Lissy Schmidt Collection
Period 1974, 1977-1994
Total size 2 m.
Consultation Restricted
Permission required by the IISH; this provision does not apply to documents
intended for general distribution
See consultation information
Biography
Pseudonym: Milena Ergen and Petra Sert; born in Germany 1959, died near Suleymania, Iraq 1994; journalist; participated in the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi and joined the campaign against the stationing of cruise missiles in Europe; moved to Istanbul 1984; published on Turkish issues; sympathized with the Kurds and their struggle for freedom; worked in the Turkish part of Kurdistan and after the Gulf War also in the autonomous Kurdish region in North-Iraq; visited Kirkuk in disguise in 1991; arrested and expelled by the Iraqi authorities and in 1992 also expelled by Turkey; worked alternately in the autonomous Kurdish region and in Frankfurt am Main 1991-1994; contributed to the Frankfurter Rundschau, the Tageszeitung and other periodicals and to radioprograms; shot near Suleymania on 3 April 1994 together with her Kurdish guide Aziz Qadir Faraj.
Content
Documents, including letters, notes, reports, pamphlets and clippings on the agitation against the stationing of cruise missiles in Europe and against the extension of the Frankfurt airport 1982-1984; on the Turkish trade union movement, the position of women, medical care and other subjects relating to Turkey 1985-1990; on the Kurds and their struggle for liberation, including documents on the actions by the Turkish army 1988-1990; on the deportations of Kurds, the bombing of their dwellings and the use of chemical weapons against the village of Halabja by the army of Iraq 1989-1990; on the aid organization medico international 1988-1990; on the uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, the subsequent elections in 1992 and on the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK) of Massoud Barzani and its 11th Congress in 1993; documents relating to agitation for the release of the German journalist Stephan Waldberg, imprisoned in Turkey because of his supposed support of the Partîya Karkerên Kurdîstan (PKK; Kurdish Workers' Party) 1992-1994; press clippings and other documents regarding the death of Lissy Schmidt and the arrest of two suspected murderers 1994; typescripts and manuscripts of articles and translations by Lissy Schmidt and clippings of her articles 1984-1994; a typescript on economic problems in Iraqi Kurdistan by Salahaddin Muhammad al-Hafid 1992; text of an interview with Celal Talabani, general secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) n.d.
Processing information
List made by Erdal Gezik en Erhan Tuskan in 2003