Press Release

September 24, 1997

202.483.6444

A Year Ago, Today, Ten Kurdish Inmates were Beaten to Death in Turkey

Today marks the second anniversary of the brutal death of 10 Kurdish inmates in Diyarbakir Prison in Turkey by 29 Turkish police officers and 36 Turkish soldiers.  Twenty-three other Kurdish inmates were also heavily injured at the time of this altercation.   While the government of Turkey has launched an investigation into this deadly attack, no one to this day has been convicted of the crime.   On September 19, 1997, almost a year after the incident, a trial was held at the 3rd Court Room in the Palace of Justice in Diyarbakir. Two of the noncommissioned officers, Erol Demir and Hamza Gorgulu and another soldier, Solmaz Karaoglan, were questioned about their part in the crime.

One of the noncommissioned officers, Erol Demir noted, "The inmates threw rocks, soap and iron rods at us.  The iron rods landed on the heads of inmates who were closer to us.  The inmates injured themselves."

Ahmet Sever, a survivor of the massacre, still an inmate, told the court his version of the event.  "It was a visitation day.  We knew that our loved ones would bring us food.  We asked the prison wards to allow us to borrow some containers from our fellow inmates on other floors (as we had done in the past) so that we could take the food to our rooms. They locked us into the waiting room.  Then, the doors opened and soldiers and police officers attacked us.  They were shouting, "Allah, Allah, Allah ..." and "Death to PKK"  We shouted back, "Death to torturers" and " Human Dignity will Prevail over the Torturers"

Mr. Sever went on to say, "They subdued all of us.  We were all on the ground.  They asked us who Ridvan was.  They beat him to death in front of us.  I also witnessed the death of Ahmet Celik.  I saw his crushed head."

Ten Kurdish inmates who were killed were prisoners of war, members of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) the armed wing of PKK.  They were, Ridvan Bulut, Ahmet Celik, Cemal Cam, Mehmet Aslan, Edip Dilence, Nimet Cakmak, Hakki Tekin, Kadir Demir and Erkan Perisan.  At the 3rd Court Room, Mrs. Hedipe Perisan spoke for Erkan Perisan, her son, one of the victims of this brutal attack: "This massacre was pre-planned."  

The Court was adjourned until October 23, 1997.

Four members of the Turkish parliament who went on a fact finding mission to the city of Diyarbakir and spoke with some of the witnesses of this event recommended to the Turkish parliament that the accusers ought to stand trial and also noted that they should have used tear gas to incapacitate the inmates as opposed to using force to end their lives.