19 November 2001

5. “Declaration of identity is referendum”, Osman Ocalan, PKK Council of Leaders member, made a call for participation to the declaration of national and political identity campaign which they have expended to Kurdistan and Turkey.

6. “Turkey to Cut Spending as It Seeks IMF Loan”, Turkey said Friday it would slash public spending and cut its bloated bureaucracy as it sought to win an unprecedented third financial rescue from the International Monetary Fund within 12 months.

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1. – Turkish Daily News – “Kurds hesitant to claim new rights”:

Osman Senkul

You can buy it from stalls in cities across Turkey. It blasts from loudspeakers in shops throughout the southeast. The constitution now allows it on radio and television.

But getting even the tamest of Kurdish pop music accepted into the mainstream of Turkish media will be an uphill task, its advocates say, and one likely to involve battles in local and possibly European courts, as well as police raids.

For local TV and radio station owner Nevzat Bingol, feeding the huge demand for Kurdish music in Diyarbakir cost him a studio full of equipment.

This month police raided his premises in the city, closed down his Gun Radyo station and carted off his expensive kit.

"It was totally to do with our broadcasting Kurdish music," he says, rejecting charges that his station interfered with police frequencies.

Constitutional reforms passed in September as part of Turkey's efforts to meet EU membership standards lifted legal curbs on TV and radio for the country's Kurdish citizens in their own tongue.

The EU said in a progress report issued last week that the constitutional changes contained many "positive elements" but called for practical action to reinforce the reform.

"Existing restrictive legislation and practices will need to be modified in order to implement this constitutional reform, as the Turkish authorities have recognized. There has been no improvement in the real enjoyment of cultural rights for all Turks, irrespective of ethnic origin," it said. Bingol agrees.

"We will fight a legal battle for our constitutional right," he said, pledging to take his case to Europe if need be.

But few in Diyarbakir think that will be enough to change the habits of authorities running the city at the heart of a region under emergency rule imposed to curb an armed separatist Kurdish insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s.

The demands of Turkey's EU membership hopes led parliament to legalize broadcasts in a variety of Kurdish dialects.

The reforms, however, stopped at allowing schools to teach Kurdish. Official Turkey has long seen the free use of the language as the thin end of a wedge that could eventually divide the country and encourage armed separatist uprising.

"On one side there are constitutional changes. On the other, thinking that Kurdish broadcasts will increase in the region, they want to intimidate (broadcasters)," Bingol says.

Dancing in the streets

On the streets of Diyarbakir, Kurdish music is everywhere.

Mournful folk songs of longing and melancholy, pop love songs with the arabesque rhythms of the Middle East, even the occasional militant protest song in praise of the clandestine Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), all echo from car windows and cafes.

"Use of Kurdish, limited so far to music broadcasts on radio and TV, will spread now to programs, news and interviews because the demand is there," says Diyarbakir's Mayor Feridun Celik.

Kurdish language broadcasting in Turkey has so far been restricted to satellite broadcasts from Europe and northern Iraq.

Official Turkey has fought legal and diplomatic battles across Europe to end the broadcasts of European-based Medya TV, which it says is a mouthpiece for the PKK gang it has fought for 16 years at a cost of more than 30,000 lives.

The popularity of Medya TV only added to official concern.

"Even in the poorest villages 80-90 percent of houses have satellite dishes. This is a sizeable demand and someone will definitely meet it," says Celik.

While most Kurdish men speak both Kurdish and Turkish, many women, who have little schooling in the socially conservative southeast, have never learned Turkish.

Portuguese no longer

Broadcasters have for years flirted with prison by sprinkling their playlists with Kurdish songs, something Bingol says he pioneered when he was at Can TV in the 1990s.

Then a brief broadcast in Kurdish was followed by an apology for a "technical error". The channel escaped censure.

"Later sometimes we would say, 'And now a song in Portuguese', and play something in Kurdish or (the dialect) Zaza. Sometimes we were punished, sometimes it wasn't noticed," he says.

