TURKEY: PROSECUTION DEMAND DEATH PENALTY AT MASS TRIAL OF TURKISH LEFT-WINGERS.

Record ID: 860709

  • Title: TURKEY: PROSECUTION DEMAND DEATH PENALTY AT MASS TRIAL OF TURKISH LEFT-WINGERS.
  • Date: 2nd December 1981
  • Summary: ERZURUM, TURKEY 30 NOVEMBER, 1981 (REUTERS - B. ARINLI) GV INTERIOR Judges take seat 0.10 SV Judge opening trial 0.16 SV Defendants give names to judges 0.30 CU Woman judge seated with others 0.35 SV Defendants rise 0.42 SV Judge reading charges 0.49 CU Defendants with guard (2 shots) 0.57 CU Women defendants 1.01 SV Defendant speaking (2 shots) 1.20 GV PAN Judges TO defendants 1.33 InitialsBB Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th December 1981 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA515NHWEZSMQT62O90XUKOIOMU
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: More than a year after the army came to power in Turkey amid endemic factional political violence, a series of mass trials are currently being held in the country.In Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, the trial of 300 alleged left-wing militants has opened with the prosecution demanding the death penalty for 120.

    SYNOPSIS: Twenty people a day died in factional violence when General Evren and the army took power in September, 1980.A year later, the death toll is down but the trials go on.In the dock in Erzurum were 300 alleged members of Dev Yol, the Revolutionary March government, declared opponents of the military government.Their comrades in Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul faced similar trials.

    The defendants are accused of a range of offences -- political murder, armed robberies and extortions, attacks on government buildings and the security forces.They were mainly from the younger age groups.

    The Junta has justified the mass arrests by pointing to the large reduction in political violence.Meanwhile, there has been no timetable for a return to democracy and all political parties have been closed down.A total of nearly 30,000 opponents of the regime are at present in prison -- three quarters of them left-wingers.

    As the Dev Yol trial was going on the government announced that 52 prominent trade unionist will go on trial later this month despite pressure from Western European countries against the trial.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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