@@ Turks behind the bookstore bombing @@

Reuters
November 11, 2005

Turk media says security forces behind bomb

Turkish media said on Friday members of Turkey's security forces may have been
involved in the bombing of a Kurdish bookstore in the southeast Hakkari province
which almost led to their lynching by an angry crowd.

Wednesday's bomb blast in the town of Semdinli near the Iraqi border on Wednesday
killed one person and a second was shot dead amid two days of violent protests by
local people triggered by the explosion.

"A dark incident", said the Hurriyet daily in a banner headline, saying suspicions
that the security forces were acting outside the law had rattled the Turkish state.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek vowed to uncover what exactly had happened but urged
Turks to await the results of an official investigation.

"We have the political determination to deal with this issue", Minister Cicek said in
televised remarks.

Newspapers said three suspects detained by police after their near-lynching had
turned out to be intelligence agents of the gendarmerie, a paramilitary body under
civilian supervision which is charged with looking after security in rural areas.

The men were quoted as saying they had been passing through the town by chance when
the explosion had occurred and the crowd turned on them.

But the newspapers said police had found in the men's car three Kalashnikov assault
rifles, two grenades, a detailed map of the province and a map pinpointing the bombed
bookstore.

A national police spokesman in the capital Ankara said on Friday police were still
holding one suspect over the incident and were examining weapons found at the scene.

Spokesman Ismail Caliskan gave no further details but he urged local citizens not to
take the law into their own hands.

"We do not want our public to be provoked. We want them to show commonsense and await
the results of the probe", he said.

On Thursday, demonstrators set fire to a police checkpoint, erected barricades and
pulled down powerlines in Semdinli in protest against the bombing.

Tensions have been rising steadily in Turkey's impoverished southeast since the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called off a six-year ceasefire last year and resumed
its attacks on security and civilian targets.

Last week, a PKK member was killed when a mine he was planting exploded in the
eastern province of Tunceli.

On Friday, a bomb exploded under the parked car of a local prosecutor in the town of
Silopi near the Iraqi border. The blast caused a lot of damage but nobody was hurt,
security officials said.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group began
its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, has urged Ankara to do more to
develop the economy of the southeast but it has also put the PKK on its terrorism
blacklist.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11625912.htm

Reuters
November 10, 2005

Kurdish protesters attack southeast Turkey police checkpoint

Kurdish demonstrators set fire to a police checkpoint in a border town in southeast
Turkey on Thursday in protest against violence in which two people died, security
officials and eyewitnesses said.

Some 1000 protesters pulled down power lines and set up barricades in Semdinli, on
the mountainous border with Iraq and Iran, and threw Molotov cocktails at a police
checkpoint on the edge of the town, setting it ablaze but hurting no one.

Security forces were checking all vehicles entering the town and local authorities
were meeting in a bid to calm the situation, a security official said.

The protests followed a bomb blast which ripped through a Kudish bookstore in the
town on Wednesday, killing one person.

Local people tried to lynch a person suspected of planting the bomb and then turned
against the police, pelting them with stones, and one person was shot dead in the
ensuing violence, media reports said.

Police detained a suspect and seized three Kalashnikov assault rifles found in a car
near the site of the blast, media reports said.

Last week, Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb in front of the security headquarters
in Semdinli, wounding 23 people and damaging several buildings.

Separately, a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel was killed when a mine exploded as
he was planting it in countryside in the eastern province of Tunceli, the local
governor said.

A bomb exploded on a road in the eastern city of Van, bordering Iran, injuring no one
but damaging nearby buildings, security officials said.

The separatist PKK launched a violent campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast in 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict,
mostly Kurds.

The fighting tailed off after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999 and
jailed, and the group announced a unilateral ceasefire.

Violence has flared in the last year after the PKK called off its ceasefire. More
than 120 people died in clashes with the armed forces over the summer, compared with
14 deaths in the whole of 2002.

Writing by Daren Butler, editing by Tim Pearce
daren.butler.reuters.com[AT]reuters.net
turk.newsroom[AT]news.reuters.com
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10770370.htm

DozaMe
November 10, 2005

Turkish sergeants confessed

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_kitle_eylem.jpg
Kurdish protesters

Three sergeants from the Turkish Gendarmerie Intelligence Service (JIS) have now been
arrested for the bomb attack on November 9 against a bookstore owned by a Kurd in the
city of Semdinli in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) after confessing during
interrogation. The bookstore owner, Seferi Yilmaz, who was believed to have been
killed in the attack was found alive.

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_kitleye_saldiri.jpg
Master Sergeant Ali Kaya, Staff Sergeant Özcan Ildeniz, and a third sergeant who was
not named, admitted that they had carried out the bomb attack against the bookstore
yesterday. The sergeants, who were interrogated by the Republican Prosecutor of
Semdinli, Harun Ayik, also admitted that they had carried out the bomb attack on
November 1 outside a military residence in the city, wounding 23 people, of them 3
police officers, 4 soldiers and 16 civilians. With that , Prosecutor Ayik merged both
cases into one.

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_kitleye_saldiri2.jpg
Everything unfolded after Kurdish citizens in Semdinli broke into the car from which
the Turkish sergeants had carried out the attack on the bookstore. They found
weapons, bombs and a suitcase in the car. Opening the suitcase, they found written
plans, maps and a death-list consisting of prominent Kurds sympathizing with the PKK.
The bookstore owner Seferi Yilmaz name had already been checked in the list.

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli-liste.jpg
On the maps, the Kurdish citizens saw marked the position of both the military
residence that was bombed on November 1 and the position of the Yilmaz's bookstore.
Detailed written plans about how the attacks would be carried out was also found.

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_kitle_tepki3.jpg
The military ID of Ali Kaya was confiscated by the Kurds who captured the sergeants.
Pictures of the sergeants were also taken by the citizens. The pictures are believed
to be published soon.

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_jandarma_arac.jpg
Car found near the site of the blast

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/userimages/semdinli_keles.jpg
Three Kalashnikov assault rifles found in a car near the site of the blast.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010554_shops-afp-416.jpg
Bombed bookstore in Semdinli

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010562_arms-afp-416.jpg
Guns were found in the boot of a car being driven by intelligence agents, Turkish
prosecutors confirmed.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010544_coffin-afp-416.jpg
Emotions were high at the funeral of the man killed in the bookstore in Semdinli.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010552_flag-afp-416.jpg
His coffin was draped in Kurdish colors and was followed by a large crowd.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010542_victory-afp-220.jpg
Slogans in support of the Kurdish PKK rebels could be heard in the streets.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010594_protesters-afp-416.jpg
Crowds took to the streets of the mountain town which has seen PKK rebel unrest in
the past.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010584_fire-afp-416.jpg
Riots erupted

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/jpg/_41010560_pkk-afp-416.jpg
Semdinli walls bear graffiti in support of the PKK rebels.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/ocalan/stories/ocalan.profile/link.turkey.map.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41010000/gif/_41010352_turkey_hakkari2_map203.gif
Southeastern Hakkari province

http://www.kurdishinfo.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4208


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