed that civilians were injured and many people were taken into custody as an investigation was launched concerning villagers who had formed a human shield in an attempt to impede the military operations being undertaken in countryside near the villages of Topçatan (Kanikork) and Gölyüzü (Şexxuli) which are attached to Ağrı’s Doğubayazıt province.

* It has been revealed that 15 IS militants were killed in a clash that arose between IS and the HPG and YJA Star forces that had been drafted into the area.  The clash began after IS sprang an ambush on the HPG and YJA Star forces.

Workers’ Diary

* Workers at the TPIC (Turkish Petroleum International Company), a sub-contractor of Turkish Petroleum (TP) occupied a drilling tower in the Turkish Petroleum ‘Park’ oilfield on the 9^th of July.  On the 11^th of July police then attacked the families wanting to visit the workers who had been on hunger strike for 72 hours.  The TPIC workers ended their occupation of the Turkish Petroleum Batman Regional Headquarters after receiving assurances that NGOs at work in the city of Batman would step in to assist in solving their issues.

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On the 9^th of July the verdict came in the case of the Marmara Park Shopping Centre construction site fire in Esenyurt in which 11 workers were burned to death after the tents they were living in on-site caught fire on the 11^th of March 2012.  Seven of the accused were given prison sentences and six were acquitted.  In Turkey the problem of the unhealthy and unsafe living conditions of construction workers continues.

* The police oppression continues of workers who for months have been campaigning to get their jobs back at the Nestle factory.  The workers, who have been arrested several times before in front of the factory were taken once more into custody on the 8^th of July whilst they held an all-night vigil.

* The World Federation of Trade Unions published a message in relation to the fifteen workers who lost their lives as a result of manslaughter in the workplace at Gölmarmara, Manisa.

Women’s Diary

* Çilem Doğan who killed her ex-husband in self-defence after he systematically tortured her and eventually forced her into prostitution declared, ‘Don’t let women die – let the men die a little too’. See more at

Eco Diary

* In the Mediterranean region of Turkey it is being proposed that the pastures of 8 provinces are to be conjoined at a serious cost to wildlife.  Gendarmes attacked villagers who had begun standing watch at Samistal Pasture, attached to Rize’s Çamlıhemşin as they protested against the Green Road Project.  Gendarmes closed all roads to Samistal pasture and began to beat villagers and drag them along the ground.  A call of resistance was put out to the whole of Turkey and an action of solidarity with the people of Samistal was held in Taksim on Monday 12^th July at 2.00pm.

* A public consultation event concerning a proposed fossil fuel energy plant in the village of Tekirdağ-Çorlu’s Misinli village was prevented from going ahead by local people.  The power plant is planned to be constructed on the most fertile land in Trakya.

The Saturday Mothers/People’s 537^th gathering

The Saturday Mothers/People demanded to know what had happened to Ahmet Yaman who disappeared in the Uludere province of Şırnak in 1995.  Ahmet Şırnak was head of the village of Yeşilyuva in Şırnak’s Uludere province.  At the beginning of July, 1995, Şırnak received a telephone call from the Uludere Regional Gendarmerie Headquarters.  He was asked to report immediately to the Headquarters and afterwards went missing.  Şırnak’s mother died without those guilty being brought to justice and without knowing the fate of her son.