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Turkey detains 41 people in operation against KCK, PKK’s urban
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Turkey detains 41 people in operation
against KCK, PKK’s urban arm
4.2.2012
By ekurd.net staff writers |
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The
KCK-trial began on October 18, 2010 when a Turkish court began
the trial of 152 high profile Kurdish politicians
and rights defenders, accused of being the urban
wing of the outlawed separatist Kurdish PKK rebels. Photo:
ANF.
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New wave of arrests
in Turkey
February 4, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish
region of Turkey, — More than 40 people have been
taken into custody on Saturday as a result of house
raids carried out within the scope of so-called KCK
operations. KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) the alleged urban wing of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Turkish police has targeted on Saturday BDP
members, civil society organizations, Kurdish media
and leftist opponents.
Authorities started raids at 5:30 a.m. in seven
cities, targeting illegal activities and public
violence in the Kurdish city of Batman [northern
Kurdistan], the southeastern province’s governorship
said in a statement on its website. The Batman
offices of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy
Party, or BDP, and Dicle news agency were searched
during today’s operation, according to state-run
Anatolia news agency.
ANF news agency reported that the Batman centered
operations were carried out at many addresses in
seven cities within the scope of Batman Public
Prosecutor’s investigation and the authority given
by Diyarbakir Special Authorized Public Prosecutor.
Among the raided addresses in Batman are BDP
provincial and district buildings,www.ekurd.net
offices of Azadiya Welat paper, Eğitim Sen, MEYADER,
Association of Religious Scholars, Bahar Cultural
Center and a number of houses. While lawyers and
institutions authorities weren’t provided
information on the grounds of confidential
investigation, the operation by plainclothes
policemen and action force teams is reported to
continue in the city. Detainees are accused of
“being members to KCK City Council and performing
activities”.
The simultaneous operations in seven cities have
once again targeted members of Kurdish media. While
Batman DIHA reporter Gülsen Aslan has also been
taken into custody, Azadiya Welat worker Şafak
Çelenk was detained in Bursa and taken to Batman.
In a statement about the operations, Batman
Governorship remarked that 41 people were taken into
custody for allegedly “organizing violence acts,
establishing neighborhood and city committees,
joining organizational meetings and illegal
demonstrations and forcing shopkeepers to close
their shops through pressure and threat.”
While BDP members were also targeted by the
operations in other cities, houses of ESP (Socialist
Party of the Oppressed) members were raided in İzmir
where police also detained a worker of Fırat
Distribution.
Within the scope of so-called KCK operations,
hundreds of people have been taken into custody in
the last one week as a result of AKP regime’s
unprecedented detention rush. At least 567 people
were detained by police from 10 December 2011 to 3
January 2012. Among the detainees, including mayors,
students, children, human rights activists and union
members, over 350 were remanded in custody and sent
to prison.
Turkey detained thousands of journalists and
politicians as part of an investigation into the
Union of Communities in Kurdistan, or KCK. The
government says KCK is the the urban arm of the PKK.
BDP lawmakers say the probe is a crackdown on the
Kurdish political movement.
Meanwhile members from the Swedish Parliament
nominate on Saturday imprisoned
Turkish publisher and human rights defender Ragıp Zarakolu
who is in jail for KCK links for the Nobel Peace.
The
KCK-trial began on October 18, 2010 when a Turkish
court began the trial
of 152 high profile Kurdish politicians and rights defenders,www.ekurd.net
accused of being the urban wing of the
outlawed separatist Kurdish (Kurdistan Workers'
Party) PKK rebels.
Over
7748 people were taken into
custody and 3895 persons were
arrested in the scope of KCK operations during the past
nine months, the
pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party announced.
Dozens of BDP executives and employees are still in
prison.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered ass 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Sources: bloomberg.com | firatnewws.com | AFP | ekurd.net
| Agencies
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© 2012 ekurd.net. All rights reserved
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