Now the constitution, in theory, allows news, debate and documentaries in Kurdish.

But before going live with that kind of programming, Bingol would like a few more guarantees for his company, particularly changes in broadcasting laws to reflect the constitutional amendments and strengthen his position in the face of the emergency-rule authorities.

"If the radio and television law is not changed by Ankara then, like it or not, there will be pressure at a local level, that is an inescapable fact," he says.

Celik, whose HADEP party faces possible closure for alleged ties to the clandestine PKK, does not expect Turkish officialdom to readily accept a wave of Kurdish in the media.

"There will be pressure because the banning mentality has not been broken. Solving the problem of that mentality will take time," says Celik.

Watch it, talk it, don't learn it

For local human rights activists, constitutional change is just the first step in a long process of legal reform.

"The constitution has changed but a lot of legal obstacles remain, particularly the radio and television law. And the emergency rule in place in the region is the other problem," says Fikret Saracoglu, secretary of the Human Rights Association (IHD) branch in Diyarbakir.

He points out that the amendments did not go so far as to lift bans on Kurdish language education in Turkey.

"Without Kurdish education, how will Kurds read their books or understand their news programs?" he asks.

For Bingol the broadcaster, gentle progress is best.

"Kurdish broadcasting is a very sensitive subject. Thirty thousand people died because of this. For us when we broadcast Kurdish music we make it clear that it is not something people should die for."

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2. – Radio Free Europe – “Turkey: Nation Under Fire For Troublesome Human Rights Record”:

Last week, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International issued separate reports pointing out Turkey's failure to eradicate torture, despite declarations of intent issued by the government. The reports came out only days after four hunger strikers protesting a planned prison reform were killed during a police raid in Istanbul.

PRAGUE / by Jean-Christophe Peuch

Despite earlier promises to improve its human rights record in anticipation of accession talks with the European Union, Turkey is coming under growing criticism for its failure to end police brutality and for its heavy handling of a year-long hunger strike staged by inmates protesting a controversial prison reform.

Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and applied for EU membership years ago. Yet accession talks have not officially started, mainly due to European concerns regarding Ankara's human rights record.

Earlier this year (19 March), Turkey adopted a reform program aimed at qualifying for membership in the EU but the program failed to meet key European demands, notably regarding the death penalty and the rights of ethnic minorities.

On 8 November, the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published a report reviewing ill treatment imposed by Turkey on inmates and detainees during police custody and interrogation.

The report stemmed from a mission made in July 2000 by a council delegation to a number of detention centers and police headquarters, mainly in Istanbul and Ankara. Although the CPT says Turkey has made progress both in curtailing the worst forms of police brutality and in improving its legislation to protect prisoner rights, it says it has collected testimonies showing that detainees are still being routinely subjected to abuses ranging from sleep deprivation and electric shock to sexual harassment and physical threats.

In a separate document issued the same day, the human rights watchdog group Amnesty International corroborated the CPT's conclusions, though in much harsher language. In its 40-page report -- based on fact-finding missions conducted from November 1999 through June 2001 -- the organization says: "Detainees are routinely blindfolded during interrogations and some are held blindfolded throughout police detention. Other methods of torture and ill treatment regularly reported include heavy beating, being stripped naked, sexual abuse, death and rape threats, other psychological torture, and deprivation of sleep, food, drink, and use of toilet."

Amnesty also says it has recorded cases of prisoners being hanged by the arms, sprayed with cold, pressurized water or exposed to the so-called "falaka," a form of torture that consists of beating the soles of the feet.

Seray Salman is the deputy chairwoman of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD). She tells our correspondent that police brutality has not substantially diminished: "Actually, [police] brutality has not really receded. There were some demonstrations recently against the war [in Afghanistan], and many demonstrators have been detained and ill treated in police stations. There is no real, radical improvement in the actions of police. You cannot say that."

