16
May 2001 1. 'We'll be in Ankara with 2 million',
saying that, "We've been placated for 65 years; we don't want assistance;
lift the restrictions and embargo; it's at the breaking point,"
the Kurdish Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced that they would
arrange a demonstration meeting in Ankara with 2 million people if solutions
were not found for the region's problems.
2. "'Bans can't hold anymore'", PKK Council of Leaders member Duran Kalkan, explaining the great attention to the "second peace drive" by the public in Kurdistan and the "mass statement of identity" in recent days, said that these showed that "the Kurds no longer recognize prohibitions." 3. "Turkey's Belt-Tightening threatens indebted farmers with ruin", for sale: Quaint Turkish village, 112 baked mud homes, 9,600 hectares of farmland, one mosque, one schoolhouse, disappearing way of life, $1.2 million. Cash only. 4. "Foreign Minister Cem meets
EU Commissioner Verheugen", Foreign Minister Ismail Cem
met on Tuesday Guenter Verheugen, the European Union (EU) Commissioner
for enlargement. 1. - Ozgur Politika - 'We'll be in Ankara with 2 million': ANKARA Ten local chairmen of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Bourses (TOBB) from Kurdish provinces and districts held a joint press conference at the Central TOBB headquarters to discuss the problems they were having, particularly during the current economic crisis.Van OBB chairman Kayhan Turkmenoglu, reading a joint statement on behalf of the ten, said, "We are taking our complaints about those who do not listen to us or create solutions to the people." We have been placated for 65 years Turkmenoglu complained that the efforts aimed at economic development in the Kurdish region had received no support at all from the government and that they had not even received responses to their requests for appointments. Turkmenoglu continued to say the following: "That is why we are speaking out. Oh you, our leaders who want to run the country with the peoples' votes, from now on you will have no potential for votes in our region. They will no longer believe in your speeches. We want to develop. Enough is enough, do not use us. We want concrete and clear solutions. We are being placated with the same things for 65 years in the name of regional development. See us as entrepreneurs who are useful to the economy and making a contribution to this country, and remove the obstacles set up before us." We don't want help, lift the embargo Turkmenoglu pointed out that, in this environment of crisis, they had not held demonstrations in the east, they had not poured out into the streets, and they had not protested the government. He added that they did not want money or credits, continuing to say the following: "We want the restrictions on the Eastern border gates and the radical measures employed against agriculture and stock-breeding to be lifted and for you to lift the obstacles you have placed against border trade. The people are tired of poverty and destitution, they are about to go crazy from unemployment. After that, suicides will begin. Therefore, if solutions are not found to the region's problems, we will not show our reaction in our region, but with 2 million people in Ankara." People of the region are ready to revolt Later, other TOBB provincial chairmen explained their regional problems. Ahmet Sen, Chairman of the Hakkari Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that there were 2 million people in the region who were hungry and unemployed right now because of the embargo against border trade. "We are hungry, unemployed, and seeking a solution. Please hear our voices," Sen said. Igdir chairman Tayyar Oral, for his part, had the following to say: "A people ready to revolt in the region, worn-out administrators... We don't know what to do. It has reached the breaking point. We expect the government and parliament to find a remedy for our region immediately. We don't want anything new, give us back the old order, it will be enough." Mus OBB chairman Talip Devrim, for his part, said that "the government has stuffed its ears with cotton and does not hear us." Devrim said that foreign powers had played various games on Turkey with aims to divide it thus far but had not succeeded, and that they had lastly tried to create the foundation for social explosions. Sirnak chairman Yusuf Som also said that their problems because of border trade were gradually growing, and that along with this, unemployment and hunger were increasing in the region. Parliament is doing its duty Van deputy Fethullah Erbas, who also participated in the press conference, said that the cries at the conference were the cries of East Anatolia, adding, "This is a cry for help. The region is below the line of poverty and is approaching the line of death." Erbas said that there was not too much more that Parliament could do, continuing to say the following: "Our esteemed bureaucrats draw up the laws, present them to the government, the government brings them [to Parliament]. If you are not part of the government, none of your offers are even discussed. The government debates the law. If they do not turn out the way the government wants, then they withdraw them. I believe that Parliament has done its duty thus far." ANAP Hakkari deputy Mecit Piruzbeyoglu also said that they tried to follow the problems in the Kurdish provinces closely, noting that the Kurdish deputies worked in unity and togetherness on this subject in Parliament. The chamber chairmen who signed the joint statement are as follows: Kayhan Turkmenoglu (Van), Ahmet Sen (Hakkari), Talip Devrim (Mus), Davut Tezcan (Bitlis), Tayyar Oral (Igdir), Veysel Daglar (Yuksekova), Ali Efe (Dogubeyazit), Abdurrahman Gozutok (Ercis), Nazif Acarbay (Agri), Veysi Uyanik (Tatvan). 2. - Kurdish Observer - "'Bans can't hold anymore'": PKK Council of Leaders member Duran Kalkan, explaining
