This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 32, September 18-24, 2005
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 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 © 2005 Bulatlat
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Political Correspondent for Europe
Bulatlat