Salman was referring to a week-old incident in which police used tear gas and nightsticks to break up protests held by leftist students in Istanbul and Ankara against the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan. Dozens of protesters were detained.

Jonathan Sugden is a Turkey researcher for the London branch of Human Rights Watch (HRW). Sugden tells RFE/RL that the impression that police brutality has receded may exist simply because a decrease in military operations between government forces and Kurdish armed rebels in Turkey's southeastern provinces has led to a considerable reduction in the number of detainees.

But Sugden warns against hasty conclusions: "On the other side of the picture, I have to say that we are still getting reports of men, women, and children being tortured in detention. [We are] still getting reports of deaths in custody, apparently as a result of torture. And if you take a different time frame -- say, over the last two years -- the [Turkish] Human Rights Association said they received twice as many reports of torture in the first six months of this year as they did in the comparable months of last year. So, really, it is quite a mixed picture."

It is unclear whether the increasing reports of torture and ill treatment reflect an upsurge in police brutality or a growing awareness among Turkish citizens that they can turn to human rights organizations.

In its report, Amnesty International notes that victims living in rural areas have no easy access to human rights defenders, suggesting that cases of police brutality in remote regions may go unnoticed.

The organization also says most cases of torture are reported by suspected pro-Kurdish militants, Islamic or left-wing activists, or inmates protesting against the controversial new prison system. Amnesty believes this circumstance can be explained because these groups have a "greater knowledge of their rights and ways to seek justice."

The organization also notes that because of social pressures, many women and young girls prefer not to report rape or sexual abuse that may occur while they're in custody.

In its response to the Council of Europe, the Turkish government claims that cases of torture and ill treatment mentioned in the CPT report have led to administrative investigations against police officers suspected of abusing detainees. But it also says most police officers singled out by the European body have been cleared of all charges.

Sugden of Human Rights Watch says complaints of torture seldom lead to the prosecution of suspected perpetrators.

"Certainly, there has been quite a lot of police officers tried, [but] these trials take a very long time -- many years. Sometimes they go on for a decade. And what we tend to see is that most complaints do not result in investigations. Of those that do result in investigations, few result in prosecutions. Prosecutions usually result in acquittals. Those that do not result in acquittals result in sentences, but they are often very small sentences. Sentences are very often suspended and even these sorts of sentences are overturned at the court of appeals. So, if you look at the number of police officers actually sitting in jail as a result of their abusing prisoners, it is a tiny, tiny, tiny number. And this is in spite of an enormous number of allegations, many of them very well supported by medical and other evidence."

Official figures cited by Amnesty International show that only 1.7 percent of documented torture cases and 2.9 percent of ill-treatment complaints filed between 1995 and 1999 led to convictions. Although torture mainly occurs in the first days of custody, when prisoners are kept in incommunicado detention -- that is, without any contact with the outside world -- human rights organizations also have expressed concern about the ill treatment of prisoners during prison transfers.

In October of last year, some 1,000 inmates went on hunger strikes to protest their pending transfers to new, high-security jails with individual cells, designed to replace overcrowded dormitory-type wards. Authorities say the so-called "F-type" prisons meet European standards, while prisoners and human rights groups say they isolate inmates and expose them to greater abuse by wardens.

The government also says the prison reform aims at cutting the power of mafia bosses or "terrorists" -- a generic name used to designate militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party and other banned leftist groups and guerillas -- whom it accuses of running prison wards as "indoctrination centers" to recruit new members.

In December 2000, police and paramilitary forces raided 20 prisons throughout the country to put an end to the hunger strike. The four-day operation succeeded in restoring order in detention centers, but it left 30 prisoners and two police officers dead. It also failed to quell the protest movement.

Since then, more than 10 inmates have died from starvation and, according to Turkey's IHD chairman Husnu Ondul, an estimated 176 prisoners, relatives, and friends are still on what they describe as "death fasts."

