TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993

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From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993   PART 7B


TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993   part 7b

Source:  U.S.  Department of State


From: kendal at nucst9.neep.wisc.edu (Kendal)
Date: 4 Feb 1994 21:48:27 GMT
Distribution: world



The Turkish United Communist Party, decriminalized in 1991, was
outlawed in 1992 along with the Socialist Party on grounds that
they violated article 14 of the Constitution which prohibits
"establishing the hegemony of one social class over others."
As of the end of the year, the Constitutional Court had ruled
for the closure of HEP (see Section 2.a.) and its interim
successor OZDEP and was considering whether or not to ban HEP's
successor, DEP.

The Grand National Assembly (Parliament) elects the President
as Head of State every 7 years, or when the President becomes
incapacitated or dies, as occurred in April when Turgut Ozal
died and Suleyman Demirel was elected to succeed him.  The 1991
parliamentary elections gave the True Path Party (DYP) a
plurality of 27 percent of the vote and 178 seats in the
450-member unicameral Parliament.  The DYP formed a coalition
with the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) to achieve a
parliamentary majority.  In June, after Demirel's election as
President, the DYP chose Tansu Ciller as its new chairperson,
after which the President appointed her Turkey's first female
Prime Minister.

To prevent political fragmentation, seats are allocated on a
weighted proportional representation basis in which parties
that poll less than 10 percent of the total national vote are
excluded.  The 1991 elections brought 5 parties into
Parliament; however, party alignments have since changed, and
10 parties are now represented, alongside almost two dozen
independent deputies, who resigned from the parties under whose
banners they won election.

The Constitution provides equal political rights for men and
women; however, only eight women, representing three parties,
were elected to the Parliament in 1991.  In addition to Prime
Minister Ciller, there is one female Cabinet minister.
Political parties now recruit female delegates for their party
conferences and electoral lists.  Women's committees are active
within political party organizations.

In November the Turkish General Staff (TGS) urged the
mainstream parties to field united slates for the March 1994
local elections in the southeast, lest PKK-supported candidates
win as a result of divided opposition.  The Government
disavowed the army's intrusion into the political process, and
the TGS said its statement had been a suggestion.

Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
           Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
           of Human Rights

A nongovernmental human rights association (HRA), officially
approved in 1987, has branches in 50 provincial capitals,
including a branch in Mersin, which at year's end was closed
indefinitely pending a court case against it.  It claims a
membership of about 20,000.  In 1990 the HRA established its
companion Human Rights Foundation (HRF) which, in addition to
operating torture rehabilitation centers in Ankara, Izmir, and
Istanbul, serves as a clearinghouse for human rights
information.  Human rights activists, including lawyers and
doctors, are routinely threatened.  There are credible reports
of the involvement of security forces in these threats, which
appear to be related to their human rights activities
documenting human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by
government forces.

Some government officials, including some prosecutors and
police, punitively apply various laws to restrict HRA
activities.   For example, officials ordered various branches
of the HRA closed for periods of weeks or months generally on
charges that they had published allegedly separatist material
or sponsored a speech that was allegedly separatist in nature.
Police raided HRA branches in Mersin and elsewhere and
confiscated written materials.  An HRA president in southern
Turkey said he and his board remained under surveillance.  Many
HRA branch officers spent time in detention or under arrest
(see Section 2.b.), and one--Kemal Kilic, Urfa HRA steering
committee member and former Ozgur Gundem reporter--was killed
by unidentified assailants on the Urfa-Akcakale highway in
February (see Section 1.a.).  Reliable eyewitnesses observed
the surveillance and harassment of one HRA branch office in the
southeast and watched as security police entered another HRA
office in the region uninvited and began, without permission,
to make telephone calls.  The president of the HRA office in
Diyarbakir, Fevzi Veznedaroglu, who reported receiving death
threats from plainclothes police officers, and the HRA Van
president never returned from their 1992 "trips to Europe."
The president of the Siirt HRA was arrested on February 26,
1993, and detained for 3 months on charges of giving aid and
comfort to the PKK.  The HRA representative in the town of
Derik, Mardin province, was detained six separate times in
1993.  Many of these investigations and prosecutions, as well
as many arrests of human rights monitors, stemmed from alleged
violations of the law on associations or the holding of illegal
demonstrations.  Surveillance and harassment of HRA members in
the southeast appears to have become increasingly common.

In operation since 1991, Parliament's multiparty Human Rights
Commission in February completed its report on allegations of
widespread torture in Turkey.  The report conceded that the
practice of torture had continued since the DYP/SHP coalition
came to power but denied allegations that torture was an
official government policy.  It sent a delegation to Diyarbakir
to monitor the 1993 Kurdish new year celebration launched an
investigation into the Sivas incident (Section 2.c.) and is
investigating the incidents at Lice (Section 1.a.).  The
Commission is authorized to oversee Turkey's compliance with
the human rights provisions of Turkish law and international
agreements to which Turkey is a signatory, investigate alleged
abuses, and prepare reports.

While representatives of diplomatic missions or foreign private
organizations who wish to monitor the state of human rights in
Turkey are free to speak with private citizens, official
visitors to the southeast may be watched by security police,
and the presence of security officials may have an intimidating
effect upon those interviewed.  Access to government officials
or facilities at times has been restricted, although, in 1992
for the very first time, Helsinki Watch visitors obtained every
appointment they requested, including access to detention
facilities.

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
           Disability, Language, or Social Status

The Constitution proclaims Turkey to be a secular state,
regards all Turkish citizens as equal, and prohibits
discrimination on ethnic, religious, or racial grounds. The
Government officially recognizes only those religious
minorities mentioned in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which
guarantees the rights of non-Muslim Greek Orthodox, Armenian
Apostolic, and Jewish adherents.  Despite constitutional
provisions, discrimination remains a problem in several areas.

     Women

Women are improving their situation in Turkish society,
including the professions, business, and civil service,
although, they continue to face discrimination to varying
degrees.  While traditional values continued to discourage
women from entering some career fields, there are numerous
female judges, doctors, and engineers.  Women comprise about 36
percent of the paid Turkish work force and generally receive
equal pay for equal work.  The Constitution prohibits women
from engaging in physically demanding jobs and from night work,
and applicable laws are effectively enforced.  In the past
there has been an arbitrary barrier to women becoming
governor's and subgovernors (government appointed positions).
Women may now take the examination necessary to become a
subgovernor and several have been appointed.  There is also one
female governor.

Traditional family values in rural Turkey place a greater
emphasis on advanced education for sons than for daughters.
In principle, primary education reached all children in 1993,
but far fewer girls than boys continued their education after
primary school.  In 1992 Parliament passed a law increasing
universal mandatory education from 5 to 8 years.  The law will
be implemented gradually throughout the country.  For the
1993-94 school year, it was put into effect in several pilot
regions.  A delegation of some 50 women representing the
Women's Studies Center of Istanbul University and numerous
other private organizations presented a petition to Parliament
on February 17 calling for legislation to abolish the special
position of husbands as head of family.  As noted in Section
1.e., there are some seldom enforced laws that discriminate
against women.

Spousal abuse is still considered an extremely private matter,
although it is a widespread problem, interest in which is
growing.  Few women go to the police, who in any case are
reluctant to intervene in domestic disputes.  Turks of either
sex may file civil or criminal charges but rarely do.  Turkish
law and courts make no discrimination between the sexes in laws
concerning violence or abuse.  In July 1992, the Purple Roof
Foundation (for battered women) opened a "hello shelter"
telephone line; it attracted 3,300 callers in its first 3
months, even under Transportation Ministry regulations
restricting its operating hours to weekdays.  The Purple Roof
has since expanded its service to two lines, one of which
focuses on helping battered women, and the other of which deals
with a variety of other subjects.  The Government also has
opened shelters in major cities for abused women and their
children who have left their homes.

Independent women's and women's rights associations exist, but
the concept of lobbying for women's rights has not gained great
currency.