2 May 2001

1. "The Fight for Rights", Turkish M.P. Sema Piskinsut is shaking up the political system.

2. "Turkish missile defense is casualty of crisis", Turkey's plans to launch a missile defense program appears to be the latest casualty of the nation's fiscal crisis.

3. "'Death Fasters' Put Spotlight on Prisons", Toll of Turkish Inmates, Backers at 20.

4. "Verheugen makes call on prisons", EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement Guenther Verheugen said, "The worry and terror felt by the EU because of the hunger strikes continuing in Turkish prisons is increasing. An urgent solution must be found so that more people do not lose their lives."

5. "May 1 banned in Kurdistan!", no permission was given for celebrations of May 1 planned in Kurdistan, with the exception of Adiyaman, Malatya, and Antep. Nongovernmental organizations interpreted the prohibitions as opposition to peace and democracy.

6. "Bundesbank criticises IMF aid to Turkey", the International Monetary Fund overstepped the limits of its mandate by awarding an additional eight billion dollars (nine billion euros) of financial aid to Turkey, Bundesbank deputy president Juergen Stark said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.


1. - Times Magazine - "The Fight for Rights":

Turkish M.P. Sema Piskinsut is shaking up the political system

ISTANBUL / by Andrew Finkel

Turkey is knocking on the European Union's door. Whether it gets in or not depends on the commitment of the Turkish parliament to political and economic reform. But it may also depend on one M.P. who has transformed herself from an internist at a provincial hospital into a human rights warrior: Sema Piskinsut.

Piskinsut is a member of the ruling Democratic Left Party and, until October 2000, was the head of the parliamentary Human Rights Commission. During her two-year tenure, Piskinsut vigorously investigated a wide range of issues, from press freedom to the penal detention system, both topics hindering the country's efforts to join the E.U.

Typical of her styles was a midnight expedition, shortly after she began work in March, 1998, during which she led her fellow commission members through the closed gates of Sanliurfa Prison to meet newly admitted inmates fresh from the torturers' wrack. She led similar swoops on police interrogation centers. Her modus operandi was always the same: straight to the cells, without prison staff accompaniment. "We were warned that it would be dangerous for us to conduct interviews without having guards present, but we wanted people to speak freely so we accepted the risk," Piskinsut says. The Human Rights Commission interviewed over 8,500 prisoners in provinces throughout Turkey. All the conversations were recorded and collated in 11 volumes, which are a chronicle of a penal system in which brute force was an accepted part of interrogation and discipline. The Commission interviewed 13-year-old children in Istanbul who had been subjected to electric shock therapy and convicts who had been interrogated while being hosed down with pressurized water. During the raids on police stations they recovered sticks, chains and implements of torture.

One of the most disturbing reports is on the Bakirkoy Detention Center for Women and Young Offenders in Istanbul, where children complained that they were still being beaten and mistreated even after a previous Commission visit. The findings suggested that human rights violations in Turkey were not the work of a few bad apples, as successive governments maintained, but the product of systematic abuse.

Turkish political commentators say the country's economic problems are due, at least in part, to a political system that has insulated itself from criticism and reform. Many of the measures being urged upon Turkey by the international community have as much to do with making government more transparent as with the details of monetary or fiscal policy. These reforms occupy a large chunk of the National Program, a document recently published by the Turkish government that sets outs its priorities - among them, a commitment that torture "cannot be tolerated under any circumstances" - in meeting the criteria for E.U. membership. Still, human rights abuses too often go either undetected or unpunished. Police and prison wardens who are tried for abuse have a mere 2% chance of being convicted, according to an Amnesty International report. The report produced by Sema Piskinsut's Commission comes to the same conclusions.

It's not E.U. admission that has motivated Piskinsut's work. "We want better democracy and greater freedoms for their own sake," she says. Piskinsut has paid a price for her outspokenness, though. At the end of last year, she was moved out of her position as head of the Commission and replaced by an M.P. from the far-right Nationalist Action Party. Piskinsut has now become an outspoken critic not just of the penal system but of parliament itself. "We can't call ourselves representatives of the people," she said, in obvious frustration that the meticulously documented criticism of parliament has not hastened the pace of change. She is calling for an overhaul of political party laws that transfer power away from individual lawmakers to the party leader. Piskinsut argues that Turkey will only have the will to make the reforms it needs if it strengthens the workings of its own democracy. In what turned out to be a more than usually futile gesture to prove her point, she presented herself as a rival to Bulent Ecevit, the party leader, at her Democratic Left Party's conference on April 29th. She was not even allowed to address the delegates and among ugly scenes in which her own son was manhandled, she left the hall early to defuse further uproar. "The truth may hurt," Piskinsut says, "but it can cure as well."


2. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkish missile defense is casualty of crisis":

ANKARA

Turkey's plans to launch a missile defense program appears to be the latest casualty of the nation's fiscal crisis.

Turkish sources said the military has shelved plans to procure systems meant to serve as the basis of a theater ballistic missile program. The issue of missile defense has been discussed over the last two years with the United States.

Ankara has pressed the United States to join the Arrow anti-missile program. The program is a joint effort of Israel and the United States and the Jewish state has deployed its first operational battery.

U.S. officials have been wary of Turkey's request. But Pentagon officials have agreed to explore Turkish participation in international programs sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Another prospect was the sale of the PAC-3 anti-missile system to Ankara.


3. - Washington Post - "'Death Fasters' Put Spotlight on Prisons":

Toll of Turkish Inmates, Backers at 20

ISTANBUL

The home where Fatma Sener carries on her hunger strike has become a grim ward of death. Three women have starved to death here in the last three weeks protesting conditions in Turkey's prisons, and four more people are preparing to die for the same cause.

Inside the modest house in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, activists help one of the weakest hunger strikers shuffle to the bathroom. She is Zehra Kulaksiz, 22, whose 19-year-old sister Canan died two weeks ago. Afterward, three women gently massage her hands and feet as she curls on a bed. Sympathizers bring flowers for a small shrine in the hall. Posters proclaim "Either life with pride or death" and "Heroes don't die and people don't get beaten."

"This is not a suicide," said Sener, 22, who today marked the 169th day of her hunger strike. "We are death-fasting in order to help others live. But this is about death, and it can take time. For us, victory is close, and so is death."

In the last five weeks, 20 people in Turkey have starved themselves to death in an increasingly gruesome campaign to highlight -- and, they hope, change -- what critics say is Turkey's shameful prison system, particularly its policy of holding political prisoners in isolation. International human rights organizations say the practice of isolation is inhumane and often leads to abuse of prisoners by guards.

Sixteen of the dead were inmates, and four -- including the three who died here -- were activists fasting in solidarity with them. Between 200 and 400 inmates and six activists are currently participating in the so-called death fast. The independent organization Human Rights Watch said last week that about 60 prisoners "are facing imminent death."

Away from the prisons, Sener said, the activists "decided to show people what it looks like to die cell by cell, but outside the prison." Like the others, Sener drinks water mixed with salt, sugar or powdered juice to maintain her strength and hold death at bay.

A clear picture of what is happening in Turkey's continuing prison crisis -- now entering its sixth month -- is difficult to grasp, because the hunger strike is mostly taking place inside prisons, away from public view. But the turmoil is galvanizing domestic and international human rights activists, who cite Turkey's poor prison record as another reason that it is not ready to join the European Union. Political analysts say the hunger strike is a low priority with a government fighting for political survival during Turkey's severe economic crisis.

Turkish authorities say the hunger strikers belong to terrorist groups and the state will not bargain with them, a position that is coming under increasing criticism as the death toll climbs. The toll now surpasses a 1996 hunger strike by Turkish prisoners that claimed 12 lives; it is twice the number of Irish Republican Army supporters who died in a Belfast prison during a celebrated hunger strike in 1981.

Even the duration of the hunger strike is creating some controversy, with medical authorities saying it is impossible for people to live so long without food, noting that in most mass hunger strikes, people begin to die after about 65 days. But whatever the explanation, there is no dispute that since the first death March 21, death fasters have been succumbing fairly regularly, and more deaths are expected.

The fasters began their hunger strikes at different times, some as long ago as Oct. 20, and while many are approaching death, others apparently are several weeks or months behind. After Turkish police stormed 20 prisons in December -- a four-day operation code-named Return to Life that left 30 inmates and two officers dead -- there were conflicting reports that the hunger strikers had been force-fed. Others were isolated in hospitals and gave up their fasts after being told that they were the only ones continuing the strike, doctors said.

