Mainstream news in important times

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Mainstream news in important times on Turkey/Kurds


Free Speech Becomes Casualty in War on Kurds
By CELESTINE BOHLEN

10/29/95 N.Y. Times

ANKARA, Turkey - Last summer, a political science professor in Ankara
published a survey based on interviews with 1,200 Kurds whose lives had been
swept up in the war that for 11 years has raged between government forces and
Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey.

The report's findings were neither startling nor particularly threatening.
Only a small minority endorsed the idea of an independent Kurdish state, and
those who favored a federation were clearly befuddled as to what that meant:
some, he found, thought federation meant ``peace and bread.''

But what the Kurds did say clearly in the personal interviews conducted by
the professor, Dogu Ergil, was that now more than ever they consider
themselves to be Kurds, a distinct ethnic group that has yet to be recognized
by the Turkish state.

``It was the first time the Kurds of Turkey were asked, who are you and what
do you want,'' said Ergil, who heads the political behavior department at
Ankara University. ``The overwhelming majority said they want to stay in
Turkey, but as Kurds.''

In many countries where the population is ethnically divided, such a
conclusion would be self-evident. But in Turkey, where for 72 years the
government has struggled to forge a single nation, Ergil's report was
promptly referred to a State Security Court where it is being examined to see
if it fits the definition of ``separatist propaganda'' under Article 8 of a
1991 anti-terrorism law.

But Ergil, unlike many others who have dared write or talk about the Kurdish
question in Turkey, has not yet been put on trial or in jail. Nor have the
sponsors of his report, an association that represents 700,000 small-business
executives, disclaimed the author or his findings, despite denunciations in
the mainstream press.

At a time when Turkey's human rights record is being closely watched,
particularly in Europe, the reaction to Ergil's report reflects Turkey's
continuing difficulty in confronting the war in the southeast that since 1984
has claimed 18,000 lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and is
costing the state an estimated $7 billion a year.

Kurds in Turkey, who number about 12 million out of a total population of 65
million, can now openly speak and write in their own language and listen to
their own music, rights that were begrudgingly granted them in the 1980s. But
they cannot form ethnic associations, use their language in schools, on radio
or on television - something that falls into the category of ``separatist
propaganda.''


Dealing with the Kurdish question has always been a challenge for Turkey,
founded in 1923 on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal, known as
Ataturk. His vision was of a modern, secular, indivisible Turkish state; for
this, it was necessary to create a Turkish national consciousness that
allowed no room for a separate Kurdish identity. A Kurdish rebellion in 1925
was summarily suppressed.

Turkey's poor record on human rights pre-dates the war in the southeast, but
the unrelenting campaign of terrorism begun by the Kurdish Workers' Party in
1984 has produced a harsh and uncompromising government response that many
Turks consider essential for peace.

The southeast has been placed under a state of emergency; hundreds of Kurdish
villages have been forcibly evacuated, sometimes burned; pro-Kurdish
political parties have been silenced; prisoners are tortured, and human
rights campaigners are jailed.

But the clampdown has spread beyond the southeastern provinces where a
majority of Turkey's Kurds still live. In Istanbul and Ankara, Kurdish
newspapers are regularly censored and periodically closed; writers,
journalists and intellectuals who have defended broader rights for the
Kurdish minority have been tried in court, sometimes jailed.

Critics, like Ergil, have long argued that by suppressing debate on the
Kurdish question, Turkey has driven many Kurds into the arms of the Kurdish
Workers' Party.

``We found considerable support for the terrorist organization not because
these people condone the violence, or think of it as their savior, but
because they see it as an organ to air their dissatisfaction,'' he said.

Another Turkish journalist was convicted this month for writing a satirical
article on the Kurdish question. And on Oct. 12, a State Security Court in
Istanbul decided to prosecute an American correspondent for the Reuters news
agency on charges that she provoked ``racial hatreds'' by writing an article
on the forced evacuation of Kurdish villages that appeared in a Kurdish
newspaper in Istanbul.

Walter Cronkite, chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, met
recently with Prime Minister Tansu Ciller to protest the charges against the
correspondent, Aliza Marcus, whom he described as ``the first American
casualty of the Turkish government's deplorable campaign of censorship and
intimidation against journalists covering the Kurdish separatist movement.''

These cases have again put the spotlight on Turkey at a time when the
European Parliament is nearing a vote on Turkey's longstanding quest to join
the European customs union. The Europeans have insisted that Turkey, at a
minimum, broaden political rights and ease restrictions on free speech.

With the passage last July of a package of constitutional amendments that
lifted restrictions on political participation by a number of social groups,
attention is now focused on Article 8, a law that regards as a crime any act
that ``threatens the indivisible unity of the Turkish state.'' According to
human rights observers, there are 174 people now in Turkish prisons convicted
under Article 8, compared with 120 last year.

Mrs. Ciller's coalition government has promised to push for changes to
Article 8, but it is still not clear what amendments she will be able to get
through the Parliament.

Many politicians resent the pressure from outside the country to change a law
that they regard as a cornerstone in the fight against terrorism. Opposition
to any softening in the war against the Kurdish Workers' Party has made
repeal of Article 8 unlikely, politicians say.

``I want to see Article 8 abolished, but we do not have the majority'' said
Hitmet Cetin, a social democrat who was deputy prime minister in Mrs.
Ciller's first coalition government. ``I want an ideal solution, but we have
to be realistic. It was the same thing with the constitutional amendments: We
have to start somewhere.''

