Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish PM Calls for End to Police Protests
by Reuters - December 13, 2000
Posted: Thursday, December 14, 2000 07:32 pm CST

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Wednesday urged riot police to end two days of street demonstrations against his government, triggered by an attack on a police bus that killed two officers and injured 12.

Television showed scores of police in dark blue berets and uniforms marching through the streets of four cities -- Gaziantep, Mersin, Adana and Izmir -- for a second consecutive day on Wednesday carrying red-and-white Turkish flags.

They ignored orders from superiors to disperse and chanted slogans calling on Ecevit's government to resign.

Some 4,000 policeman staged a similar protest in the country's biggest city Istanbul on Tuesday, a day after the machine-gun ambush that they blame on left-wing guerrillas.

``Things will get out of control if policemen take to the street without permission and disturb public order, despite the fact they are responsible for assuring it,'' Ecevit said in remarks broadcast live on the private NTV news channel.

``This will inspire distrust and desperation in people,'' said Ecevit. ``I hope, we will not see once again the mass police protests that have taken place in the latest days.''

Newspapers said the police force was also angry at the exclusion of policemen convicted of torture from an amnesty law passed by parliament last week.

The police marches coincide with a spate of violent demonstrations in major cities in support of prisoners on hunger strikes.

The hunger strikes, which they call ``death fasts,'' are in protest against plans to move them from large dormitory-style rooms to individual cells where they say they may be abused.

Esber Yagmurdereli, a prominent jailed human rights activist who is blind and in poor health, began fasting three days ago in support of the prisoners.

The prisoners are jailed under laws limiting political activity and freedom of expression.

The protest has brought attention to European Union candidate Turkey's much criticized jails and human rights record. The EU says Turkey must improve its human rights performance if it is to join the bloc.

Authorities say many of the protesters are in danger as a result of the ``death fast,'' now 55 days old.

Ecevit said his government was doing its best to put an end to the hunger strikes. ``It is not our government who will be responsible but fellow inmates who pushed them to death.''

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