1 March 2001

1. - BBC - "Turkey hopes for $25bn loan":

PM Ecevit says he will not resign over the crisis

Turkey is hoping for a $25bn loan from a group of foreign banks to help it weather its latest economic crisis.

The country is in the midst of re-working an economic programme sponsored by the International Monetary Fund to combat inflation and reform its banking sector.

The programme was derailed by Turkey's decision last week to devalue its currency. Prior to the devaluation of the lira, exchange-rate controls were being used to help reduce inflation.
Addressing speculation that Turkey was negotiating with foreign banks for a loan, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said "this is our expectation, our wish".

His comments come as Turkey faced a 10% rise in fuel prices, following the depreciation of the lira by 28%. Some fruit and vegetables, such as green peppers, have risen by 150-200% in price.

Past loans

Turkey has already taken out a $1bn loan from a consortium of foreign banks in November during an earlier financial crisis.

Then in December, the IMF lent the country $7.5bn in new loans. The Fund also brought forward nearly $3bn in loans that were available to Turkey under a previous deal.

Turkey's most recent crisis has been sparked by a public row between Mr Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on tackling corruption in the banking sector.

The argument between the two leaders prompted a new loss of confidence in Turkey's financial markets as foreign investors pulled their money out of the country.

Relations between the two men have since appeared to ease following a face-to-face meeting on Monday.

Banking casualty

In a sign that Turkey is keen to continue solving problems in the banking sector, the local regulator on Wednesday took control of a small private bank called Ulusal Bank.

The Turkish Banking Supervisory Board said Ulusal Bank can no longer fulfil its obligations, and that its debts exceed its assets.

The bank is the 12th bank to collapse in Turkey within two years.

The country's previous financial crisis in November was prompted by the collapse of 10 insolvent private banks and fears that much of the sector was under threat.

Corruption and instability in Turkey's banking sector has long been the economy's Achilles heel.
New central bank chief

Turkey is also on the verge of appointing a new chief for its central bank, after the former governor Gazi Ercel resigned on Sunday.

Local media in Turkey report that Kemal Dervis, a World Bank official, has accepted the job.
Mr Dervis has been with the World Bank since 1978 and is vice president for poverty reduction and economic management in Washington.

He was also an academic and adviser to Mr Ecevit when he was prime minister during the 1970s.

IMF talks continue

Talks between Turkey, the IMF and the World Bank on revising the economic programme continue.

A conclusion is not expected for a couple of weeks, despite growing frustration in the financial markets and from the general public.

The IMF is not expected to give Turkey further loans, despite initial hints from Horst Köhler, managing director of the IMF, that Turkey could be given further "resources" to cover the cost of restructuring the banking sector.

Discontent

Turkish labour unions and business groups on Wednesday threatened widespread protests if they were not consulted on the economic policy being developed with the IMF.

There have already been protests in Ankara and other parts of the country as many blame the IMF for the country's problems.

Despite calls for his resignation, Mr Ecevit remains defiant that he will stay in government.
"It wouldn't be difficult at all for me to pull out of the government," Mr Ecevit told his Democratic Left Party.

"But if I leave office now and cause a government crisis under the circumstances we are in, I would not be able to account for it before the nation and before history."

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2. - Kurdish Observer - "Kurdish still forbidden":

The US State Department's Year 2000 Human Rights Report noted that negative trends in human rights continued in Turkey and that the ban against Kurdish was still in effect.

NEWS CENTER

The US State Department's Year 2000 Report on the worldwide situation in human rights noted that violations continue in Turkey. The Turkey section of the report, which covers all countries, called attention to continuing negative trends in Turkey and stressed that prohibitions against the Kurdish language and culture still continued. The report said that summary executions and deaths from the use of excessive force continue and said that the state had remained deficient in finding the perpetrators of summary executions in the past or in determining the fate of people who had disappeared. The report noted that "Torture and beating by security forces continue in a broad manner" and held the police and Gendarmerie responsible for these incidents. It also noted that the failure to punish torturers opened the path to an increase in such cases. The report noted that the period of detention remained long and that the right of detainees to legal counsel was obstructed.

