22 May 2001

1. „Turkish bosses demand democratic reforms along with economic recovery”, Turkey's top businessmen urged the government Monday to introduce far-reaching democratic reforms, rangeing from death penalty abolition to minority rights, along with IMF-backed reforms to heal the crisis-hit economy.

2. “Turkish women who complain of police brutality pay heavy price”, the prosecutions come during an intensifying struggle over freedom of expression and individual rights in a country torn between the march toward integration with the European Union and an entrenched culture that protects government institutions from rigorous public scrutiny.

3. “A common-denominator solution”, the economic and political crises being experienced in Turkey have prompted circles wanting democracy to action. The thought they all are in agreement on is that there is a need for societal consensus.

1. AFP – „Turkish bosses demand democratic reforms along with economic recovery”:

ISTANBUL

Turkey's top businessmen urged the government Monday to introduce far-reaching democratic reforms, rangeing from death penalty abolition to minority rights, along with IMF-backed reforms to heal the crisis-hit economy.

The demands were listed in a report by one of Turkey's most influential businessmen groupings, TUSIAD. The reforms that Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership, must fulfill to catch up with the EU's Copenhagen criteria had recently been overshadowed by moves to battle an economic crisis that shook the country in February, TUSIAD President Tuncay Ozilhan said. "We have to take up the transformation process as a whole. That is why we wanted to highlight the need for political reforms," he told reporters, according to the Anatolia news agency. "It is high time to comprehend that the rules of democracy are universal just as the rules of economy and we do not constitute an exception in this respect," Ozilhan stressed. He criticized Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's government and the parliament for failing to take any noteworthy steps towards democratic reforms on Turkey's road to EU membership.

The TUSIAD report called for legal amendments to abolish the death penalty, legalize broadcasts and education in languages other than Turkish and diminish the political role of the military-dominated National Security Council. The appeals were parallel to a package of reforms demanded by the EU last November. TUSIAD criticized the government for making "vague" pledges as a response to the said demands in a national reform calendar agreed in March. The plan fell short of key EU demands in the political field such as the expansion of Kurdish cultural freedoms, abolition of the death penalty and the curbing of the political role of the military. TUSIAD also urged legal amendments to ensure freedom of expression, end torture and strengthen the judicial system.

It called for deep-rooted reforms in the country's ailing political system, ravaged by authoritarianism, nepotism and corruption, which many see at the core of recent economic woes. In order to rescue itself from the economic bottleneck, Turkey has begun implementing a tough recovery programme, which received multi-billion-dollar support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank last week.

2. – International Herald Tribune – “Turkish women who complain of police brutality pay heavy price”:

By Molly Moore / Washington Post Service

Nazli Top was walking home from work nine years ago when she was stopped at a security checkpoint. She says she was taken to a police station where she was held captive for 10 days by officers who beat her, prodded her with electric shocks until her body went numb, then raped her with a riot stick. She was 32 years old and three months pregnant.

Last June, Mrs. Top told her story at Turkey's first public conference on the abuse of women in police custody, an event women's rights advocates hailed as a milestone in a country in which sexual violence against women is frequently ignored, covered up or deemed taboo for debate.

Six months later, Mrs. Top and 18 other conference speakers and organizers were charged with "insulting and raising suspicions about Turkish security forces." If convicted, each could receive a six-year prison term.

"The police who did this should be standing here, not me," Mrs. Top told the judge hearing her case. "I am being victimized for the second time."

The prosecutions come during an intensifying struggle over freedom of expression and individual rights in a country torn between the march toward integration with the European Union and an entrenched culture that protects government institutions from rigorous public scrutiny.

"If this was a democratic country, officials would start investigations against the police instead of going after the people making the accusations," Mrs. Top, a nurse in the research laboratory of a hospital in suburban Istanbul, said in an interview.

Human rights advocates say Turkey's laws against insulting or belittling the government are often used to silence journalists, intellectuals, government opponents and victims of abuse by police and military forces.

European Union officials evaluating Turkey's membership application have demanded it abandon or moderate such laws.

Amnesty International asked Turkish authorities to drop the charges against Mrs. Top and her co-defendants, "who are guilty only of peacefully expressing their views."

nstead, the government recently reviewed the speeches made by several of the participants and filed new charges against five of the women, accusing them under Turkey's anti-terrorism laws of spreading separatist propaganda, according to Fatma Karatas, an attorney and one of the women facing the additional charges.

