Jake Hess gave his first interview to Democracy Now website after being deported from Turkey for reporting about plight of the Kurdish people. Hess said Turkish state is trying to intimidate local Kurds away from sharing their experiences with internationals so international public opinion is not aware of what's going on in Kurdistan.
Hess also said he is concerned that if he returns to Turkey, the Turkish state will do bad things to the people that he interacts with.
Hess was isolated from other detainees and interrogated by more that 10 officers in Diyarbakır.
"They claimed that things I had written were inaccurate, and they accused me of waging a smear campaign against the Turkish Republic and also asserted that my writings had negatively impacted Turkey’s international image" Hess said.
"They asked me why I had relations with human rights groups both in Turkey and in London and why I had collected signatures to support the release of Mr. Muharrem Erbey, who is the chairman of the Diyarbakir office of the Turkish Human Rights Association, and other such things. Basically, I was asked only about my writings and about perfectly legal human rights organizations"
Hess said he thought it would be hypocritical for the United States to send him support while at the same time encouraging Turkey to use military means to solve this issue and also supporting Turkey’s policy of annihilating Kurdish political activists through mass arrests and criminalization.
Hess also told about the situation in Kurdistan and said human rights violations in the region is at a very disturbing level.
Jake Hess was based in Diyarbakir and his reports were mostly being published by Inter Press Service.
Hess wrote his last article from Suleymaniye on 4 August in which he was mentioning the Turkish bombardments on civilians and the displaced people.
In his article of 13 July Hess also wrote about the forest fires started by the Turkish soldiers in the Kurdish region. He also wrote that while the Turkish authorities are not taking any actions to extinguish the fire they also prevent the locals from doing so.
In his report in May he also wrote that torture is still common in Turkey and he gave voice to the victims.
It was known that the Turkish authorities were disturbed by the reports written by Hess and eventually the police arrested him on August 11 before his house.
ANF / NEWS DESK
ANF NEWS AGENCY
