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Fri, 01 Sep 2006
Latest Wave of Arrest of Journalists in north Cyprus
It is the usual story; suddenly, for no very clear reason, a series of arrests, intimidations, harrasment occurs in north Cyprus. Generally the origin is from the government, military, police and, ofcourse, is somehow related to Turkey. This time, over a time span of few months, several Greek Cypriot journalists were arrested with pretty much bogus charges of filming or photographing military zones. Well, since north Cyprus is pretty much a military zone as a whole, you can imagine how valid(!) of an issue this is! You do not believe me? see for yourself from the official government gazzette at http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~durduran/papers/askeriharita.pdf , the gist of this map is that in case of "emergency" everywhere can turn into a 1. level military area. Anyway, I am digressing. I wanted to raise two points: (1) Sevgul Uludag's short e-mail report about a protest by BASIN-SEN (Union of Press Workers) and
Turkish Cypriot Journalists Asociation and Turkish Cypriot Association of Communicators (three pressassociations/unions) , (2) Sami Ozuslu's latest pearl of wisdom that shows how much of a "neo-Denktashism" follower he and other prominent CTP/RTP members are --specifically Yeniduzen columnists. BTW, I use "neo-Denktashism" instead of "new Left", "greened-reds" (note here, this has nothing to be about being an environmentalist!) etc that others use to refer to CTP's new face because it is exactly what they are doing. They are very good students of his in style and tactics -- aha, I got some of you here, before you can get up and list me differences between CTP and Denktash/DP/UBP/etc. Sure, they exist, but I am not calling them identical! Anyway read on!
Ok, let's begin by Sevgul's e-mail that I hope she would not mind me sharing here:
Dear Friends,
At the call of BASIN-SEN (Union of Press Workers) and Turkish Cypriot Journalists' Association and Turkish Cypriot association of Communicators (three press associations/unions) we went today around 30 journalists from a range of newspapers, tv and radio to protest the arrest of Greek Cypriot journalists. We stood on the famous "bridge" and Kemal Darbaz, the president of BASIN-SEN and Osman Kurt, the president of the Journalists' Association made a press statement.. We were thre to tell the army "Ela! We are here, come and arrest us as well!" The answer of the Turkish military to this demonstration was to go and instead of us, arrest three Greek Cypriot women today -- these women had been going to the Saint Barnabas monastery every week-end to clean the grave of the Sain voluntarily and everybody there loved them and they had no problems so far ... After a few calls from Greek Cypriot women friends, I called Talat's high level officials, the mayor of Yenibogazici etc, to see what we could do in the end the women were let free today.. they were arrested for "cleaning the grave without permissions!!!". the regime in the north is quite cleer, keeping us busy, throwing stones in the well so that we can try to take them out!!! On a serious tone, the situation is not good friends. It looks as though these arrests will continue by the police who is under direct command of the Turkish military and the civilian authorities have absolutely no control or say over them.. and here's the statement of the press unions:
"Dear press workers,
we are gathered here to share limitationsdirected to our working field, incorrect and arbitrary practices with the Turkish Cypriot people to whom we are responsible to and bring theissue to the attention of the authorised posts. We the organisations working within the field of the press and who embrace the pressworkers are hereby declaring the below stated opinions:
Detention andtrial practices forwarded against our colleagues who are trying to carry out their jobs as doing programmes which started nearly twomonths ago has been transferred into a campaign. This process where almost a journalist hunt is being executed is like a certificateof how can freedom of press can be violated when desired. Moreover,this certificate is supported with law codes, of 1979, which werewritten according to that periods situations.In our day, it is possible to come across in law codes such as Military Crimes and Penalties, Military restricted Zone as inmany codes and in regulations and directives bound to these codes manydescriptions, rules and sanctions, which do not match with recent circumstances.
Acting with the reality that there is almost no placeon this soil where we are living on that is not a military restrictedarea, radius of action of the press, and of the local and foreignevery individual is easily limited whenever desired and theselimitations go as far as violating the human rights.Dear press workers; it is impossible for us to accept and digest thesedefinitions of military restricted zone and practices connected tothese definitions which caused detention of Turkish Cypriot pressworkers in the past and recently.
Moreover, when we take in toconsider the zones where our colleagues had to pay fines for filmingand photographing, absurdity of the practices reveal even more. Whilethe point where communication technologies have reached enables everyzone to be photographed through the internet, claiming that pressworkers are threatening our security and sovereignty with the photosand films they shoot, is a tragicomic determination. Today, peopleare learning about the mentioned images as presentation of the courtverdicts only as words, and trying to materialise them in theirimaginations. Whereas these photos//images are photos and imageswhich are in albums, video tapes, and in PCs of many of us, and whichwe saw on newspapers, and on TVs everyday.Today, in our country where the civilian living areas and military units are in one with the other many places are within the context of military restricted zone. With existence of the recent definition ofthe military restricted zones, using the above mentioned situation ofbeing one with the other, whenever desired, against citizens andforeign individuals is inevitable. Upon this determination, abovementioned codes and regulations should be immediately changed and potential obstacles hindering the daily civilian life and freedom ofpress and violation of human rights should be lifted.
