News of mystery murders, which followed each other after two HADEP members
were declared missing and Okkan was assassinated, turns into a nightmare for
the people of the Southeast
The people in this region where two years of peace gives signs of waning, says
"deep and high" powers, which draw political and financial capital from violence,
are responsible
 
 

Inci Hekimoglu
Fen 10, 2001
Istanbul - Turkish Daily News

After Diyarbakir Security Chief Gaffar Okkan was assassinated and the People's
Democracy Party (HADEP) Silopi's District Chairman Serdar Tanis and General
Secretary Ebubekir Deniz were declared missing while in custody; now peace in the
Southeast is replaced by an anxious vigil.

While efforts to find the HADEP members continued, the discovery of unidentified
corpses and information about the missing destroyed the atmosphere of peace which
had been reigning in the region for more than two years. The provocation of conflict by
people who intended to draw economic and political benefits from violence have
caused the public to start worrying again.

Celal Baslangic, a member of the council which conducts investigations in the
Southeast, pointed out that the public found similar points between the murders of
Gaffar Okkan and the People's Labor Party (HEP) District Chairman Vedat Aydin,
saying: "After Aydin's murder, reports of people missing while in custody and violence
increased dramatically. There was high participation in the funeral of Okkan just as in
that of Vedat Aydin.

"There are similarities between the assassinations of these popular figures. In this
region, nobody believes that Okkan was assassinated by Hizbullah. It does not seem
very plausible to them that a score of people would stage such an attack right in front of
the security office."

"Not back to square one"

Stating that it was rumored in the region that the ghost of violence was once again
raising its head, Baslangic said: "News of scary and ghastly events are heard through
the grapevine. I met many people, including the man on the street. They all believe that
Turkey is going back to the period 1991-1996 when arbitrary executions followed one
another. The people of the region thinks that the murderers of Okkan are hidden in
'deeper and higher places.'"

Pointing out that news of about eight mystery murders in the Uludere, Dargecit, Guclu
Konak and the Kiziltepe districts had been received, delegation members and
journalist Baslangic stated that public prosecutor Gundogan Ozturk, who conducted the
investigation about the missing HADEP members, was as worried as the common
people and had said: "This is a difficult time. We don't want to live through the same
thing again. We don't want this event to be a bad beginning. We came to this point with
difficulty and we don't want to go back to square one."

Another rumor narrated by Baslangic, which is symbolic of the psychology of fear in the
region, is that police officers, who were charged with finding Okkan's killer, had
searched people in a local cafe by making them lay on the ground and amid cries of
"the bastards of Okkan." This allegation was conveyed to internal minister Sadettin
Tantan by the mayor of Diyarbakir.

An undesirable process

Making an evaluation about the two missing party officials, HADEP Chairman Ahmet
Turan Demir stated that the public had grown hopeful during the last two years but the
people were now worried about the return of the days of nightmares. He said: "The end
of the fight and violence in the region, the departure of the militants of the illegal
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the development of relations with the EU created
a positive impact."

"The public in the region expected that the region would become more democratic,
relations with the EU would improve, the constitution would be amended and important
steps would be taken for the solution of the Kurdish problem. Moreover, the Accession
Partnership Document (KOB) and the news that there will be acceptable solutions in
the national program strengthened the hopes, but there are some groups who want to
abuse these developments.

"There were allegations that the proposals of the United States regarding the Kurdish
issue were unacceptable, hawkish voices were heard in the government and there
were statements geared to creating tension and sabotaging democracy. Provocative
events started right afterwards. Two HADEP members were declared missing in
Silopi, there was the Okkan murder and five or six unidentified corpses were found.
When we consider all of these developments, it seems as though there is an effort to
start an undesirable process."

Turan Demir said the lack of cohesion between the government and certain units of the
state had become clear to some groups and said: "There is a certain group which talks
about the need for democratic improvements. But there are also groups which act only
according to their own interests. We believe that there is a certain contradiction and
conflict within the state."

The Diyarbakir representative of the Human Rights Foundation (IHV) Sezgin Tanrikulu
stressed the atmosphere of peace that prevailed in the region after the number of
armed conflicts fell about 90-95 percent. Lawyer Tanrikulu said the following: "People
started to worry when Okkan was killed in a murder that has yet to be resolved, the
HADEP members disappeared and security forces started displaying a more rigid
stance.

"The environment of peace during the last years was not used very effectively by the
state. The inability to resolve the Kurdish problem through peaceful and democratic
means increased the tension. I noticed that Ekinciler Avenue was vacant as early as
9:30 p.m. a few days ago. The anxiety will also impact trade and daily life.

"What is worrisome is that the state has not made a clear statement regarding Okkan's
murder. No individual or group in the region wants the peaceful days to end. If the dark
days of old come back, Turkey would not be able to shoulder this burden."

Tanrikulu stressed that the despair of the people over the inability of the state to make
good use of the peaceful atmosphere during the past two years and the failure to
implement democratic reforms was intensified after the two murders and said that the
attitude of the security forces had hardened after the murder of former security chief
Okkan.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com