The December police action was designed to wrest control of Turkey's prison system from radical leftist groups that ran dormitory-style prisons like ideological indoctrination camps. Guards were not allowed inside. After police retook the facilities, state officials transferred about 1,000 inmates to new prisons designed to isolate inmates in individual cells, potentially for years.
The cells, each with its own electric, water and sewerage systems controlled by guards, were in prisons that often had no communal facilities for group meals, exercise or other activities. Critics complain that the facilities were designed for "brainwashing" political prisoners, many of whom are teenagers who have been behind bars for years for offenses such as handing out political leaflets at rallies and shouting anti-state slogans.

Most of the fasters belong to leftist and terrorist organizations, and some were ordered to fast by their political leaders and are not free to stop, state officials assert. The groups have no unified set of demands: Some fasters say they seek negotiations with the state, while others want wide-ranging prison and legal reforms.

"We are doing this because there are so many and so frequent abuses of human rights in Turkey," said Resit Sari, 42, the only man fasting in the Istanbul house. "The way to stop it is for the state to go and listen to what people say."

But officials refuse. "No one should expect me to sit down with these terrorist organizations and negotiate or bargain," Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk told reporters last week. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said: "The state will not bow to those who force their own friends to die."
Sari, who was freed last year after being imprisoned 21 months for supporting a terrorist organization, accused the government of hypocrisy. Authorities negotiated last month with a group of Chechen terrorists who took over a five-star hotel in Istanbul, but, he said, "with the prisoners, there's no contact, suggesting they are trying to eliminate them and take revenge."
The strikers' main demand now seems to be abolition of a law mandating that political prisoners be held in isolation. In an interview on Nov. 17, Justice Minister Turk promised that and numerous other legal and penal reforms; none has been enacted. A proposal to end mandatory isolation for political prisoners was submitted to parliament on April 19.

Most doctors are refusing the state's call to intervene and physically force food on the fasters, citing the World Medical Association's 1991 declaration on the ethical treatment of hunger strikers, which states, "It is the duty of the doctor to respect the autonomy which the patient has over his person."

Hakan Gurvit, a physician who is monitoring the condition of numerous inmate hunger strikers and the four activists at the Istanbul house, said many are suffering from starvation-induced Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a neurological disorder that can result in "forgetfulness worse than even the most advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease." Even if the hunger strike were ended today, he said, "dozens will be permanently disabled."


4. - Kurdish Observer - "Verheugen makes call on prisons":

EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement Guenther Verheugen said, "The worry and terror felt by the EU because of the hunger strikes continuing in Turkish prisons is increasing. An urgent solution must be found so that more people do not lose their lives."

ISTANBUL

Guenther Verheugen, the European Union (EU) Commission responsible for enlargement said, "The worry and terror felt by the EU because of the hunger strikes continuing in Turkish prisons is increasing. An urgent solution must be found so that more people do not lose their lives." A message entitled "Perspectives on Turkey's Harmonization with the EU" was sent to the "Turkey and Europe" seminar arranged by Daimler Chrysler, which Verheugen was unable to attend because he was not feeling well, and read by special secretary Peter Tempel.

Verheugen said in his message that it was necessary to take further steps in a concrete fashion on the subjects of lifting the death penalty and developing cultural rights, adding that worry and terror felt by people in the EU because of the hunger strikes in Turkish prisons was increasing, that a number of people had already died, and that an urgent solution must be found so that more people did not lose their lives."

'We want a democratic Turkey'

Verheugen said that bringing Turkey closer to the EU was their common goal and, adding that settling Turkey in a sound and lasting manner in the EU's community of values was a necessity of strategic interests, said, "We want Turkey to be a respected modern country in which democracy and the state of law prevail and in which human rights are respected and minorities are protected." Verheugen said that what was important now was for Turkey to take advantage of the process which began with Helsinki and to achieve concrete results on all the EU political criteria which it has not yet fulfilled, and stressed that the EU would give every support it could so that Turkey would succeed in this process.

Promise of support from the EU

Verheugen said that the EU was openly encouraging the Turkish government to implement its economic reform program and for finance institutions to help with this and promised that the EU would support this process. Verheugen continued to say the following: "The EU thinks that it is necessary for Turkey's efforts to secure stability once again be supported from the outside by the IMF and World Bank. I would like to note that the EU has presented an amount of Euro150 million from resources of the 2000 year budget to support Turkey in implementing the necessary economic and structural reforms."

