Death keeps hunting Van which has been regularly hit by strong earthquakes in the last three months. Over six hundred people died in the strongest earthquake at the end of October, but people are still dying because of the harsh conditions they are forced to live, or rather survive, in. Another fire proved lethal for children. This time erupted in a tent in Seyrantepe Neighborhood. Similar to earlier tent fires in the earthquake-shattered area, the fire was reportedly caused by a heating stove in the tent of Doru family.

As many as 1432 people, including many BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) executives, have turned themselves in, in the last one month. The self-denouncement of Kurds was performed within the scope of the "I turn myself in" campaign launched on 16 November as a protest action by Kurdish organizations against “KCK” arrests, considered a political golpe.

On the days Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, is in Turkey to participate in the panel discussion "Turkey and Freedom of Expression" yet another journalist was handed down a prison sentence for what she wrote.

Lawyers have on Thursday occupy the Bar Association of Istanbul during attorney certificate ceremony. The action was staged to condemn the Bar's silence about the arrests of 36 lawyers. The lawyers were arrested for representing Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Recently, suspicions have re-emerged that the Turkish military has been using chemical weapons
in its fights against the Kurdish organisation PKK. Between 22 and 24 October 2011, 36 PKK
fighters were killed during a Turkish military operation in the Kazan Vadesi region (near Çukuca,
Hakkâri Province). One survivor and local residents reported that chemical agents were used
during the operation.


The author
Dr. Jan van Aken is a biologist. In 1999 he founded the Sunshine Project, an organisation that
condemns the use of biological weapons, and in 2003 he founded the Research Group for
Biological Arms Control at the University of Hamburg. In 2004 he published a report on chemical
and biological weapons research in Turkey. From 2004 to 2006 he was a biological weapons
inspector for the United Nations. In 2009 he was elected to a seat in the German Bundestag as a
member of The Left party.

At least 1220 people have turned themselves in in the last one month within the scope of the "I turn myself in" campaign launched on 16 November as a protest action by Kurdish organizations against “KCK” arrests evaluated as a “political blast”.

Thousands of people gathered in Batman to protest against the isolation of Kurdish leader Abudullah Öcalan and the wave of arrests against Kurdish politicians known as KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) operation.

Following a Court’s decision proposing the demolition of Emek Cinema in Beyoğlu, Istanbul Culture and Art Variety has announced a protest act against the on 24 December. The Emek Cinema is a symbol of Istanbul intended to be demolished under the name of "urban renewal".