Letter: Persecution in Turkey

Sir: So the Turkish Prime Minister, Mrs Tansu Ciller, wants to visit Sarajevo to show support for the beleaguered citizens ('People', 14 December).

In normal circumstances I would commend such action, but belief in her humanitarian concern would be easier if she were to show some compassion and concern for the Kurdish population in her own country.

The violations of human rights by the Turkish armed forces has been well documented by Amnesty, by the all-party Parliamentary Human Rights Group and most recently by a delegation of British trade unionists to Turkish Kurdistan.

On Friday 10 December, United Nations Human Rights Day, the Turkish police raided the offices of Ozgur Gundem - the only Turkish newspaper to report news from a Kurdish perspective. Simultaneous raids took place in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Izmir, Cizre and Batman and all the staff were arrested. The reason for this action was that Ozgur Gundem chose to publish, on its front page, the United Nations Convention on Human Rights.

Prior to this, journalists working for Ozgur Gundem have been imprisoned and tortured or killed and newspaper sellers are attacked on the streets.

During the Gulf war, the British media carried harrowing pictures of the persecution of Kurds in Iraq, with John Major calling for safe havens. But just over the border in Turkey, the government carries out the destruction and depopulation of towns and villages with the killing of civilians, including women and children.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN AUSTIN-WALKER

MP for Woolwich

(Lab)

House of Commons

London, SW1

15 December