12 June 2001

1. "Come on, sign it!", Identity Declaration campaign which has been announced by PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Council of Leaders started. YDK (Kurdish Democratic Peoples Unity) presents two different texts for signing. The texts have titles "I am the PKK" and "I support the new line of action of PKK".

2. "IMF says Turkey broadly on track after deviation", the International Monetary Fund said on Monday that Turkey had deviated from its economic recovery program in some areas but was committed to fiscal measures to correct the situation.

3. "Security Council members give full backing to Annan's efforts on Cyprus", members of the Security Council today reiterated their full support of efforts by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to achieve a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus problem.

4. "Final round starts in critical ban case against Turkish Islamists", Turkey's constitutional court began Tuesday final deliberations in a ban case against the pro-Islamic Virtue Party, whose outcome could shake the already beleaguered government at a time when it is battling severe economic woes.

5. "120 held as Turkish police raid pro-Kurd football tournament", Police in southern Turkey detained 120 people at the weekend after declaring an amateur football tournament organized by the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) illegal, a party official told AFP on Monday.

6. "Too much for his own party", sacked minister fought corruption in Turkey.

7. "Kurds urges Sezer to heed rights calls", a Kurdish guerrilla leader has urged the Turkish president to listen to Kurdish demands for greater democratic rights during the head of state's visit to the mainly Kurdish southeast this week.

8. "NEWS ANALYSIS ... Turkey challenges US over attack helicopters", annoyed with Turkey's increased search for alternative markets, such as China, South Korea and Europe, in its military procurement programs -- a reflection of deepening Turkish frustration of U.S. denial of critical technology transfer to Ankara -- the United States has retaliated by imposing strict regulations on the installation of non-U.S. made systems on U.S. origin weapons in Turkey's inventory.

1. - Kurdish Observer - "Come on, sign it!":

Identity Declaration campaign which has been announced by PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Council of Leaders started. YDK (Kurdish Democratic Peoples Unity) presents two different texts for signing. The texts have titles "I am the PKK" and "I support the new line of action of PKK".

Identity Declaration campaign will start this week. Kurdish Democratic Peoples Unity (YDK) presents two different texts for signing. The texts have titles "I am the PKK" and "I support the new line of action of PKK". Within the framework of the campaign various actions and activities will be organized.

Identity Declaration Campaign, started by within the framework of "the Second Peace Drive" of PKK, aims at lifting the ban on PKK and national and political identity of the Kurdish people and to gain international support for peace efforts of PKK. The texts have 9 demands. The texts will be signed by people writing their names and addresses, then will be presented to administrational and legal offices.

" I am the PKK"

One of the textes which is of importance as far as ban on PKK in countries such as Germany and Britain underscored the view "I am the PKK as a member of the Kurdish people". The text asks for lifting the ban on PKK, calling for European Union countries to apply the criteria to Kurds. The texts has the following demands: "I invite European Union countries to apply all principles and criteria including Copenhagen criteria, which they force the other countries to adopt, to Kurds living within them. I want all rights recognized for all peoples to be recognized for the Kurdish people as well."

Political and national identity

The text asks for all values of the Kurdish people to be recognized culturally and politically. The text underscores the message "Political and National Identity is Honor".

Freedom for Ocalan

The text calls for the following on the subject of PKK General Chairman on Abdullah Ocalan: "I see the freedom of our National Leader Apo to be guaranteed as the only solution of the Kurdish problem. I want freedom for Leader Apo and peace for Kurdistan."

Support for the new line of action of PKK

The second text entitled "I support the new line of action of PKK" mentions what are to be done to solve the Kurdish problem democratically. Reminding that PKK and the Kurdish people have took important steps towards a political solution after the war, the text pointed out that conditions for a peaceful and democratic solution has become ripe. YDK emphasized that Copenhagen criteria are included in the peace project of PKK.

