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2008 News

Kurdish Politician Tortured to Death in Syria

Kurdish Human Rights Project has just received information that former Kurdish politician Osman Mihemed Silêman Hecî, who had served as a Syrian MP between 1991 and 2007 died in hospital yesterday following several months of torture and ill treatment in prison.

Mr Hecî was arrested on 27 November 2007 and had been in prison ever since, suffering torture and ill treatment at the hands of Syrian police. On 22 January 2008 he was taken to El Kindi Hospital by Syrian officials and registered with the name of Eli Ehmed to hide his real identity. He died of his injuries there yesterday.

Mr Hecî is one of countless Syrian Kurds who suffer arbitrary detention and torture at the hands of Syrian officials. Syria’s Kurdish region is kept deliberately economically isolated both from the rest of Syria, and other Kurdish-inhabited regions. Around a million Kurds have been stripped of citizenship and therefore unable to travel or access basic services. Arrests and violence in Syria’s Kurdish regions have been particularly common in recent months due to Syrian Kurdish opposition to Turkey’s military operations in Kurdistan Iraq, operations which Syria vocally supported.

In response to today’s news KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yildiz stated: “Kurds are disenfranchised, arbitrarily arrested, tortured and killed with a shocking degree of impunity in Syria. That even a long-serving and respected member of parliament such as Mr Hecî can suffer such a fate demonstrates that Syria cares little even to hide such outrageous conduct. KHRP calls on the international community to unreservedly condemn this killing and to put the necessary pressure on Syria to enfranchise its Kurdish population and to respect the human rights of all its citizens”.

**2 SPECIALIST INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE AT KHRP**

KHRP is pleased to announce two specialist voluntary internship positions in its Research and Resources & Communications departments.

For its Resource Centre Development Project the KHRP Resources and Communications department is seeking an ambitious, assertive and forward-thinking intern with a background in database and website technology and/or library science to aid the department in the development and organisation of a fully searchable catalogue of its printed and electronic resources. This is an exciting opportunity for a recent graduate of Computer Science or Library science to gain hands-on and meaningful experience in an ambitious institutional development project.

For its Culture and Language Rights Project KHRP requires a research intern with demonstrable knowledge of the issues surrounding culture and language rights to lead the development of a new publication. This is a unique opportunity for someone familiar with this aspect of human rights, to develop their research and analytical skills and direct the preparation of this important project.

Please click ‘Resources and Communications Internships’ and ‘Research Internships’ on the KHRP website’s Voluntary Work page for full internship descriptions, person specifications and to download an application form.

Please note: You must be registered and logged in to the KHRP website to download application forms for voluntary positions. To register/ log in please the ‘register link’ on the right of this page.

KHRP Observes Acquittal of Kurdish Publisher Charged with Disseminating Separatist Propaganda

The Kurdish Human Rights Project today welcomes the formal acquittal of Ahmet Önal, the Kurdish publisher charged with the dissemination of separatist propaganda, during proceedings at Istanbul Heavy Criminal Court Number 11.

A KHRP delegation today observed the trial of Mr. Önal in which he was accused of showing demonstrable support of an “armed terror organisation”, for his publication in 2005 of The Diaspora Kurds by Hejare Samil.

In defence of Mr. Önal , his lawyers referred to his right to free expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is, it was asserted, Mr. Önal’s right as a publisher to ‘receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority’.

KHRP Releases Briefing Paper on Turkish Attacks in Kurdistan, Iraq

As recently as last night and since late October 2007, Turkey has been carrying out cross-border military operations, bombardments and air-raids in Kurdistan, Iraq. Turkey has attempted to justify these operations under the pretext of its ongoing fight against the PKK.

This latest KHRP Briefing Paper, entitled Turkish Attacks on Kurdistan, Iraq 2007/8: Background, Motives and Human Rights Impact, discusses these developments, demonstrating how the attacks should be understood in the broader context of Turkey’s long-standing strategic goals in countering regional Kurdish autonomy, goals it shares with Iran and Syria. The paper refers to recent KHRP research in the region showing that Turkey’s operations have been in gross violation of the Geneva conventions, causing extensive harm to civilian life and property in parts of northern Iraq with little actual impact on the capabilities of the PKK. The paper also discusses the international reaction to the attacks, and calls upon the US, EU and all other parties with an interest in maintaining stability in the region to condemn the attacks and urge Turkey to pursue constructive and non-military measures to secure peace in the region.

The briefing paper can be accessed free on the KHRP website here.

Please note: to download or purchase documents from KHRP’s website you must be registered to our site. Registration is easy and free: sign up today at the right of this page.

European Court of Human Rights finds Turkey in violation for failing to protect life of abducted man

The European Court of Human Rights yesterday found Turkey in breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in the KHRP-assisted case of Osmanoğlu v Turkey.

The case was brought to the Court by Mr Muhyettin Osmanoğlu, whose son Mr Atilla Osmanoğlu was allegedly detained by Turkish police and subsequently disappeared in March 1996. Mr Osmanoğlu alleged that his son was detained at his grocery shop by two armed men who represented themselves as police officers. The officers allegedly led his son to a car and told him that his son was being escorted to police headquarters.