the great attention to the "second peace drive" by the public
in Kurdistan and the "mass statement of identity" in recent
days, said that these showed that "the Kurds no longer recognize
prohibitions." Speaking by telephone on the biweekly Cozum (Solution) program hosted by Tuncay Dogan on Medya-TV, Kalkan said that the developments experienced in Turkey over the past two years were directly related to the PKK's peace process. Kalkan said that their "second peace drive" for the development of democratic restructuring had begun a new process, and that the "mass statement of identity" [in which Kurds publicly proclaim membership in the PKK] was the most basic leg of this drive. Kalkan underscored that the Dortmund march, in which an estimated anywhere from 65,000 to 200,000 participated, could also be considered a "mass identity statement" and stressed that it was necessary to interpret the two great mass activities as meaning that "the Kurds are no longer accepting prohibitions." Kalkan appraised the demonstration in Dortmund and the beginning of the second peace drive, continuing to say the following: "The Kurdish people, wherever they are, have reached a level of full consciousness and organization on the subject of national identity. They want to do this in the manner of peace and brotherhood of the people." Kalkan described the reasons for the second peace drive with the following words: "We came to the peace and democratic transformation process through a very extensive struggle that lasted a long time. We tried to achieve solutions to the problems which that created. We describe this process as the solution method because the struggle, with all its violence, gave as much as it could, it brought the truths out into the open. The solution must be through restructuring." Kalkan described the second peace drive with the following words: "We think of the second peace drive as a process in which democratic structure will develop and problems will be solved. We unilaterally put up a great struggle in the peace process thus far. The second peace process, for its part, will necessitate serious effort. Freedom and democratic transformation will be developed with such a struggle. Everyone must participate with awareness of this. The struggle process to achieve this has been begun." Kalkan expanded on the mass identity statement campaign that was announced to the public in recent days. Kalkan said that the recent mass demonstrations were a form of mass identity statement, and continued to say the following: "We are trying to invalidate the prohibition against the Kurdish identity. For the Kurdish people to want their national and cultural rights cannot be considered terrorism. A structure to completely change this situation is necessary." Kalkan said that it was noteworthy that such a ban against the PKK had been put out at a time when there was a trend for the Kurds to stand up for their national identity, continuing to say: "We are trying to break this with the identity statement. The Kurds no longer want to live without an identity. They are ready to bear up to whatever type of sanctions in this and shout out everywhere, to stand up for their own culture and identity on this basis." Iran also OK'd US policies Kalkan also spoke about the Middle East during his evaluations. He asserted that Turkey had given its OK to the US's Iraq policy, and that the recent Turkey-Iran contacts meant that Iran had also given the green light to US policies. Kalkan also pointed to the way out from foreign-based policies implemented in regard to the Kurds and the regional peoples, saying, "We are suggesting a democratic federal system that will guarantee the interests of the Arabs, Turks, Syriacs, and Kurds to Iraq." They want to update denial Kalkan said that pressure on the Kurds had been increased in order to bring US policies to life, adding, "There is serious pressure in this regard on the KDP and PUK. They are saying to them, don't show will, don't make the Kurdish movement into a political force." Kalkan said that this policy had been pushed on Barzani during his recent contacts in Ankara, adding that this policy was an adjustment of the denial and annihilation policies which had been implemented from long ago to conform with current developments. "They want to 'lose' the Kurds again; against this, it is essential that a Kurdish democratic union be created," Kalkan said, suggesting once again that all the Kurdish powers form an alliance. 