Codes should be used for the happiness of the people. People electtheir administrators to serve them better and to create a moredemocratic order. If the elected goes under the administration of theassigned despite of the will of the people, then the peopleknows/should know how to change them. Dear press workers; taking intoconsideration that genuine freedom of press and free journalism is aninevitable reality for creating a society depending on democraticvalues and living with democratic values, we are demanding from thosewho are using their authorities in the name of the people to takeprogressive steps without loosing further time. No one should havedoubts, our struggle will continue and expand until the press becomesfree and free journalism can be done within every inch of this island.
Cyprus Turkish Journalists Association
Union of Press Workers (Basin-Sen)
Turkish Cypriot Association of Communicators"
regards,sevgul
2) Ok, Sami Ozuslu's pearl of wisdom is waiting its turn. Sami Ozuslu,btw, was a member of Hamamboculeri.Org in its conception and was veryfast to leave when he realized that we were not going to play the"good boy" game and be a real alternative magazine. His excuse? "thisplace is not intellectual enough for me".May be he wants to forget itbut here are his columns from back then:http://www.hamamboculeri.org/authors/sam/The article is titled "Why are the Journalists being arrested?" and itbegins like a fairly benign article that we often see in TurkishCypriot or Turkish media. He pretends to be an outsider watching whatthe administration is doing. He asks the question "why are thejournalists being arrested? did someone press a button somewhere tocreate trouble?" then he proceeds in a similar manner making somegeneralizations about the absurdity of the situation (see Sevgul'se-mail above) and how laws should be interpreted for the favor of thecitizens and not otherwise. If someone blanked the author's name andthe newspaper, I would have thought, well, ok, fair enough, this guyis in the opposition and he is criticising the government. But no,this is Sami zuslu, who a day later boasts that himself along with twoothers were influential in the toppling of the coalition government(athttp://www.yeniduzengazetesi.com/index.php/cat/1/col/32/art/4075/PageName/Haberler), ofcourse, he is being sarcastic there and so am I! Anyway, he is aprominent member of the governing party, he is proud of himself ofbeing influential. He is not an outsider. He is partly responsible forthis government's actions! Had he been CTP member who also acceptsthat we live under Turkish occupation, TRNC is a puppet regime, Iwould not mind the outsider language he uses but he is not. Ofcourse,he is a smart fellow, in his article, he makes sure that he adds aparagraph that this is all being done to harm the president who is somuch into getting rid of the militarist attitudes in TRNC (haha ha! Hewrote it on the day when Talat went and attended a myriad of militarycelebrations for Turkey's victory day! what a joke!) and it gives"those" (ofcourse, pretend you do not know who they are) who arelooking for excuses to call TRNC a puppet regime under Turkishoccupation (Wait, is he talking about me? He is right! Smart fellow, Itell you).Anyway, the more interesting part of his lecture (no, his column) isthe part where he begins claim that Turkish Cypriot community , veryclearly, knows that G/C leadership and press are non-democratic, theyare oppressive, they are against freedoms. Ohh, really? Let's see ifwe agree on that (because I have well known reservations about the RoCadministration too!), ohh, wait, he is not saying anything really. Hejust wanted to find an excuse to attack Greek Cypriots. His target wasthe head of the Union of Cyprus Journalists who he claims shows nointerest in helping Turkish Cypriots but is raising hell aboutG/Cs. His example? The arrest of T/C architects and comparison to thejournalist arrests. Apples and oranges I say!BTW, I personally know that Union of Cyprus Journalists has been veryfast, eager and effective in the past on raising internationalattention to arrests and harrastment of Turkish journalists upon shortnotice. Back then, Sami was in the opposition and he shared this viewprobably. Or may be not! While at it,http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/cyprus.html. Cyprus Media Landscape
Gazeteciler neden tutuklanıyor?
Birileri düğmeye mi bastı nedir, arka arkaya Rum gazeteciler tutuklanıyor bu sıralar...
Gizli bir el var bu konuda görev yapan ve zaman zaman ortaya çıkıveriyor mübarek...
Kıbrıslı Türklerin dünya ölçeğindeki prestijini zedeleyecek icraatlara imza atıyor sistemli biçimde...
Sanki bütün Rum basın mensupları bu dönemde casusluk yapmayı akıl etmiş gibi, elinde kamera olan herkesi yakalayıp içeri tıkıyorlar!..
Askeri Bölge tanımlamasının arkasına saklanılıyor bu tür tutuklamalarda hep...
Derece derece askeri bölgeler...
Tamam, kimsenin diyeceği yok askeri sırların gizli tutulmasına...
Stratejik bilgilerin sokağa dökülmesi gerektiğini savunan da yok.