Many prohibitions for the Kurds

The report said, "Kurdish broadcasting is still prohibited. But a number of top-level government officials, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, and the MIT [intelligence agency] Undersecretary have openly supported starting this type of broadcasts and debate has begun on this subject. As for the military, it has opposed this step."

The report noted that OHAL (Emergency Rule administration), the courts, the police, and RTUK (supreme radio and television board) all forbade the use of the Kurdish language in election campaigns, and that Kurds are prohibited from using their language and cultural rights in education and broadcasting, concluding, "Kurdish broadcasting is still prohibited." It noted that Kurdish newspapers were prohibited in OHAL, but recalled that it was possible to find Kurdish music cassettes. As opposed to this, however, it recalled that there were prohibitions against some musicians and songs. It noted that RTUK had banned some broadcasting stations because they had broadcast Kurdish music.

PKK withdrawn from Turkey

The US report explained that the PKK had left the armed struggled, noting that "thousands of armed PKK members withdrew from Turkey's borders into nearby countries." The report noted that incidents of violence had decreased by 90 percent after the withdrawal of the PKK guerrillas .

The report, meanwhile, stressed that Turkey is a transit country for illegal immigration into Europe. It noted that the prison system is weak in Turkey and also that several inmates had died in the operation to implement F-type cell prisons.

The report noted that there were still obstacles to the freedom of thought and expression, indicating that the generals, politicians, and bureaucrats at the top of the state accused the Islamists of being "regressive" and the Kurds of "separatism." The report pointed out that pressure against newspapers and the punishment of reporters continued, noting that the greatest obstacle to the freedoms of thought, assembly, and association were police and the courts using repressive laws. It noted that as a result of this, the pressures against HADEP, the Human Rights Association (IHD), and Fazilet had particularly increased, underscoring that HADEP and Fazilet remained faced with the threat of being closed down.

Kurdish question

The US report pointed out efforts for democratization in Turkey, noting that President Sezer, foremost jurists, politicians, and well known persons had called for the lifting of the 1982 Constitution, and explained that debates over a solution to the Kurdish question continued. The report said that, in regard to a solution to the Kurdish problem, debate had concentrated on Kurdish culture and language.

Laws against women's favor

The State Department report noted that women were not sufficiently represented in Parliament, pointing out that only 22 of the 550 seats were taken by women. It noted that there was not even one woman in the cabinet and, referring to DYP leader Tansu Ciller, said "but one of the leaders of the five largest parties in the country is a woman."

The report, meanwhile, noted that domestic violence against women was very high and that a number of young girls committed suicide rather than consenting to forced marriages and that the "traditional virginity tests" continue. It noted that divorce and inheritance laws favored men, and also that the problem of smuggling women for prostitution continued, and that Turkey was the biggest transit country in this regard.

The report noted that 20 percent of Turkish families were outside the social security system and that minimum wage standards were not sufficient to secure a normal life.

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3. - Kurdish Observer - "French government calls for a Kurdish conference":

The Kurdish question has once again come onto France's agenda with the flood of Kurdish refugees to that country. Socialist Party spokesman Vincent Peillon called attention to the need for a Europe-wide conference on the Kurdish question.

HUSEYIN ELMALI

Vincent Peillon, the national spokesman for the Socialist Party, which is in power in France, made a statement in the name of his party the other evening saying that it was necessary to hold a conference at the European level in order to find a lasting solution to the problems of the Kurdish people.

Peillon said: "The Kurdish problem is basically political, and therefore is it necessary to show the same sensitivity to the problem of the Kurdish people as with Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, and similar problems and for it to be taken up by political authorities to find a solution."