3. - International Herald Tribune - "Turkey's Belt-Tightening threatens indebted farmers with ruin": CALLI In the lime-green hills of Turkey's northeastern Anatolian Plateau, this is what the farmers' plight has come to. They are hounded by debtors they cannot pay. Their tractors sit idle because most owners are too broke to buy the diesel fuel to run them. Their wheat fields are ablaze with yellow flowering weeds for lack of money to purchase herbicides. And now, for the first time in the quarter-century history of the state Agriculture Credit Cooperative, local farmers are receiving warning notices in the mail - pay up or the state will take your land, your tractor, your belongings, or perhaps, send you to prison. After decades in which a beneficent government routinely forgave debts and ladled out subsidies, Calli and hundreds of other farm hamlets are struggling with Turkey's new get-tough efforts to salvage the nation's collapsing economy and appease international moneylenders. "We have to make our voices heard," said Ahmet Erdogan, 52, a member of the village's elected council, which hatched the desperate publicity stunt of putting Calli and 10 other nearby villages up for sale. (There have been no takers.) "The state is like a big hammer banging on us. The situation is so hard for everyone. We have people who haven't had a vegetable in their kitchen for six months." In the past half-dozen years, more than a third of Calli's families have locked their doors and deserted their farms for the cities, a trend that is emptying villages across Turkey. In less than half a century, Turkey has changed from a country where three-quarters of the population lived in rural areas to one where three-quarters are in cities, making it one of the world's most rapidly urbanizing countries. The story of Calli exemplifies the kind of government policies that helped push Turkey into the financial abyss that threatens its economic, political and social stability. It also demonstrates vividly why it will be so difficult for this strategic NATO ally to impose the reforms considered critical to its survival as a reliable political partner and credible player in the global marketplace. In the past 16 years, the government has bailed out farmers with five separate amnesty programs. As a result, the single largest debtor of the Agriculture Credit Cooperative that serves Calli and surrounding villages is the government itself, which owes the association nearly $30 million for the debt it has forgiven member farmers. In an effort to pull Turkey out of its quagmire of debt - which extends across virtually every sector of the economy, from small businesses to industrial giants - the International Monetary Fund recently approved a $10 billion loan package, demanding in return that Turkey revise its antiquated financial system. As it has in other developing nations it has assisted, the IMF has argued that the short-term pain to farmers and others is necessary to restore faith in the economy, both at home and in the international marketplace. "The era of cheap populism has ended in Turkey," the country's new economic minister, Kemal Dervis, recently told his cabinet colleagues. "We should all tighten our belts," he said, adding, "We can't dynamite our future in order to save today." But many senior ministers are balking under political pressure from desperate constituencies. One of the most vociferous has been Agriculture Minister Husnu Yusuf Gokalp, who contends that 616,000 Turkish farmers are in debt so deep they can never hope to pay and that - once again - the government owes them help. The realities of that tug of war between tough reform and easy relief play out every day on the 320 hectares (800 acres) of tired soil where Mahmut Cakir grows wheat, like his father and his grandfather before him. Mr. Cakir, 27, lives in a small house with his wife, infant daughter, toddler son, widowed mother and mangy yellow dog. His life is ruled by his debts: Debt to the farm credit association he has no hope of repaying because the $3,400 loan he took out four years ago to buy a seed-planting machine and 200 liters (53 gallons) of diesel fuel has ballooned, with skyrocketing interest and a devalued currency, into a $9,000 debt. Debts of $6,000 to two feed suppliers that he cannot repay because the 35 cattle he spent his life savings on last year died. Debt to the fertilizer man he can't pay because last year's wheat crop was so bad he could not sell a single pound. And then there is this year's crop. Neither the fertilizer man nor the herbicide man nor the fuel man will give him credit to buy the supplies he needs to produce a decent harvest by September. Yellow flowers are choking his wheat sprouts. The ground, which needs spring cultivation, is rock-hard because he cannot plow it without fuel, which has increased in price seven times in three months. So Mr. Cakir spends his days fending off creditors who telephone him incessantly. 4. - Anadolu Agency - "Foreign Minister Cem meets EU Commissioner Verheugen": BRUSSELS 5. - AFP - "IMF approves increase in assistance
to Turkey": 6. - Reuters - "Turkey hails IMF loan as great
responsility": |