mainstream news

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Labor Agreement and Court Ruling Help Ciller and Turkey

      By Jonathan Lyons

    ANKARA, Oct 26 (Reuter) - Turkey edged towards closer ties with the
West and wrapped up a messy domestic labour dispute on Thursday in some
rare bright spots for beleaguered Prime Minister Tansu Ciller.

    Ciller's hopes for a Customs Union with Europe got a partial fillip
after a court freed two of six Kurdish MPs, jailed in a case that has
threatened to torpedo Ankara's 32-year dream of a customs deal with Europe.

    The prime minister also agreed to a $1.3 billion deal with public
sector workers, heralding an end to a strike that brought down her minority
government in a vote of confidence on October 15. She now heads a caretaker
administration.

    But it was not clear whether either development could ease pressure on
Turkey, criticised abroad for human rights abuses and battered at home by
runaway inflation and towering deficits.

    Turkey's appeals court ordered the immediate release of Ahmet Turk and
Sedat Yurtdas, serving 15 years and 71/2 years respectively, but upheld
sentences against four other MPs.

    In Brussels a leading member of the European Parliament said the
decision to confirm prison terms on the four Kurdish MPs did not bode well
for the Customs Union.

    ``Chances of a Customs Union have certainly not improved,'' said
Pauline Green, who leads the Socialist Group in the assembly.

    The Socialists are the biggest single group in the European Parliament
which has threatened to veto the Customs Union unless Ankara cleans up its
human rights act.

    The six Kurdish MPs were jailed in 1994, largely for speeches backing
broader Kurdish cultural and political rights. Two others were convicted
but freed for time served.

    Analysts saw some hopeful signs in Thursday's verdict, shored up by
Ciller's fresh appeal to water down Article 8 of the anti-terror law --
used to stifle debate of the Kurdish issue.

    ``We think it is very positive,'' a diplomat from Spain, now holding
the EU presidency, told Reuters.

    ``It is of utmost importance to combine the release of the MPs with
quick, non-cosmetic reform to Article 8. A combination of these two
elements will be decisive for the European Parliament in a way that each
done separately may not.''

    Ciller on Thursday welcomed parliamentary debate on changes to Article
8.

    ``These changes can help expand freedom of expression and end some of
the prosecutions that have been subject to debate at home and abroad,'' she
said in a statement. Two of the Kurdish MPs were convicted under Article 8.

    The proposed changes include lowering prison terms to a maximum of
three years from five years and allowing some sentences to be suspended or
converted into fines.

    The rewritten law would also require ``intent'' to violate Turkey's
territorial integrity, but human rights activists say it is unclear how
courts would define the term.

    Thursday's ruling on the Kurdish MPs did not please the chief
prosecutor at Ankara state security court, where the MPs were tried on
capital charges.

    ``They are traitors. They should have been executed,'' Nusret Demiral
told Anatolian news agency. ``(If) they continue to commit their crime, we
will take new steps against them.''


EU Socialist Upset With Court Ruling Against Kurdish MPs By Jeremy Lovell

    BRUSSELS, Oct 26 (Reuter) - A leading member of the European Parliament
warned on Thursday that the decision by Turkey's appeals Court to confirm
15-year prison terms on four Kurdish members of parliament did not bode
well for the planned Customs Union with the European Union.

    ``Chances of a Customs Union have certainly not improved,'' Pauline
Green, who leads the Socialist Group in the assembly, said in a statement.

    The Socialists are the biggest single group in the European Parliament
which has threatened to veto the Customs Union unless Ankara cleans up its
human rights act.

    The Parliament is due to vote on the pact, due to come into effect on
January 1, in early December.

    A rejection would automatically delay implementation of the accord
which was finally agreed in early March when Greece was persuaded to lift
its veto linked to the divided island of Cyprus.

    Implementation of the Customs Union would release around $1 billion in
aid and loans for Turkey and give both sides unfettered access to each
other's markets.

    The parliament is particularly anxious that article eight of Turkey's
anti-terror laws should be either erased or at worst considerably modified.

    The Turkish Appeals Court on Thursday ordered the release of two of the
six Kurdish members of parliament.

    But it confirmed the 15-year terms on thr four others including Leyla
Zana who has been nominated by the European Parliament's Socialist Group
for the annual Sakharov Prize for Freedon of Thought.

    ``We are bitterly disappointed in the confirmation of the jail
sentences,'' Green said.

