Parmi les personnes arrêtées à Istanbul figurent notamment 7 membres du conseil du Parti pour la Paix et la Démocratie (BDP), 18 dirigeants et 58 membres actifs.

Cette nouvelle vague de chasse aux Kurdes cible également des journalistes et auteurs.

A Istanbul, l’éditeur de la Maison d’édition Belge, Cihan Deniz Zarakolu, l’auteur Aziz Tunç et l’éditeur du journal Özgür Gündem, Kazim Seker se trouvent parmi les détenus.

Lors de ces opérations répressives, un correspondant de l’agence de presse DIHA, Aydin Yildiz, et l’ancien rédacteur en chef du journal Azadiya Welat, Tayyip Temel, ont été arrêtés respectivement à Antep et Diyarbakir.

Zarakolu est également le traducteur de plusieurs œuvres dont "La philosophie politique" de Thomas Hobbes. Aziz Tunç est l’auteur  d’un livre sur le massacre de Maras, désigné comme le livre du mois par le PEN.

Le directeur de la Maison d’édition Belge, Ragip Zarakolu, père de Cihan Deniz Zarakolu, a déclaré que ces arrestations font partie  d’un plan pour museler les auteurs et éditeurs de Belge.

Selon Ragip Zarakolu, également président du Comité pour la Liberté de Publication de l’Union des Editeurs de Turquie (TYB), son fils a été arrêté pour avoir donné des cours sur la science politique et l’histoire de la pensée politique dans l’Académie du BDP.

Zarakolu a rappelé que tous les partis politiques dans le monde, y compris l’AKP au pouvoir et le CHP, principal parti d’opposition, organisent des académies ou écoles politiques pour former leurs adhérents.

Aujourd’hui, plus de 70 journalistes, kurdes pour la plupart, sont en prison. Ce qui fait de la Turquie la plus grande prison du monde pour les journalistes.

Selon l’agence de presse DIHA, 771 personnes ont été arrêtées et 286 d’entre elles ont été écrouées au cours du mois de septembre, pour des motifs politiques. Ces chiffres remontent à plus de 2 500 le nombre des arrestations politiques durant ces trois derniers mois. Le 23 septembre, trois maires BDP de la région de Sirnak, ont été écroués par la justice turque.

Plus de 4 milles membres actifs du BDP sont actuellement en prison, dont six députés, douze maires et des dizaines de membres des assemblées municipales.

Les dernières arrestations interviennent après le retour des députés du BDP, le 1e octobre, mettant un terme à leur boycott de l’assemblée turque depuis les élections de 12 juin.

Le BDP était parvenu à faire élire 36 députés à la Grande Assemblée Nationale de Turquie, malgré une campagne très inégale et la répression policière. Mais le siège d’un député kurde avait été annulé par la justice et la libération de cinq autres qui a été refusée. Ceci avait conduit le BDP à boycotter l’Assemblée turque.

"Le premier ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan se promène avec une liste d’arrestations dans sa poche" a dénoncé Gultan Kisanak,  la co-présidente du BDP, réagissant contre les arrestations du 4 octobre.  "Si vous ne réagissez pas maintenant contre ces opérations, ce sera trop tard demain quand ils frapperont à vos portes" a-t-elle dit, s’adressant à l’opinion publique, et a ajouté que la police est partie à la chasse aux kurdes. "Nous ne nous plierons jamais, même en cas d’arrestation de dix milles personnes" a souligné Kisanak.

"Nos amis se font arrêter chaque jour", dans le cadre de l’affaire KCK, a dit de son coté Selahattin Demirtas, co-président du BDP.  "Si le KCK est cela, alors je suis son chef car, toutes les personnes arrêtées sont les membres du BDP" a-t-il affirmé. (Info-Türk, 5 octobre 2011)

KCK Operation: 137 People in Custody

An operation targeting the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK) was carried out in several districts of Istanbul on Tuesday (4 October). 92 people were taken into police custody on the grounds of their alleged membership in the KCK, the umbrella organization that includes the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

As reported by the Firat News Agency (ANF), the operation that started simultaneously at around 6.30 am on Tuesday morning was conducted in the Istanbul districts of Bagcilar, Esenyurt, Arnavutköy, Üsküdar, Beyoglu, Sisli, Gaziosmanpasa, Bayrampasa and Sultangazi.

Among the people taken into custody in Istanbul are members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Party Assembly Hülya Yer and Çigdem Kiliçgün Uçar; BDP Istanbul Provincial Executives Dursun Yildiz, Aydemir Anli, Mehmet Kaymaz and Nural Dogan; BDP Bahçelievler District Chair Faruk Tur; Gaziosmanpasa District Chair Arif Yilmaz, Arnavutköy District Chair Galip Ates, Sancaktepe District Chair Çiçek Arinç; Üsküdar District Vice Chair Mehmet Serif Mergen; Democratic Society Congress (DTK) member Hikmet Kaymaz and Kemal Aydin, Executive of the Association for Solidarity and Support of Relatives of Disappeared People (YAKAY-DER).

