12 July 2001

1. "Britain considers backing controversial Turkish dam: Guardian", the British government is considering backing a controverial project to build a dam in Turkey which threatens to evict up to 15,000 people from their homes, the Guardian reported Thursday.

2. "MHP sees plot to oust it from Cabinet", the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) feels there is an ongoing campaign to oust it from the government, and that this began in March soon after World Bank Vice President Kemal Dervis was recruited by the Cabinet to undertake crisis management and rescue the economy.

3. "ECHR passes final verdict in Welfare case", ECHR verdict to be announced on Jul. 3.

4. "Turkey's moderate Islamists seek peace with army, curb religion", leading members of a moderate faction from Turkey's banned pro-Islamic party said their planned new party will keep religion out of politics and make peace with the pro-secular military.

5. "IMF, WB consider Turkey's loans", the IMF and World Bank announced Wednesday they would consider releasing $3.2-billion to crisis-stricken Turkey after Ankara backed down in a dispute over reforms.

6. "Yedisu Massacre documented", the investigations made by the IHD delegation in Yedisu uncovered that the 21 guerrillas were summarily executed and killed by chemical gas.


1. - AFP - "Britain considers backing controversial Turkish dam: Guardian":

LONDON

The British government is considering backing a controverial project to build a dam in Turkey which threatens to evict up to 15,000 people from their homes, the Guardian reported Thursday. British construction firm Amec is part of a consortium which wants to build the 600 million pound (985 million euro, 845 million dollar) Yusefeli hydroelectric dam in northeast Turkey and is applying for British taxpayers' support.

A similar application to back the Turkish Ilisu dam from the British construction firm Balfour Beatty provoked a storm of protest from environmentalists and human rights campaigners. Amec has asked the Export Credit Guarantee Department to pledge a 68 million pound loan, the Guardian said. The consortium of which Amec is a part is also applying for support from the equivalent official credit agencies in France, Belgium and Spain, the broadsheet reported. The plans for the Yusefeli dam were disclosed in the New Statesman magazine, which reported that between 12,000 and 15,000 people, mainly from Turkey's big Georgian minority, will lose their homes if it is built. Both the dams at Ilisu and Yusefeli are part of a drive by Turkey to generate more electricity needed for economic growth. The British government recently signalled that it was preparing to withdraw its support from the Ilisu dam.

The project has been criticised on the grounds that it would deprive 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, of their homes or land, flood hundreds of valuable archaeological sites and create health hazards such as malaria.


2. - Turkish Daily News - "MHP sees plot to oust it from Cabinet":

ILNUR CEVIK

The far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) feels there is an ongoing campaign to oust it from the government, and that this began in March soon after World Bank Vice President Kemal Dervis was recruited by the Cabinet to undertake crisis management and rescue the economy.

MHP sources close to party chairman and deputy prime minister Devlet Bahceli vehemently denied reports that Bahceli asked Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to sack Dervis in return for concessions on Telekom.

Transportation Minister Enis Oksuz of the MHP blocked changes in the Telekom administration despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the MHP openly clashed with Dervis over the issue. Dervis insisted that the MHP, as well as other Cabinet members had accepted changes in the Telekom administration in a letter of intent sent to the IMF. In the end the MHP was defeated and Dervis got what he wanted.

MHP sources said that since March there had been a "systematic campaign" to push the party out of the three-party coalition. Ecevit recently objected to pressures on the MHP, and openly sided with Bahceli at times, as the government tried to resist changes to Telekom demanded by the IMF.

They said that since March there had been an orchestrated effort to highlight the MHP objections to the austerity program. Agriculture Minister Husnu Yusuf Gokalp as well as Oksuz have frequently clashed with Dervis over the application of the austerity measures. At times Bahceli has raised his voice to criticize Dervis.

"We are not against this program, and thus while we list out objections and try to change some applications in the program, we sooner or later reach an understanding and overcome the hurdles. However, these efforts are portrayed as the MHP putting up obstacles to the program," a ranking MHP official told the Turkish Daily News. He asked not to be named.

The official said that the MHP feels there is a plot against it, but has been unable to identify the source and why it is being conducted.

He said the pressure on the MHP increased after Bahceli started telling the party followers in private meetings, "The party is ready to assume power on its own when the time comes."

Once Bahceli started making similar statements in public after the alleged plot was reportedly unleashed. Some MHP officials, like Industry and Trade Minister Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, have started saying: "Some people seem to feel we are unwanted. If so we are not glued to power. We can leave."

The Industry Ministry has come under fire for helping a group of mavericks in the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) oust President Fuat Miras, and replace him with Rifat Hisarciklioglu. There are rumors that the establishment in Ankara is up in arms for losing Miras in an operation allegedly assisted by the MHP. There is gossip that this show of force by the MHP has been untimely and has further alienated the party "in the eyes of the establishment."

Beyond all this, the MHP sources also said that Bahceli was disturbed that, with the ongoing nationalistic debates, the MHP is once again being pushed into the far right and moving away from its goal of getting closer to the center-right.

He reportedly sees when ultranationalists like Oksuz speak up against Dervis and the IMF he wins points with the far-right grassroots of the party. This encourages more nationalistic statements and actions by the MHP rank and file and pushed the party further away from the center. Bahceli has been quoted by his close aides saying, "I do not want a crisis every two months with Oksuz is at the heart of it." However, Bahceli cannot replace Oksuz because that would only make him a hero in the eyes of the ultranationalists, and thus create inner problems in the MHP. Sources say the nationalists will criticize the party and Bahceli if Oksuz is sacked saying: "He was sacrificed because he opposed the IMF. What kind of nationalism is this?"

So Bahceli is faced with the dilemma of either alienating his grassroots or moving away from the goal of becoming a party with mass appeal as it mellows its policies and actions and becomes a center right political group.

Besides all this, Bahceli and his executives also face another dilemma on how to cope with the new movement of the former Virtue Party (FP) reformists. The MHP people fear that the new party may eat into the MHP support, and thus has to be countered. But the real dilemma is how to do this.

MHP officials say they do not know whether to counter the traditionalists by sticking to the current system and defending it, or by opposing the system as an opposition force.

The MHP has lost on too many fronts in the past year. It has not been able to defend the rights of the conservative masses, and especially has been criticized in the handling of religious issues led by the headscarf. It has said it will combat poverty and corruption, but has failed on both accounts. So MHP executives privately fear that the reformists of the former FP may also flourish on the mistakes and shortcomings of this party.

A MHP deputy has already joined the reformists and there is talk that a few more will also defect.
Another problem the MHP executives see on the horizon is a clash between them and their coalition partners in August or September, after the Motherland Party convention. It is said that junior coalition partner ANAP Chairman Mesut Yilmaz will ask for a reshuffle in the Cabinet, which the MHP opposes.

Yilmaz is expected to ask for a serious reduction in the number of seats in the Cabinet, which means an automatic reshuffle. MHP officials feel that would create more inner problems in the MHP, and add to their dilemma on who should be sacked from the Cabinet.

The MHP is fighting on several fronts as it sees its popularity shrink in the public opinion polls. Should the party remain in the coalition, can it become a major opposition force and mend fences with its voters are some of the questions which will be debated among the MHP rank and file in the weeks to come.


3. - Turkish Daily News - "ECHR passes final verdict in Welfare case":

ECHR verdict to be announced on Jul. 31

Following a long debate over the petition lodged by the defunct Welfare Party (RP), which had been dissolved by the Constitutional Court on grounds of being against the secular order in Turkey, the ECHR made its final and binding verdict, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The judges have tasked the court's secretary with typing up the verdict and accompanying justification paper and these will be made public on Jul. 31.

The judges on the panel were from Turkey, Britain, Austria, Norway, Albania and Greece; the presiding judge was French. it is guessed that the judges had a hard time reaching a verdict on the application concerning the right to organize and political party closure. The application to have the Turkish Constitutional Court's verdict to dissolve the RP condemned by the ECHR was lodged by former RP leader Necmettin Erbakan together with former RP members Sevket Kazan and Ahmet Tekdal in 1998 and the verdict to have it reviewed in the light of nine articles of the European Human Rights Convention was taken on Oct. 3, 2000. Depositions by both the RP representatives and those of the government were heard on Jan. 16, 2001.


4. - AFP - "Turkey's moderate Islamists seek peace with army, curb religion":

ANKARA

Leading members of a moderate faction from Turkey's banned pro-Islamic party said their planned new party will keep religion out of politics and make peace with the pro-secular military.

They made the pledge in newspaper interviews published on Thursday. "We will not be a religious party, not even the party of the pious. People who are not pious can well join us," Abdullah Gul told the mass-circulation daily Hurriyet. "We can be religious only as individuals," he added. Gul is a prominent figure in the so-called "modernist" wing of the Virtue Party, which was banned last month by the constitutional court for activities against the strictly secular order in predominantly Muslim Turkey. Another leading reformist, Bulent Arinc, told the liberal Milliyet that, "we will pay attention to maintain the best dialogue with the armed forces...we will not quarrel with any institution."

The "modernist" movement is in a process of forming a new party, while Virtue's "traditionalist" wing is working to set up its own party which is expected to maintain an Islam-based agenda. Gul pledged that the new party would denounce populism and would promote intra-party democracy and American-style transparency. Political observers said the divisions between former Virtue members will weaken the Islamist political movement in Turkey which has survived since the 1970s despite constant clampdowns by the pro-Western elite led by the powerful military. The cracks in Virtue's ranks emerged long before it was banned over the influence wielded behind the scenes by leading Islamist advocate Necmettin
Erbakan. The "modernists" have stressed the need to address a broader electorate and not just voters sympathetic to the Erbakan-style Islamic rhetoric which has attracted the generals' wrath. Istanbul's popular former mayor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is the driving force behind the splinter movement.


5. - Business Day - "IMF, WB consider Turkey's loans":

ANKARA

The IMF and World Bank announced Wednesday they would consider releasing $3.2-billion to crisis-stricken Turkey after Ankara backed down in a dispute over reforms. The two institutions said they would hold meetings on Thursday to discuss the loans. Both the International Monetary Fund and the Bank had delayed the meetings, originally scheduled to be held last week, as they called for a shakeup in the management of Turkish Telekom.

"Following consultations with the Turkish authorities concerning their economic program, the previously postponed (IMF) Board meeting has been rescheduled for July 12," IMF chief Horst Koehler said in a statement. The World Bank said it would hold its own meeting on the same day. The announcements followed a reshuffle in the Turkish Telekom board in line with IMF demands.

The IMF executive board last week put on hold a $1.5-billion tranche for Turkey, allocated under a May stand-by deal. The Fund judged that key Turkish Telekom managers, who are to run the company until its privatization, had been named on the basis of political affiliation rather than professional ability. The World Bank followed suit by delaying the extension of $1.7-billion in credit. A reluctant Turkey made the required changes Tuesday after the standoff sparked fears that Ankara was not bound to its economic program, leading to a fall in the already-weakened Turkish lira.

Also Tuesday, Turkey's banking watchdog took over five struggling private banks as part of a drive to rehabilitate the creaking banking system, another key pledge to the IMF. "All envisaged conditions have now been met... we expect that the new tranche of $1.5-billion is released," the Turkish treasury said in a statement. It also expressed hope that the World Bank would approve the envisaged $1.7-billion. The composition of the Telekom board was seen as a significant indicator of Turkey's determination to root out political favouritism in the economy, seen as a key source of a financial crisis that erupted in February. The government sought to calm the markets, insisting that the 10-day standoff with the international donors would not have a negative impact on overall recovery. "There will be no hitches or delays in the long-term targets of the economic program," government spokesman Yilmaz Karakoyunlu said after a cabinet meeting. "There is nothing like the program is in trouble."

But economic players remained uneasy, concerned particularly over discords in the fragile three-way government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. The coalition's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which was at the center of the Telekom dispute, has criticised the IMF for interfering with Turkey's domestic affairs. MHP leaders have also displayed discontent with Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, who is pushing for a strict implementation of the reforms. "The government gives the impression that it is reluctant to go ahead with the programme. If it does not inject confidence into the markets and does not put an end to its internal rows this programme will fail," Ankara Commerce Chamber chief Sinan Aygun said, according to Anatolia news agency. Sukru Unal from Yapi Kredi Investment said that "what we need is a calm process with no political meddling into the economy".

A public clash between Ecevit and the president over the pace of anti-corruption campaigns led to the crisis in February, causing a breakdown of confidence on the markets, already weakened by a November liquidity crunch. The turmoil disrupted an earlier deal with the IMF. The currency has so far lost nearly 50% of its value against the dollar with interest rates rising to more than 90%.


6. - Kurdish Observer - "Yedisu Massacre documented":

The investigations made by the IHD delegation in Yedisu uncovered that the 21 guerrillas were summarily executed and killed by chemical gas.

A delegation from the Human Rights Association (IHD) headed by IHD Diyarbakir Chairman Osman Baydemir has drawn up a report concerning the conclusions of its investigation in the Yedisu district of Bingol on June 27-29 and released it to the public. Revealing the results of the investigation at a press conference at the IHD General Headquarters, a great deal of evidence was presented that the 21 guerrillas of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) were summarily executed and killed with chemical gas by units of the Turkish military.

The delegation said that there was a tremendous gap in the times of the deaths reported in the death records and autopsy report made by Yedisu Health Clinic physician Dr. Hakan Gurbuz and the records of the Minutes of Scene of the Event. Baydemir said that they had not been able to find an explanation for the differences in information resulting from the autopsy performed by Dr. Gurbuz in Yedisu and the classical autopsy performed by Mehmet Hayme in Amed (Diyarbakir).