Peillon noted that the Kurdish problem stemmed from the fact that Kurds could not live in peace on their own soil and said this problem was showing itself in a similar fashion in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Peillon indicated the reason that Kurds left the conditions they were subjected to in their own countries and headed to Europe for refuge, saying, "If you deprive 30 million people of everything, they will head for Europe for refuge." The spokesman said that the situation of the Kurdish people called for urgency and stressed that therefore a conference with broad participation was necessary.

The French government is headed by the Socialists in partnership with the Greens and Communists, who want a more radical solution to the Kurdish question.

Chirac also suggested a conference

French President Jacques Chirac, in making a statement concerning the 908 Kurdish refugees who had landed on France's south shore on February 17, used more diplomatic language concerning the Kurdish question and said that "the international community absolutely must intervene in this problem."

Referring to the Kurds, Chirac said, "These people are hopeless in their own homeland."

French media intense

After all these statements, there have been special debate programs arranged all day in the French media in which they are trying to understand the situation of the Kurds and get the views of the French people on this. The general opinion in these debates has been that a permanent solution must be found to the problems of the Kurds in their own countries.

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4. - Ozgur Politika - "The politicians give the loaded pistol":

Attorney Mehmet Tural, who is carrying out the Egebank investigation, said that corruption, which played the No. 1 role in the economic crisis, "has three legs: Politicians, bureaucrats, and bankers. The politicians give the pistol and the bankers fire it, but only those shoot are tried."

MEHMET OZGUL

When President Ahmet Necdet Sezer asked "Why are you obstructing the battle against corruption?" at the last National Security Council (MGK) meeting, "Shadow Prime Minister" Husamettin Ozkan flew from his place and made the comments that started the crisis. Afterwards, an economic crisis that unleased chaos in whole country flared up. Not long before that crisis, Sezer had set the State Supervisory Board (DDK) to work. Who is Ozkan, and why was he frightened? We spoke with Attorney Mehmet Tural, a person who uncovered how corruption was carried out, concerning the banks were emptied out before and the latest developments. Tural was one of the top names assuring that the investigation into Egebank was carried out with greater transparency than that into other banks. But Tural said, "Our work is being obstructed," at the beginning of the year and resigned from his duty at Egebank.

Mehmet Tural spoke with OZGUR POLITIKA. Today, we present the first section of that interview. In tomorrow's section, there will be interesting assertions about the "honesty" of State Minister and Chairman of the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Board (BDDK), Zekeriya Temizel, how DGM Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel was silenced, Murat Demirel's foreign bank accounts, and many more details...

If you like, let's begin from the end. Was Ozkan's outburst in the MGK the panic of politicians who had become mixed up in corruption or supported it?

Mr. President Sezer is a man who has not become involved in filth in Turkey, and who, with the habits of a judge, says what needs to be said without beating around the bush. This is a great fortune for Turkey. Sezer is calling the thief a thief, the swindler a swindler, and the murderer a murderer. Because he sees the developments, he is openly saying, "You are not showing the required effort to complete the investigations." There is no possibility for the businessman to have created this soiling in Turkey all by himself. He must have support from various political channels. And these political channels must use the bureaucrats in order to carry out this business. This business has three legs: the bankers, the politicians, and the bureaucrats. I am loading a pistol and putting it in your hand and telling you to go and shoot so-and-so; you then take the pistol I have given you and shoot him. You are guilty of committing a crime, and I am not a partner to that crime. Could there be such logic? The one who is loading the pistol and giving it to the businessmen are the politicians! The politicians must be called to give account as well.

Who, for example...

Who signed what decision in what period, which banks or which places in the privatization office were given to whom and under what conditions are all clear in a very open way. This policy is indispensable from its own standpoint. Politics is undergoing serious corrosion in Turkey. If those who have become soiled give account, then those who have not become tainted will also become clear.

The government didn't accept any responsibility at all for the last crisis. Two bureaucrats resigned...

The government should have at that time confessed, "I cannot administer this country." The responsibility for appointing those two bureaucrats to those positions is yours, but the whole burden will fall to them! One morning you look and see that you have lost 40 percent. Psychologically speaking, society can no longer believe in the seriousness of the government.

Did corruption have a role in the economic crisis?

It had a first-degree role. Turkey has no accumulated capital in the western sense. Up to today, what we have called public economic enterprises, with the good and the bad, had created an accumulation. But in recent years, those have been emptied out as well. Foreign capital also fled. The flow of fresh funds stopped. And now, the burden will once again be loaded onto the backs of the low-income people.

What were the corruptions you determined at Egebank?

We completed 38 investigation dossiers and delivered them to the prosecutor's office. We made the first complaint, which had to do with off-shores, to the State Security Court (DGM) prosecutor's office on May 20, 2000 and filed complaints on the others at the state prosecutor's office in Sisli. The investigation, contrary to what is thought, did not begin at the BDDK. We started it in May. The BDDK began working on it on September 1. We met with jurists at that time, and most of them were of the opinion that this crime was not under the jurisdiction of the DGM.

You said there were three legs; did you confirm these?

There is clear evidence in this regard. There are various conditions determined by the Treasury on this subject of who a bank will be given to: 1) There will have been no executory surveillance against him; 2) He will have had no bounced checks or promissory notes; 3) The composition will not have been announced; 4) His ethical values will be suitable for being a bank owner; 5) He must have enough capital to carry out banking. We saw that most did not have these qualifications.

It was asserted that when Yahya Murat Demirel was the owner of Egebank, he didn't pay out any money at all.

First, let's take up the previous owner of Egebank, Huseyin Bayraktar. There was a serious flow of resources to the Bayraktar Group as well. There are documents written to Bayraktar by the Treasury Undersecretary when the bank was theirs. Yahya Murat Demirel did some bargaining and the bank was turned over for USD 97.5 million. During the bargaining stage, the Bayraktar Group secured USD 70 million in credits to the firms of the Demirel Group only 15 days before, on May 4, 1998. The bank became Yahya Murat Demirel's without one cent leaving anyone's pockets. Most of these credits were taken from Halkbank, which is under Husamettin Ozkan's control. At this moment, the state banks have receivables in the amount of 150 trillion liras from companies of the Demirel Group. When this type of negligence is in question, would it be right to only try the bank boss, and to keep the bureaucrats and politicians out of the investigation? Show me even one man in commerce who can use credits from the public banks without pressure from the politicians. In short, they told us, "You can come up to the edge of this table. Mess with the legs, but don't touch the top." In truth, when we pulled up our heads, we banged them into the table and we returned from there. We picked mosquitoes out of the swamp.

The government said, "It will go to the very end," but it didn't. You said, "This is finished," and left...

The time that I said that is very important. In my opinion, when the joint administration under that chairmanship of Tevfik Altinok was appointed, the investigation of the dossiers in a just fashion ended. The administrative boards serving at the banks before were working in a truly sincere manner. When the joint administrative board was appointed to the sunken banks, that's when we said, "This is finished." We held a meeting when Tevfik Altinok was appointed. He told us: "Friends, all of us need the law, we need to use the law well." We understood what he meant to say when he asked us how this business had gotten to the DGM.

What is the reason you thought you were being obstructed. Did someone step on your toes?

The reason this investigation was stopped was the determination with documentation that money from Egebank went into the accounts of the mother-in-law of a politician who is right now acting as deputy prime minister, Husamettin Ozkan. We filed a complaint with the prosecutor on that matter. Hatice Betul Ozbay was listed as a suspect in the indictment prepared by the DGM Prosecutor. Everything is clear. While the investigation was still continuing, the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Board gave Prime Minister Ecevit a writing that said, "There is no such investigation. There is also no such incident." The prime minister was deceived with this writing. The investigation did not proceed soundly after the mother-in-law business came out into the open.

Who is Mehmet Tural?

Mehmet Tural is from Van. After serving as a judge for ten years, he became an attorney. After Egebank was transferred to the fund, he was offered the position of "Egebank Legal Consultant" to determine whether the banking practices of the bank were in accordance with the law. He accepted the position and began serious work with 10 attorneys and 37 inspectors, which made up the Egebank Inspection Board. They prepared 37 dossiers.

