ABD DI$i$leri BakanlIGI'nIn, TR'de

[newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: ABD DI$i$leri BakanlIGI'nIn, TR'de Insan HaklarI Raporu, 1


U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

FEBRUARY 1995

TURKEY

Turkey is a constitutional republic with a multiparty
Parliament (the Grand National Assembly) which elects the
President.  Suleyman Demirel was elected President in 1993, and
Tansu Ciller, chairperson of the center-right True Path Party
(DYP), became Turkey's first female Prime Minister in the same
year.

For the past decade, Turkey has engaged in armed conflict with
the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose stated goal
is the creation of a separate state of Kurdistan in
southeastern Turkey.  A state of emergency, declared in 1987,
continued in 10 southeastern provinces where the Government
faces substantial terrorist violence from the PKK (see Section
1.g.).  A regional governor retains authority over those 10
provinces, as well as 3 adjacent ones.  A state of emergency
allows the civilian governor to exercise certain quasi-martial
law powers, including restrictions on the press and removal
from the area of persons whose activities are deemed hostile to
public order.  The state of emergency decree was most recently
renewed in November 1994.

The Turkish National Police (TNP) are charged with maintaining
public order in the cities, a responsibility which the Jandarma
(gendarmerie) carries out in the countryside.  In 1994 the
regular Turkish armed forces, mainly the army, took on a
primary role in combatting the PKK in the state of emergency
region and thus assumed a greater internal security function
than in previous years.  Despite the Ciller 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.

Turkey has a mixed economy in which state enterprises account
for nearly 40 percent of the manufacturing sector.  A series of
economic crises culminated in the announcement on April 5 of a
major economic reform program, including the privatization of
state-owned enterprises.  Although the balance of payments
improved and inflation slowed, prices still increased over 100
percent in 1994.  The size of the state bureaucracy, the budget
deficit, the inadequate tax system, and the inefficient state
sector block economic growth.  The conflict in the southeast
continued to be a major drain on the economy.

The human rights situation in Turkey worsened significantly in
1994.  The police and security forces often employed torture
during periods of incommunicado detention and interrogation,
and the security forces continued to use excessive force
against noncombatants.  PKK terrorists murdered noncombatants,
targeting village officials and teachers and also committing
random murders in their effort to intimidate the populace.

Parliament lifted the immunity of pro-Kurdish Democracy Party
(DEP) members of Parliament (M.P.'s), opening the way for
indictment and prosecution of five DEP M.P.'s and one
independent, largely for the expression of views during their
tenure as M.P.'s.  The Constitutional Court subsequently closed
the DEP, allowing two other M.P.'s to be prosecuted.  The trial
concluded on December 8 with convictions for disseminating
separatist propaganda and for supporting or being a member of
an armed band, which resulted in sentences ranging from 3 years
and 6 months (suspended) to 15 years.

Various agencies of the Government continued to harass,
intimidate, indict, and imprison human rights monitors,
journalists, lawyers, and professors for ideas which they
expressed in public forums.  Disappearances and mystery murder
cases continued at a high rate in the southeast.  The PKK and
the radical Islamic Hizbullah (not related to the Lebanese
Hizbullah) appear responsible in some cases.  In other cases,
however, the evidence implicated government security forces.
In many human rights cases, the targets of abuse were ethnic
Kurds or their supporters.  Moreover, the Government
infrequently prosecutes police or security officers for
extrajudicial killings, torture, and other abuses; in the cases
which produce a conviction, lenient sentences were usually
given.  The resulting climate of impunity that has been created
probably remains the single largest obstacle to reducing
unlawful killing, torture, and other human rights abuses.

The Government used the 1991 Anti-Terror Law, with its broad
and ambiguous definition of terrorism, to detain both alleged
terrorists and a broad range of people on the charge that their
acts, words, or ideas promote separatism and "threaten the
indivisible unity of the State."  In September the Government
formed a Committee on Freedom of Thought to examine changes to
the Anti-Terror Law and other laws that severely restrict
freedom of expression.  By mid-October the Committee had made
recommendations to Parliament which, if enacted and properly
implemented, could significantly expand freedom of expression.
However, at year's end, Parliament had not enacted these
changes.

While the Criminal Trials Procedure Law (CMUK), passed in
November 1992, has improved attorney access for those charged
with common crimes, certain of its provisions, such as early
attorney access, do not apply to those detained under the
Anti-Terror Law or within the state of emergency region.  In
1993 Parliament annulled the article of the Constitution under
which the Government had a monopoly on radio and television
broadcasting, and in April 1994 passed regulatory legislation
for the legal operation of private broadcasting.