On 5 November, Istanbul police stormed a house in the Kucukarmutlu working-class neighborhood, which has been a center of protests against the new prison system. The operation resulted in the deaths of four hunger strikers, who police claim burned themselves to death. Human rights associations question the version given by law enforcement agencies.

In a statement issued two days after the incident, Amnesty International said another 14 people were wounded during the raid and called on the government to open a "prompt, independent, and impartial investigation."

IHD's Salman says eyewitness accounts suggest two hunger strikers died of their burns, while the other two may have been shot by police after setting themselves on fire.

Police again raided Kucukarmutlu and another Istanbul district today, arresting a number of hunger strikers.

IHD and other human rights and non-governmental organizations have urged the government to enter into a dialogue with the hunger strikers. These calls have remained largely unheeded. HRW's Sugden says that, despite some cosmetic and theoretical changes adopted since last December -- such as allowing inmates to participate in outdoor activities and allowing prison monitoring by outside organizations -- negotiations remain deadlocked, mainly because of what he describes as the government's "entrenched position."

"[Authorities] have met delegations of relatives of hunger strikers. They have met the Human Rights Association on occasions. They have also allowed the Medical Association access to prisoners on occasions. But they haven't sat down in a constructive sort of way and said, 'Let's resolve this issue.' And at the same time, every time the prisoners' relatives get on the streets, they round them up. A group of women who went to send a telegram to the Justice Ministry were rounded up and pepper gassed. And that's been happening over and over again. It is as if they do whatever they can to entrench the position of the other side as well."

IHD's Salman also accuses the government of refusing to negotiate: "Nothing happened. There are even court cases and investigations going on at the moment against [some] professional organizations. One of them is the Medical Association. They are accused of inciting people to commit suicide because they are against forcibly feeding the hunger strikers. The Interior Ministry launched an investigation against the association's honorary council in April. Prosecutors are requiring quite heavy penalties against them."

A large number of inmates on hunger strike have been temporarily released on health grounds, and Salman says most of them have agreed to receive medical assistance. They are being taken care of by either friends or relatives, or by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, which has set up rehabilitation centers throughout the country.

But for many of them, Sugden says, it is too late: "Many, of course, have been permanently brain damaged because of the hunger strike and a very, very large number -- [the] last times I counted more than 60 -- are permanently and severely brain damaged. That is to say that, in a sense, they have been reduced to the psychology of a two- or three-year-old child, barely able to bring food to their mouth. And that is permanent."

In a further attempt to pave the way for EU membership talks, on 24 October Turkey adopted a package of constitutional reforms making the banning of political parties tougher, easing curbs on the use of the Kurdish language and scrapping the death penalty for some criminal offenses.

The EU welcomed the move as an "encouraging step towards democratization." But human rights organizations are far more skeptical, noting that a number of periodicals have been ordered closed or confiscated since the constitutional changes because they were using the Kurdish language. They also express concern at the number of court cases initiated against supporters of the left-wing hunger strikers or against newspapers reporting on the progress of the protest movement.

As HRW's Sugden says, "It is a very familiar picture -- making soft changes on paper while the practices actually persist."

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3. – Radio Free Europe – “Turkey: Worries Grow Over Possible U.S. Strikes Against Iraq”:

Reports that the U.S. may eventually turn its antiterror military campaign on Iraq is unnerving some in Turkey. The U.S. has not announced any plans to extend the military campaign to Iraq, but many in Turkey are convinced such a move is only a matter of time. Ankara says it is opposed to any renewed large-scale military operations against Baghdad, warning they could destabilize the region.

PRAGUE / by Jean-Christophe Peuch

U.S. columnist William Safire earlier this month made news by publishing a fake interview with the late U.S. President Richard Nixon on the military campaign against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.

In the column, Safire has Nixon suggest that Turkey help the U.S. topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by moving its troops across its southern border in return for a large chunk of territory in Iraq's oil-rich and mainly Kurdish northern provinces.

