Mainstream news on the war in Kurdi

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Mainstream news on the war in Kurdistan
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

Turkish newspaper owner assassinated

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Assailants opened fire from a speeding car Tuesday,
killing the owner of an Istanbul newspaper that supports the government's stand
against the separatist Kurdish insurgency.

Police said Bekir Kutmangil, 39, was shot to death as he drove his car to work.
His 14-year-old daughter, a passenger in the car, was not injured.

Police detained one suspect several hours later and released a composite sketch
of a second assailant, state television said, but there was no immediate claim
of responsibility.

The newspaper, Yeni Gunaydin, has a daily circulation of about 25,000, and
backs Turkey's actions to quell the Kurdish insurgency movement.

The assassination came two days after Turkish jetfighters reportedly attacked
across the border in northern Iraq, killing a Kurdish villager and wounding
four.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said the attack was staged Sunday in the Batufa region,
nine miles from Turkey, apparently to prevent Kurdish rebels from returning to
bases near the Turkish border.

Turkey staged a six-week operation in northern Iraq with 35,000 soldiers to
wipe out camps used for hit-and-run attacks by Kurdish rebels. Turkey withdrew
most of the troops last month.

Police said the getaway car in Tuesday's assassination was found abandoned on a
nearby side street. Kutmangil, married with two children, also owned the
Gunaydin FM Radio and two smaller papers.

Turkey Car Bombings Injure 4

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- A car bomb explosion in front of political offices
injured three passers-by, one seriously, in suburban Istanbul on Wednesday.
In the southeast, where Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy, another
car bomb blast injured the son of a local politician, news reports said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for either attack.

The bomb in Sefakoy, an Istanbul suburb near the airport, was in a car parked
in front of a building housing the district offices of three political parties,
the Anatolia news agency said. They are the True Path Party, the government's
main coalition party; the Peoples' Republican Party, the junior coalition
partner, and the opposition Nationalist Action Party.

In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish region,
the son of the local representative of the Muslim fundamentalist Welfare Party
was hurt by the blast there.

Several underground organizations are active in major Turkish cities, including
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for
autonomy in the southeast since 1984.

Turkish troops killed 12 Kurdish guerrillas in three separate clashes Wednesday
in the southeastern provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir and Van, the regional
governor's office said.

Car bomb wounds three in Istanbul

LONDON, May 24 (Reuter) - A car bomb exploded in the Turkish city of Istanbul
on Wednesday, wounding three people who were passing the party offices of the
prime minister and her deputy, Turkish television reported.

Security officials said the bomb, which they described as powerful, had been
planted in a car stolen in the city 15 days ago. The wounded passers-by were
taken to hospital.

The television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, said the
bomb went off outside a building which housed the district offices of Prime
Minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party and the Republican People's Party of
Deputy Prime Minister Hikmet Cetin.

Turkey suspends military trade with South Africa

By Ercan Ersoy

ANKARA, May 24 (Reuter) - Turkey has added South Africa to its "red list" of
countries banned from supplying military equipment, a foreign ministry
spokesman said on Wednesday.

"After South Africa's decision to stop arms sales to Turkey, ...no new military
equipment will be bought from South Africa and its companies will not be
allowed to take part in military tenders," spokesman Nurettin Nurkan told a
news briefing.

Military officials said Turkey, the world's top recipient of military goods in
1994, had negligible military trade with South Africa. On Tuesday, Pretoria
said it was suspending the delivery of certain types of arms to Turkey. A
statement from South African embassy in Ankara said the embargo was "in line
with similar actions already taken by several other countries."

A Turkish diplomat told the English-language Turkish Daily News: "We consider
this an outrageous decision and attribute it to the past links with the African
National Congress (ANC)."

His comment referred to Ankara's conviction that the ANC has tacitly supported
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging a separatist struggle
in Turkey since 1984. In April, Turkey banned all military purchases from the
Netherlands after the creation of a self-proclaimed Kurdish government-in-exile
in the Hague.

>From 1987-1994, Turkey purchased military goods worth about $22 million, mainly
transmission parts for tanks, from its NATO ally the Netherlands. Defence
ministry officials said Turkey would still receive two deliveries agreed before
-- a naval refuelling system for $1.25 million and computer software worth
$2.75 million.

The Netherlands was jointly producing Stinger missiles and artillery shells
with Turkey's state-run MKE, and military-controlled firms of Aselsan and
Roketsan, they said.

"No country, including the Netherlands, is irreplaceable in military purchases.
The same equipment is being produced in other countries and purchases can be
made from the best bidder," said a defence ministry official, who asked for
anonymity. He did not say whether the embargo would mean a halt to the joint
ventures.

In March, Norway banned military exports to Turkey to protest against Turkey's
push into north Iraq to destroy PKK bases there. The six-week long incursion
ended on May 2.

Turkey, the biggest beneficiary of NATO military transfers, has received more
than 1,000 tanks including U.S. M-60s and German Leopard-1s, 600 armoured
vehicles and 70 artillery pieces, according to the Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute.