On 4 August, Isak Tepe, Ferhat’s father, received a second telephone call from the abductors, which he taped. The caller complained that Isak Tepe had not closed the Democracy Party (DEP) offices, and again threatened that his son would be killed unless one billion Turkish Lira was paid to an address in Elazig. The house belonged to Mehmet Senol and Hasan Deger, two journalists also with the newspaper Ozgur Gundem, who had been detained some weeks earlier. Isak Tepe claims to recognize the caller’s voice as being that of an army officer who he had met about two weeks before his son’s abduction. The Bitlis police have said they could not interfere with the military authorities and are believed to have made no serious effort to investigate the abduction.
