UPDATE ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN BEYTÜŞŞEBAP

"During the four years that the HEP and DEP existed (1990-94), no fewer than 64 of their leaders and prominent members were assassinated. The police authorities never found their murderers who, at least in some cases, appear to have acted with the connivance, or worse, of the police or intelligence services."
~ Martin Van Bruinessen, "Turkey's Death Squads".

There's more on the assassination attempt against Beytüşşebap's DTP mayor, Faik Dursun, was published on Özgür Gündem.

As described in the IHD press release, a bomb was found close by Dursun's house on the road that he uses to go to work at the municipality building.

Someone called Dursun to notify him about a suspicious package on the road. Dursun called the special prosecutor to go to the scene. Several times the office was called but no one came to inspect the package. Finally, a couple of police came, went onto the roof of a nearby house and shot into the package with their guns. This caused the package to explode,which made a big crater in the ground and broke the windows of several nearby houses.

Dursun said it was an assassination attempt against him because of the location of the bomb:

"The police went on the roof of a house and shot at the package, and exploded the package, even though we had called the special prosecutor several times. No one came to the scene even though we had called the special prosecutor over and over. Not having safety measures, shooting the bomb from a roof, confuses us because the bomb has been left on the road on the way that I use every morning. I think this incident is an assassination attempt against me.

The governor of Şirnex said that the bomb explosive was made of a munition from an RPG-type weapon and that the package had been destroyed according to proper procedures. However it should be noted that shooting a bomb from a rooftop, without a secured area set up to keep civilians away during detonation, is not the proper procedure for disposing of explosives. The bottom line is that the police set up no security perimeter around the bomb, nor did any bomb experts come to disable it.

Basically, the governor is engaging in a bold-faced lie, something which is not unusual for Turkish governors in the predominately Kurdish "Southeast."

The incident took place around 0830 hours, before Dursun left to go to the municipality building.

Witnesses said that before the bomb was exploded, they saw long cables coming out of the package, which may be an indication of a remote-control bomb.

Normally the area has soldiers going back and forth on the road, but on the day the package was discovered, no soldiers were in the area. It's also pretty odd that the bomb was placed in front of a military building which is guarded by soldiers 24 hours a day. There is also a large public light pole in front of the military area. According to these facts, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for anyone but a soldier to approach the building without being noticed or challenged.

More election games are being played in Amed, as reported in--GASP!--Milliyet. In Turkey, people are supposed to vote in their place of residence, but some voters in Amed have had their residence addresses changed on the voter registration rolls, including people who have lived in Amed all their lives and have voted in previous elections in Amed. For example, Hanife Salman has lived in Amed all her life and has always voted there. For some reason, however, she is listed as a resident of Istanbul on her voter registration listing. 2,800 voters in one voting district of Amed are in the same situation and will not be permitted to vote in the upcoming elections.

First we had soldiers being registered by their officers in the Sirnak area. Then we had independent candidates listed individually on the ballots. Now we have the addresses of voters changed by some mysterious way which precludes them from voting. Note that all of this is happening in the predominately Kurdish "Southeast," DTP's heartland.

Let's remember that Erdoğan recently made the remark that a vote for independent candidates (Read: DTP) was like "money thrown in the street." What then should anyone say about a vote for AKP, given that when he went to Amed in August 2005, "Erdogan promised to handle Turkey's 'Kurdish question' with more 'democracy.'" But what has happened in reality? Therefore, to vote for AKP is worse than "money thrown in the street;" It's throwing away a thousand hopes.

The Turkish state must be very afraid, especially since it's games are now reintegrating the old game of the assassination of Kurdish politicians.