The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) is very concerned about the dramatic escalation of violence against people in public life and the church in Turkey. The latest reports, which have just reached the STP, state that the Turkish lawyer Hakan Karadag was found dead in his house in Istanbul today, Friday. Karadag was one of the lawyers acting for the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered on 19th January 2007 by Turkish racists. He had worked for the investigation into this crime and received two death-threats from the murderer.

"Our human rights organisation calls for the setting up of an international independent commission into the circumstances of Karadag's sudden death and the murder of the chair of the Turkish Bishops' Conference, Luigi Padovese, last Thursday in Iskenderum”, said the chair of the German section of the STP, Tilman Zülch, on Friday in Göttingen. The alleged confession made by the person who is thought by the Turkish media to have murdered the bishop does not make an international investigation superfluous.

An incident on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan in the town of Silopi on Thursday also gives rise to concern. Turkish security forces have according to information received by the STP brutally beaten up and severely injured the two high-ranking Kurdish politicians Sevahir Bayindir and Hasip Kaplan. MS Bayindir and Mr Kaplan are members of the newly founded pro-Kurdish party BDP and members of the Turkish Parliament. They had taken part in a peaceful demonstration against measures taken by the Turkish army.

"Although the STP welcomes the action being taken by Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the aid of the civilian population in the Gaza strip, he should also give his immediate attention to the dramatic human rights situation in his own country”, said Zülch. "We are very concerned about the increasing number of human rights violations against members of ethnic and religious minorities and their supporters. It is vital that the murders and mishandling of recent days are promptly investigated.”

The chair of the German section of the STP, Tilman Zülch, will be glad to provide further information at politik@gfbv.de