Amma ve lakin oradan geçen herkesin çıplak gözle görebileceği objelerin filme çekilmesiyle hangi sır ortaya çıkıyor ki?
Yoksa askeri birliklerimizde yeterince kamuflaj yapılamıyor mu?
**
Dışişleri Bakanlığına bağlı Enformasyon Dairesi dün bir açıklama yapıp tutuklamaların haklı yanını göstermeye çalıştı.
İşin püf noktası da burada zaten...
Eğer sizin niyetiniz varsa birini içeri sokmaya, bahanesini bulursunuz mutlaka...
Kimi trafik polislerinin yaptığı gibi...
Ehliyetiniz, seyr-ü seferiniz, sigortanız bir tamam... Sürat yok, alkol almadınız, kemerler bağlı, ışıklar, sinyaller tamam yanıp sönüyor... Yedek lastik, ekipmanlar herşey mevcut... Hatta tozluklar bile takılmış lastiklere...
Ama kafasına takmışsa genç polis sizi yazmayı, bulur bir suç unsuru mutlaka!..
Vayperlerinizin lastiği yıpranmış deyip kesebilir cezayı...
Var mı haklı yanı polis kardeşimizin?
Var elbette...
Bu sıcak havada, yazın ortasında aniden yağmur bastırabilir... Cam sileceklerinizin lastikleri yıpranmış olduğu için yağmur sularını camdan temizleyemeyebilirler... Öndeki araçlar çamur fırlatabilir sonra... Bozuk lastikler onları da temizlemekte kifayetsiz kalabilir pekala... Kaza yapabilir, kendinize, yolcularınıza ya da başka araçlarda olanlara, yahut yayalara zarar verebilirsiniz maazallah!..
Bu yüzden trafik polisi fevkalede haklıdır cezanızı vermekte...
Mahkemeye gitseniz, yargıç da vayper lastiğinin faydaları konulu brifing verecektir size muhtemelen ve daha fazla para ödemek dışında bir işe yaramayacaktır bu hak arayışı girişiminiz...
**
Niyet bu gibi konularda son derece önemlidir. Yasaları pozitif veya negatif yorumlama hak ve yetkisi elinizdedir ve kendinizi ete, bıçağa sahip kasap gibi görebilirsiniz pekala...
Hele askeri sırlar gibi tabu bir konuda asıp-kesmek çok kolaydır. Demokrasinin sınırları o taraflara pek uğrayamaz çünkü...
Halkına ve dünyaya demokratikleşme-sivilleşme sözü veren sivil hükümetinizi de, Reis-i Cumhurunuzu da yıpratırsınız böylelikle...
Size işgal rejimi diyenlere de tepe tepe kullanabilecekleri malzeme sunarsınız, aştın tepsi içinde...
Basın örgütleriniz mahcup duruma düşer Rum meslektaşları karşısında ve Siz işgal altındasınız oğlum dediklerinde söyleyecek laf bulamaz hale gelirler!..
Önemli değil midir size göre bu psikolojik zor durumlar?
**
Kıbrıs Rum liderliğinin demokratik davranmadığını, Rum medyasının türlü baskılar nedeniyle özgür olamadığını anlatmasın kimse bize...
Bunları en iyi bizim camia biliyor çünkü...
Rum basınının fanatik tavrını terketmesi için hem Basın-Sen, hem de Gazeteciler Birliği az mücadele vermedi bugüne kadar...
Gannavros başkanlığındaki Kıbrıs Gazeteciler Birliği her ne kadar tek devlet, tek gazeteci örgütü gibi faşizan bir yaklaşıma sahipse de, işbirliği koşulları zorlandı hep...
Rum meslektaşların Kuzeyde başı her sıkıştığında her iki örgüt de ilgisini esirgemedi hiç...
Ama Gannavrosun uzlaşmaz anlayışıyla da her platformda kavga etti Basın-Sen ve Gazeteciler Birliği yönetimindeki arkadaşlarımız...
Güneyde Kıbrıs Türk basınının, Türkiye basınının yaşadığı zorlukları da protesto etti meslek örgütlerimiz... Basın özgürlüğünü hangi tarafın engellediği değildi önemli olan... Sorun, basın özgürlüğünün engellenmesiydi. İlkeli bir duruş sergileniyordu yani...
Şimdi şöyle bir yorum yapıldığını duyar gibiyim: Rum polisi Kıbrıslı Türk mimarları tutuklarken iyiydi de Rum gazeteciler bizim tarafta tutuklanınca mı kötü oldu?
Aman ha!..
Kimse öç alma duygusuyla hareket etmeye kalkmasın sakın...
Bu ülke öç alma duygularının engellenmeyişinin sonuçlarını çok gördü.
O yaptı, ben de yaparım... O devletse ben de devletim deyip güç gösterisine yeltenmesin birileri...
Yazıktır, gereksizdir, zararlıdır...
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