Unfortunately, Turkish Government violated the recent court rule by giving permanent license to Normandy Mining in Bergama, Turkey. 

The reason is that Turkish Government insist to start at the other mining licenses across Turkey as well to pay their foreign debt to IMF & World Bank. Multinational gold mining companies have about 700 gold mine licenses across Turkey. Local people and their lawyers and many civil rights organizations in Turkey are outraged again. 

As you know Bergama Community won a court case against Normandy to stop their trial operation at Bergama. The mining operation stopped for only two days. The Council of Ministers gave a permission for Normandy to go 
ahead again. Bergama community appealed the case to the Turkish High Court and the Bar of Izmir sued the Turkish Government since they violated the constitution not complying with the court rule. 

On 12 April, 2002 the leader of Bergama Villagers, Oktay Konyar was ARRESTED in this critical situation. 

The following passages from article by Aydin Engin -on CUMHURIYET, Daily Turkish newspaper on 15/04/2002- makes our mind clearer: 

"A decision made by Council of Ministers is called decree. In Turkey, a government decree needs to be approved by he Head of State and published on the The Official Gazette (a government journal that publishes variousactions taken by the state) to become effective. Otherwise it cannot be valid." 

"In this critical situation, do you think one important scenario has been made up by the authorities to eliminate Mr Konyar who was very creative and successful to bring the issue for public awareness all the time. He organized many direct actions but never did any violence. I wonder whether a secret written governmental decree has been made to arrest him anywhere for any reason and keep him into the jail to neutralize." 

Every single pieces of solidarity is important now. Please sent e-mail/fax to the following adresses behalf of your organization/your name. Could you please make Cc to the sos_pergamon@yahoo.com.au 

For further info: sos_pergamon@yahoo.com.au 
www.geocities.com/siyanurlealtin/foreignlinks.html 

SOS Bergama Collective, Sydney AUSTRALIA Emet Degirmenci 

Mining Activist Arrested in Turkey; 
PLEASE SEND MESSAGES ASKING FOR HIS RELEASE 

Please send faxes to: 

Wayne Murdy, CEO 
Newmont Mining Corp, USA 
Phone: 1 303 863 7414 
Fax: 1 303 837 5837 

Sabri Karahan 
Managing Director 
Normandy Madencilik, Turkey 
email: sabrikarahan@superonline.com 
Fax: +90 312 466 1943 

Ismet Sivrioglu 
Public Relation Director 
Normandy Madencilik, Turkey 
Fax: 90-232-641-8019 
email: ismet.sivrioglu@ovacik-altin.com 

Hans Umlauff 
Normandy Mining, Australia 
Tel: +61 8 8303-1700 
Fax: +61 8 8303-1900 
 
 

Mining Activist Arrested in Turkey; 
PLEASE SEND MESSAGES ASKING FOR HIS RELEASE 

SAMPLE LETTER: 

Dear Mr Murdy 

RE: THE ARREST OF OKTAY KONYAR IN TURKEY 

We have today received information that Mr Oktay Konyar, a leader of Bergama Villagers in Turkey, and a critic of your proposed Ovacik gold mine, was arrested on April 12. We are informed that he was arrested at 
Soma police station while submitting an application requesting permission to make a press conference. He was charged with "insulting a police officer.". His lawyers have requested his release, but we understand that their request has been rejected. 

We hold grave concerns for the health and well-being of Mr Konyar while he is in police custody or in prison. 

I’m sure you will agree that it is important that we all support the right of people to participate in democratic debate about projects that have the potential to affect their lives. It is therefore incumbent on us all to act when this right may be threatened. 

We strongly urge that Newmont urgently contact the Turkish police authorities and request the immediate release of Mr Konyar, and seek assurances as to his future safety. 

Thank you for your attention. We will contact you to follow through on this urgent matter. 

Yours sincerely, 
 

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