mainstream news

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

By Suna Erdem

ANKARA, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller told a top
economic body on Wednesday there was not enough money to meet the demands of
335,000 public sector workers who have been on strike for three weeks.

Ciller called a meeting of the Economic and Social Council to discuss the
strike which two key parties want resolved before they give her minority
government support in a scheduled vote of confidence on Sunday. "We have a
responsibility towards everyone," Ciller was quoted on Anatolian news agency as
saying as she left the meeting. "The resources we have do not belong to the
state, they belong to everyone...They must be fairly distributed."

Ciller said public sector workers earned up to three times the monthly wage of
civil servants. A high pay rise for the workers would mean pledging money that
did not exist and could entail higher taxes, she said.

State Minister Necmettin Cevheri pledged the collective bargaining process for
the workers would continue, but would be resolved "with all sectors and
balances in mind," Anatolian said.

"Ciller seems determined not to give us a higher pay rise offer, so the chances
of a resolution by Sunday look slim," Yildirim Koc, a senior official at the
labour confederation Turk-Is, told Reuters.

The strike by public sector workers, which began on September 20 over an
initial government pay rise offer of 5.4 percent for the year, has idled ports,
sugar mills, paper mills, slowed railways and threatens the production of basic
goods, including wheat and sugar production.

The strike, Turkey's biggest for decades, is losing Turkey over $10 million a
day of exports, trade officials say.

Turk-Is boycotted Wednesday's meeting of the Economic and Social Council, an
advisory body made up of leading economic officials, private sector
representatives and trade unionists. Turk-Is leader Bayram Meral told Anatolian
the labour unrest could only end with better cooperation from Ciller, and vowed
to do everything possible to stop her winning the confidence vote.

Ciller formed a minority government on Thursday with the support of a
nationalist far-right party and a left-wing nationalist party. It replaces
Ciller's right-left coalition, which collapsed on September 20 -- the day the
strike began. The confederation is lobbying MPs to vote against Ciller in the
tight vote of confidence this weekend in anticipation of failed negotiations,
and has called a rally in the capital on Sunday for workers and their families.

But Koc did not totally rule out an agreement: "Ciller does not appear to be
opening the door to a solution, on the contrary, she is increasing the
tension...But the unexpected could still happen. We are open to offers, but
better offers."

He said the government had offered workers an 11.6 percent pay increase for the
next six months, and 8.5 percent for the following six-month tranche. Turk-Is
was "ready to discuss" two six-monthly rises of around 24 percent and 19
percent, he said.

Inflation is expected to be around 70 percent for 1995.

Koc said he expected Turkish civil servants, who plan a one-day work stoppage
next week, to announce their solidarity with the workers on Thursday.

Anatolian quoted civil servants' union spokesman Alper Ozturk as saying they
would "take to the streets to paralyse Turkey on October 17" for the right to
strike and bargain collectively.

(2)

ANKARA, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Turkish civil servants are to hold a one-day work
stoppage next week, adding to the labour unrest threatening Prime Minister
Tansu Ciller's new minority government, Anatolian news agency said on
Wednesday.

"We will use our power in the service sector and take to the streets to
paralyse Turkey on October 17," it quoted civil servants' union spokesman
Alper Ozturk as saying.

A three-week-old strike by 335,000 public sector workers has forced Ciller to
call a meeting for later on Wednesday afternoon of a top economic council, a
spokesman for the prime minister said.

Anatolian said the Confederation of Civil Servants' Unions distributed
leaflets in central Ankara in support of the walkout next Tuesday. They urged
the government to give civil servants the right to strike and bargain
collectively, it said.

Turkish civil servants, unlike other workers in the public sector, are
forbidden from striking but often stage "work stoppages" to press their
demands.

Public workers union confederation Turk-Is is lobbying MPs to oppose Ciller in
a tight vote of confidence in her new government on Sunday. "We are going to
try to speak to every single MP," senior Turk-Is official Yildirim Koc told
Reuters.

