19. August 2002

ANKARA / August 19, 2002

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chairman Sevket Bulent Yahnici sent a letter to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and wanted necessary normal convict status to be prepared for Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization, to be transferred to F type prison so that he would not be able to make media statements and administer the terrorist organization.
Yahnici sent a letter to Ecevit and conveyed his reaction against the statements made to media by Ocalan with the capacity of KADEK leader. Yahnici said Ocalan, who escaped from capital punishment ''for the time being'' as EU adjustment bill abolished death sentence, communicated easily from the prison with his supporters.

Yahnici said Ocalan gave orders to his supporters, and made statements to the press, adding that, ''besides, he makes those as the leader of KADEK, which was set up instead of PKK.''

Yahnici's letter said, ''former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, while harshly opposing to the transfer from Imrali to F type prison, mentioned from security and his being a convict having special position. Does this 'speciality' and 'security' include his communication with outside, his making statements to press, and his administering KADEK organization as the leader?''

Yahnici said what a convict may do are being included in Justice Ministry regulations and execution law, noting that no convict has the right to administer an illegal organization from prison. ''However, the information and the documents state the contrary. If this information and documents are right, it means the concerned person makes policy freely. The policy he makes is an attack against sovereignty rights of Turkish Republic. Wasn't his punishment a response to what he has done?''

Yahnici said, ''I know that your sensitivity against the issue will be big. At least, I hope you will join the sensitivity of Turkish people to provide necessary status for a normal convict implementation that he would not have connection with outside, could not administer the organization, and make media statement.''

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3. - Associated Press - "Islamic Party Rises in Turkey":

MUTLU KOY (Turkey) / August 19, 2002

by Suzan Fraser

For Osman Ozturk, Turkey's economic slide means all he can afford to feed his family is bread with sliced boiled potatoes mixed with mint and dried red peppers.
The wheat farmer is so disgusted with mainstream politicians that he plans to vote for an increasingly popular Islamic party in the Nov. 3 national election.
He's not alone. Opinion polls say the religious-oriented Justice and Development Party could emerge as the largest party in this NATO ( news - web sites) nation and could even grab a majority in parliament. That could mean another political lurch for a country long caught between Europe and Asia, religion and secularism, democracy and military rule.
Turkey's government has been pushing for membership in the European Union ( news - web sites) and many analysts think a victory for the pro-Islamic party could slow that effort.
A victory for the party also could bring tensions with Turkey's fiercely secular military, which in 1997 pressured an Islamic-led government out of power.
And Washington is concerned that a government led by a religiously oriented party might be less open to a U.S. attack on Saddam Hussein 's regime in neighboring Iraq.

A recent poll for Deutsche Bank put the Justice and Development Party in the lead, with support from 19 percent of voters. A secular, nationalist bloc was second at 11 percent. No other party got above 10 percent, which is the minimum for getting seats in parliament. The poll, which surveyed 2,400 people in July, had a margin of error of 1.5 points.
The fragmentation is not surprising. In recent elections, discontentment over the economy and endemic corruption has led Turks to turn to new parties, which are not perceived as tainted by past scandals.
The lack of consensus also is a reflection of Turkey's sometimes contradictory impulses. It's had secular government for decades, although a religious party has made it to power. Its people are Muslim, while having strong ties to the West and even Israel. It's an avowed democracy but the military has ousted governments three times and maintains a strong say in domestic affairs.

In Cubuk, a small farming town on the outskirts of Ankara, the capital, people say this year's political choices are simple.
"What do we care about the EU if we can't take a loaf of bread home," said Salim Destici, an unemployed laborer waiting under a tree in hopes a farmer would hire him for the day. He said he gets lucky about once every 10 days.
Just a few yards away, other jobless men sat around a table in a smoky teahouse, puffing on cigarettes and playing rummy. They said there was no point looking for work.
Farmers in Cubuk said they had stopped working their fields because harvests don't cover the cost of fuel for tractors or fertilizer.

