Press Releases

11/20/06

Turkish leftists storm Associated Press office; police arrest 29 demonstrators

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Police arrested 29 leftist activists who broke into The Associated Press office in the capital Monday to protest alleged mistreatment of prisoners in Turkey, authorities said. There were no injuries.

Riot police in gas masks hammered open the office door and sprayed tear gas to evict the protesters, who had occupied the bureau in a residential apartment building in downtown Ankara for about two hours. The demonstrators had refused to let several AP employees leave the office, but they were unharmed in the police raid.

"We are happy no one was hurt," said AP International Editor John Daniszewski. "We strongly protest this incident and we believe that journalists should be allowed to do their work without interference."

Shortly before police swarmed into the office, protesters coughed and leaned out of the windows to escape the effects of the gas. They had unfurled banners from the windows but were unable to secure a live interview on Turkish television as demanded as part of their efforts to publicize their cause.

The activists belong to TAYAD, a group whose Turkish initials stand for The Association of Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners.

The group often stages demonstrations against alleged torture and other mistreatment of prisoners in Turkey. It says it was formed after a military coup in 1980 as a voice for prisoners' rights, and claims that more than 100 prisoners have died in riots or hunger strikes in high-security prisons in the past decade.

TAYAD has campaigned on behalf of families of jailed members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, a banned Marxist group. The DHKP-C, which is leading the strike, has claimed responsibility for a number of assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.