HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha

[newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 31/1/95, 08:00 TSI


(1) Writers' group supports accused Turkish author

STRASBOURG, France, Jan 30 (Reuter) - An international writers group protested
on Monday against Turkey bringing its greatest living writer before a special
court over an article he wrote about its Kurdish citizens for a German
magazine.

Yasar Kemal, author of the acclaimed "Ince Memed" (Memed, My Hawk), has been
called before the Istanbul security court to explain his remarks in the
January
10 edition of Der Spiegel that the Turkish Republic had deployed "a campaign
of
lies" to justify oppression of its Kurdish population.

The International Parliament of Writers, headed by Salman Rushdie, called on
all of its members to urge their governments, the public and the press to put
pressure on Turkey to recognise Kemal's right to freedom of speech. It added
that it intended to make Kemal an honorary member of its world council "as a
gesture of solidarity."

Rushdie, born a Moslem in India but a British citizen, has been in hiding from
an Iranian relgious death edict for nearly six years prompted by his novel
"The
Satanic Verses." Among the council's current members are Nobel literature
laureates Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt, Toni Morrison of the United States and Wole
Soyinka of Nigeria, and their fellow authors Margaret Drabble, Carlos Fuentes,
Harold Pinter, and Ryzsard Kapuscinski.

Kemal told Reuters last week it was "50-50" that he would face formal charges
from the security court after an inquiry into the article. He said the likely
charge was "separatism." The Kemal case is likely to attract more unwanted
attention for Turkey in the West, already alarmed by the December sentencing
of
eight Kurdish members of parliament to jail terms of up to 15 years for
separatism.

More than 14,000 people have died since 1984 in fighting between Turkish
security forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party seeking an
independent Kurdish homeland.

Kemal, in the Der Spiegel article, denounced the fighting as "the basest war
imaginable" and said a Kurdish homeland was justified by international
principles of human rights.

(2) Syria, Turkey seek closer security cooperation

DAMASCUS, Jan 30 (Reuter) - Turkish and Syrian officials met on Monday to try
and cement security cooperation, marred in the past over activities of
separatist rebels fighting Turkey.

Interior Minister Mohammed Harba said during the talks in Damascus that Syria
wanted to promote security cooperation with Turkey in order to safeguard joint
interests, officials said. Ankara wants Syria to deny support to Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas battling to set up a separate state in
southeast
Turkey. Syria says it wants a fair share of the waters of the Euphrates river,
dammed by Turkey.

The two issues have dominated security talks between the two countries in the
past. Two PKK bases were closed in Lebanon's Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley
after the signing of the accord. Harba was recently quoted as telling a
Turkish
television network that Syria had arrested some PKK members.

Syria and Turkey still need to settle their dispute over the sharing of
Euphrates waters. Syria insists on signing a permanent accord while Turkey
wants to maintain a provisional deal, agreed in 1987, through which Ankara
allows the flow of 500 cubic metres per second of the river's waters to Syria.

The Turkish mission is headed by Mohamet [sic] Aghar, chief of general
security. They had separate talks with Major-General Adnan Badr Hassan, head
of the political department at Turkey's [sic] interior ministry, on combatting
crime and drug trafficking.

"The delegation expressed satisfaction over the outcome of its visit and
talks in Syria," one official said. "The minister expressed Syria's keen
interest to preserve the good neighbourly ties and cooperation with Turkey in
all fields to serve the security and joint interests of the two countries," he
said.

(3) Turkish President Demirel leaves for India

ANKARA, Jan 30 (Reuter) - Turkish President Suleyman Demirel left on Monday
for
a four-day official visit to India which he said would improve bilateral ties.
"I believe this visit to India will give momentum to our ties and strengthen
our friendly relations," he told reporters before his departure from Ankara.
Turkey and India will sign a tourism cooperation agreement and an accord on
prevention of double taxation during the visit.

Demirel will have talks with Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma and Prime
Minister Narasimha Rao and meet Indian businessmen in New Delhi and Bombay.


(4) Turkey's rebel Kurds say they killed two Iranians

ANKARA, Jan 30 (Reuter) - Two Iranians found dead in Turkey after being
abducted two weeks ago were killed by separatist Kurds in a "reckoning," the
Anatolian news agency said on Monday.

An unidentified person who telephoned Istanbul newspapers and television
stations on Sunday said the double murder was committed by the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seeking a separate state in southeastern
Turkey.

The bodies of two men, named as Asker Smitko, 42, and Jciaben Ecmajit, 49,
were
found in Istanbul suburb Silivri, 75 km from where they had been forced into a
car on January 15, the agency said on Sunday.

The pro-separatist Istanbul daily Ozgur Ulke said last Wednesday that two
Iranians it named as Asker Simko and Zeya Nazim had been kidnapped and
executed
by the PKK's armed wing ARGK. The paper said the two men were killed for
collaborating with MIT, Turkey's intelligence service and revealing the names
of Kurdish businessmen who gave money to the rebels. Officials made no
immediate comment linking the two reports. More than 14,000 people have been
killed in the separatist insurgency since 1984.