Turkey Plans to Revise Anti-Terrori

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Turkey Plans to Revise Anti-Terrorism Law


    By Suna Erdem

    ANKARA, Oct 20 (Reuter) - Turkish Prime Minister Ciller's prospective
coalition agreed on Friday to change a controversial anti-terror law, a move
that could lead to the European Union's approval of a customs pact with
Turkey.

    ``We have decided to amend article 8 of the anti-terrorism law according
to article 10 of the European Human Rights Convention,'' Coskun Kirca,
foreign minister of Ciller's outgoing minority government, told reporters.

    Article 10 of the European Human Rights Convention protects the right to
freedom of expression. Kirca, quoted by the semi-official Anatolian news
agency, gave no details of how the Turkish law would be changed to suit it.

    Kirca, speaking after a meeting of officials from Ciller's conservative
True Path Party (DYP) and Republican Peoples Party (CHP), said the two
parties aimed to make progress on human rights until elections were held ``as
early as possible.''

    He said the new coalition, set up to go to early elections, would pledge
to enhance the wages of civil servants and pensioners in 1995 with extra
perks, solve a month-old public workers' strike, and speed up corruption
inspections.

    General polls are scheduled for next October at the latest.

    The CHP, a centre-left party, has strongly supported wider
democratisation -- including changes to Article 8 of Turkey's anti-terror law
-- and left the last coalition with Ciller last month partly because of
disagreements over security issues.

    But analysts say the party looks better placed now to push its democratic
agenda as Ciller failed in her month-long search to find new partners in
other parties and this week asked the social democrats to return to a
coalition.

    Kirca said once the coalition is formed, parliament would primarily deal
with harmonisation laws for customs union with the European union, and amend
legislation according to changes made in July to Turkey's 1982 military-era
constitution.

    Scores of people have been jailed under article 8 of Turkey's anti-terror
law for writings and speeches mainly related to Ankara's treatment of an
11-year Kurdish insurgency in the southeast, in which more than 18,000 people
have died.

    The European Parliament wants the article scrapped or amended in exchange
for approving the customs union deal between Ankara and the European Union by
the end of the year.

    CHP leader Deniz Baykal is in Brussels talking to senior Euro-MPs about
the deal. He is due to return late on Friday and should meet Ciller on
Saturday.

    After months of fruitless demands for wide democratic changes, European
diplomats and Turkish commentators say the European parliament will make do
just with changes to article 8.

    ``The general impression is that if only a comma is changed in article 8,
customs union will be approved,'' wrote columnist Taha Akyol in Milliyet
daily. ``So without further ado... parliament must 'change the comma' in the
next two months.''

    The new coalition will also be mindful that customs union approval is
likely to affect the voters in early general elections, now planned for
December or the early new year.

    Public workers, whose strike helped sink a minority government Ciller
tried to put together this month, say the right-left alliance could solve the
pay dispute.

    About a third of the 335,000 striking workers returned to work on
Ciller's orders this week. The rest remain on strike.


Turkish Government Urges Ratification of Customs Union
      BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (Reuter) - Turkish officials in Brussels said on
Friday a senior member of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's prospective new
coalition government had persuaded MEPs to approve the EU-Turkey customs
union in December.

    Deniz Baykal, the head of the centre-left CHP, told the leaders of the
European Parliament's political groups on Thursday that the coalition, set up
to go to elections in January, was as committed to reform as the previous
Ciller government, one official told Reuters.

    He said Baykal had ``found the right words to convince'' the reticent
European Socialist Party that the coalition had every intention of carrying
out the constitutional reforms and human rights improvements which MEPs are
demanding as a condition for approving the customs union.

    But Tony Robinson, the spokesman of the Socialist Party, which had
invited Baykal to Brussels, told Reuters it was wrong to think the party
would ``jump in with a decision at this stage.''

    He said Baykal had received a genuinely warm reception from the
parliament but Turkey could not expect there to be a clear cut decision in
December.

    ``There will be a debate in December but a customs union is one step
short of EU membership and we will take that vote very seriously,'' he said.

    If necessary, the planned start of the customs union could be put back.
He added, ``This won't be the first time the EU has stopped the clock at one
minute to midnight.''

    The Turkish official said Baykal had explained that there was
unfortunately little chance of the desired reforms taking effect before
January because of the punishing domestic election timetable.

    He urged them to go ahead and approve the customs union on schedule in
December so that it can come into effect on January 1, 1996.

    Robinson said the Socialists' view would depend to a great extent on what
happened in Turkey in the very near future.

    The newly formed coalition expects to seek a vote of confidence from the
parliament in Ankara by November 5.

    Turkish officials in Brussels said the new Turkish government's priority
task would be to pass a new electoral law and get its budget proposals
through parliament.

    This would make it well-nigh impossible to carry out the reforms demanded
by the European Parliament before the crucial date of November 23, when
Euro-MPs from the foreign affairs committee are due to decide whether or not
to recommend the customs union to the full assembly.

    Among other things, MEPs want Ankara to change a controversial
anti-terror law to include protection of the right to freedom of expression.


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