Four demands listed in the text are as follows: "I support PKK's new line of action for political and democratic solution. I want a solution to the Kurdish problem appropriate to this line. I want the bans on PKK which is indivisible part of the Kurdish people to be lifted. I support the campaign for national and political identity of the Kurdish people to be recognized. I want capital sentence in Turkey to be lifted and freedom for PKK General Chairman Abdullah Ocalan."

The start of the campaign is on Wednesday

The campaign will start this week. Thousands of forms are distributed to Kurds. Kurdistanis living in North Rhein Westfallen State will apply to the Dusseldorf State High Court on Wednesday. It is expected that about 2 thousand people gather in front of the court house. The application will be done by lawyers of Kurdistanis. The same day will witness the hearing of Kurdistani Mehmet Sait Haso who is tried on the grounds of being a member of PKK.

2. - Reuters - "IMF says Turkey broadly on track after deviation":

ANKARA

The International Monetary Fund said on Monday that Turkey had deviated from its economic recovery program in some areas but was committed to fiscal measures to correct the situation.

"To address these developments, the government is committed to taking additional fiscal measures that would bring the public sector's finances back on track," IMF Turkey Desk head Juha Kahkonen told a news conference after an inspection visit.

He added that Turkey was "broadly on track" to meet growth and inflation goals.

The assessment came as Treasury and banking officials met to hammer out details of a domestic debt swap plan to ease the mounting pressure of debt rollovers on the crisis-wracked economy.

A revised 2001 budget sees Turkey spending 41,291 trillion lira ($35 billion) on interest on total debt after a crisis in February forced the treasury to issue billions of dollars in new debt to help plug holes in private and state banks, hit hard by soaring interest rates and a 40 percent fall of the lira.

According to Turkish treasury data, the foreign debt stock as of the end of 2000 was $114.3 billion and the domestic debt stock 59,210 trillion lira (around $50 billion) at the end of April 2001. But the Turkish lira's 40 percent plunge against the dollar since February has increased the foreign debt burden in lira terms.

Finance Minister Sumer Oral said in May that interest payments would be around 95 percent of all tax revenue in 2001.

Kahkonen, speaking in the capital Ankara, urged Turkey's parliament to pass the revised budget in a form that conforms with the targets it has agreed with the fund under a $15.7 billion emergency loan deal.

A supplementary budget is with parliamentary commissions ahead of voting in the main assembly. Turkey needs it after crisis in late February blew previous economic balances apart.

Year-on-year inflation levels in May reached 57.7 percent for wholesale and 52.4 percent for the consumer index -- close to government year-end targets of 57.6 and 52.5 percent. But most economists predict levels will rise through the year as the effects of a February financial crisis trickle through.

Economy Minister Kemal Dervis said in an interview with the Oxford Business Group (OBG), a British-based consultative organization, he was not worried about the inflation targets.

"I believe we will be very close to these estimates, but probably a little bit higher than estimates in the program."

Kahkonen said the government had made progress in many areas but was concerned about some deviations in the agreed program of reforms, including a higher-than-expected settlement in public sector wages and in the prices the state pays to farmers for wheat.

Dervis said the "slippage" was not very large but acknowledged there was little room for maneuvering.

"Turkey is at the point where international opinions and domestic markets have zero tolerance for slippage and indecisiveness," he told OBG.

Turkey has pledged a range of reforms in return for the aid it needs to overcome a crisis that has slashed its currency and sent the economy into contraction.

Of those pledges, Kahkonen singled out four: appointing a professional board to manage state landline monopoly Turk Telekom; passing a supplementary budget to support the program; taking further steps to reform the bank system, including closing state-run Emlak Bank; and passing reform of the tobacco sector.

All of those measures are politically sensitive and have already sparked opposition within Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's coalition government.

One of the greatest challenges facing the government is handling the heavy debt burden imposed by the February crisis.

Under the planned debt swap, which bankers expect to total $4-5 billion, banks would exchange costly lira-denominated debt for longer-term paper that would be either denominated or indexed to hard currencies.

It would help banks close foreign-exchange positions while allowing the Treasury to extend the maturity of some of its debt. Economic officials seem prepared to take on a level of foreign currency risk to ease the heavy debt service schedule.

Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, accompanied by Treasury chief Faik Oztrak and Central Bank Governor Sureyya Serdengecti, will travel to Frankfurt and New York this week to meet bankers who have loaned money to Turkish banks, ministry officials said.

German banks are the top lenders to Turkey, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. German bank loans to Turkey were $13.1 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2000.

Dervis is expected to discuss with the banks the repayment of earlier syndicated loans, as well as possible new funding.

The International Monetary Fund's first deputy managing director Stanley Fischer would attend some of the meetings.

3. - United Nations - "Security Council members give full backing to Annan's efforts on Cyprus":

Members of the Security Council today reiterated their full support of efforts by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to achieve a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus problem.

In a statement to the press, the President of the Council, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, said the members "welcomed and supported" the Secretary-General's intention to continue with the process he had initiated in November 1999. At that time, Mr. Annan announced the agreement of both parties to hold proximity talks aimed at preparing the ground for meaningful negotiations leading to a comprehensive settlement.

Members of the Council "continue to urge all those involved to engage with him constructively and effectively in the process," Ambassador Chowdhury said in a statement issued after the Council heard a briefing from the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro De Soto.

The President also reaffirmed all Security Council resolutions on Cyprus, particularly resolution 1251 of 1999. That text called on both sides to refrain from acts of provocation and reaffirmed that a settlement "must be based on a State of Cyprus with a single sovereignty and international personality and a single citizenship, with its independence and territorial integrity safeguarded, and comprising two politically equal communities."

This morning, the Council was also briefed on the UN Secretariat's consultations with the parties over the extension of the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Pointing out that the Council members had noted the views expressed by the parties, Ambassador Chowdhury said the Council was "working on a draft resolution regarding the mandate renewal." He added that he would meet with the parties concerned on 13 June and predicted that the Council would be able to adopt its resolution on Friday, as planned.

4.- AFP - "Final round starts in critical ban case against Turkish Islamists":

ANKARA

Turkey's constitutional court began Tuesday final deliberations in a ban case against the pro-Islamic Virtue Party, whose outcome could shake the already beleaguered government at a time when it is battling severe economic woes.

The head of the 11-judge panel, Mustafa Bumin, told reporters ahead of the session that a ruling was not likely before early next week. The prosecution has charged Virtue with being a "focal point" of anti-secular activities and also an illegal continuation of the outlawed Welfare Party. Turkey's former chief prosecutor Vural Savas, who opened the case in May 1999, likened the party to a "vampire" feeding off the public's religious feelings. Virtue also stands accused of inciting protests against a headscarf ban in universities and orchestrating a failed bid by one of its MPs in 1999 to take an oath in parliament wearing a headscarf.Savas demanded the closure of the party, a five-year political ban on its leadership and the removal from office of all 102 Virtue MPs.

If the constitutional court removes all Virtue MPs, Turkey will face a broad by-election for the vacant seats in the 550-member house or even a general election. Early polls could spell the end of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's three-way coalition -- Turkey's most stable government since 1995 -- in the middle of efforts to battle a severe economic crisis and to carry out reforms to promote Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership. Political instability is likely to hit Ankara's economic program, backed by a multi-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, and push the country into a further bottleneck. But the constitutional court has a second option: in a supplementary indictment issued in February, the new prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoglu, demanded that only two Virtue MPs be removed from office, while maintaining the demand to outlaw Virtue.

Virtue has remained upbeat since the beginning of the case and its leaders have repeatedly expressed confidence that the party will survive the case. Banning Virtue will tarnish Turkey's image as an EU candidate and deliver a blow to moves to expand liberties and improve democracy in a country with an already troubled rights record. Virtue is the successor of Welfare, banned by the constitutional court in 1998 for anti-secular activities months after Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister, resigned as a result of a harsh military-led campaign against political Islam.

