30-31.07.2009 Daily Human Rights Report
(07/108) The case on killing Kemal Türkler...
On 30 January 2009 it had been learned that the acquittal of Bakirköy Heavy Penal Court No 2 in the trial against Ünal Osmanağaoğlu, charged with the murder of Kemal Türkler, former President of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK) on 22 July 1980, when he left his house in Merter quarter of Istanbul had been quashed by the Court of Cassation.
Following the repeal Bakırköy Heavy Penal Court No 2 tried Ünal Osmanağaoğlu again and acquitted Osmanağaoğlu on 30 July because of "lack of evidence". With this verdict the court resisted the Court of Cassation for the thord time.
The trial against the other suspects of the killings, Abdulsamet Karakuş, Aydın Eryılmaz and İsmet Koçak started in 1981 and ended on 7 April 1987 by sentencing Karakuş and Eryılmaz to 12 years' imprisonment for killing Türkler and 20 years' imprisonment for robbery of the car they used in the incident. In 1999 Osmanağaoğlu had been apprehended in Kuşadası and in 2003 he had been acquitted in the trial opened against him (bianet.org, 30 July).
(07/109) Obstacles to use languages other than Turkish...
in June 2009 Bedrettin Demir, headman of Mercimekli (Hebsunnes) village in Midyat district, Mardin province and Mehmet Ali Aslan, chairman of the Mhallami Association for Dialogue between Civilizations sent a petition to the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister for Culture and Tourism asking to rename their village to its Kurdish original. Demir and Aslan added material of the Ottoman archives showing the name of their village as Hebsunnes from the years 1516-1526 and 1567 to their petition.
Aslan, who did not receive an answer from the concerned institutions said that the responsibles from Midyat Gendarmerie Station and Police HQ called the village headman Demir and asked him whether they conducted the initiative or whether other people directed them. The uniformed forces also asked where the Ottoman documents had been found and Aslan replied that they had been found in the archives of the Prime Ministry. Aslan stated that the gendarmerie and the police had not threatened them directly, but they were under constant observation and the police had arbitrarily issued a ticket for traffic for his motorcycle (Gunluk, 31 July).