Those laws, which cover a broad range of religious and ethnic issues, are among the most frequently used in freedom-of-expression cases in Turkey, Mrs. Karatas said.

Prosecutors in the cases against the conference participants did not return several telephone calls requesting comment on the government's position. Government authorities traditionally defend the laws used in this case as necessary to protect the state from separatist and religious extremist groups.

"This conference was the first of its kind," said Nahide Kilic, an official of Initiative Against Sexual Abuse and Rape in Custody, an Istanbul-based victim support group that helped organize the meeting last June. "People came forward and talked about their experiences to set an example for those too scared to come forward. Now, with these charges, the state wants to silence the people."

Participants in the Assembly Against Sexual Harassment and Rape Under Detention, which was attended by about 2,000 people, said they were stunned by the government's charges because the conference had been approved by the government and most of the victims had revealed details of their allegations in unsuccessful court cases against the police or in other official complaints.

Many of the speakers highlighted the court's reluctance to prosecute members of the security forces accused of raping or otherwise abusing detainees, especially women.

"Amnesty International has documented a general climate of impunity for those suspected of torture and ill-treatment in Turkey," the human rights group wrote in a recent report. "Even where complaints of serious human rights violations are pursued by the authorities and security officers are prosecuted, only a negligible proportion of them are eventually convicted. In cases where a conviction occurs, security officials often receive the lightest possible sentences."

Mrs. Top was walking home from the hospital where she worked on a late spring afternoon in 1992 when policemen investigating an attack on a nearby police vehicle stopped her to check her identification. After driving her to a police station and questioning her for hours, Mrs. Top said one of the policemen told her: "Now we're going to take you to the operating room. But it's not like the ones you've seen in your hospital."

"They beat me with sticks with sharp ends," Mrs. Top said, her hands shaking as she recounted the incident. "They tied my hands behind my back and hung me from a rope. They hit me like a punching bag.

"They put electric shocks on my breasts and genitals and all over my body. They kept increasing the voltage. After awhile, I was numb, I didn't even feel the electricity. Then they raped me with a truncheon."

The baby she was carrying survived. The police released her several days later after pressing no charges.

3. – Kurdish Observer – “A common-denominator solution”:

The economic and political crises being experienced in Turkey have prompted circles wanting democracy to action. The thought they all are in agreement on is that there is a need for societal consensus.

OKTAY UCAR

The economic and political crisis in Turkey is a result of the problems which have been left solved for decades, the anti-democratic structure, and the profiteering economy based on foreign support. The crisis, which is based directly on the approach to solving the Kurdish problem with violence, has brought Turkey's democratization onto the agenda for debate once again.

Various circles have been discussing the ways to be rescued from this crisis. Socioeconomic and political projects have been put forward on this subject. There is a consensus on the idea that there is a need for societal agreement. OZGUR POLITIKA obtained the views of deputies, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and a number of circles on ways to come out of this crisis and on the Democracy Conference which has been suggested for debating change and transformation.

Restructuring is imperative

Among the first of those circles bringing up the idea of a Democracy Conference was the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). PKK Council of Leaders member Duran Kalkan gave information in a recent statement to OZGUR POLITIKA about the realities of Turkey, the importance of the 1920-1923 period, the need for restructuring, and the democratization that TUSIAD (Turkish Association of Industrialists and Businessmen) and similar organizations want to develop.

Kalkan said in his evaluations that a democratic understanding could remove all the characteristics of backwardness remaining from the 20th century in the Middle East in general and Turkey in particular. Kalkan underscored the following view: "The problem of democratic transformation is not something that can be delayed until tomorrow; it is a problem that must be solved now."

Political structure will change

Kalkan highlighted the program prepared by State Minister responsible for the economy Kemal Dervis, saying, "This program will not remain with simply changing the economic structure but is a program that will open the path to changing the political structure also." Kalkan said that Turkey had a structural problem and added, "The link at which all the problems become knotted is at the link of democratic transformation. Without a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem, Turkey will not be able to attain the realities of the 21st century."

Duran Kalkan recalled that a number of circles in Turkey were developing projects on the basis of discussion and debate, and continued to underline the following views concerning the Democracy Conference: "We presented a project that would bring together primarily the forces of democracy and which would be the engine for transformation. We called this the 'Democracy Conference.' The Democracy Conference would, firstly, produce a manifesto, a program of democratic transformation. Secondly, it would form the coordination, or organization. In short, it would turn the democracy forces into the engine for political transformation, democratic transformation, and overcome the deficiencies of the piecemeal, programless, unorganized, undirected forces and achieve organization. We foresaw this primarily. If this is realized, another development would include the other segments of society and direct transformation would easily arise."