For readers inside the U.S., the column was probably received in the spirit it was intended: a stylistic exercise meant mostly to provoke and entertain.

But in Turkey, where politicians remain anxious over the military action in Afghanistan, the column was not well-received.

Yuksel Soylemez, the co-chairman of the Ankara-based Foreign Policy Institute, a think-tank affiliated with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, says Safire's article was met unfavorably by Turkey's decision-makers.

Soylemez tells RFE/RL the fact that Safire's column appeared at this point in time may not be coincidental. He says Safire's idea resembles a suggestion made in 1990-1991 to Turkish President Turgut Ozal by then-U.S. President George Bush. At the time, Bush convinced Ozal to take part in the anti-Saddam coalition in return for promises to close his eyes to Ankara's moves in northern Iraq.

"Ozal is no longer in the picture, but the idea is revived again by Safire. We all know that Safire is very close to the White House. Of course, he put [this idea] in an imaginary interview, which is not really imaginary. It may [well] be the thinking in the White House."

Echoing Soylemez's concerns, the editor-in-chief of the Ankara-based "Turkish Daily News," Ilnur Cevik, noted on 14 November that the fake interview prompted speculation that Washington may be preparing to move against Iraq.

The United States considers Iraq, which remains shackled by an 11-year-old economic embargo, a state that sponsors terrorism.

No proof has emerged -- at least publicly -- that Baghdad had anything to do with the September suicide plane crashes in New York and Washington.

Yet some in the Pentagon favor broadening the response to the attacks to include Iraq and possibly other states that the U.S. believes have trained or harbored terrorists in Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, the main suspect behind the 11 September bombings.

The U.S. has officially denied it has any immediate plans to attack Iraq. But Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned Baghdad that Washington will turn its attention to Iraq's weapons programs once it has dealt with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

In an interview with America's CBS television network on 7 November, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit reiterated that Turkey -- NATO's only Muslim member and Washington's main ally in southeastern Europe -- firmly backs the ongoing U.S.-led campaign. But he said Ankara would not welcome expanding the military operations to other states such as Iraq or Iran, lest such a move destabilize the region.

Besides offering its backing to the U.S.-led anti-Taliban campaign, Turkey has opened its southeastern Incirlik air base to cargo planes taking part in military operations in Afghanistan.

Defying domestic public opinion, Ecevit's coalition government has also offered to contribute a 90-strong special forces unit to buttress international efforts to bring down the Taliban. But for Turkish leaders, any large-scale allied military operations against Iraq would be too great a risk. Officially, at least.

Since the end of the Gulf War, Turkey has moved steadily toward rebuilding ties with Iraq. Turkey was Baghdad's largest trading partner before the war. During the 1980s, Ankara gained millions of dollars in revenue from Iraqi crude oil pumped to its Mediterranean terminals.

The Turkish government claims that international sanctions against Iraq have cost Ankara between $40 billion and $45 billion in lost revenue.

Turkish experts say the country's ongoing economic crisis would prevent Ankara from joining a new anti-Saddam coalition.

The value of Turkey's currency has fallen by more than half with respect to the U.S. dollar during the past nine months. Inflation is expected to reach 80 percent this year, and hundreds of thousands of workers have been made redundant by the economic recession.

Already opposed to the dispatching of troops in Afghanistan, most Turks fears a war against Iraq would drag the country deeper into economic hardship.

Dogan Ozguden is the editor-in-chief of the Brussels-based "Info-Turk" independent electronic newspaper. He told our correspondent that, given Turkey's present woes, any new tremors could be fatal to Evecit's already unpopular cabinet.

"There has already been a military operation [against Iraq] that cost Turkey huge economic and financial losses. Therefore, a new military operation while there is a crisis going on -- this time due to domestic factors -- could, of course, aggravate the economic situation and, consequently, the social and political climate in Turkey."

