25 April 2001

1. "Turkey urged to reverse prison policy", seventeen people have starved themselves to death.

2. "Two more die in Turkish prison hunger strike, toll at 19", a hunger strike over controversial Turkish prison reforms claimed two more victims on Wednesday, bringing to 19 the overall toll of the deadly protest, the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said.

3. "Urgent action is needed", Ocalan criticized the government for its continued silence in the face of the increasing number of deaths in the death fasts and warned that a solution needed to be found immediately. "Our party is calling all supporters and everyone who calls himself human to do something against this brutality," Ocalan said.

4. "Turkey insists it will not chancel arms plans", Turkey's military has stressed its commitment to continue modernization.

5. "Iranian Armenians Mark 1915 killings", some 10,000 Iranian Armenians marched on Tuesday in commemoration of the 58th anniversary of the genocide that killed an estimated 1.5 million people from 1915 to 1923 calling on the Iranian Parliament to formally recognize the Turkish genocide of Armenians.

6. "Turkish parliament makes central bank responsible for monetary policy", the Turkish parliament has given the central bank sole competence in setting monetary policy, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday as the country struggles to recover from crisis and flotation of the lira.

1. - BBC - "Turkey urged to reverse prison policy":

Seventeen people have starved themselves to death

The Turkish Government has been urged by two prominent human rights organisations, Amnesty International and the Council of Europe, to end its policy of holding prisoners in isolation.

Seventeen people have died so far in a hunger strike by prisoners and their supporters demanding an end to the practice.

More than 1,000 left-wing inmates were transferred to new prisons, known as F-types, where they are held in isolation or in groups of two or three, after security forces stormed jails across Turkey last December.

Amnesty says that, since then, no-one held in an F-type prison has been brought out of their cells for recreation or proper exercise.

The inmates had been previously held in prisons with large communal areas which the authorities say made possible frequent hostage-taking and rioting.

Frequent violence

Amnesty said in a statement on Tuesday that many inmates in the new prisons had allegedly gone without human contact for days, "apart from roll-calls, which are said to be frequently accompanied by violence".

"Prolonged isolation can in itself amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and can facilitate torture and ill-treatment. The Turkish Government must immediately stop such abuses," Amnesty demanded, calling for prisoners in the F-type prisons to be allowed access to common areas.

The government has outlined proposals to repeal a law which forbids prisoners convicted of terrorism from meeting other inmates, but the proposals have yet to be approved in parliament and critics say they do not go far enough.

The government had originally promised to change the law before the December transfers were imposed. Prisoners resisted the transfers - 30 were killed, as well as two soldiers during four days of clashes.

'End quickly'

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) said on Tuesday that the policy of "small group isolation" was "not acceptable and should be ended quickly".

The CPT conceded that there could be certain times when prisoners might need to be kept apart "to make expectional arrangements for specific prisoners" who were particularly dangerous. But it stressed the importance of most prisoners being able to mix with each other.

"The great majority of prisoners in F-type prisons could certainly benefit from a developed programme of communal activities outside their living units without jeopardising security," the CPT argued.

Last week Turkish Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that, while he wanted to maintain the transfer of prisoners away from dormitories to cell accomodation, he would put forward a bill enabling them to meet for educational, social, cultural and sports activities.

One leading human rights activist quickly rejected the offer.

"It is not progress, but a more sophisticated and refined regime of isolation," Yucel Sayman, the head of the Istanbul Bar Association, said.

2. - AFP - "Two more die in Turkish prison hunger strike, toll at 19":

ANKARA

A hunger strike over controversial Turkish prison reforms claimed two more victims on Wednesday, bringing to 19 the overall toll of the deadly protest, the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said.

Erdogan Guler, 29, died in the western Turkish city of Izmir on the 150th day of his hunger strike in support of the prison protest. He was a relative of a hunger-striking inmate, an IHD spokesman said. The second death occured in the northwestern city of Edirne, on the border with Greece and Bulgaria, where 25-year-old Sedat Karakurt, jailed on terrorism charges, died in hospital on the 177th day of his strike.'

