URGENT CALL FOR ACTION: FREEDOM FOR HASAN ATMACA
Garbis Altinoglu, writer and political activist
14-0 8-2007
Hasan Atmaca, a political activist of Armenian descent, is due to be
extradited by the German authorities to Turkey, where he can expect
nothing but inhumane treatment and torture. What is more, his life
itself may be in danger as evidenced by the state-planned and executed
murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19th, 2007.
Hasan Atmaca is a former member of the PKK ("Workers’ Party of
Kurdistan"), the Kurdish national liberation organization. He
spent eight years behind bars in the wake of the military coup of 12
September 1980. He was subjected to systematic torture in the infamous
Diyarbakir Military Prison, the record of which dwarfs that of the
Nazi concentration camps. Mostly Kurdish inmates of this inferno were
beaten on a daily basis, put into isolation cells filled with human
excrement, forced to drink their own urines, spy on, beat and at times
even eat human excrement and copulate with each other, were deprived
of all basic human necessities months on end, compelled to say prayers,
memorize and chant chauvinistic and military songs and salute even the
lowest officials who systematically tried all forms of torture on them.
Being of Armenian origin secured to Mr. Atmaca only extra insult,
abuse and torture. 35 inmates died or were killed under horrific
conditions during the 38 month-long period between March 1981 and
May 1984, which mark the most intense period of repression in this
Gestapo camp. For the presumed advantages of the EU membership of
Turkey, this black page of history has been convenienty forgotten by
almost all European parties concerned.
HASAN ATMACAUpon the completion of his sentence Mr. Atmaca was released
from prison in 1988. Afterwards he continued his activities in the
ranks of the PKK for the liberation of the Kurdish people from the
brutal and bloody yoke of Turkish generals. However, he was once again
arrested and spent nearly two years more in prison in 1990-1991. When
Mr. Atmaca broke away from the PKK at the end of the 1990s he had to
leave Turkey and seek asylum in Germany. However, German courts have
refused his asylum application and the authorities have taken steps
to return him to the tender hands of Turkish Nazis.
The barbaric, genocidal and expansionist nature of the Turkish
state,who persist to oppress Kurdish people and other Muslim and
non-Muslim minorities despite its formal acceptance of various
international treaties and its ongoing occupation of Northern Cyprus
are well known. On several occasions Turkey has been censured by human
rights organizations and sentenced to various fines by the European
Court of Human Rights.
To allow the extradition of Mr. Atmaca will almost amount to pass a
death sentence on him. Therefore, I ask you to do your utmost and call
on the German authorities to desist from deporting Hasan Atmaca or any
other political refugees to Turkey. His extradition to Turkey shall
be perceived as an approval of the crimes of humanity committed by
the Ankara regime whose hands are stained with the blood of hundreds
of thousands and even million of Armenians, Greeks, Kurds and other
opposition figures of various nationalities.