ANXIOUS to develop closer ties with the EEC, the Turkish rulers have to be sensitive to West European public opinion. For some years, a return to appearances of more or less normal parliamentary rule has been going on.
Nonetheless, the level of repression remains quite high, as is described in the following interview with Thomas Stolt, a member of a group of observers of the recent mass trial of members of the far left Devrimci Yol organization. We have translated it from the September 29 issue of the
Socialistische Zeitung, the paper of the United Socialist
Party, to which West German Fourth Internationalists belong.
HAT WAS the nature of your group?
There were ten of us, all members of the Turkish solidarity movement from various big cities in
West Germany, and thus not a delegation of prominent personalities or lawyers. This was deliberate, although we don't want to belittle the value of the other groups of
• Why did you make this trip to
We wanted to express our solidarity with the thousands of political prisoners, as well as with their families and comrades, in one of the biggest mass trials. We wanted to put pressure on the military court, inasmuch as we sought to get publicity and collect materials and impressions for our solidarity work here in West Germany.
• What trial did you attend?
We attended the central mass trial against the independent revolutionary movement,
Devrimci Yol (Revolutionary Way) in Ankara, in which the 723 people got a chance to defend themselves for the first time after eight years of imprisonment in the harshest conditions. In this trial, the prosecution, the
Turkish state, in addition to demanding many long sentences and life terms, called for 74 death penalties.
• What is Dev Yol?
It was the biggest independent revolutionary liberation movement before the
September 12,1980, putsch in Turkey and in Turkish Kurdistan. Its members fought
16 for the liberation of Turkey from oppression and exploitation by the imperialist powers and their accomplices in the country itself. They propagated socialist ideas, and partially put them into practice in the small city of Fatsa (23,000 inhabitants) up until the generals' putsch. • How many mass trials have there been in Turkey up until now, and which ones are going on now?
The overall number of political trials in Turkey is almost incalculable. Just against members of Dev Yol, there have been 23 mass trials in Turkey. Many of the mass trials against the PKK [Kurdish Workers' Partyl, the DDKD Eastern Turkey Democratic Cultural Center], Kurtulus, the TDKP [Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey], Rizgari [a left Kurdish nationalist group] and the MLSPB [Marxist-Leninist Armed Propaganda Unit] have already ended with long terms of imprisonment
In addition, there have been many smaller trials throughout Turkey involving hundreds of people. While we were in Ankara, besides the central Dev Yol trial, there was a trial on the Mamak military base against the general secretary of the TKP/TIP [Turkish Communist Party/Turkish Workers' Party]. After my departure, several members of our group went to the Fatsa trial in Erzican, where eight more death sentences were handed down. Fourteen defendants were sentenced to life, and 307 to terms ranging from one to 20 years.
The newly founded Human Rights Association in Turkey estimates the number of political prisoners at present at 18,000. According to the Turkish Justice Ministry's keep them alive. Many people have been murdered in the torture chambers of the police and military.
Just in the "procedures" for the Fatsa trial, 16 people died in prison, including the elected mayor of that city, Fikri Sönmez, as a result of torture or during torture. It is not true that lurkey is on the way to becoming bourgeois democracy. The destruction of the broad opposition in the country is being continued by the pseudo-parliamentary regime, in collaboration with the military. The newly established State Security Courts are operating with the same methods and goals as the military courts, which still exist despite the lifting of martial law. • What possibilities do the accused have to defend themselves? Are the rights of the defence restricted?