"Deniz is an academician who gives lessons in political sciences"

One of the persons taken into police custody in Istanbul is Deniz Zarakolu, son of publisher Ragip Zarakolu, Head of the Freedom of Publishing Committee of the Turkish Publishers Association. Deniz Zarakolu is currently doing a PhD in Political Sciences at Bilgi University.

Zarakolu was taken into custody after a police raid on his home in Tarlabasi (European side of Istanbul) on Tuesday morning. He made a name for himself with his research and translations in the field of political sciences.

Publisher Ragip Zarakolu spoke to bianet about the incident. In his opinion, his son was taken into custody because he taught "Political Sciences" and "History of Political Thought" at the political academy of the BDP.

Operations in five other provinces

31 people were taken into custody in the course of simultaneous operations in Diyarbakir, among them BDP Vice Co-Chairman Erkan Piskin, BDP Diyarbakir Provincial Vice-Chair Mehmet Aksünger, BDP Women Assembly member Fatma Kasan, Dr. Ilhan Diken and journalist Tayyip Temel, former General Publications Director and now writer of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper.

The reason for Temel’s custody has not been reported yet. He was taken to the Diyarbakir Police Directorate. The Azadiya Welat newspaper told bianet that they had not obtained any detailed information about Temel yet.

In Gaziantep 20 people were taken into custody; furthermore BDP Assistant Treasurer Salih Yildiz and BDP employee Mahmut Polat in Ankara; Derik (Mardin) District Mayor Çaglar Demirel and DTK Co-ordination Board Member and DTK Batman Spokesman Osman Akdag and Kurtalan District (Siirt) Municipality Council Member Mehmet Koyuncu.

According to the Dicle News Agency (DIHA), 771 people have been taken into police custody in the course of KCK operations throughout the past month. With yesterday’s numbers, this figure amounts to 908 people, DIHA announced.

92 People in Custody in Istanbul

Joint attorney of the BDP Sinan Zincir assessed the operation in Istanbul in an interview with bianet.

Zincir summarized that the 92 people taken into police custody on Tuesday include 14 district mayors, twelve provincial executives, seven members of the Party Assembly, almost all previous provincial executives and former Provincial Co-Chair Çigdem Uçarkiliçgün. The persons in custody are not allowed to talk to their lawyers for the first 24 hours in custody and a decision of confidentiality of the file has been decided for four days.

Zincir said that these operations were intended to "openly and clearly prevent the democratic efforts of the BDP and to break the democratic will of the Kurds".

Zincir reminded that there were only two weeks left until the provincial party congress. In the lawyer’s opinion, the actual targets of these operations were the counteracting of BDP actions and the party’s entering the parliament. (BIA, 5 October 2011)

BDP: we will not bend, should you arrest 10 thousands of us

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chair Gültan Kisanak remarked that Prime Minister Erdogan has a list of political execution which consists of thousands of people and said; “We will not knee before you even if you take 10 thousand people into custody”.

Speaking at the group meeting, BDP Co-Chair Kisanak stated that “the boycott they continued till October 1st was made to show everyone that Turkey has gone off the rails.

Kisanak called attention to the operations carried out under the name of KCK devoted to eliminate the Kurdish politics and said; “We once again faced a political slaughter when we woke up this morning. Most of the former and current executives of our party are in custody now. The AKP police is hunting Kurds.”

Kisanak pointed out that a civil and democratic constitution can’t be worked on while the clash is continuing and said that deciding on war as soon as the parliament opens means to sabotage the process of the new constitution. Kisanak added that the march to Gemlik on October 8th will be an important step to open the way for negotiations.

BDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas also reacted to the detention of more than a hundred people with house raids and detentions carried out in many provinces against the BDP last night.

Demirtas remarked that they are concerned about the Prime Minister’s political attitude that intends to make things more difficult and to destroy grounds of compromise rather than to strengthen constitutional discussions and seeks for negotiation.

Demirtas stated that the Prime Minister targets the BDP by ordering instructions around every day and added; “Our colleagues, PM members, mayors and party members are arrested every day under the name of KCK operations. If this is the KCK, I am the President of the KCK because all detainees are members of the BDP. We discuss among each other whether we can hold mature, conciliatory and solution-oriented discussions in such an environment. I hope Turkey will manage to create an environment where its constitution can be discussed intrepidly without living big political crisis but the discourse and practices of the Prime Minister don’t contribute to this process.” (ANF, October 4, 2011)

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