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Turkiye on the brink of collapse

by SOncu

13 December 2000 23:32 UTC


Here is a list of problems:

-Financial Crisis
-Hunger Strike (Thousands in prisons)
-Death Fast (200+ in prisons moving into 56th day)
-A weird amnesty for prisoners
-Armed attack on a police vehicle (2 dead, 12 wounded)
-Police protests in six cities 
-Police-Gray Woolves (fascist nationalists) cooperation and attack on 
cell-type prison protesters in Ankara
-Gray Woolves - Leftist clashes at two universities in Istanbul;several 
wounded, police just watched
-Police attack on the ODP (Freedom and Solidarity Party) offices

And more. I stop here since I am not able to continue at this time.

Sabri

--------------------- 
Turkish PM calls for end to police protests
By Elif Unal

  
ANKARA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Wednesday 
urged riot police to end two days of street demonstrations against his 
government, triggered by an attack on a police bus that killed two officers 
and injured 12. 

Television showed scores of police in dark blue berets and uniforms marching 
through the streets of four cities -- Gaziantep, Mersin, Adana and Izmir -- 
for a second consecutive day on Wednesday carrying red-and-white Turkish 
flags. 

They ignored orders from superiors to disperse and chanted slogans calling on 
Ecevit's government to resign. 

Some 4,000 policeman staged a similar protest in the country's biggest city 
Istanbul on Tuesday, a day after the machine-gun ambush that they blame on 
left-wing guerrillas. 

"Things will get out of control if policemen take to the street without 
permission and disturb public order, despite the fact they are responsible 
for assuring it," Ecevit said in remarks broadcast live on the private NTV 
news channel. 

"This will inspire distrust and desperation in people," said Ecevit. "I hope, 
we will not see once again the mass police protests that have taken place in 
the latest days." 

Newspapers said the police force was also angry at the exclusion of policemen 
convicted of torture from an amnesty law passed by parliament last week. 

The police marches coincide with a spate of violent demonstrations in major 
cities in support of prisoners on hunger strikes. 

The hunger strikes, which they call "death fasts," are in protest against 
plans to move them from large dormitory-style rooms to individual cells where 
they say they may be abused. 

Esber Yagmurdereli, a prominent jailed human rights activist who is blind and 
in poor health, began fasting three days ago in support of the prisoners. 

The prisoners are jailed under laws limiting political activity and freedom 
of expression. 

The protest has brought attention to European Union candidate Turkey's much 
criticised jails and human rights record. The EU says Turkey must improve its 
human rights performance if it is to join the bloc. 

Authorities say many of the protesters are in danger as a result of the 
"death fast," now 55 days old. 

Ecevit said his government was doing its best to put an end to the hunger 
strikes. "It is not our government who will be responsible but fellow inmates 
who pushed them to death." 


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