A recent meeting of NCADC heard representatives of three different campaigns of Kurdish people threatened with deportation to Turkey. All three involve very different people who have never met before but are all united by the oppression they have suffered, first in Turkey at the hands of the Turkish state, and now here in the UK.
The Ozbay Family, Huseyin, Hanim, 15 year old twins Ali and Veli and 12 year old Semih have lived in North London for over three years having fled from imprisonment, torture and beatings in Turkey and Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. The Ozbays are a Kurdish Alevi family who have seen several members of their family killed or seriously injured by Turkish soldiers. In 1993 Hanim’s brother’s son was shot dead by Turkish police and her sister’s son was shot in January 1995. Two of Huseyin’s nephews were killed in 1992 and his brother, Hassan was so badly beaten by Turkish police he lost the use of his arm. His sister was beaten with truncheons by gendarmes and suffered a broken arm. The arm turned gangrenous and had to be amputated.
In her application for asylum Hanim stated: “The police and gendarmerie in Turkey were persecuting us. They took my husband away. His face and feet would be swollen from beatings. I’ve been tortured a lot too. The same torture went on in Cyprus. The police would come and take my husband away all the time. I would rather kill myself than go back to those places.” Michael Howard turned down their application saying, “your application is simply a device to secure your stay in the UK.”
The Capti Family, also living in North London, are a Kurdish family from Maras in South East Turkey. Mehmet Capti came here in 1993 after being detained and tortured in Turkish prisons. Members of his family, including his father, continue to be detained in Turkey. Mehmet’s application for asylum was turned down in December 1993. His appeal was subsequently dismissed and leave for judicial review of his case’s handling was unsuccessful.
The family are organising a campaign to publicise their case and the situation of the Kurds in Turkey and to try to convince the new government to look sympathetically at their asylum claim. In 1994 the adjudicator considering the case conceded that Mehmet came from a Kurdish village considered by the Turkish authorities to support the PKK and therefore suffered from Turkey’s indiscriminate action to reduce the influence of the PKK by detaining any young men found in the area. Unfortunately Mehmet’s then solicitors were late in sending an application to take his case to the Tribunal.
The Capti Family, especially their children who were born in the UK, are at great risk if they return to Turkey. Their father is suspected of political activity and would almost certainly be detained.
The story of Ekrem Gokce is rather different. Ekrem, a Turkish national, was serving in the Turkish army in an area heavily populated by Kurds. Like many young conscripts Ekrem was not especially political and simply accepted his call-up. He was then greatly distressed at the way his unit was ordered to treat Kurds and felt unable to attack, beat and shoot Kurdish villagers as ordered. For refusing to obey orders he was imprisoned, beaten and accused of being a PKK spy.
Ekrem fled to Britain in 1994 and applied for asylum. He lived and worked in the UK for three years and married a local woman in Barrow-in-Furness in 1997. Ekrem was detained by immigration officials in June and held at Campsfield. He was deported to Turkey in September. His wife and family are continuing to campaign for his safe return.
These cases are just three of thousands concerning families and individuals who have fled persecution in their country and are now forced to campaign to secure a peaceful future for themselves here in the UK. As part of its new ethical foreign policy the new Labour Government should announce that it recognises that Kurdish people in Turkey face a well-founded fear of persecution and will not be returned there against their will. At the very least Home Office Ministers should agree to review the three cases outlined here.