Turkey: Police raid IHD's Diyarbakir branch

[Guido Janthor]

Hannover, 26.05.97.

24 May,1997, Copyright © Turkish Daily News

Police raid IHD's Diyarbakir branch

* Police take three IHD directors from Istanbul to Diyarbakir

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Turkish Daily News

Ankara- A police team from the anti-terrorist department raided and
searched the offices of the Human Rights Organization's (IHD)
Diyarbakir branch on Thursday. Mahmut Sakar, the vice president of IHD
and head of the Diyarbakir branch, was detained along with eight other
IHD members. Sinan Tanrikulu, Vedat Cetin, Ozlem Cetin, Pirozhan
Dogrul, Nebahat Akkoc, Haydar Kilicoglu, Yusuf Akgun and Ahmet
Altindag are the other detainees. The IHD was established in 1986.

Mahmut Sakar had condemned the cross-border operation of Turkish armed
forces in northern Iraq in a statement released on May 19 and had
urged the Red Cross and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe to take action.

Meanwhile, three IHD members, Hasan Karakoc, Munevver Ilktemur and
Birsen Gulunay were brought from Istanbul to Diyarbakir by the police,
reportedly for questioning, according to IHD officials. Hasan Karakoc
and Birsen Gulunay are the relatives of two "disappeared persons,"
Ridvan Karakoc and Hasan Gulunay.

"The aim of the raid is to silence the human rights activists who are
witnesses to the dirty war in the region. The activists will continue
resisting oppression," IHD official Nazmi Gur told TDN.

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