British police use 'war on terrorism' against Turkish-speaking community

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday March 18, 2003 16:11 by Meryem - DHKC Britain londra at post dot com

They try to blackmail people into becoming informers

The DHKC, a revolutionary group from Turkey, describes how the UK's Terrorism Act 2000 is being used for repression and blackmail directed at the Turkish-speaking minority, particularly in London. Shopkeepers especially are being harassed by police in an attempt to get them to turn informer. The statement says the British authorities are acting in support of the Turkish government and more broadly, the repression is part of an attack on opposition movements internationally.

THE BRITISH POLICE WANT TO FORCE OUR PEOPLE INTO ACTING AS INFORMERS

In the year 2000, an anti-terrorism law called the Terrorism Act 2000 was issued. On the basis of what is contained in this law, some organisations are banned, among them the DHKP-C (Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front).
In the framework of the “war on terrorism” headed by the USA since September 11, the British state has also begun to play its part in the policies of aggression pursued by the USA. It took part in actions to bomb Afghanistan and kill its civilians. At the moment these policies of aggression are continuing, within the framework of slaughtering the people of Iraq and turning that country into a US state. An aspect of such a policy is destroying the revolutionary struggle and the democratic opposition throughout the world. For this reason too, the anti-globalisation movement is liable to be accused of terrorist activities.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TURKEY:
Turkey is a country in which the most basic human rights are not recognised. The state in Turkey is a mafia state which engages in torture, massacres and rape. On a number of occasions, the European Court of Human Rights and various EU institutions have found the state in Turkey guilty of violating human rights. Tens of thousands of people in our country have lost their lives as a result of state terror. Millions of our people have been subjected to torture or have been forced to become refugees.
The most basic human rights, the right to think and the right to organise, are infringed and declared to be illegal.
Hundreds of our people have been tortured to death in police stations. In the prisons, inmates who were already in captivity and behind the four walls of their prisons have been murdered with firearms, bombs or beaten to death with clubs, and this happened before the eyes of the entire world. Finally, on December 19, 2000, as a result of a state operation in the prisons, 28 prisoners were killed in this manner. All this information has been established to be true by international human rights bodies and even the investigative commission of the National Assembly of Turkey (parliament) accepted that it happened. The British state knows all this perfectly well.
IT IS NOT A CRIME TO STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM
The British state banned the DHKP-C as a way of supporting the fascist regime in Turkey. It thus banned the struggle against fascism in Turkey and the use of the right to resist fascism. And the Terrorism Act 2000 not only banned the struggle against fascism in Turkey, it also made it illegal in Britain to reveal the crimes against humanity that go on in Turkey.
But nobody can prohibit the struggle against fascism. There can be no legitimate pretext for supporting fascism.
Bans, imprisonment and starting up new court cases cannot prevent us from telling the truth about what goes on in our country. No force, no punishment can stop us from revealing the terrorism practiced against the peoples of Turkey by fascism in our country.
OUR STRUGGLE IN BRITAIN IS AN OPEN AND DEMOCRATIC ONE
They wanted to legitimise the repression against the DHKP-C by carrying out an operation in which six democrats from Turkey and one from Britain were arrested. They looked for excuses to legitimise an operation which was carried out to stop us revealing what goes on in our country.
They acted as if something really major had been uncovered, basing this on address books and various documents found on the people arrested. In actual fact there is no underground organisation in Britain. Here, all work is done openly, legally and legitimately. And since there is nothing secret and clandestine there is also nothing to reveal. All that is there are various ties, part of above-the board activity that is well known.
WHAT IS THE INFORMATION THE POLICE HAVE?
What the police have are things everyone knows about because they are activities that are conducted openly. The police are trying to stop democratic people from distributing and selling magazines that are legal even in Turkey. Three cheers for the British police, who are committing acts of repression that even the torturing, murdering and rapist police of Turkey have not got round to.
The police here are trying to prevent aid campaigns expressing feelings of solidarity and support in our people’s culture and all democratic activities.They are trying to prevent us from aiding and supporting those we are close to who live in Turkey. They are seeking to terrorise us for supporting our people in Turkey who are exposed to state terrorism.