The report stressed again the great differences in the results of the autopsy in Yedisu, which was ordered by the Yedisu State Prosecutor, and the one carried out by Mehmet Hayme, and gave the following details from the reports they had compiled:

* Whereas the first autopsy indicated that there were four different unrelated shrapnel wounds of various sizes, the second classical autopsy records five different shrapnel wounds that were completely unrelated to each other.

* The first autopsy indicates that the wounds were of a size to be seen with the naked eye, while the second shows that there were wounds of the size to be caused by bullets from firearms. To state it more clearly, 0.5 cm. bullet entrance wounds and 2 cm bullet exit wounds were reported at 4 cm in dimension.

* Bullet exit wounds were described as shrapnel wounds. Whereas the cause of one death was from bleeding from bullet wounds in the left lung and intestines, the first autopsy indicated that cause of death was from shrapnel wounds.

'They threw a white dust-like substance'

The delegation also spoke with residents of the Yedisu village and the nearby Elmali village, who did not want to reveal their names but make striking statements. One of the eye-witnesses to the event in question, indicating the seriousness of the incident, said, "I saw them throw a white dust-like substance from planes." Other statements from eyewitnesses said that there were no wounds at all on the body of Meral Ozcan, who died in the incident and whose body was recovered by his family and buried in the Yorgancayir village of Karliova. They added that the only thing they could notice on the other bodies recovered was a change in complexion color.

Minutes full of evidence

Among other contradictions in the official reports noted by the IHD report are the following

* While undated records states that hot armed conflict occurred, the records of evidence retrieved from the scene lists all the weapons and belongings of the militants, but does not record that any bullet casings belonging to the militants were recovered, indicating that firearm shooting was unilateral.

* On-site records dated May 18, 2001 mention that five organization members were killed and their bodies recovered following plane bombing the day before, meaning that the date of their deaths must be May 17 or earlier. Autopsy reports, on the other hand, say that one person had been dead for one day, seven of them for two days, three of them for three days, three of them for two or three days, one for four days, three of them of three or four days, one of them for five days, and another one for four or five days.

Deaths occurred prior to May 22

* If the on-site minutes are accepted as accurate, it must be accepted that the deaths occurred before May 22. In view of the May 23 date of the autopsy, the deaths of the five bodies mentioned must be at last six and at most 11 days prior to the autopsy, opening to suspicions that they were killed six days prior to the date recorded. This indicates that the five could have been killed after May 17 and 18, or the time that the fields were searched.

* Taking the on-site minutes as a basis, a group of 15 persons were hidden under an iceberg mass and hot conflict broke out at about 5:30 in the evening of May 22, 2001 when they returned fire upon being called to surrender. The report says all were killed and their bodies recovered as a result of this conflict. If this is correct, then the autopsy performed on May 23 at about 12:45 should show the time of death as within the last 24 hours. However, the reports give the time of death for only one as within the last 24 hours, saying that seven were killed in the past 48 hours and the others had died three or more days earlier. This indicates that no conflict occurred on May 22 and that the deaths occurred in another fashion prior to May 22.

There was no clash

* The on-site records continuously discuss an armed conflict and say that the persons in question were killed when they opened fire upon being called on to surrender. If this were the case, the autopsies should have indicated a number of bullet wounds on all the bodies. They instead indicate both shrapnel and bullet wounds on only three of the bodies. If the autopsies are correct, they would indicate that most of the deceased were killed from bombs thrown from planes and helicopters. If the on-site records are correct, then the autopsy records cannot be correct.

They could have lived

* According to both official records and the testimonies from residents of the region, there was a greatly excessive amount of force used. According to on-site records, forces from the Gendarmerie Public Order Squadron Command, the 5th Security Infantry Squadron, the Central Gendarmerie Security Command, the Yedisu District Gendarmerie Command, the Bingol Provincial Security Command, Gendarmerie Special Action Teams, the Tunceli Special Forces Regiment Command participated in the operation, supported additional by Sikorsky helicopters and F-14 war planes. Regional residents and eye-witnesses also indicate that between 4,000 and 5,000 military personnel took part in the operation. This indicates that excessive force was used.

* On-site records indicate that 15 organization members had hidden under an iceberg mass, that there had been attempts on May 19, 20, and 21 to break the iceberg mass, and that the organization members had attempted to escape on May 22. The records, in addition to describing what attempts were made to break the ice, say that it was between 1 and 3 meters thick and 350 meters long. Under these circumstances, it is not possible for organization members under the ice to have opened fire. It is clear that while methods could have been used to capture the organization members alive, other methods were resorted to instead.