HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 2/2/95, 08:00 TSI
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

(1) US Report: Human rights situation on Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The human rights situation worsened significantly in
Turkey last year with excessive use of force to suppress Kurdish terrorism,
said a U.S. report released Wednesday.

"Despite the ... government's pledge in 1993 to end torture and to establish a
state of law based on respect for human rights, torture and excessive use of
force by security personnel persisted throughout 1994," the  36-page State
Department report said.

Turkey denies systematic or widespread torture and says it pursues a legitimate
fight against Kurdish terrorism.

The document listed Turkey's primary human rights problems as disappearances,
forced evacuations or burning down of Kurdish villages, violations of freedom
of speech, oppression of Kurdish population and harassment of journalists and
human rights activists.

The report said 18 people died "under suspicious circumstances while in
official custody ... some as a result of torture," in the first nine months of
1994.

The torture methods listed included high-pressure cold water hoses, electric
shocks, beatings on the soles of the feet and genitalia, hanging by the arms,
sleep deprivation and rapes, with gun barrels in some instances.

The report said there were few cases in which law enforcement officers were
convicted of torture and the sentences "tend to be light."

Most of the allegations stemmed from Turkey's ongoing war against Kurdish
guerrillas seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey. The fighting has left more
than 15,000 people dead over the past 10 years. The guerrillas belong to the
illegal Kurdistan Workers Party, or the PKK.

The report said although the Turkish government faced substantial "terrorist
violence" from the PKK, the security forces committed human rights abuses in
the campaign to fight terrorism. "The increasing violence of the fighting in
the southeast is polarizing ethnic Turks and Kurds and creating a climate of
intolerance," the report said.

It added that the Turkish government "made repeated efforts to frustrate
political activities of those who emphasize their Kurdish ethnicity." The
report noted the closure of a pro-Kurdish Democracy Party and the prosecution
of eight Kurdish deputies for their speeches.

It also cited violations of the freedom of speech and the press, giving
examples of confiscation orders against left and pro-Kurdish publications and
court proceedings against journalists and publishers.

The U.S. Congress froze 10 percent of Turkey's dlrs 365 million in U.S.
military aid last August, pending a human rights review. The U.S.
administration will provide a report to the Congress in March.

(2) Bonn to look to Turkey at Mediterranean conference

BONN, Feb 1 (Reuter) - Germany's special interest at an EU conference on the
Mediterranean this year should be to help Turkey develop as a democratic and
secular Moslem state, a leading foreign policy spokesman said on Wednesday.

Karl Lamers, foreign policy spokesman for Chancelor Helmut Kohl's Christian
Democrats (CDU), said Bonn was concerned both with Turkey itself and the two
million Turks living in Germany. "We Germans have a special interest in
Turkey," he told journalists, noting there were many Kurds among the Turks
living in Germany. "Put simply, war in Kurdistan means the danger of war on
German streets."

Lamers's remarks seemed aimed at widening the focus of the conference, which
France, Spain and Italy proposed to draw European Union attention to possible
instability on its southern flank from Moslem fundamentalists in North Africa.

Lamers acknowledged the danger of instability crossing the Mediterranean from
Algeria but stressed to journalists that Germany also had its concerns in the
Islamic world. "Division of labour is a good term to use," he said when asked
how different EU states should approach the conference, due to be held in Spain
later this year.

The southern Europeans see the meeting as a way to shift the EU's focus from
its heavy emphasis on east Europe, Bonn's main security concern, and provide a
counter-balance to a German-led drive to bring former communist states into
the EU.

Lamers, who sparked controversy last year with his proposal for a hard core of
EU countries to integrate more quickly than others, said the Turkish model of
a secular Moslem state was as important for Europe as for the Islamic world.
He said Moslem communities in Europe could help reconcile Islam with the
modern world, adding: "That would have very far-reaching effects."

Lamers said Bonn parliamentarians planned to form a task force to develop a
strategy for integrating Turks into German society and making Islam more
compatible with the modern age. The foreign ministry announced that the German,
British, French and Italian foreign ministers would meet their Turkish
counterpart Murat Karayalcin in London on Thursday to discuss relations between
Ankara and the EU states.

(3) Turkish minister off to talks with Western allies

ANKARA, Feb 1 (Reuter) - Turkish Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin left on
Wednesday for London where he will meet his British, German, French and Italian
counterparts to discuss Ankara's links with the European Union and other
issues.

"We will discuss Turkey's customs union with the European Union and I will
relay the latest developments concerning the pipeline for Caspian oil," he told
reporters before leaving Ankara.

The meeting on Thursday will be the second after Ankara, Bonn and London
started holding joint talks on regional and international issues in January
1994. The consultations have since expanded to include France and Italy. Ankara
hopes an EU Association Council meeting in March will seal the customs union
held up because of EU worries about Turkey's human rights record and a Greek
veto.

Turkey said on Tuesday it had secured U.S. support for its proposal to
transport Azeri and Kazakh crude oil to Western markets by a pipeline through
Turkey. Foreign ministry officials said the London talks would also cover the
Russian war in Chechnya, the Azeri-Armenian conflict, Bosnia and recent
clashes between Kurdish factions in northern Iraq.