IHD - HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION- ISTANBUL
6 November 2001
These are the bloody outcomes of today's police operation, in which over one thousand agents participated under the command of the public security division, Istanbul.
HAVE LOST THEIR LIVES:
Sultan YILDIZ, hunger striker
Arzu GULER, hunger striker
Bulent DURGA, activist
Baris KAS, activist
HAVE BEEN INJURED:
Ali Baydar BOZKURT, activist
Sinan TOKGOZ, activist
Nurgul KAYPINAR, hunger striker
Zeki Lutfu DOGRU, activist
Hakki SIMSEK, activist
Guzin TOLGA, activist
Dursun Ali TEKIN, hunger striker
Sinan TURGA, activist
Eylem GOKTAS, activist
A delegation of organisers and operators in the Istanbul branch of IHD visited the district of Kucuk Armutlu immediately after the police operation. Here are the first results of our fact-finding mission.
The delegation arrived at 5.15 pm. We could only enter the district from a side road, all the main roads were blocked by the police.
The delegation could verify that all electricity supplies were cut off. The district looked like a desert. We were surrounded by a deadly silence. There were very few people around, while the police had left the district and blocked all the access points to the district.
Here is what witnesses told us:
The operation took place at 3 pm and saw the participation of one thousand police agents from mobile units and special forces. They all had black masks. According to the locals the police advanced along two main lines shooting both at precise targets and at random. While gunmen were shooting from roofs, the police marched to the houses of the hunger strikers. Witnesses say that there was no resistance either from the houses of the hunger strikers or from those who had erected barricades all around to defend them. On the contrary, the police started to shoot at the people as soon as one of those who was on the barricades, Ali Haydar Bozkurt, set fire to himself in protest.
Witnesses have also reported that during the operation one of the hunger strikers' houses, owned by Senay Hanogluna, was set on fire and the firemen intervened only after a while. Afterwards the burned bodies of four people, at that time still alive and in agonising pain, were piled on one another, while the injured people were left on the ground. It was not until much later that they were dragged along and put in ambulances.
Witnesses verified that the surviving hunger strikers moved to another house, in which there are other hunger strikers, but in which the police hadn't entered. People erected barricades all around, while in the house measures were taken against further attacks.
Our group of observers will write a more detailed report on these facts.
Documentation service, IHD - Istanbul
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