They followed up on 600 institutional credits, 7,000 personal credits, and gathered evidence and information on those that were contrary to the law. Despite criminal law professors giving a contrary opinion, they said that this case belonged in the State Security Court because they had shown that a gang had been formed for the aim of emptying out the bank. When Zekeriya Temizel began duty on September 1, 2000, the legal process being carried out on the evidence, documents, and information gathered over seven months by Mehmet Tural and his team was speeded up.

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5. - Turkish daily News - "National Program fails to fulfill Kurds expectations":

ANKARA

A formula on broadcasting in Kurdish and educating the Kurds determined at Monday's National Security Council (MGK) meeting fails to fulfill the expectations of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) sympathizers living abroad
On a program at the pro-Kurdish Medya TV, the MGK's formula is referred to as, 'the continuation of Turkish government's 75-year-old negligence policy'
Meanwhile, Diyarbakir Mayor from the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) Feridun Celik proposes to hold a referendum for the solution of the Kurdish question.

Determination on negligence

Medya-Tv said the National Program seemed to have some positive statements referring to broadcasting in Kurdish, but if examined carefully, it reflects Turkey's 75-year-old firm attitude to negligence on the Kurdish problem.

"The National Program which is approved at the MGK meeting says, 'Languages used in daily life other than Turkish instead of saying 'Kurdish language.' And about broadcasting in Kurdish, the Program says, 'it is not possible to accept the usage of another language if it is used an element of an other sovereignty that claims Turkey's sovereignty,'" the station is quoted as saying.
Medya Tv said that these statements will be included to the final wording of the National Program and also drew the path of Turkey's policy over Kurdish problem.

"Educating in Kurdish will be explained like this in the National Program: The national language and language of education in Turkey is Turkish. But this principle is not a deterrent for the usage of other languages and dialects in the daily life. Turkey will work in an effort to lift the deterrents," Medya-Tv stated.

Referendum offer

According to a news report at the Medya-Tv, Feridun Celik, in an interview with the Dogan News Agency (DHA) proposed a referendum in order to solve the Kurdish problem.

Criticizing state for not fulfilling its task in the Southeast at a period when there was a perfect opportunity due to peaceful times, Celik said a referendum is a solution.

"The State should hold a referendum in an effort to learn the Southeastern people's political demands on various issues such as broadcasting and educating in Kurdish, removing Emergency Rule (OHAL) and immigration," Celik said.

He said that Turkey's development is based on the solution of the Kurdish question and it is the main reason for Turkey's economic and social problems.

Celik stated that unemployment in Diayrbakir reached 70 percent and if necessary measures are not taken, mass social reactions may take place.

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6. - Turkish Daily News - "HADEP says MGK needs revision":

ANKARA

People's Democracy Party (HADEP) chairman Ahmet Turk on Wednesday stated that increasing the numbers of civil members of the National Security Council (MGK) is not a solution.

"First of all, Parliament should amend article 118 of the Constitution in an effort to revise the MGK to become an advisory state organ," Turk said in a press release.

Turkey is mostly criticized for its powerful military and its interference to the political life.
Although the MGK is called an advisory body, its decisions are strictly followed by the state.
The MGK is chaired by the president and attended by prime minister, deputy prime minister, defense minister, interior minister, foreign minister, chief of general staff and force commanders.
Depending on the particulars of its the agenda, ministers and others persons can be invited to a MGK meeting.

According to the Article 118 of the Constitution, the MGK submits to the Cabinet its views on making decisions and ensuring necessary coordination with regard to the formulation,
establishment and implementation of the state's national security. The Cabinet gives priority consideration to MGK decisions.

Turk said the MGK turned into a decision making mechanism but its decisions are only advice.
His statements came after Turkey included increasing civil members of the MGK to the National Program.

According to the criteria of the European Union, MGK should not go beyond its advisory role.