Public opinion surveys suggest that, should legislative elections take place now, Ecevit's Democratic Left Party would not get the 10 percent of votes necessary to be represented in parliament. The crisis has prompted a wave of individual and collective protests, with crowds of angry demonstrators taking to the streets of Turkey's major cities to demand that Ecevit and his cabinet step down.

But, paradoxically, some say that economic hardship could have the reverse effect, prompting Turkey to join a new U.S.-led war on Saddam's regime.

In dire need for money to reinvigorate its financial and industrial sectors, Ankara has already secured $19 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But prospects for recovery still look dim, and Ankara is asking for new loans to sustain its economic program next year.

Ozguden believes the government does not have much room to maneuver and that it could eventually overcome its reluctance to agree to a U.S.-led military campaign in return for much-needed financial help.

"Whichever level you look at -- economic, political, and military -- Turkey depends on the United States. Turkey's leaders are looking for possible sources of financing, mainly from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank. Given this context, they could agree to any demand formulated by the U.S. in return for financial support. This is reality."

Fear of political chaos along its southern border is another reason put forward by Turkey to justify its opposition to any military operation against Baghdad.

Ankara has opposed an armed Kurdish rebellion in its southeast for the past 20 years and fears unrest in northern Iraq's Kurdish provinces.

Ankara notably fears that granting any kind of territorial autonomy to Iraqi Kurds might profit the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), the only legal pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, or reignite full-scale war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Since the end of the Gulf War, Turkish troops have made several armed incursions into northern Iraq to pursue PKK guerillas, with tacit U.S. consent. In an attempt to neutralize the PKK, Ankara has sided with two Iraq-based Kurdish opposition movements, Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Masood Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Although Ankara does not officially support the Iraqi regime, it appears content with the present situation. Therefore, it would not necessarily welcome an abrupt change of leadership in Baghdad.

Turkish foreign policy analyst Soylemez says, "You don't know who is going to replace Saddam. This we keep saying to the Americans. There is a difference in the views of the Turkish government and those of the U.S. administration [on this issue]. You remove Saddam, but then what is the alternative? There is no clear understanding on who's going to replace him because there is no visible opposition in Iraq. There is no chance for an opposition at the moment. So who's going to replace [Saddam]? Who's going to be next? Will that not bring more chaos in Iraq?"

Should the White House decide on military action, it would certainly require Turkey's Incirlik air base. Should that happen, journalist Ozguden says, Turkey would try to get the highest possible return.

"As far as I know, it has always been in the Turkish leadership's ambition to control oil fields in Kirkuk and Mosul [in northern Iraq]. True, this is not the official line. But still, far-right politicians and some people in the military leadership have been dreaming about that for decades."

Meanwhile, experts say wariness and concern are the predominant feelings among Turkish leaders. Asked what Ankara's attitude would be in case of U.S. attacks on Iraq, Soylemez answered, "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it."

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4. – Middle East Newsline – “Turkey concerned over IMI´s future”:

ANKARA


Turkey's military is said to be concerned over the financial solvency of an Israeli company favored for the upgrade of the M-60 tank.

Turkish sources said defense and military officials have inquired over the future of the state-owned Israel Military Industries. In June, IMI was chosen as the preferred contractor for the upgrade of 170 M-60 tanks.

IMI has been struggling under a decreasing cash flow stemming from decreased Israeli military orders. The company has asked the government for an immediate infusion of $50 million to pay suppliers.

On Thursday, the Turkish NTV news network reported that the government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was discussing the health of IMI. The television network said the government wanted to know the signficance of reports that the Israeli government had refused to bail out IMI.

The report said IMI's financial difficulties could prompt Ankara to choose another contractor for the M-60 upgrade. The U.S. firm General Dynamics has lobbied heavily for the project.

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5. – Kurdish Observer – “Declaration of identity is referendum”:

Osman Ocalan, PKK Council of Leaders member, made a call for participation to the declaration of national and political identity campaign which they have expended to Kurdistan and Turkey. Making statement on the method and expectations from the campaign, Ocalan said that the campaign will be composed of two stages.