Verheugen said that Turkey's candidacy status was not being questioned in any way and that relations had been more intensive that ever since Helsinki. He noted that the Accession Partnership document and the National Program to prepare Turkey for membership were the most important elements of cooperation between the EU and Turkey in realizing its membership perspective in the future. Verheugen said that the Commission had greeted the presentation of the National Program with pleasure, adding that, thus, the first important target of this process had been reached and that the program could be the beginning of a broad transformation process in Turkey. Verheugen continuing to say the following: "Every section of the program is equally important, but political reforms carry a special importance here from the aspect of the commission and member states. When the Copenhagen political criteria are fulfilled - sound democratic institutions, the rule of the state of law, complete implementation of its measures, and the protection in a broad manner of human rights and minorities - it will be possible to begin concrete membership negotiations."

'The Turkish state must sit down with the inmates'

About 350 people participated in a memorial evening in the German city of Ruesselheim to commemorate those who had lost their lives in the hunger strikes.

The memorial, which was arranged by the Union of Workers and Brotherhood of the People (BYR KAR), was held in the Ruesselheim Winerval hall the other evening. Speeches were delivered by Drs. Mathias Jochheim, Hoyes Ramirez, and Johin Maiter, who are members of the International Union of Physicians and at the same time representative of the Libertad YPPW German organization. Another speech was given by John Waiter, who had spent 15 years in prison because of the Red Army Faction (RAF) case. The physicians from the International Union of Physicians who spoke said that the Turkish state must give up its delay tactics and that they should speak with the death fast resisters.

Various institutions and organizations sent messages to the meeting, at which Nilufer Akbal, Mikail Aslan, and the Paris Youth Music Group performed. Also, poet Erdogan Egemenoglu read poetry during the evening. The political speeches were followed by slide and cinevision presentations.


5. - Ozgur Politika - "May 1 banned in Kurdistan!":

No permission was given for celebrations of May 1 planned in Kurdistan, with the exception of Adiyaman, Malatya, and Antep. Nongovernmental organizations interpreted the prohibitions as opposition to peace and democracy.

May 1 celebrations in Kurdistan, where mass participation was being expected, have been banned in all provinces except Antep, Adiyaman, and Malatya. Nongovernmental organizations, unions, and the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) all protested the bans.

While the NGOs found the decision anti-democratic and arbitrary, the unions and political parties said that the justification of "security reasons" for banning celebrations was "senseless."

The point at which all the reactions agreed, on the other hand, was that the ban decision in question was aimed at obstructing the Turkish labor class and the Kurdish people from meeting together.

Union KESK General Secretary Sevil Erol recalled that 500,000 people had come together in Amed [Diyarbakir] on Newroz, continuing, "Such a rational cannot be counted as a rational when no security problems were experienced at all in a region in which hundreds of thousands gathered at Newroz." Erol stressed that democracy and peace were the common demands of both the Kurdish people and the working class, and pointed out that those who had not given permission for the celebrations did not want the Turkish working class and Kurdish people to get together.

HADEP assembly member Bahattin Gunay, for his part, also evaluated the ban decision as an attempt to hinder the unity of the democratic forces of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples. "The ban is at the same time an effort by the powers in control to prevent unity on this day of international solidarity, Gunay said.

Sexmus Cakirtas, Urfa branch administrator of the educators' union Egitim-Sen, evaluating the ban in Urfa, where celebrations were to have been held for a second time, said that they did not agree with the prohibitive mentality. Cakirtas evaluated the ban as the fear of the administrators of an organized society, adding that the ban was contrary to international law.


6. - AFP - "Bundesbank criticises IMF aid to Turkey":

FRANKFURT

The International Monetary Fund overstepped the limits of its mandate by awarding an additional eight billion dollars (nine billion euros) of financial aid to Turkey, Bundesbank deputy president Juergen Stark said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.

"By promising additional credit of some eight billion dollars to Turkey, the IMF overstretched its mandate somewhat," Stark told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"It would have been preferable if the big industrialised nations had promised financial assistance and shared the burden between them," Stark argued. IMF managing director Horst Koehler announced at the weekend that it had agreed in principle to provide an additional 10 billion dollars in IMF and World Bank assistance to Turkey to help it overcome an acute financial crisis. The IMF would put up around eight billion dollars of the total.

The German government and the Bundesbank had argued that Turkey would be better helped via bilateral aid, rather than IMF support, the German central bank official said.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to find support for this among our European and US partners," Stark said.