PRESS RELEASE
Partiya Serbestiya Dêrsımi – PSD, 19th February, 2005
THE TURKISH ARMY OFFICER AND GOVERNER
ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW
Dersim (“Tunceli“), is a province under Turkish colonial rule. It is
a highly militarized zone. In 1994, hundreds of villages were
destroyed and thousands of people forced to immigrate. In the same
year a series of other crimes had been commited during the military
operations carried out by the Bolu Commando Regiment. Sixteen
villiagers disappeared. Seven of them, a little girl included, were
from Işık and Serin families living in a small village called Mirik,
whose fate and whereabouts are not yet known.
These cases were recentle brought before the court by a local lawyer,
Hüseyin Aygün, who also as a human rights defender wrote some
articles about these crimes in a local newspaper called Munzur Haber.
That`s why he became a target for the province`s army commander,
Namık Dursun, backed by the governer of the province, Mustafa Erkal.
Hüseyin Aygün was recently accused as a “traitor“, “an enemy of the
Turkish state“ and strongly adviced to leave his profession by Namik
Dursun, who continued to make similiar threats afterwards.
Though these events were made public at the Turkish parliament, the
goverment has not yet taken any action.
We, the members of the PSD (Freedom Party of Dersim), call on the
Turkish authorities, first of all, Abdülkadir Aksu, the Minister for
Internal Affairs, and Abdullah Gül, the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
who is also the State Secretary in charge of the hüman rights, to
stop Namık Dursun and urge investigations into disappearances and
other hüman rights abuses. Anyone involved in these crimes must be
held fully to account.
We, the members of the Freedom Party of Dersim (PSD), urge the world
media not to remain silent about these worrying developments in the
province of Dersim.