Nurdogan Aydogan

You have launched a national and political identity campaign in Kurdistan and Turkey. But you have first launched the campaign in Europe. Why first Europe?

We decided to launch the campaign at the second half of 2001. The action started first abroad. The reason of it is as follows: The Kurdish problem has been always an international one. We know well that it is the international forces to force the Kurdish problem not to be solved. The role of international forces has been decisive of the Lausanne Conference. And we can see it in the latest international conspiracy against PKK President Abdullah Ocalan. The same forces has decided a liquidation policy against the leadership of the national liberation movement. Firstly we should assume a stance against. The democratic stance has development in the form of declaration of national and political identity. The reason of choosing this area of action was this. Of course the campaign is not a kind of action in which our people living in only one area can participate. Because political identity of our people living in Kurdistan and abroad is not recognized just as their national identity. Their political and cultural institutions are considered illegal. Therefore declaration of national identity and therefore political identity is binding for all the Kurdish people. But some areas have originalities.

-Now you extend your campaign to Kurdistan and Turkey. What is the importance of the campaign for Turkey?

Turkey has a decisive role on the Kurdish problem. It is blocked by Turkey even if other dominant powers have a similar policy. After September 11 when the war is about to spread to the Middle East, Turkey declared that an intervention to Iraq causing a Kurdish formation would considered a cause of war for them. They categorically declared that they would not accept it. Not only declared, but it also made military preparations. It shows that Turkey does not only deprive the North of solving the problem, but tries to obstruct the solution in other parts of Kurdistan and South Kurdistan.

We have been making activities to solve the problem through political dialogue and democratic means for three years. Finally Turkey has made amendments on the Constitution but there is no sign of its intention to solve the Kurdish problem. Repression on the Kurdish people has recently increased. The violence against democratic activities of Kurds has increased as well as local radio and television channels are closed. Summary execution in Dogubeyazit is a good example of it. In this case it would not correct for Kurds to wait without any movement, the problem must be brought into Turkey's agenda again.

-What are the basic demands in the campaign?

For example the most suitable democratic objective is the recognition of Kurdish national identity. And lifting the death sentence to our President Abdullah Ocalan. Moreover freedom of language, freedom of political and cultural activities. The campaign will be carried out in North and South Kurdistans in order to bring the Kurdish problem into the agenda again.

Turkey does not consider the problem seriously. A limited number of representatives of state institutions debate it in the National Security Council, they make decisions and these decisions are for the insistence on not solving the problem. Now it is necessary to take the debate from the Council and bring to all the society. We should be against the existing agenda. And the Turkish media should debate it. Institutions of law should debate it. And for this the campaign is of tremendous importance, because if Turkey approaches to a solution, it will be more easy in other parts of Kurdistan. We believe that if Turkey takes a step, Iran, Iraq and Syria and foreign countries will take two steps.

-How does the Kurdish people participate in the campaign and through which actions does it reclaim its political identity?

Such an action is new in Turkey. It is true that the Kurdish people has been declaring its identity for a long time and especially for 3 years. That is in one respect the declaration of identity has been carried out by our people. But we cannot say that it has been developed as a campaign on its own. Its newness is that it will be carried out well organized and as a campaign. The declaration of identity will be expressed through demonstrations, marches, boycotts, strikes, closing the shutters, meeting etc. Both our people and the state should see it is a democratic action. All sorts of democratic action are acceptable for it. For example, walking in national attires, carrying their own national colors, putting the lights off, making sit-in actions.

The second stage will be started later. When time comes, we will make the necessary statements. Written declaration of identity aims this: We accept the risk all sorts of sanction for our most natural national rights. If the payment is prosecution, prison, we will risk it, because for a people to demand its freedom through democratic actions is legitimate. But Turkey's law is far from the international law norms. The actions will reveal this conflict as well. And of course putting millions of people to prison is impossible.

-Well, how can Kurds living outside North Kurdistan participate in the campaign?

