mainstream news:elections, article

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: mainstream news:elections, article 8, strikes, more


ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - The Turkish parliament early Friday approved a
bill for early general elections on Dec. 24, Turkey's state-run television
said.

The bill, submitted by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party and
the social democrat Republican People's Party, also gives expatriate Turks
the right to vote at customs posts, lowers the voting age to 18 from 21 and
increases the number of parliamentary seats to 550 from 450. Elections were
due by November next year at the latest.

The bill will take effect when published in the official gazette, probably
later this week.

Ciller's minority government, which lost a vote of confidence on October
15, holds power on a caretaker basis.

She has agreed with the social democrats to revive a former right-left
coalition government, which collapsed in mid-September in a row about
domestic security and human rights, after ruling the country for four
years.

(2)

By Suna Erdem

ANKARA, Oct 26 (Reuter) - Turkey's appeals court on Thursday ordered the
release of two Kurdish parliamentarians, but upheld sentences against four
other Kurdish MPs imprisoned late last year on charges of separatism.

The six deputies from the Democracy Party (DEP) were jailed last year for
separatism, largely on the basis of speeches they made in favour of broader
Kurdish cultural and political rights.

The appeals court decision, announced at a brief session, means that Ahmet
Turk, serving a 15-year sentence, and Sedat Yurtdas, jailed for 71/2 years,
will be released.

Lawyers for the MPs said Turk and Yurtdas would be retried under article 8
of the anti-terror law, which bans separatist propaganda and carries a
prison sentence of up to five years.

The appeals court refused to heed demands for the release of female MP
Leyla Zana and three others serving 15-year prison terms.

European parliamentarians have demanded the release of the six MPs before
they will agree to ratify a lucrative customs pact between Turkey and the
European Union. Euro-MPs also want Turkey to improve its human rights
record in general.

"I don't know if this will be enough for the European Parliament," a
Western diplomat at the appeals court hearing told Reuters.

Another six DEP deputies fled to Europe last year to avoid the risk of
prosecution. The party was shut down by Turkey's high court in 1994. The
court on Thursday also upheld the decisions against an independent
pro-Kurdish deputy and another DEP deputy, neither of whom are serving
prison terms.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas are waging a separatist war in
southeast Turkey, a conflict that has cost more than 18,000 lives since
1984.

(3)

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 7 1/2 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."

(4)

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 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 the
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.

(5)

ANKARA, Oct 26 (Reuter) - Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller on Thursday
welcomed planned parliamentary debate on changes to a law curbing freedom
of expression that could help seal approval for a trade pact with Europe.

"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. "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.

The recommendation on Wednesday by the parliamentary commission paves the
way for MPs to vote on changing Article 8 of Turkey's anti-terror law,
which bans "separatist propaganda" and is often used against peaceful
advocates of Kurdish rights.

The 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 the person charged had "intent" to
violate Turkey's territorial integrity, but human rights activists say it
is unclear how courts would define intent.

Changes in Article 8, under which scores of writers, lawyers and others are
in prison for writings or speeches, are demanded by some European
parliamentarians before approving a customs deal with Turkey.

The freeing of two of six Kurdish MPs jailed for having ties with or
encouraging the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Thursday may
help Turkey's bid for the customs union with Europe, scheduled to go into
effect at the start of next year.

(6)

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.

(7)

ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkey's government Thursday settled a pay
dispute with labor unions, heralding an end to a five-week-old strike by
public workers that has destabilized the political arena, union officials
said.

The dispute helped bring down Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's minority
government in a vote of confidence on Oct. 15.

Officials from the labor confederation Turk-Is told reporters Ciller had
agreed to give the workers a back-dated 16 percent rise for the first half
of 1995 and 16 percent for the second six months.

The 1995 rise would cost the government $1.3 billion, the officials said.
The workers would then get an 18 percent rise for the first six months of
1996, and 20 percent for the second six.

Ciller has been loathe to give the workers inflation-linked rises as they
had demanded because she says this would hinder her 1994 economic austerity
plan, brought in to quell a financial crisis.

The strike began the same day Ciller ended her right-left coalition with
the social democrats on Sept. 20. The workers' supporters withheld their
approval of Ciller's new minority administration in the confidence vote
earlier this month, helping sink the 10-day government.

The strike by up to 335,000 public sector workers began over a government pay
rise offer of 5.4 percent for 1995. Annual inflation is expected to hit 70
percent.

At its height, the strike brought ports, railways and the sugar industry to a
standstill and cost Turkey $10 million a day in exports alone. Around 200,000
workers are still on strike after the government ordered workers in some key
sectors back to their jobs.

Turk-Is officials have said a deal between the government and the union would
bring the strike to an immediate end.


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