Dokument #1319516
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
No specific information as to whether
churches in Istanbul provide shelter to persons from Iraq could be
found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.
According to a Social Services Assistant with the International
Catholic Migration Commission in Istanbul, some churches in
Istanbul do provide shelter and protection for asylum seekers and
refugees (17 June 1999). However, the Social Services Assistant was
unable to provide further details other than to say that the
majority of those receiving shelter in churches were, to her
knowledge, Ethiopian and Sri Lankan men (ibid.).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the
list of additional sources consulted in researching this
Information Request.
Reference
International Catholic Migration
Commission, Istanbul. 17 June 1999. E-mail from Social Services
Assistant.
Additional Sources Consulted
Middle East International.
[London]
Middle East Report.
[Washington, DC]
Resource Centre Country file on
Turkey.
Electronic sources: IRB databases,
Internet, WNC, LEXIS/NEXIS, CISNET.
An oral source did not provide
information on the topic requested.
General information concerning the
organization Dev-Sol (Devrimci Sol; Revolutionary Left;
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front; Devrimci Halk
Kurtulus Cephesi; DHKP/C) can be found in the United States
Department of State annual publication Patterns of Global
Terrorism. According to the 1997 report:
The virulently anti-US Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) - formerly known as Dev Sol - conducted three significant attacks during the year: all were light anti-armor weapon (LAW) rocket attacks against Turkish security facilities in Istanbul. The three attacks were flawed in execution: on 16 June the rocket fired at the Turkish National Police (TNP) headquarters missed and struck a wall; the LAW rocket launched against the Harbiye Officers' Club on 14 July hit the wall of the building but caused only minimal damage; and on 16 September the DHKP/C fired another rocket at the TNP headquarters, which glanced off a wall and broke apart. The TNP's counterterrorism operations against the DHKP/C may be forcing the group to use less experienced cadre members and standoff weapons - such as LAW rockets - rather than the group's preferred close-in handgun assassinations (1998).
According to the most recent edition of the
report, the group's was still active in 1998 (1999).
Another source of general information
regarding Dev-Sol is the Website of the Intelligence Resource
Program of the Federation of American Scientists, which
corroborates the connection between Dev-Sol and the Revolutionary
People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), adding that the change in
name took place in 1994 (8 Aug. 1998).
A Website purportedly representing the
Revolutionary People's Liberation Front, which includes press
releases and online publications, may be found at http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/>.
There are several reports of Dev-Sol and/or
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) activities
in 1998. Two persons suspected of planning an attack on the
Incirlik airbase in Southeast Turkey were arrested in January 1998;
according to the BBC the suspects were "reported to be members of
the Marxist group, the DHKP-C. The DKHP-C is a successor
organization to the Dev Sol group" (4 Jan. 1998a). The same day
another BBC report, citing television reports, stated that the two
arrested "were suspected of being members of the illegal Popular
Liberation Revolutionary Front, formerly known as Dev-Sol" (4 Jan.
1998b). In February 1998, an attack on a police station in the
Gaziosmanpasa district of Istanbul was suspected to be the work of
Dev-Sol (AFP 27 Feb. 1998). The DHKP-C was accused by the Head of
the Security Department of involvement in drug trafficking in
September 1998 (Anatolia 30 Sept. 1998).
There are also reports of Dev Sol/DHKP-C
members facing legal sanctions in 1998 and 1999. On 26 June 1998,
it was reported that three Dev Sol "leftist terorists" had been
sentenced to death for their part in executions in the early 1990s
(AP 26 June 1998; Anatolia 26 June 1998). In October 1998 it was
reported that imprisoned Dev Sol members had begun a protest action
in "the E-type prison in Cankiri" in support of protests in other
prisons in Turkey (Milliyet 24 Oct. 1998). There were also
reports of Dev Sol/DHKP-C members facing legal sanctions elsewhere
in Europe: in Germany three Dev Sol members were sentenced to
prison terms ranging from 5 to 10 years for attempted manslaughter
and kidnapping (DPA 17 Feb. 1999). The report further states that
the organization had split into two wings in Germany (Karatas and
Yagan) and that the two had clashed with each other in 1997
(ibid.).Two reports also indicate that Turkey was attempting to
capture and extradite Dev Sol/DHKP-C members from France and
Belgium respectively in 1999 (Zaman 21 Mar. 1999; Anatolia
12 Apr. 1999).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Agence France Presse (AFP). 27 February
1998. "16 Injured in Attack on Istanbul Police Station."
(NEXIS)
Associated Press (AP). 26 June 1998.
"Turkish Court Sentences Three Leftist Terrorists to Death."
(NEXIS)
Anatolia, [Ankara, in Turkish]. 12 April
1999. "Justice Ministry Working on Extradition Requests."
(FBIS-WEU-1999-0412 12 Apr. 1999/WNC)
_____. [Ankara, in English]. 30
September 1998. "Dev-Sol's Links to Drug Trafficking Revealed."
(FBIS-TDD-98-273 30 Sept. 1998/WNC)
_____. [Ankara, in Turkish]. 26 June
1998. "Dev-Sol Militants Receive Death Penalty." (FBIS-TOT-98-177
26 June 1998/WNC)
BBC News. 4 January 1998b. "Incirlik
Bomb Plot Failed." [Internet] http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid%5F44000/44597.stm
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
_____. 4 January 1998a. "Turkish
Reportedly Foil Airbase Bomb Plot." [Internet] http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid%5F44000/44538.stm
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). 17
February 1999. "Three Turkish Left-Wing Extremists Given Prison
Terms in Germany." (NEXIS)
Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi. n.d.
"Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front." [Internet] http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
Federation of American Scientists,
Intelligence Resource Program. 8 August 1998. "Revolutionary
People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C); Devrimici Sol
(Revolutionary Left); Dev Sol." [Internet] http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/dev_sol.htm
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
Milliyet (Internet version)
[Istanbul, in Turkish]. 24 October 1998. "Unrest Among Kurdish
Prisoners in Turkey." (FBIS-WEU-98-297 24 Oct. 1998/WNC)
United States Department of State. 1999.
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1998. [Internet] http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1998Report/1998index.html
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
_____. 1998. Patterns of Global
Terrorism: 1997. [Internet] http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1997Report/1997index.html
[Accessed 14 June 1999]
Zaman (Internet version)
[Istanbul, in Turkish]. 21 March 1999. "Work to Seize Fugitive
Leftist Leader Reported." (FBIS-WEU-1999-0323 21 Mar. 1999/WNC)