5 September 2001

1. "Turkish housing minister resigns amid fraud probe", Turkey's minister for housing and public works announced his resignation Wednesday after an investigation was launched into alleged widescale corruption at his ministry.

2. "Turkish police kill Islamic militant, detain four others in raid", Turkish security forces killed a senior member of the outlawed Islamic movement Hizbullah and detained four others on Wednesday in simultaneous house raids in the southern Turkish province of Adana and Nigde, the interior ministry said.

3. "Turkish govt okays debate on constitution change", Turkey's coalition leaders agreed on Tuesday to hold a special parliamentary session to debate constitutional reforms designed to meet European Union membership criteria.

4. "Actions should continue", Emphasizing that they would work for peace in spite of everything, Ocalan called on everybody to continue the actions and said "Until not a single peace militant is in prison, we Kurds should be on action."

5. "Police arraign five officials from HADEP", Turkish prosecutors have arraigned five officials from a pro-Kurdish party for their role in weekend protests that saw one protester die and hundreds arrested after clashes with police, officials said Tuesday.

6. "Turkey displays new weapons in Cyprus", Turkey is said to have deployed new weapons on the divided island of Cyprus. Cypriot sources said Turkey's military has brought new artillery and rocket systems to the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey maintains 35,000 troops in the republic.

1. - AFP - "Turkish housing minister resigns amid fraud probe":

ANKARA

Turkey's minister for housing and public works announced his resignation Wednesday after an investigation was launched into alleged widescale corruption at his ministry. In a live interview with the all-news NTV channel, Koray Aydin said he was quitting both his ministerial post and his parliamentary seat to facilitate the handling of the investigation.

"I am resigning from my posts of minister and parliament member in order to be an example to all Turkish politicians ahead of a thorough examination of all fraud allegations against my ministry, regardless of how high the probe will reach," Aydin said. Aydin is a member of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the second biggest force in the three-way coalition of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. The government has vowed to eradicate widespread corruption in the country as part of an IMF-backed economic recovery program. Aydin said that the probe and the harsh pressure put on him by the media to step down were part of a campaign aimed at tarnishing his party. Corruption is a chronic problemm in Turkey's ailing political system and many see it as the root cause of a recent financial crisis.

The crisis erupted in February when an unprecedented public row between Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer over ways to fight corruption led to a breakdown in confidence on the volatile financial markets. A massive corruption probe into multi-million-dollar energy tenders forced former energy minister Cumhur Ersumer to step down in April. The probe into the housing and civil works ministry, which was made public on August 22, centers on alleged practices over the past decade involving collusion between ministry officials and contractors in the submission of bids to allow some firms to win contracts at inflated prices. Several dozen people, including ministry officials and contractors, have been detained during the probe, but have not yet been formally charged.

The media has charged that Aydin was personally involved in fraudulent allocation of tenders, including a major project to build about 42,000 homes for victims of two devastating quakes in 1999. Aydin, who was a contractor before entering government, has also come under severe criticism over the activities of construction companies run by his relatives. He became the fifth minister to step down since the February economic shake-up.

2. - AFP - "Turkish police kill Islamic militant, detain four others in raid":

ANKARA

Turkish security forces killed a senior member of the outlawed Islamic movement Hizbullah and detained four others on Wednesday in simultaneous house raids in the southern Turkish province of Adana and Nigde, the interior ministry said.

The raids came at the end of a lengthy intelligence operation against the Hizbullah, which Turkish authorities accuse of trying to overthrow the predominantly Muslim country's secular order and install an Islamic regime. During the raids, Aziz Sulhaddin Uruk, described as a senior militant, was killed, the ministry said in a written statement. Four others -- another senior member, a courier and two militants -- were detained.

It added that the wives and children of those detained were also taken into custody. Police seized two guns, documentation about the organization and material used in making false identification cards, the statement said. The Turkish Hizbullah hit the headlines last year when police launched a massive operation against the group and dug up the bodies of 68 suspected Hizbullah victims from mass graves across the country.

Earlier this year, security forces captured a group of Hizbullah militants who reportedly admitted to shooting the respected police chief of the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Gaffar Okkan, and five officers in an ambush. The group is not believed to have links with its Lebanese namesake.

3. - Reuters - "Turkish govt okays debate on constitution change":

ANKARA

Turkey's coalition leaders agreed on Tuesday to hold a special parliamentary session to debate constitutional reforms designed to meet European Union membership criteria.

The reforms, which include easing curbs on Kurdish language use, would change 37 articles of the constitution drawn up under military rule in the early 1980s.

"We have agreed to put in motion the necessary steps for holding an extraordinary meeting of parliament on September 17," the ruling coalition parties' three leaders said in a joint statement.

Deputies normally return to parliament after the summer break on October 1. Constitutional change must be approved by three-fifths of parliament. Turkey became a candidate for EU membership in late 1999, but must make sweeping political reforms for membership talks to begin, including abolishing capital punishment.

