<nettime> urgent action: stop deportation from germany to turkey

["[ueber die grenze]" <grenze@crg.net>]

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   circulated on nettime-l <nettime-l@desk.nl> on 5 march 1999.
      this is *NOT* a sign-it-and-send-it-to-everyone letter
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URGENT ACTION +++++ PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE +++++ URGENT ACTION

no one is illegal campaign
phone: ++49/172/8910825
<grenze@jff.de>
<http://www.contrast.org/borders>

STOP THE DEPORTATION OF RECEP ÖZ 
AND All DEPORTATIONS TO TURKEY

Recep Öz, a kurdish activist, is threatened by deportation to Turkey. He
was arrested on the way to a demonstration in Berlin on February 17th,
actually he is imprisoned in Bueren, and started a hungerstrike there.

We ask everyone who receives this e-mail to immediately send a protest
fax to the following

Minister of Interior Affairs of Northrine-Westfalia, Dr. Fritz Behrends
Haroldstr. 5, 40213 Düsseldorf phone ++49/211/87101, Fax ++49/2118713355

Minister of Interior Affairs of Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Otto
Schily
Graurheindorfer Str 198 53117 Bonn, phone ++49/228/584030, Fax
++49/228/584066

Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder
Bundeskanzleramt, Adenauerallee 139-141, 53113 Bonn, phone
++49/228/562522,-2523
Fax ++49/228/562357

Please sign also the appeal of the Berlin refugee Council:


Appeal

"... No matter how you look at it. It is all about the question whether
the German government is willing to deport offenders to a country of
torturers or not. Schily says this is not possible, but at the same time
he is trying through the backdoor to find a way to get rid of Kurdish
refugees as did Manfred Kanther before. (...) Schily´s wants a promise
from the Turkish government about sparing deported Kurdish people from
torture. But this kind of negotiation is absurd. The officials in Bonn
all know that this won´t save deportees from imprisonment and torture.
It can't even serve as a front to hide behind for the German government.
If you want to deport Kurdish refugees this way you must be honest and
declare openly that you are acting against the European Human Rights
Convention. (...)" (Heribert Prantl, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24.2.1999)

Recep Öz, a Kurd from Turkey, is no offender. But nevertheless, he is
threatened by deportation. He wanted to participate in a demonstration
by Kurdish people in Berlin when he was arrested by the the police
without any legal papers. His application for political asylum has been
rejected as hundreds of other Kurdish refugees that are now hiding in
church asylum. All of them have been rejected as political refugees
because the German officials claim that they could not prove an
individual persecution by the Turkish state. "In most of the cases
(rejected asylum seekers from Turkey) we have been investigating torture
and imprisonment could have been prevented, if the applications for
poltical asylum had been taken more seriously by the German officials".
(Refugee-Council Lower Saxony/PRO ASYL in their latest documentation of
the endagering of Kurdish refugees deported back to Turkey, February
1999, P.3)

Today the situation in Turkey is even more serious. New waves of arrests
after the escape of Öcalan to Italy and especially after his
imprisonment in Turkey need to be taken into account when judging about
the deportations of Kurdish refugees. Until now this has only happened
in individual cases.

Recep Öz has started a hungerstrike since his arrest February 17th to
protest against all deportations of Kurdish refugees to Turkey. He has
started a struggle for his right to stay in Germany in the name of all
who are threatened by torture and imprisonment.

We are demanding the immediate suspension of all deportations of Kurdish
refugees from Germany. This is the only way to guarantee Article 3 of
the European Convention of Human Rights for Kurdish refugees. We are
also demanding the release of Recep Öz and a permit to stay in Germany
for him and all Kurdish refugees in Germany as long as torture is a
common practice in Turkey. We also believe that this is the only
possibilty to stop the escalation of violence and a first step towards
an "international solution" of the Turkish/Kurdish conflict.

Signed by the Refugee-Council Berlin, Anti Racist Initiative, Berlin,
Günter Grass (author), Hans Brandscheid (medico international), Heiko
Kauffmann (speaker of PRO ASYL), Gyas Sayan (MP, PDS, City State of
Berlin), Kostas Papanastasiou (actor and architect), United for
Intercultural Action, Amsterdam, Ewald Groth (MP, Bündnis 90/the Greens,
the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen), Berrin Özlem Otyakmaz (Mona -
International Womens Contact and Counselling Center), Knut Rauchfuss
(Refugee Medical Help, Bochum), Central America Commitee, Bochum, Centro
Latino e.V., Regional Office Peace Train Musa Anter, VSP - Union of
Socialist Politics, Ulla Jelpke (MP, PDS, Bundestag Bonn), Caroline
Bouquerel-Pajaziti (French Translater, EU- Bruxelles), Georg Classen,
Berlin, Anti Discrimination Office, Berlin, Peter Tepper, Ingeborg
Hunzinger, Heidrun Hegewald, Dr. Hanna Behrend, Dr. Manfred Behrend,
Gina Pietsch, (all from Berlin ),

Please, send further signatures to the Refugee-Council Berlin and copies
to the Antiracist Initiative, tel: ++49/30/7857281, fax: ++49/30/7869984 

Flüchtlingsrat Berlin (Refugee-Council Berlin)
Fennstr. 31
D - 12439 Berlin,
ph. : -30/6317873
fax: -30/6361198

-------------cross the border--
--ueber die grenze ------------
http://www.contrast.org/borders
--phone: ++49/89/172/8910825---
-----mar 12-14 n5m3 amsterdam--
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