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Samatya residents protest attacks on Armenians
All the speakers condemned the police department and accused it of
covering up the reality behind the attacks.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=102418
27 January 2013 Sunday
World Bulletin / News Desk
Residents, civil society groups and political party representatives
gathered in the central square of Ä°stanbul's Samatya neighborhood on
Sunday to protest a number of attacks committed against elderly
Armenian women in their homes over the past few months, one of which
resulted in a death, with police failing to capture the assailants.
`Don't touch my neighbor' and `I will not let you hurt my brothers and
sisters' read some of the signs held by the protesters. Dozens joined
the rally, including Mersin independent deputy ErtuÄ?rul Kürkçü and
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Ä°stanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel. She
attended in her capacity as a representative of the Peoples'
Democratic Congress (HDK), a Kurdish civil society organization that
also organized Sunday's rally.
The crowd also lay carnations in front of the apartment building of
one of the victims, presumably that of Maritsa Küçük, who was brutally
murdered in her apartment.
All the speakers condemned the police department and accused it of
covering up the reality behind the attacks.
Five women were attacked in the past two months. Police say there is
no ethnic targeting, claiming that only three of the women attacked
were Armenian. But civil society groups insist that the events were no
ordinary cases of robbery, as nothing valuable was taken from the
houses of the attacked women. There were also claims that the attacks
could have been perpetrated by construction mafia seeking to prevent
elderly homeowners from holding up new constructions in the region.
However, the message in Sunday's march was clear, with most protesters
saying they did not buy the police's interpretation of the events.
On Saturday, a group of 30 members of the Freedom and Democracy Party
(Ã-DP) protested the attacks in front of the KocamustafapaÅ?a Train
Station. Ã-DP Ä°stanbul provincial branch secretary Çiçek Çatalkaya in a
speech she made here referred to the attacks as `racist and fascist,'
and asserted that these were not isolated incidents. `We know that
these attacks are not related to profit seekers from urban renewal
projects. We know this because the blood that was shed on this land
100 years ago has still not dried,' Çatalkaya said, in reference to
the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey's Southeast.
The first attack in the past few months was on Nov. 1, 2012. A woman
named Gönül A. was beaten by an intruder, and her valuables were
stolen. On Nov. 28, Tuivat A. (87) was attacked inside her house. She
lost one eye in the attack and her valuables were also taken. On Dec.
28, Maritsa Küçük (85) was brutally murdered in her house, where she
lived alone. In the fifth attack, Sultan Aykar (80) was stabbed as she
entered her house.
All the speakers condemned the police department and accused it of
covering up the reality behind the attacks.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=102418
27 January 2013 Sunday
World Bulletin / News Desk
Residents, civil society groups and political party representatives
gathered in the central square of Ä°stanbul's Samatya neighborhood on
Sunday to protest a number of attacks committed against elderly
Armenian women in their homes over the past few months, one of which
resulted in a death, with police failing to capture the assailants.
`Don't touch my neighbor' and `I will not let you hurt my brothers and
sisters' read some of the signs held by the protesters. Dozens joined
the rally, including Mersin independent deputy ErtuÄ?rul Kürkçü and
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Ä°stanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel. She
attended in her capacity as a representative of the Peoples'
Democratic Congress (HDK), a Kurdish civil society organization that
also organized Sunday's rally.
The crowd also lay carnations in front of the apartment building of
one of the victims, presumably that of Maritsa Küçük, who was brutally
murdered in her apartment.
All the speakers condemned the police department and accused it of
covering up the reality behind the attacks.
Five women were attacked in the past two months. Police say there is
no ethnic targeting, claiming that only three of the women attacked
were Armenian. But civil society groups insist that the events were no
ordinary cases of robbery, as nothing valuable was taken from the
houses of the attacked women. There were also claims that the attacks
could have been perpetrated by construction mafia seeking to prevent
elderly homeowners from holding up new constructions in the region.
However, the message in Sunday's march was clear, with most protesters
saying they did not buy the police's interpretation of the events.
On Saturday, a group of 30 members of the Freedom and Democracy Party
(Ã-DP) protested the attacks in front of the KocamustafapaÅ?a Train
Station. Ã-DP Ä°stanbul provincial branch secretary Çiçek Çatalkaya in a
speech she made here referred to the attacks as `racist and fascist,'
and asserted that these were not isolated incidents. `We know that
these attacks are not related to profit seekers from urban renewal
projects. We know this because the blood that was shed on this land
100 years ago has still not dried,' Çatalkaya said, in reference to
the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey's Southeast.
The first attack in the past few months was on Nov. 1, 2012. A woman
named Gönül A. was beaten by an intruder, and her valuables were
stolen. On Nov. 28, Tuivat A. (87) was attacked inside her house. She
lost one eye in the attack and her valuables were also taken. On Dec.
28, Maritsa Küçük (85) was brutally murdered in her house, where she
lived alone. In the fifth attack, Sultan Aykar (80) was stabbed as she
entered her house.