He said about 350,000 workers and their families will hold a rally in the
capital on Sunday if the strike is not resolved. Turk-Is leader Bayram Meral
was to boycott the meeting later on Wednesday of the Economic and Social
Council, called by Ciller to discuss the strike, Koc said.

The advisory council is made up of leading economic officials, private sector
representatives and trade unionists. "Most of its members are close to the
government. We don't expect much from the meeting," he said.


(4) Turkey eyes share in Eurocopter's Tiger project

ANKARA, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Turkey has asked Eurocopter to be included in a
consortium that will produce Tiger assault helicopters and their spare parts, a
defence official said on Wednesday.

"We want to enter the consortium and produce some spare parts for Tigers at a
plant in Turkey," said the official, who declined to be named. "We propose to
have a 25 percent share in the joint deal and that will be in return for 30
helicopters that we are pursuing to buy from Eurocopter," he said.

The consortium to produce Tiger helicopters includes France, Germany and
Britain, he said. Turkey, trying to modernise its army under a $10 billion
project launched in 1987, has been in talks with Eurocopter since June to buy a
second batch of 30 Cougar general-purpose helicopters, he said. "The price in
the second batch will be almost at the level of the first one," he said.

In 1993 Turkey bought 20 Cougar helicopters worth $253 million from Eurocopter,
a joint venture between France's state-owned Aerospatiale and Germany's
Daimler-Benz Aerospace.

The official said Eurocopter would have delivered nine Cougars, which can carry
28 people, by January and deliveries for the first batch would be completed by
the end of 1996. "The other 30 under the new deal may be delivered from 1997,
if the purchase agreement is reached," he added.

(5)

FRANKFURT, Germany, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Renowned Turkish author Yasar Kemal said
on Wednesday he had not been able to write since he was charged under the
country's controversial anti-terror law.

Turkey's most famous writer faces up to three years in jail after being accused
of "provoking hatred" with an article he wrote in the German magazine Der
Spiegel about Turkey's military campaign against separatist Kurds.

Kemal, speaking to reporters at the world's biggest book fair in Frankfurt,
said: "I have not written in 10 months. Because of all the letters, faxes and
business with the lawyers, I have had no time. For a young man, it would not be
grave but for a 73-year-old, that is an unpleasant situation."

He said he had written the first volume of a three-volume work before his
writing ground to a halt.

"I said to the judge that if I must sit in prison for a year or two or three,
then I can start to write again," he told reporters at the fair which has
attracted 9,000 publishers from 97 countries.

Last month, a Turkish court agreed to try him on a charge of "provoking hatred"
instead of a controversial charge of "separatist propaganda." The original
charge was filed under a law the European Union wants changing as a condition
for closer economic ties with Turkey.

Defending his stance, Kemal told reporters: "I have always trusted in the usual
conventions and principles of human rights. These are founded on the belief
that every community has the right to determine its future for itself."

(6)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Kurdish guerrillas have killed seven
people including four pro-government guards in attacks on economic targets in
eastern Turkey, government officials said on Wednesday.

Government troops killed six Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in a separate
overnight clash in the southeastern province of Bingol, the emergency rule
governor's office in Diyarbakir said.

PKK guerrilla rebels firing rockets and assault rifles killed a village guard
and two watchmen at an iron ore mine in the eastern province of Malatya on
Tuesday night, the Malatya provincial governor's office said in a statement.
The rebels then killed three other village guards and a night watchman at a
nearby state-owned telecommunications station, said the statement faxed to news
organisations.

The PKK have often targeted state-paid village guards, members of a
65,000-strong mainly Kurdish militia, in their 11-year-old separatist campaign.

Malatya is outside the 10-province state of emergency region in southeast Turkey
and not a traditional area of PKK activity. More than 18,000 people have been
killed in the rebels' campaign for independence or autonomy in southeast
Turkey.


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