In Mutlu Koy, a village near Cubuk, Ozturk sat on the porch of his house and pointed to a pile of sacks of wheat he estimated would bring $400. "This is all the money we have to live on until the next harvest," he said.
The slump that started in February 2001 amid a crisis of confidence in the government has shrunk the economy by 9.4 percent and brought widespread layoffs. And for years, pay raises have not kept pace with rampant inflation.
When asked about Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and his partners in the current coalition government, Ozturk said, "They'd better not show their heads here."

Ozturk said he plans to vote for the Justice and Development Party, which is led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He is the popular former mayor of Istanbul, the country's biggest city and commercial center.
Erdogan is a relative newcomer to politics and many consider him untainted by the charges of mismanagement and corruption that plague most of the leading parties.
"The election is going to be about corruption and it is going to be about change," said Tolga Ediz, an analyst in London for the Lehman Brothers investment firm. "They want to see new faces; they don't want to see past politicians."

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4. - Reuters - "Human rights box fails to inspire Turkey's Kurds":

Tunceli (Turkey), August 19, 2002

by Mark Bentley

"Human Rights Complaints and Wishes Box" reads the label on a small, metallic post-box mounted outside the town governor's office in Turkey's war-ravaged southeast.

Surrounded by craggy peaks, the strategic riverside town of Tunceli was once the focus of battles between Turkey's powerful army and the separatist guerrillas of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Roadside security checks, house-to-house searches, and interrogation of "terrorist" sympathisers became widespread amid decades of emergency rule which the security forces said was needed to stop Ocalan turning Turkey's southeast into a Kurdish homeland.
With intense fighting reduced to sporadic clashes, Ankara says the strict curbs imposed by the governor, who has coordinated emergency rule in the province backed by 20,000 troops, have been lifted as Turkey implements EU-backed reforms.
Hence the appearance of the box.
But while welcoming its arrival, few of Tunceli's 25,000 residents venture across the wide, sun-baked square fronting the governor's HQ, dominated by a statue of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, himself an army commander.
"It's a positive step, there was nothing like this before... But I wonder if someone posting an envelope there would actually have his complaint dealt with," said Huseyin Aygun, a Tunceli lawyer specialising in human rights issues.
"He might even feel he's in danger."
With a dwindling band of rebels holed up in the mountains, the residents of Tunceli, dominated by Kurds of the Alevi sect, say the town is starting to feel like any other.
Armoured patrols are at a minimum, teams of plain-clothes policemen are less visible and tea gardens are thriving along the lush banks of the Munzur river, once the stalking ground of armed militia and camouflaged conscripts.

MORE RIGHTS FOR KURDS

EU-inspired reforms which Turkey approved in July set to increase language and cultural rights for the country's 12 million Kurds and have further raised morale in the battle-worn region.
But the people of Tunceli have long memories.
"It is difficult to believe that things can change so quickly. It hasn't sunk in for many of us," said Ahmet, a fruit-seller, as a small convoy of armoured trucks rumbled back from another incident-free patrol along Tunceli's narrow valley.
A committee given the task of examining the contents of the governor's post-box says only a handful of Tunceli's citizens have exercised their right to complain.
"There's not much interest so far, just a few requests," mused Yasar Cicek of the Provincial Human Rights Coordination Board.
Some people had asked to be allowed to return to hundreds of villages evacuated during the recent conflict. "Other demands they posted were not of great importance," he added.
Security sources say as few as 80 PKK guerrillas and fighters of the Maoist-Leninist TIKKO roam the peaks around Tunceli, down from more than 1,500 just four years ago.
But abuses and torture, of which Turkey's security forces are often accused, continues, said Aygun as he sipped his lemonade in a Tunceli cafe.