5. - AFP - "120 held as Turkish police raid pro-Kurd football tournament":

ANKARA

Police in southern Turkey detained 120 people at the weekend after declaring an amateur football tournament organized by the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) illegal, a party official told AFP on Monday.

The detentions came on Sunday two weeks after the "Peace and Fraternity Football Tournament", involving 30 amateur teams, began in Adana province, said Rasit Gultekin, the deputy secretary-general of HADEP's Adana branch. "The police raided the fields where the tournament games were being played and took the players into custody," Gultekin said in a phone interview. "We cannot see any reason for the detentions," he said.

He explained that the detained were being accused of participating in a sports event which did not have the necessary official permission, seeking to attract supporters for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and spreading separatist propaganda. They were being questioned by a prosecutor at the state security court, Gultekin said. Turkish authorities frequently clamp down on HADEP, detaining or jailing its members on suspicion of links to the PKK which waged a 15-year armed campaign against Ankara for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey.

HADEP denies the charges, but nonetheless faces a possible ban for alleged association with the rebel group. Turkey's normally tense southeast has been relatively calm since September 1999, when the PKK ended its armed campaign to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict following peace calls from its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan. But the powerful Turkish military has brushed aside the PKK truce as a "ploy" and has called on the rebels to either surrender or face the army's wrath.

6. - Frankfurter Rundschau - "Too much for his own party":

Sacked minister fought corruption in Turkey

ATHENS

Sadettin Tantan was regarded as one of the few Turkish politicians with a clean record: a virtue which has brought the interior minister's downfall. His unceasing fight against corruption may have made Tantan a loved and respected figure with the general public but his party friends and coalition partners were loth to share these sentiments.

So, on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit sacked the irksome investigator from the cabinet and banished him to the lower-ranking and less significant post of secretary of state for customs and excise. On Wednesday morning, Tantan then announced his resignation from the government and departure from the centre-right Motherland Party as a result. "I shall not let the fight against injustice rest as long as I live," he promised on taking his hat.

During his tenure in charge of the fight against corruption, Tantan took no account of party divides. Last month, an investigation he had initiated led to the resignation of Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer, a party friend.

Ersumer is said to have been involved in irregularities surrounding the awarding of state contracts. He denies any wrongdoing.

Indeed, his crusade against corruption has primarily earned Tantan the wrath of the Motherland Party chairman and deputy prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz. Yilmaz, who has himself been the subject of corruption investigations in the past, publicly accused his interior minister of "betraying" his party to further his own image. It is widely believed that Yilmaz was behind Tantan's dismissal.

Succeeding him as interior minister is the current state minister for human rights, Rustu Kazim Yucelen. Most analysts are not expecting any spectacular probes to spring from his desk, yet the reshuffle in the ministry remains very much an issue as it reawakens doubts about the government's determination to tackle corruption in earnest.

This worry should also prompt Turkey's foreign creditors into action as nepotism and bribery are among the principle causes of the current chronic economic crisis. Established politicians are in any case only half-heartedly following Economics Minister Kemal Dervis's rescue plan. They believe that Dervis's reforms go too far in meddling with structures which provide politicians and parties with power and wealth.

7. - Reuters - "Kurds urges Sezer to heed rights calls":

DIYARBAKIR

A Kurdish guerrilla leader has urged the Turkish president to listen to Kurdish demands for greater democratic rights during the head of state's visit to the mainly Kurdish southeast this week.

"The people are going to again show their will for a solution," said Nizamettin Tas, a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leadership council. He was speaking late on June 3 on Europe-based Kurdish television channel Medya TV.

"They have expectations from (President Ahmet Necdet) Sezer... They are going to put forth their demands for democratization. Sezer ought to listen to these," Tas said.

Sezer's office said the president was due in Diyarbakir, regional capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast, on June 6.

The PKK has refashioned its 16-year-long armed struggle for self-rule into a campaign for greater cultural and linguistic rights for Turkey's 12 million Kurds.

The shift came after Turkish commandos in 1999 captured PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who now awaits a European court's ruling on a death sentence imposed on him for treason. From his island prison, Ocalan has called on followers to withdraw from Turkey into northern Iraq and Iran.

Turkey says it will never negotiate with the rebels and will continue fighting until the separatist threat is "neutralized". The conflict has killed more than 30,000 people.

8. - Turkish Daily News - "NEWS ANALYSIS ... Turkey challenges US over attack helicopters":

by Lale Sariibrahimoglu

Annoyed with Turkey's increased search for alternative markets, such as China, South Korea and Europe, in its military procurement programs -- a reflection of deepening Turkish frustration of U.S. denial of critical technology transfer to Ankara -- the United States has retaliated by imposing strict regulations on the installation of non-U.S. made systems on U.S. origin weapons in Turkey's inventory.

The first example of such a U.S. policy was reflected in a policy guideline issued by the United States prompting the Turkish General Staff to cancel its electronic warfare project with the French Thales. The United States imposed strict rules on the installation of French Thales made "Fast 16" electronic warfare (EWs) systems on the U.S. Lockheed Martin made second batch of Turkish F-16s, leaving no room for manoeuvre for the French to integrate its systems with F-16s.

The General Staff decision, authorizing the Turkish Undersecratariat for the Defence Industries (SSM), to start the procedure to cancel the contract with French Thales came on May 29. The General Staff decision came despite the Turkish air force as well as SSM resistance and displeasure of the U.S. decision on EWs. The Turkish air force earlier voiced its concerns in a letter that it wrote to the General Staff stressing that U.S. policy on EWs restricting Turkish ability to manoeuvre in its goal of being able to develop critical technologies locally, would set a precedent for other U.S. related projects.

Indeed air force concerns turned into reality when the United States prepared another general policy guideline, similar to the guideline issued for EWs, this time on mission computer systems to be installed on attack helicopters that Turkey has been negotiating to coproduce with the U.S. company Bell.

Mission computer systems comprise of software that enables the country to own the whole system of identifying foes and friends.

Turkey challenges earlier warning

Both the new U.S. policy imposing strict regulations over the integration of non-U.S. electronic warfare suites and jamming systems on U.S. origin aircraft, and the mission computer systems issue, were discussed in length at a meeting held in Ankara in May with the visiting U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency Chief Gen. Tom Walters.

Walters, at that meeting, also warned his Turkish interlocutors that the United States was prepared to issue another guideline concerning the mission computer systems making it more difficult for countries trying to develop them indigenously.

Walters was seeking Turkey to enter into cooperation with U.S. Litton, maker of mission computer systems, in developing that system. Instead SSM, executing the attack helicopter project, decided to contract the development of mission computer systems to local research group the Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK) and Marmara Research Center (MAM).

During the meeting with Walters, his military interlocutors told the U.S. visitor that they would go ahead with a local company to develop the mission computer.

As an open challenge to the U.S. SSM formally signed a $26 million contract yesterday in Ankara with TUBITAK-MAM for the development of the system.

But defence industry sources say that as in the case of the EW project, the Turkish military's resistance against United States, Turkey's main supporter in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) struck deal to save Turkey from its current financial crisis, may be broken.

US fears Turkey becoming another Israel

U.S. sources speaking to the Turkish Daily News say that Washington was ready to give Turkey 90 percent of the software source code of mission computer systems. "We (U.S.) can not transfer the remaining 10 percent of the software source code because it would reveal the vulnerability of the weapons systems," said the same source.

Turkey has been negotiating with U.S. Bell for the coproduction of 145 helicopters in three batches worth about $4 billion.

U.S. fears that Turkey may set an example by becoming another Israel, which built its indigenous systems on U.S. products but then started cooperating with many countries including U.S.'s adversary China, enlarging its options in developing indigenous technologies.

The United States has mounted pressure on Israel to stop arms exports, as well as cooperation with countries like China and Russia.

The U.S. pressures being imposed on Ankara come at a time when Turkey has been signalling closer military ties with China and South Korea, Russia is also very keen to enter the Turkish arms market in terms of coproduction projects.