The EU is due to release progress reports late this year on all candidate members. Turkey could come in for criticism if there is no substantial progress on reform. The package of changes does not ban the death penalty, which Turkey has said is a long-term goal. But it does propose removing the authority of parliament to ratify death sentences. Turkey has not carried out an execution since 1984, but capital punishment remains on the statute books.

Nationalist deputies have argued there should be no abolition of the death penalty until condemned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is hanged. He is currently held on a prison island near Istanbul awaiting the outcome of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

4. - Kurdish Observer - "Actions should continue":

Emphasizing that they would work for peace in spite of everything, Ocalan called on everybody to continue the actions and said "Until not a single peace militant is in prison, we Kurds should be on action."

Osman Ocalan, member of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Council of Leaders, stated that in spite of all obstructions hundreds of thousand people displayed their strength on September 1, saying "We are proud from this stance of our people." Ocalan called on everybody to continue the actions without interruption.

Participated by telephone in the "Cozum" (Solution) program on MEDYA TV the other day, Ocalan talked on the September 1 congratulations and the approach of the state. The leader reminded that 1 peace-lover lost his life on September 1 and hundreds of people were wounded and detained, stressing on the meaning of the costs of peace. Ocalan called on everybody inside and outside of the country to break their silence on the violent reaction of the state to the peace demand of Kurds.

The Kurdish leader said the following: "We will make everything for peace in spite everything. Serhildan (popular uprising) should be understood as such. Until not a single peace militant is in prison, hundreds, thousands of Kurds should be on action day and night. We will give momentum to our peace drive. Let's Turkey detain everybody. If Kurds want their identity, let's be in prison, defend their identity. Life conditions of our presidency should be shared."

There will be indignation

Stating that both sides would be damaged from the war, Ocalan said "Therefore military and political authorities in Turkey should take the new situation into consideration. They should react positively to our call for peace and democratic solution and give up their old denial policies. We give guarantee; this process will not be broken by us." Calling attention to the heavy conditions under which PKK President Abdullah Ocalan has been kept, Osman Ocalan continued with words to the effect: "We say the following with certainty: Kurds will react if our President is kept under the isolation in Imrali island more than a year, there will be indignation."

"Guerrilla should be powerful"

Ocalan said on the resolutions of the PKK 6. National Conference that they should be ready for a war. The leader added that dissolving guerrilla force can only be realized at the peaceful solution stage, saying "If Turkey take a step on the matter, the guerrilla force will not have a military function. But now there is no such situation and therefore the guerrilla should be more powerful. Shedding light on the serhildan concept, Ocalan said, "We call our political actions as serhildans. It is wrong to consider serhildan an action against the state."

5. - AP - "Police arraign five officials from HADEP":

Turkish prosecutors have arraigned five officials from a pro-Kurdish party for their role in weekend protests that saw one protester die and hundreds arrested after clashes with police, officials said Tuesday.

Prosecutors arraigned five senior officials from Istanbul branches of the People's Democracy Party, or HADEP, the Istanbul police said in a written statement Tuesday. They said another 190 people detained in Istanbul after the weekend clashes had been released.

Police did not say what charges the HADEP directors will face.

Clashes broke out in Istanbul, Ankara and in the southeast on Friday, after authorities refused permission for HADEP to hold a rally Saturday in Ankara to mark World Peace Day.

A teen-age Kurdish protester died after falling from the fifth-floor terrace of a HADEP building in Istanbul late Friday. Party officials said Zeynel Duran, 16, was taking part in a sit-in outside the building when police broke up the protest and chased the protesters, who ran to the top floor of the building where Duran fell.

Protests continued through the weekend. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a demonstration by people who wanted to hold a funeral for Duran on Sunday. HADEP said several party members had been injured while more than 2,000 people had been detained across the country during three days of clashes.

At least 180 protesters were still in detention Tuesday, HADEP spokesman Eyup Demir said.

HADEP is calling for wider cultural rights for Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds, who are not officially recognized as a minority and are banned from using their language in education or broadcasting. The party won local elections in 37 cities and towns in the southeast in 1999.

The party faces a closure case on charges of being a front for teror organization PKK who declared a unilateral cease-fire in the region two years ago. A verdict in the case is expected in the coming months.

6. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey displays new weapons in Cyprus":

NICOSIA

Turkey is said to have deployed new weapons on the divided island of Cyprus. Cypriot sources said Turkey's military has brought new artillery and rocket systems to the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey maintains 35,000 troops in the republic. The new Turkish weaponry was displayed in a military parade on Thursday.

The systems included the M15 203 mm artillery and T122 multiple rocket launchers. Turkey also demonstrated U.S.- and French-built helicopters in the parade. Turkey's air force did not participate in the Turkish Army Day celebration. Last week, the Greek-populated Republic of Cyprus and Greece held strategic talks regarding the future of their defense relationship.

Cypriot sources said the talks between the defense ministers of Athens and Nicosia focused on the forthcoming Nikoforos joint exercise scheduled to take place in October. The sources said Greece is under pressure to scale down the exercise amid renewed United Nations efforts to mediate the Cypriot crisis.