The defence in general has as good as no rights to defend its clients effectively. Defence lawyers are now, as before, being arbitrarily excluded from trials or refused contact with their clients, which anyway is only possible by telephone. Many of them have been, and continue to be, charged themselves after attempting to defend their clients. It is different for trials that have attracted international publicity, or where there is a "danger" of this happening. It is therefore urgent to attend such trials. • What effect did your visit have on the
The regime in Turkey is afraid of publicity. Although we were not prominent observers, our presence at the opening of the defence case at the trial was urgently awaited. Our mere presence offered Turkish journalists greater possibilities to report on this mass trial. They all knew that the military would do anything to prevent a common defence speech by the accused. That is what happened. Relatives of the prisoners from all parts of the country were bodysearched twice. Afterwards the relatives, a Swiss delegation and ourselves, in all about 400 people, took our places in concrete hall the size of a gymnasium on the Mamak military base. But no one in the hall could understand anything. The microphone was cut off. Then it was put at "whine level." A half hour passed like that. We all sat there fro-
Some protests from the accused were met by the military prosecutor with a threat of "special treatment." Then a defence lawyer
October 31, 1988 • #150 International Viewpoint asked in a clear voice for the microphone to be repaired. That was the point when we overcame our inhibitions. We jumped up and shouted in support of the defence lawyer's proposal and then chimed in with the accused, who also leaped up as if their bonds had been broken.
After minutes of persistent applause for the accused, the irritated judges had the armed soldiers who were there clear the hall. In the afternoon all the microphones were in order. Everyone could hear the defence speech, and they even had to publish parts of it in the papers the next day. • Were you molested?
After this scene, which the military did not expect, they tried to intimidate us, having us followed constantly by Turkish plainclothes police. They searched the hotel rooms of the Swiss delegation, and arrested their Turkish interpreter for 24 hours. After he was released, we met in the evening and they told us that the military would beat us up if we tried to support the defendants and their lawyers in the court by applauding. The interrogators had told them that in the hope of scaring us off.
Although we did not follow this "advice," nothing of the sort threatened actually happened, since these mass murderers and their politicians were too afraid of publicity. • So you carried out other actions in
Yes. But the other visitors also, at the beginning and in the pauses in the hearings clapped for the defendants, and got up and shouted calls for the release of all the political prisoners. On the last day of our visit, we threw red carnations to the prisoners. In the situation that had developed, the military could not prevent that.
We were also obstructed by West German embassy officials in Ankara. The embassy was supposed to get permission for us to make tapes and take photographs in the court. They deliberately failed to do this. It was only when the press representative of the Greens parliamentary group arrived on the second day of the trial and intervened for us with the embassy that we got this permission straightaway. • At the beginning of the year, the
TURKEY Turkish government signed and ratified the European and UN anti-torture conventions. Does this mean anything in practice?
These signatures are a farce. Everywhere in the prisons and police stations, people are being tortured just as before. In all the political trials, "evidence" extorted by torture has been used against the defendants — in fact, the indictments are based on such "evidence." It is precisely this practice that the convention strictly bans. A reference to this already ratified convention by a defence lawyer at the trial we attended was curtly dismissed with the remark that it had not yet been fully made public in Turkey. • Why are these mass trials being held
After the lifting of martial law in Turkey in the summer of 1987, such courts no longer have any validity. According to Article 145 of the 1982 Constitution, military courts can only try civilian defendants in time of war. But neither the government nor the military changing this situation, since the political opposition in the country has not yet been broken, in fact it is growing. Moreover, military courts are able to give sentences twice as severe as civilian courts. • How is the political opposition organized in Turkey?
There are associations, such as the Human Rights Association, the Teachers' Association, the Students' Association, and so on. These associations, however, are still operating illegally, since they have not been officially authorized by the government. The Human Rights Association was founded in 1986, for example, to demand respect for human rights in Turkey and to monitor the situation. The association today already includes 15 regional groups. Other regional groups are in the process of being organized in 10 provinces. The work is directed by people from various political currents.
They are organizing campaigns for a general amnesty for all persons prosecuted and jailed for political reasons, against torture, against the death penalty, for the abolition of military courts and, last but not least, they are supporting the prisoners and their families in every respect. All of these demands are also being supported by the solidarity movement in West Germany.
This visit made one thing clear for us. Solidarity here with the political prisoners in Turkey and in general with the struggle of the working class and other working people and with Kurdistan must be extended. I think that especially the West German working class, which is made up of various nationalities, and the unions have to be called on to make greater efforts in this respect.
Anyone who wants more information can contact the Türkei Informationsbüro, Hanover, Postfach 910843. 5 $1l/17 2102007) *