Founding Parliament

Kalkan said that, "An election which would produce a founding parliament that would secure refounding of the republic on democratic basis could come onto the agenda. Such a parliament is undoubtedly necessary." Kalkan said that a parliament which could create a new constitution and a democratic system that would realize legal reform was necessary, and continued to stress the following views: "The current parliament cannot do this, its composition is not suitable for this. This was not its duty, it was not elected on this basis. Therefore, for example, constitutional reform was debated a lot, but the state cannot get it onto the agenda; in any case, it cannot do so under the current circumstance. But if a parliament suitable for this is elected, such a thing could be put on the agenda."

It is the duty of all of us

ANAP Sirnak deputy and ANAP Deputy Chairman M. Salih Yildirim had the following to say on the subject of democratization: "Turkey has problems related to democratization and has taken some good steps on this subject. It is not possible to solve problems that are somewhat peculiar to Turkey in a short time under natural conditions. I think that Turkey's path is open on this subject. The entire issue is tied to lengthening or shortening the lifespan of this process. I believe that everything will be very different from now on in the globalizing world and that Turkey will act in a manner becoming to itself. Here it is necessary for everyone to carry out his duties. We are working to fulfill the responsibilities that befall us in this process. Of course, it is not possible to say that this is happening in ideal measures. Great duties in opening the path of the democratic process in Turkey falls to East and Southeast deputies. The key point to solving the problem is the East and Southeast. We are doing what is required of us here. What is important is to solve this without leaving it to time."

Existing politics is not developing

HADEP General Secretary Mahmut Sakar had the following to say: "HADEP, as a political party, has expended much effort for the democratization of Turkey. A Democracy Conference in Turkey is unavoidable. Of course, this could be under HADEP's leadership. But there is a prejudice against us. Therefore, we are ready to give full support to a Democracy Conference in Turkey. There could be personalities, nongovernmental organization, political parties in this Democracy Conference to be established in Turkey; it's not that important. What is important is that such a conference be held. But I could like to say this, that it is not possible at this time to speak of a formation which would come together with HADEP. We are ready for unity for joint action and all efforts to develop democracy. If a field of action and activity is created by gathering around the present problems, the path would be opened. In other words, serious steps could be taken if a 'Democratic Union' is created. Of course, democracy is a cultural issue. Especially those who have left the CHP in the recent period have begun some searching. Turkey's most urgent problem is the problem of democratization. A new formation and unity in Turkey is unavoidable. There is no one left in Turkey who believes in the old ways. We are ready to give support with all our resources to open the way for a conference."

Fundamental reform essential

Fazilet Party Bingol deputy Mahfuz Gulen had the following comments: "The Turkish Grand National Assembly has gradually distanced from politics. Politics in Turkey has been soiled. The intellectuals and men of learning must gather at once in Turkey and open the path to serious debates in Turkey. We are in favor of making fundamental reforms. In order to do this, it is necessary to go to a supra-party formation. If there is such a work, we will participate also. Great destruction was created in the East and Southeast, in the region in which the dirty war lasted for years, in fact in the Republic of Turkey. Therefore, I believe it is foremost necessary that all the intellectuals and politicians of the region take part in a platform.They are discussing a platform, a congress... We will participate with our full strength in a formation to be formed for Turkey's democratization and to solve its problems in a democratic manner. I can say that the East and Southeast Anatolian deputies in parliament are ready for this. These deputies are friends that know the difficulties of the region well. The region has a need of this type of initiative."

Serious work is needed

Human Rights Association (IHD) Chairman Husnu Ondul had the following to say: "We support the recommendation of a Democracy Conference for those who want democratization in Turkey. Turkey has a National Program which it presented within its relations with the EU. Therefore, the state must do something in this area. In other words, political reform and problems with democracy and legal reform will come onto the agenda. It is therefore necessary to create a program on which nongovernmental organizations, political parties, and democratic mass parties can agree. The IHD has done serious work on this subject. The problem of democratization in Turkey is not just our problem. We are an organization which has expressed its thoughts on what needs to be done. The political parties in Turkey must take action on this subject. But there is no political will to be seen. But, as the IHD, we will take part and make contributions to this type of initiatives under every circumstances."