    ``We welcome the release of some of the Kurdish deputies. But we are
deeply disappointed that the court has taken no cognisance of the trend in
Turkey against article eight of the anti-terror law.

    ``We will now study exactly what the judgment is and it will be a very
central part of our decision-making on the Customs Union,'' she said.

    Beleagured Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, a keen advocate of the
Customs Union, on Thursday welcomed a proposal by a Turkish parliamentary
commission to hold a full debate on reform of article eight.

    ``Yesterday's action by the Justice Commission approving modification
to Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law is of great importance to our
nation,'' Ciller said in a written statement released in Ankara.

    ``These changes can help expand freedom of expression and end some of
the prosecutions that have been subject to debate at home and abroad,'' she
said.



Three Month Extension Advocated For Operation Provide Comfort ANKARA, Oct
26 (Reuter) -
Turkey's National Security Council on Thursday advised the extension of the
mandate of an allied strike force stationed in Turkey to protect Iraqi
Kurds but shortened the term to three from six months.

    A statement issued after the monthly meeting of the council chaired by
President Suleyman Demirel said the task force, named Operation Provide
Comfort, should continue to be based in Turkey for three months from
January.


    The council, whose recommendations are adopted by the government as a
matter of routine, usually extends the mandate for six months. No reason
was given for the shorter extension.

    The decision coincides with a visit by Iraqi deputy foreign minister
Saad Abdel-Majid al-Faisal, who met Foreign Minister Coskun Kirca for talks
focusing on northern Iraq, the Iraq force and a U.N. embargo on Iraq
imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

    Iraq wants the mandate of the allied air force to be terminated.
Foreign ministry officials have said the matter was for parliament to
decide, and that Ankara could give the visiting delegation no promises.

    The National Security Council also recommended that emergency rule be
extended in 10 southeastern provinces, where Kurdish guerrillas are
fighting an 11-year insurgency that has killed more than 18,000 people. It
agreed emergency rule should be extended for four months from November 19.

    Opposition in Turkey has grown against the allied air force, which has
protected autonomous Iraqi Kurds from Baghdad and patrols an exclusion zone
north of the 36th parallel.

    Critics say the autonomy given to the Iraqi Kurds, regularly consumed
in fratricidal conflict, increases the instability in the region and allows
the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to build bases from which to
launch attacks on Turkey.

    Parliament will have the final say when it votes on both issues this
month or early next month.

    Provide Comfort consists of more than 100 U.S., French and British
planes based at Incirlik in southern Turkey.



European Parliament Delays Decision on Award for Imprisoned Kurd
      STRASBOURG, Oct 26 (Reuter) - The European Parliament put off until
November 9 Thursday's expected vote to award the 1995 Sakharov Prize for
freedom of thought to the first Kurdish women to enter the Turkish
parliament.

    Leyla Zana, an active and vocal supporter of Kurdish and women's rights,
was jailed for 15 years by the Turkish government in 1994. Her case will be
examined by the European Court of Human Rights at the end of 1995.

    News this morning that the court of appeal in Ankara had confirmed her
heavy sentence helped her nominators -- the Socialist, Green and United Left
groups -- persuade the other political groups to back her.

    Only the Europe of Nations (EDN) group was unable to reach a consensus so
the vote had to be postponed.

    Green group leader Claudia Roth told Reuters there had been much debate
between the political groups about whether awarding Zana the prize would help
or hinder attempts to put pressure on Turkey to improve its human rights
record.

    The European Parliament is threatening not to ratify the EU's customs
union with Turkey in December unless Ankara shows greater respect for human
rights and democracy.

    EDN leader Jens-Peter Bonde told Reuters he personally believed awarding
Zana the prize would ``certainly have an influence in the right direction.''

    He said some French members of the EDN still preferred to back the EPP's
candidate, Russia's first human rights commissioner, Sergei Kovalev.

    ``Either the group will agree to back Zana or else there will be a split,
the group will abstain and Zana will win,'' Bonde predicted.

    Roth told Reuters she was ``very disappointed'' with the failure to reach
a decision, but added ``I hope we will get the vote on November 9.''

    Earlier in the day Roth had labelled the Turkish court's judgment ``an
outrage'' which would delay the ratification of the customs union.

    The 15,000-Ecu Sakarov prize was created by the EU assembly in 1985 to
reward outstanding work in the field of human rights, the development of
East-West relations or the protection of freedom to carry out investigations
or scientific research.

    It is named after the late Andrei Sakharov, the dissident Soviet
physicist and human rights campaigner who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.


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