The website of the Yüksekova News daily became the latest target for the time being in a series of cyber attacks on news wesites such as Birgün, bianet and Sol Haber.

The 20-day isolation punishment for conscientious objector İnan Süver on the grounds of "desertion" was executed as of 23 May. Süver resumed his hunger strike on 16 May as a sign of protest against his imprisonment.

Two election offices of the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block were demolished in Mersin; the police did not take any action. One office in Istanbul was damaged. Istanbul Candidate Önder was personally attacked.

The Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court decided to release Atılım newspaper executive Çiçek and three other defendants pending trial. Özgür Radio employee Erdoğan remains in prison. The defendants are charged with membership in the underground MLKP organization.

The publication of bianet.org was interrupted yesterday between 3.30 and 11.30 pm as a result of a cyber attack. We would like to thank our readers and colleagues who evinced their solidarity with us.

Lawyer Moroğlu is against a replacement of the Ministry for Women and Family Affairs by a Ministry for Family Affairs and Social Policies. "This attempt has to be stopped urgently in the name of democracy, the state of law and women rights", Moroğlu criticized.

Access to the birgün.net website of the left-wing Birgün daily was rendered almost impossible after the website was flooded with hits on 16 May. The cyber attack was carried out via a minimum of 200 IP addresses, it was announced.

A research by the Research and Development Centre of the Public Workers Unions Confederation of Turkey revealed that 95.1 percent of the Turkish people are in debt. Almost a third of them are not able to pay back their loan.

"No vote for you" was the message of tens of thousands of workers who gathered in Ankara to protest against a series of projects and applications of the Justice and Development Party. The workers spoke up against nuclear power plants, city planning or internet censorship.

Thousands of people in south-eastern Turkey demonstrated against military operations that left 12 PKK members and 5 soldiers dead. Shops in the region remained closed, schools were boycotted. Demonstrators clashed with the police.

Journalist Ersin Çelik received a ten-month prison sentence because of a news item about police officers who allegedly killed student Aydın Erdem. Çelık was convicted of "disclosing the identity of a public official on anti-terror duties".

Tens of Thousands of people took the streets in 31 Turkish provinces on 15 May to demonstrate against the "Draft Bill on Rules and Procedures of the Safety of Internet Use". The draft law will be enforced on 22 August.

Journalists Ahmet Şık and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu were acquitted of charges of "violation of confidentiality" based on their two volumes on the Ergenekon investigation. The case was in the focus of national and international trial observers.

After the temporary ban of 12 independent candidates from the general elections in June, now the election office of independent candidate Kürkçü from the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block was demolished. Kürkçü called the authorities to duty.

4 students in Van who were active in recent student protests were taken into custody by the Anti-Terror Police on 11 May. They were allowed to talk to their lawyers only after 24 hours. The lawyers are barred from seeing the file because of a decision of confidentiality.

İstikbal Yetkin received a life sentence for the premeditated and deliberate killing his divorced wife Ayşe Paşalı. The lawyers of the Paşalı family appreciated the court's decision not to apply any mitigation of punishment and assessed the verdict as a precedent.

The Yüksekova 1st Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced journalist Erkan Çapraz to imprisonment of ten months for publishing a certain article on the Yüksekova Haber newspaper's website. The pronouncement of the judgement was postponed.

Throughout the whole year of 2009, a total of 7718 people were taken into police custody. 2500 people were taken into custody only within the past 50 days.400 of them were arrested.

The Ankara Chief Prosecution decided that there was no need for a further prosecution regarding the assassination of journalists Mumcu 18 years ago. Mumcu's family had complaint about negligence of public officials during the investigation and the trial.

"The convention is the first legally binding instrument in the region that creates a comprehensive legal framework to combat violence against women through prevention, protection, prosecution, and victim support" Human Rights Watch said.