If we live here in Britain, we are also part of the people who live in our country. Revolutionaries are the sons and daughters of this people and are the people. The existence of revolutionaries in our country is connected to the existence of our people. While our people exist, revolutionaries will also exist and no force can prevent us supporting our human beings, our people.
Especially in the last month, the police have been going around shops in London to intimidate people and blackmail them into making statements against the DHKP-C. The police have been telling lies such as “DHKP-C people made statements saying you are helping them”. First of all they say they know that the person was helping them, and when they do not get the response they want they continue by saying, “Are they forcing you to buy the magazine, or to give them money?” So far the police have gone to about 80 shops and everyone has told them they bought magazines voluntarily and contributed to aid campaigns voluntarily. This is not the response the police are looking for, so then they tell shopkeepers, “You own a house, a car, a business. If you don’t want to lose them all...” as a form of indirect blackmail to try and extract from them an anti-DHKP-C statement.
WHAT DO THE POLICE WANT TO DO?
Do the police simply want to turn the truth inside out or do they want to compel our people to make statements that are lies? The police are supporting the fascist regime in Turkey by putting pressure on our people and by trying to blackmail them into making statements against the DHKP-C. In fact almost all of our people from Turkey who live here had to come here because of the fascist regime in Turkey that the British police are trying to support.
The aim of the police is not to protect local businesses but to turn them into informers and depersonalise them.
People from Turkey did not create the crimes such as drugs smuggling and mafia activity which also target Turkish-speaking people who live in Britain. These crimes are the product of the system in this country. So far the British police have been quite indulgent towards this kind of dirty work. The aim is to corrupt and cause the degeneration of our people and destroy the characteristics which lead them to support the democratic opposition.
IT IS DISHONOURABLE TO BE AN INFORMER
In Anatolian culture, the most dishonourable thing is to be an informer. So the aim of the police in trying to get people to inform is to undermine our traditions and our morality. They are trying out every method in corrupting our people in order to distance them from revolutionary values and the people’s values. And because our associations and our people’s organisations have opposed this degeneration, the police are treating them as a prime target today. And so the prime target is the culture of Anatolian people and our revolutionary, democratic opposition aspects. As the people, we cannot permit this to happen.
WHO ARE OUR PEOPLE AFRAID OF?
Our people voluntarily open their doors to revolutionaries. If they aid revolutionaries it is done because they want to. If revolutionaries have been able to exist in our day, it is because they have received support from the people. Revolutionaries have never made our people feel worried, on the contrary they complain that the revolutionaries do not visit them more often. It is when the police come to the door that our people are upset. If our people see policemen coming towards them, they cross over to the other side of the street. Because police have never brought our people anything beneficial. In our culture the police have always been on the side of tyranny. They see that police repression here as well as bans, arrests and raids are designed to support the fascist regime in Turkey, and it disturbs them when the police come to try and extract lying statements from them.
ADMISSION BY THE POLICE
On March 10, 2003, there was a court appearance in London for the people who have been arrested; the prosecution admitted that “according to our enquiries the DHKP-C does not collect money by force, nor does it force people to buy magazines”. But in the hours and days after making this admission the London police continued to harass shopkeepers. Now the police do not just go after names obtained from arrests, they continue to go to all shopkeepers without distinction and try to get them to turn informer. The police intention is clear; to stop our people from supporting revolutionaries and to create provocations.
Our people must not permit themselves to be terrorised out of supporting the struggle against the fascist regime in our country and must take up a more distinct attitude.
Yes, we are continuing to receive publications which are close to our beliefs or which tell the truth about our country. Our people in our country are exposed to fascist repression. We support our own people. Helping is a part of our culture and we must be able to say that we will help our people in whatever way we want to.
The shopkeepers the police want to get to turn informer today are our shopkeepers, who support democratic values through their own labour and according to their lights. They are not people involved in shady business. There is nothing the police can do to our people, and there is nothing that will require us to behave in a timid fashion.

OUR RIGHT TO OUR BELIEFS AND ORGANISATION CANNOT BE TERRORISED OR BANNED
THE GUILTY ARE NOT THOSE WHO STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM BUT THOSE WHO SUPPORT IT
INFORMING IS DISHONOURABLE, LET US STAND UP IN DEFENCE OF OUR HONOUR

March 13, 2003
DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI
(Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front),
Britain