Karakurt -- a member of the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) -- had been hospitalized due to his deteriorating condition but had refused medical treatment, the IHD said.

Since March 21, 15 prisoners and four of the inmates' relatives who joined the hunger strike in solidarity have starved themselves to death. The prisoners' protest began last October to protest government plans to introduce new prisons with smaller cells for up to three inmates, replacing existing jails with large dormitories housing up to 60 people. Prisoners maintain that they will be more vulnerable to mistreatment and torture when isolated in smaller units.

3. - Kurdish Observer - "Urgent action is needed":

Ocalan criticized the government for its continued silence in the face of the increasing number of deaths in the death fasts and warned that a solution needed to be found immediately. "Our party is calling all supporters and everyone who calls himself human to do something against this brutality," Ocalan said.

PKK Council of Leaders member Osman Ocalan called on people not to remain insensitive to the deaths of prisoners and their close ones on death fasts and said, "Our party is calling all supporters and everyone who calls himself human to do something against this brutality."

Participating by telephone the other evening on the Gundem (Agenda) program on MEDYA-TV, Ocalan noted that the death toll had risen to 15 and said the following: "We are up against a situation that pains the conscience. This is a human problem. The political angle must be left to one side. People are losing their lives every day, but people are remaining silent and the system cannot produce a solution. The reactions shown by society have been insufficient. We are criticizing this insensitivity."

Ocalan said that despite the fact that they had criticized the death fasts in the beginning from the aspect of their manner and timing, they had supported the action from the start, and went on to say the following: "When it is a person's life that is in question, criticism is not very appropriate. Above all else, the revolutionaries who began a serious resistance in order to straighten out the living conditions in which they found themselves are resisting with great heroism. No matter what system, it could not have remained insensitive to such a resistance. Neither the system nor the forces which oppose the system should have remained silent in this situation. Everyone should have something to say or do on this resistance."

Ocalan said, "Our party announces that it will not be able to accept any justification for remaining insensitive to this problem, which is before one's eyes and for which a solution is possible," and made the following call: "Our party is calling all supporters and everyone who calls himself human to do something against this brutality."

'Turkey is questioning itself'

Ocalan said that even if it was yet at an insufficient level, the system and society in Turkey had begun questioning themselves over the past two years, adding: "Kemal Dervis's words are a sign of this also. The Cavit Caglar incident shows this as well. Kemal Dervis said a very meaningful thing. In other words, 'Up until now, we lied; from now on we will not lie.' This shows that the state is feeling the necessity of questioning itself in some fashion. After this questioning, a solution will come. What is necessary is to contribute to the deepening of this questioning."

'We will debate Turkey's future and draw its route'

Ocalan also brought up the Democracy Conference that the PKK had suggested earlier as a means to solve problems, and had the following to say on the subject: "We are simply making a call and presenting it in the framework of a democracy conference. We are putting what we understand out into the open and relaying it to all concerned circles. In addition to these, it could be with a number of various circles, leftist groups, certain groups within the system, and economic forces or people outside the political struggle. We are going to carry out efforts to get everyone from those carrying out the sharpest opposition to those inside the system to come together for a democracy platform, debate Turkey's fate, and draw a new route. This, too, is a process and will need intensive efforts."

Ocalan stressed that a democracy conference could be planned after a very widespread process of forming relations and dialogue, and continued to say the following: "We are going to develop on the one side immersion in such activities and on the other, people's democracy activities. We are evaluating the process. We are not a movement that is so opportunistic or that loses itself in premature excitement; we are determined and know well what we are doing. In our opinion, developments are tending this way. The process will gradually gain speed towards summer."

'April 23 has lost its essence'

PKK Council of Leaders member Osman Ocalan said that they agreed with the essence of April 23, which is the date of the foundation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM, Parliament) and is celebrated as a children's holiday, but that they were opposed to the policies with which it was later overlaid. Ocalan recalled that the Kurds had shown joint resistance against foreign occupation together with the Turks, as in the examples of Urfa, Maras, and Antep, and possibly even greater resistance, and cooperation in the process of establishing the Republic of Turkey and that they had paid the price. He said that afterwards, however, the republic and parliament underwent changes opposed to their essence and aim and that the oligarchic system which had persisted until today was the result of these wrong approaches. He noted that the Kurds, who had had such a fundamental role in such a holiday had been ostracized from it. "Staying faithful to its essence, we want [the holiday] to be happy for everyone. But when saying this, we are also saying that a great historical error must be corrected," Ocalan said.

4. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey insists it will not chancel arms plans":

ANKARA

Turkey's military has stressed its commitment to continue modernization.

Senior military officers said Ankara has not cancelled any project amid the nation's fiscal crisis. They said many plans have been shelved until a later date.

"We postponed these programs," Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hussein Kivrikoglu said. "We did not cancel them. It concerns a short-term, medium-term and long-term postponement."

Earlier this month, Turkey announced the delay of 32 procurement projects. The projects were valued at $19.5 billion and were not specified.

Military sources said the delays include the upgrade of the Leopard-1 tank and coproduction of a main battle tank. The sources said the delays will probably mean the cancellation of both projects.

5. - Theran Times - "Iranian Armenians Mark 1915 killings":

TEHRAN

Some 10,000 Iranian Armenians marched on Tuesday in commemoration of the 58th anniversary of the genocide that killed an estimated 1.5 million people from 1915 to 1923 calling on the Iranian Parliament to formally recognize the Turkish genocide of Armenians.

According to IRNA, the rally to commemorate the genocide, marked annually by Armenians throughout the world, was headed by leaders of the Armenian community here including Archbishop Sebu Sarkissian.
"As per the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran to defend the rights of the deprived which is the most valuable achievement of our glorious revolution, we demand from the members of Parliament to accept and condemn the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the occupation of western Armenia by Turkey," said protestors in a resolution.

They also called on the United Nations to officially condemn the genocide and stop Turkey from continual destruction of Armenian historical and religious monuments in western Armenia.
"We extend our thanks and appreciation to the French Senate and the Italian House of Representatives for the formal recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey," the resolution said.

In January, the French National Assembly recognized that genocide of Armenians took place under the Ottoman Empire in 1915, prompting retaliatory trade measures by the Turkish authorities.

6. - AFP - "Turkish parliament makes central bank responsible for monetary policy":

ANKARA

The Turkish parliament has given the central bank sole competence in setting monetary policy, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday as the country struggles to recover from crisis and flotation of the lira.

In a vote overnight, lawmakers approved a major law reforming the functions of the central bank, increasing independence of the bank and making it the ultimate authority in monetary policy, the agency said. The last time Turkey changed the legal status of the central bank was in 1971.

Under the new law, the bank is independent but must report to parliament on a six-month basis on its activities, which are to conform with European standards, Anatolia reported.
The central bank law was one of several priority measures outlined to tackle economic turmoil, which forced the government to float the Turkish lira in February, sending the currency plunging against the dollar.

Since then the lira has lost more than 40 percent of its value against the dollar.

The country had been rocked by another financial crisis, and threat of devaluation, at the end of last year. Analysts and international organisations say that weaknesses in the banking system, and corruption, are two of the central problems in the Turkish economy.

Flotation of the currency disrupted a three-year anti-inflation programme backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and forced the revision of macro-economic targets.

Legislative reforms are central to an ambitious new economic programme announced two weeks ago by Economy Minister Kemal Dervis to put the country back on track and to secure 10 billion to 12 billion dollars in foreign aid. The Dervis plan aims to reduce public spending, restructure the banking sector and speed up privatizations.

On Tuesday the parliament adopted a law introducing new regulations governing the state expropriation of private property. Under the legislation, the state is able to expropriate property only if it has sufficient funds or is able to offer another property in exchange.

Dervis was to fly to Washington on Wednesday to attend the spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank for talks on securing financial aid to the crisis-hit economy, Anatolia reported. During the Thursday-Monday meeting, Dervis will hold talks with international financiers and economy ministers of Group of Seven leading industrial nations on Turkey's new economic program, the report said.

After the IMF-World Bank meetings, Dervis will make a stopover in Germany to meet bankers before returning home, it added.