EU Gov’ts Linked to Massacre of 17 Activists in Turkey

An international fact-finding mission (FFM) that probed into the recent massacre of 17 activists in Turkey has raised the possibility that some European Union governments had tipped off the Turkish authorities that led to the killings.

By D. L. Mondelo
Political Correspondent for Europe
Bulatlat

ISTANBUL, Turkey – An international fact-finding mission (FFM) composed of lawyers, journalists and relatives who went to this city last week to probe into the recent massacre of 17 activists in Turkey, has raised the possibility that some European Union governments had tipped off the Turkish authorities that led to the killings.

Several of the 17 massacre victims were German and Dutch citizens of Turkish descent and had come to Turkey to attend a political meeting. 

The killing took place June 17 in the mountainous district of Mercan, southeast of Turkey. News reports quoted Turkish authorities as saying that the activists were armed dissidents and the incident was a legitimate encounter.

The fact-finding mission disputed the Turkish authorities’ claims, however.

Members of the FFM and other human rights groups in Europe are bringing the case to the European Court of Human Rights if the families of the victims do not get justice from Turkish courts, it was learned.

In a press conference held Sept. 7 in this city to cap three days of interviews with the families of the victims and other human rights organizations as well as document trail, the FFM released the following initial findings:

1) The military action against the 17 activists had been planned days in advance. The mission also learned that those killed had been politically active for more than three decades. Although they stood for a politics which the Turkish state is in conflict with, this cannot be a reason to kill the activists.

2) Several of those killed had serious physical disabilities and could not have taken part in an encounter as claimed by Turkish security forces.

3) The bodies of those killed were severely mutilated indicating they were hit by guided rockets or bombs.

4) Efforts of the victims’ relatives and their lawyers to investigate the incident had been unsuccessful because Turkish authorities denied any information to the lawyers and had cordoned off the site of the massacre as a “military security zone.”

“Planned execution”

A source from the Platform for Democratic Rights also said the incident was a “deliberately planned execution” by the Turkish state. The source added that the forested area where the 17 activists were holding a meeting was secured by some 2,000 Turkish troops backed by helicopter gunships.

Relatives of the victims took some time before they could identify the bodies of their loved ones, the source also said.

Roland Meister, one of the German lawyers for the victims and a member of the FFM, saidmany of the victims were political asylum seekers in Germany. He said he helped several of them in their asylum cases.

Meister and other members of the FFM said German and Dutch authorities could have monitored the activities and mobile telephones of the victims who came from Germany weeks or even months before the killings and could have passed on information on these to Turkish authorities.

“The German police are experts in tapping phones,” Rainer Ahues, one of the German lawyers said.

“This is an important case and we have started to gather the facts,” Ahued said. “We are prepared to follow up this case until the European Court of Human Rights if the families of the victims do not get justice from Turkish courts.”

Another mission

Meanwhile, Turkish human rights organizations and lawyers are preparing another mission to gather more facts and to interview Turkish officials regarding the killings.

FFM members, among them two German lawyers, a lawyer from the Netherlands and a brother of one of the victims, said the killing of the 17 activists and other human rights violations committed by the Turkish state must be put as an agenda if Turkey is to be accepted as a member of the European Union.

The European Union is expected to issue another resolution on Turkey’s acceptance as a member of the 25-member union this coming October. Bulatlat 

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