The Kurdish people in the other parts (of Kurdistan) should demand their language, culture and national identity within the framework of their concrete conditions. Every Kurd should declare his/her identity and demand his/her national freedoms. Therefore in these areas too declaration of identity is necessary. The Kurds living in other parts can organize demonstrations, signature campaigns, submitting them to the international instutions for freedom of President Apo, for recognition of the identity of the Kurdish people and its language and culture. They should support the campaign in North Kurdistan and Turkey. That is, our campaign is a referendum deciding the anti-stance against dominant forces for all Kurds. The campaign will be given momentum in Newroz.

-How can the Turkish people and democratic groups support this campaign?

To this day the Turkish people and democratic circles have not been able to develop a solving stance on the Kurdish problem. First of all they have seen the Kurdish problem as their own problem as if the problem should be dealt with only by the state which has caused it. But just as the economic problem is a problem of all the people living in Turkey and democratic people, the Kurdish problem too is a problem which they should take into their agenda. They should participate in the actions such as marches, demonstrations, boycotts, conferences, sit-in actions etc. As our party launches the action, in a respect it wants to make it an item on the agenda of the Turkish people and democratic forces. But their participation may be a different one. They can say, I support the recognition of the Kurdish identity, freedom for the Kurdish people and its leadership, its language and cultural development. Then there can be newspaper announcements. We expect statement and actions supporting our campaign.

-Which duties should the Kurdish and Turkish peoples undertake for developing the democratic civilization line and solution of the Kurdish problem.

The latest developments have shown the following clearly: The problems cannot be solved by violence. A person can be as destructive as an army as far as opportunities created by technical means. Therefore violence is not a preference. Denying the national right of the Kurdish people, thinking "I have an army, I have violent forces, I have means" is unreasonable, because an individual has the opportunity to use violence as efficient as an army. It does not need a number of people. 5-10 people who have trained themselves a bit can make a country unliveable. Therefore it is irrational to repress a problem by armies. In this respect democratic civilization line developed by our Leadership has a historical importance. The solution will come through democratisation.

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6. – International Herald Tribune – “Turkey to Cut Spending as It Seeks IMF Loan”:

ISTANBUL

Turkey said Friday it would slash public spending and cut its bloated bureaucracy as it sought to win an unprecedented third financial rescue from the International Monetary Fund within 12 months.

The IMF's managing director, Horst Koehler, said late Thursday he would recommend $10 billion in loans to Turkey under a new standby financing. He said Ankara had already performed "strongly" in implementing a program of reform to handle its worst recession in years.

Among the range of measures, Turkey will trim a middle tier of state bureaucracy. Officials will force thousands of poor households to pay for the electricity they illegally tap from the national grid and overworked managers will try to control costs in a crowded and rundown health system. .

Turkey has to moved to curb spending to earn the international support needed to help finance its domestic debt, which has ballooned after the state took on the debt of failing state and private banks. .

The Turkish treasury said Friday that technical work on the package would continue in December, when an IMF team is due back in Ankara. .

The Fund has bailed out Turkey twice in the past 12 months, increasing its loan program to $19 billion as a banking crisis roiled the economy in February. The country floated its currency, the lira, which soon lost half its value. .

Turkey had hoped a weak lira would allow it to export its way out of crisis. But its economy was rocked by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. .

Now, the economy is expected to shrink 8.5 percent this year. Unemployment and hardship are on the rise, increasing pressure on the fragile coalition under Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. .

The cuts in the number of state workers will also eat into a system of patronage that critics say have marred the political economy for decades.

If the reforms take hold, ministers and officials will no longer have cheap rents in state-owned lodgings, and government services will have to be delivered at market rates.

As the only Muslim member of NATO, Ankara has grown in strategic importance since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Koehler said Thursday that Turkey had "not only complied with the performance criteria we have set up in the program, but also seems to have agreed with our staff on a policy outline for the future, which is needed to sustain growth and activity."