articles taken from the Economist

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

[Articles provided by ARIF N KILIC. ]

These two articles are taken from The Economist magazine (10/21/1995 issue):

Article#1 (page 20):

{bold} TURKEY FACING EUROPE
{bold} What are the priorities for Tansu Ciller's new government?

Fragile, prickly and strategically placed where Europe meets Asia, Turkey has
been staggering through yet another political crisis. Mrs Tansu Ciller, its
much-battered prime minister, has become the Elizabeth Taylor of Turkish
alliances, shedding, gaining, even regaining coalition partners with gusto, as
her compatriots yearn for steadier times and gasp at her knack for survival.
Her new government-remarkably similar in make-up to the one that collapsed a
month ago-may not last long: a general election, which she cannot be sure of
winning (see page 54), is due to be held at the end of the year, though the
date could slip to next spring or summer. Time, in any case, is not on Mrs
CIller's side. She needs to act with renewed speed and determination if she is
to keep her country moving in the right direction.

Pushing through the changes needed to bring Turkey into a customs union with
the European Union-her prime aim- will be tricky. The EU's governments are
ready to welcome the Turks, but Mrs Ciller still needs to do more to improve
her country's human rights laws, especially those that affect its large
Kurdish minority, if she is to persuade the Europen Parliament to give its
consent.

The customs union would give the Turks many economic benefits that full
members of the EU enjoy. To be refused it would come as a grievous economic,
political and psychological blow to them. It would tilt a lot of Turks,
including some in Mrs Ciller's own party, away from Europe to the muddle and
intolerance that scar many of Turkey's Middle Eastern neighbours. It would
give heart to such already burgeoning groups as the Welfare party, which
preaches a brand of Islamic fundamentalism that is less wild than most but
that nonentheless calls for Turkey to leave NATO, castigates Mrs Ciller's
drive for western investment, and opposes the secular values that have
tempered Turkish nationalism since the time of Ataturk. All of this would be
bad for Turkey.

Mrs Ciller has taken a number of steps to meet European concerns. Earlier this
year her government put through a string of constitutional ammendments that
broadened political freedoms. With mixed success, she has imposed an austerity
plan, backed by the International Monetary Fund, to make Turkey's currency
more stable and to shrink the public-sector borrowing requirement. She has
tried to curb inflation. Economic liberalisation, the beginnings of
privatisation and an explosion of private broadcasting have loosened the
state's grip and opened Turkish eyes more widely to the outside world. There
are hints of new Turkish flexibility over Cyprus. In all these things, Mrs
Ciller has taken broadly the right decisions.

{bold} One more heave, please

But Turkey needs to go further. With a bit of luck, it now can. Its courts
should start freeing Kurdish members of parliament imprisoned under its
catch-all security laws. And it should amend -or, better still, abolish- the
obnoxious article 8 of its anti-terrorism law, which deems criminal anything
that "damages the unity of the state". This has been streched to cover even
the peaceful espousal of Kurdish cultural rights or of regional
self-government. Mrs Ciller is still committed to this change. If she fails,
she can expect a rebuff from the EU.

That would be a pity all round. Europe-and not only its EU countries- needs
Turkey, for years a bastion of relative stability at a dangerous global
crossroads, just as Turkey needs Europe.But even Mrs CIller does clinch her
customs deal, Turks still need to come to terms with Kurdish nationalism.
Turkish businessmen and democrats are both slowly starting to realize that a
more liberal approach to the Kurds would be good for teh country as a whole.
Most Kurds want the freedom to preserve theris cultural identity and to run
more of their own affair; they do not want secession. Denying them those
things merely strokes Kurdish separatism-and prevents Turkey from assuming the
role of healthy democracy linking Asia and Europe.

*******
Article#2 (page 54)

{bold} Turkey
{bold} Full Circle

Tansu Ciller, Turkey's prime minister, was rescued at the 11th hour by the man
who jilted her in the first place. The fickled fellow in question is Deniz
Baykal, leader of the left-leaning Republican People's Party, who last month
walked out of their coalition. Mrs Ciller then cobbled together a
strange-looking minority government with the backing of another small left
wing party and shady little one on the nationalist far right. It lost a vote
of confidence. The, when all hope for the lady seemed gone, back rode Mr
Baykal with an offer to rekindle the alliance. Odly, Mrs Ciller's topsy-turvy
fortunes may have left her stronger than before. Maybe Turkey will benefit
too.

Mrs Ciller is tough. The many people who have written her off have been proved
wrong again. Back in March last year, in the currency crisis, her True Path
party still managed to get more votes that anybody in the local elections.
This time, with her back to the wall again, she kept cool, mocking Mesut
Yilmaz, the leader of the biggest opposition group, the centre-right
Motherland Party, and sacking a dozen backsliders in her own party.

Mr Baykal gained too. He has shown that he is not Mrs Ciller's lapdog. He made
her sack Istanbul's bellicose police chief for sneering at the Republicans'
stand in favour of human rights. Mr Baykal's politicking also ensured that
public sector workers, who went on strike during the crisis, would get a
better deal (which will not help Turkey's anti-inflation drive). Such
muscle-flexing, he hopes, will stop voters drifting away to support the rival
Democratic Left Party, led by a former prime minister, Bulent Ecevit.

More important for Turkey, Mr Baykal has helped to free Mrs CIller from her
dependence on parliamentary votes from the nationalist hard right. She now has
a better chance of changing article 8 of anti-terrorist law, which makes
illegal anything that "damages the unity of the state" and has been used to
suppress demands for freer use of the Kurdish language and for Kurdish
self-government. The European Parliament has demanded the article's abolition
as a precondition for Turkey's admission to a custom union with the European
Union. Mr Baykal has already gone to Brussels to persuade fellow social
democrats to give Turkey the nod.

Yet Mrs Ciller's revamped coalition, though useful, may be short-lived. The
main parties' leaders have agreed to a general election on December 24th. The
european Parliament is due to vote on Turkey's customs union admission in
mid-December. Most Turks would like it to say yes . Mrs Ciller would then, not
surprisingly, want a poll as soon as possible.

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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)