MILES APART

While the odd mini-bus driver may complain of an overly-zealous ID check, Turkish soldiers seldom emerge from the seven outposts flanking a newly-paved 80 km (50 miles) road traversing hills to the nearby province of Elazig.
But 150 km (93 miles) to Elazig's southeast life is not so straightforward.
Diyarbakir, Turkey's largest mainly Kurdish city with a population of over one million, is still under emergency rule.
Nestled in a wide plain of sunflowers and cotton, the thoroughfares of dusty, crowded Diyarbakir offer little respite from the searing summer heat -- temperatures can reach some 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) before plummeting to well below zero in the winter months.
Unemployment is rife among the thousands who have fled outlying villages amid the violence of the decades-long conflict. Many workers drink tea in packed street cafes while factory gates remain tightly shut.
Carpet traders surrounding Diyarbakir's historic Ulu Mosque, previously a church, say there is little business to do after Turkey's 2001 financial crisis compounded problems of inadequate investment and poor infrastructure. Foreign companies see emergency rule as a barrier to investment here.
Although there are fewer curbs on movement after a marked lull in armed clashes with the PKK, the Human Rights Association (IHD), Turkey's leading rights body, says infringement of personal rights is still a problem.
"Incidents of torture show little sign of falling," said Osman Baydemir, deputy chairman of IHD's Diyarbakir office. "Our figures showed a 25 percent drop in April and May, but then the numbers for June cancelled that out."

COLD WATER AND ELECTRIC SHOCKS

Baydemir recalled the recent arrest of a woman suspected of belonging to a radical Kurdish party. He said the association had recorded a grim tale of mistreatment as police officers interrogated her.
"Showers with ice-cold water, electric shock treatment... beatings, withholding of sleep...She was forced to sign a confession blindfolded" was the script he read from the IHD's June report on torture in Diyarbakir.
Turkey acknowledges incidences of torture, but labels them isolated events it is determined to stamp out.
Missing is the obligatory portrait of Ataturk from the wall of Baydemir's modest office, the scene of a closely scrutinised news briefing hours earlier.
Seven journalists were joined by 14 policemen in plain clothes as Baydemir condemned torture he said had been committed against three people whom police said were members of the militant Islamist group Hizbollah.
He said two cameras filming the event were operated by members of the gendarmerie intelligence agency, JITEM. Reporters at the scene said they were not members of the press.
"I am followed every day by police...Last year I made more than 100 visits to the offices of the state prosecutor to answer one charge or another...We see the EU laws as a positive step but they are not enough on their own."
Back in Tunceli, the local head of the popular Kurdish party HADEP, running in Turkey's November elections, underlined the suspicion that the Turkish authorities are not yet willing to loosen their grip on the more outspoken elements of Kurdish opinion.
Alican Onlu recalled that the local prosecutor has opened numerous investigations against him, as well as the continuing closure case against HADEP, accused of supporting the PKK.
"Whenever I hold a conference with the media they open a case file against me...Even when someone else convenes one and I'm somewhere in the vicinity they tie me in with it."
Onlu will not be permitted to campaign for HADEP in his native tongue, Turkey's election board ruled this month, although the new reforms pave the way for broadcasting and education in the Kurdish language.
He doubts the governor's new post-box will prove a pioneer of change as Kurds look to the Turkish authorities to widen their rights to freedom of speech.
"People can't say what they want...A normal person can't go to the governor and say 'why are you doing this?' They have to put their requests in a box...Problems should be addressed out in the open, face-to-face. A box means secrecy".

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5. - AFP - "Turkey's ailing PM kicks off election campaign":

ANKARA / August 18, 2002

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit began his campaign for re-election Sunday with an attempt to boost his shaky power base, the Democratic Left Party (DSP), which has suffered a massive bloodletting with nearly half its parliamentary deputies defecting.
The ailing 77-year-old leader made his first public address in months, speaking from the top of a bus at Duzce, a northwestern town shattered by an earthquake in 1999.
Turmoil has plagued Ankara since May when Ecevit fell ill and his coalition hit deadlock over EU-oriented democracy reforms, prompting him reluctantly to agree to bring elections forward from 2004.
The veteran five-time prime minister has vowed to fight the November 3 election despite ill health that kept him from duties since May.
Trying to restore his party's fortunes, Ecevit said: "I hope our people will understand the importance of the DSP."
The party has never been able to properly articulate its policies to voters ever since his three-party government coalition came to power in elections in 1999, he said.
Ecevit's main message was a reassurance that the DSP would not forge any alliances to challenge the election.
Ecevit was accompanied by his wife Rahsan, who is DSP vice president.
The DSP last month suffered a mass defection of some 60 parliamentary deputies out of a total of 128, most of whom went over to the New Turkey party set up by former foreign minister Ismail Cem.
Ecevit has seen heavyweight ministers abandon him in a protracted government crisis.
His own faultering state of health and divisions within his government on reforms adopted by parliament this month in order to qualify for membership of the European Union -- a long-term Turkish aim -- led to the early election in November.
A strong pro-Western government could increase Turkey's chances of winning a date for the start of accession talks at the EU Copenhagen summit in December.
A stable pro-Western team in Ankara is seen as crucial as Turkey seeks to open membership talks with the EU and when a possible US attack on neighboring
Iraq could spell new economic troubles.
Despite his years, the veteran leader said he would play an active role in the election as leader of the DSP. The party is threatened with electoral annihilation in the election, according to opinion polls.
The opposition Justice and Development Party (AK) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the offspring of a banned Islamist party, has led in recent opinion polls, prompting mainstream secular parties to seek alliances ahead of the polls.
The political left and right in Turkey are both split into several parties, a fragmentisation that has enabled the AK to gain a lead in opinion polls.
Ecevit argues that an election victory for AK would imperil Turkey's secular system.
The town of Duzce where he spoke Sunday was one of many hit by the August 17, 1999 quake which claimed 20,000 lives and left 600,000 homeless.
A tremor measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale shook the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum Sunday but caused no casualties or damage.

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6. - Cyprus PIO - "Rauf Denktas comments on the latest situation in the Cyprus problem":

NIKOSIA / August 19, 2002

Illegal Bayrak Radio (16/08/02) broadcast that the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktas made a statement to TAK, the illegal Turkish Cypriot News Agency, with regard to the latest Cyprus situation and replied to questions.

He recalled that during the talks conducted to attain a lasting agreement in Cyprus, he submitted proposals to unite what was divided into two in a higher structure under equal conditions, but the Greek Cypriot approach envisages a single sovereign state in the higher structure. Denktas added that "the approach to include us into the Greek Cypriot community by granting us constitutional rights is not realistic."
Denktas remarked that on the basis of this approach the Greek Cypriots are trying to solve the problem by dragging the Turkish Cypriots into the EU without Turkey. He stressed that the Turkish Cypriots will not bow to this approach. Noting that the population exchange conducted in 1975 yielded the principle of two peoples and two territories, and this principle lies at the basis of security, Denktas said that the restriction of the three freedoms would avert the dangers to be created by integrated living, but now the Greek Cypriots are overturning these principles.

Mr Denktas stated: "Our being dragged into the EU in the wake of the Greek Cypriots without Turkey, without solving the problem, without our sovereignty's being accepted, and without adopting the measures that will preserve the Turkish-Greek balance stipulated by the 1960 agreements, would mean the beginning of our end."

The pros and cons of EU accession must be carefully considered, Denktas remarked, adding: "As long as the EU considers the application submitted by the Greek Cypriots on behalf of the legitimate Cyprus government as a legitimate application and views us through the eyes of this so-called government, any sensible person should regard the EU as a development that will complement the 1963 adventure."

Denktas was asked the question: Both sides are displeased with the course of the negotiations. What are the difficulties in the talks? In response, Denktas said that the Greek Cypriot side views the Cyprus issue as a problem that began in 1974. According to them, Denktas explained, the matter is one of occupation, namely the presence of Turkish troops here and the return of Greek Cypriot refugees to their old places.

Reminded about the EU declaration that Cyprus will be admitted into the EU whether or not a conciliation is reached in Cyprus, Denktas said: "Should we renounce our equal sovereignty and our state just because they will do this? If we do that, we will anyway be finished. If we resist, the day will come when they will have to address us and negotiate with us -- naturally, as long as we cease to quarrel with one another on the basis of personal interests. Societies that know how to protect their states, their rights, and their freedom gain the esteem of this world."