Human rights observers are skeptical that a change in the law will do much to
change Turkey's repressive tactics. They note that several recent cases,
including the one brought against Ms. Marcus, have been brought under other
articles in the penal code.

``We don't want to overplay this,'' said one Western diplomat. ``Changing
Article 8 doesn't solve all of Turkey's human rights problem but that is the
one the European parliament has focused on.''

But Ergil is hoping for an open debate that looks at the Kurdish question in
a broader, more political context.

``We are no longer dealing with single acts of terrorism,'' he said. ``It has
risen to the level of a social conflict, and it is a conflict we have to
understand, contain and if not eliminate then at least dry out.''


PKK Loses 38 In Clash With Turks

      DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkish security forces killed 38 Kurdish
rebels and lost four of their own in fresh clashes in southeastern Turkey,
the regional governor's office said Sunday.

    Twenty-six guerrillas of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
were killed during an operation Saturday night near Genc town in Bingol
province. Four soldiers died and five others were wounded in the clash, the
office said.

    On the same day, troops killed five PKK rebels in Cukurca town near the
Iraqi border.

    Seven other PKK guerrillas were killed in two separate clashes in the
southeastern towns of Hazro and Yuksekova.

    More than 18,000 people have died since 1984 when the PKK launched a
armed campaign for an independent Kurdish state in the southeast.

By Jonathan Clayton

BRUSSELS, Oct 29 (Reuter) - A drive to anchor Turkey firmly to western Europe
moves into a critical phase this week when European Union and Turkish foreign
ministers meet to complete technical work on a landmark customs union.

But after a week which has seen Turkey's human rights record again in the
spotlight, both sides are desperately looking for a way of saving a pact which
is about far more than mere economics.

"Things are not looking too good," said one senior EU diplomat about the
chances of the customs union winning the required support in the left-leaning
European Parliament. "We rather think it may be better to put off the vote than
have a vote which is negative," he added. The European Parliament was
originally due to vote at its December session.

The customs union gives Turkey better access and terms than virtually any other
non-member of the 15-nation EU and is seen as essential to support secular
democratic government in the vast country on western Europe's turbulent
southern flank. But in Turkey, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's coalition
government, which made the pact one of its key foreign policy goals, is now
hanging on by a shoestring.

Ciller's minority government lost a vote of confidence on October 15 and now
holds power on a caretaker basis, making it difficult to resist pressure from
conservative hawks in her True Path Party and critics outside who argue against
relaxing Turkish anti-terror laws because of European pressure.

Political analysts say Ciller is in no position to deliver sweeping reforms
demanded by European parliamentarians, particularly on the contentious Kurdish
issue for which there is a deep fund of sympathy in European democracies.

Last week, Turkey released two jailed Kurdish MPs -- Ahmet Turk and Sedat
Yurtdas, serving 15 and seven-and-a-half years respectively -- but upheld
sentences of 15 years for four others found guilty of aiding Kurdish separatist
guerrillas.

Pauline Green, leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, said
she was "bitterly disappointed" by the decision to keep the four other MPs
behind bars.

In remarks emphasising Ciller's lack of much room for manouevre, the chief
prosecutor Nusret Demiral was unrepentant: "They are traitors. They should have
been executed."

Eight Kurdish MPs were arrested in March last year after Ciller said they were
members of the Kurdistan Workers Party "sheltering under the parliament's
roof." Six others fled to Europe and the Democracy Party was banned.

There was an international outcry and calls for the scrapping of Turkey's
catch-all Article 8 of the constitution, its main anti-terrorist law, under
which many Kurdish separatists and sympathetic supporters are held. The state
prosecutor's indictment was based largely on the MPs' speeches on Kurdish
rights, bugged telephone calls and confessions from jailed separatists. Defence
lawyers maintain the MPs did not have the chance to introduce witnesses and
evidence.

Late on Friday, Ankara managed to win some good marks with a successful vote in
parliament backing proposed amendments to Article 8, but EU sources say it will
not alone go far enough. "It may buy more time, that's all," said one analyst.

Immediately after their release, Turk and Yurtdas said the planned changes were
cosmetic and did not alter the lack of real human rights change in Turkey.

The changes would not affect the MPs still in prison, but sentences on others
accused of "separatist propaganda" could be reduced or commuted to fines.
Scores of intellectuals could be released.

Turkey hailed the 189-83 vote, with two abstentions, as more evidence of the
upgrading process of democracy in the country.

"This development is a further demonstration of Turkey's commitment to the
continuation of democratic reforms," Uluc Ozulker, Turkey's ambassador to the
EU, said in a statement.

(2)

ANKARA, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Two Kurdish MPs, jailed last year for separatist
activities, left Ankara central prison on Friday, more than 24 hours after an
appeals court overturned their convictions and ordered their release, witnesses
said.

Four other Kurdish members of the Turkish parliament remain behind bars after
the same court rejected their appeals.

Looking stern, Ahmet Turk and Sedat Yurtdas walked out of the prison's big grey
doors accompanied by their lawyer, to a warm reception from a small crowd of
friends, supporters and journalists.

They slammed Thursday's decision by Turkey's appeals court to free them while
upholding the 15-year sentences of the other four MPs jailed last year in a
case that has threatened Ankara's bid for a customs union with Europe. "This is
a deception, it was done for the European Union," Yurtdas said. The pair then
made their way by car to their parliamentary residences in Ankara which they
must now vacate.

The jailed deputies' release has been demanded by Ankara's critics in the
European Parliament, which must ratify the customs union deal before it can go
into effect next year.

The court's move, though seen as lame by many European diplomats and
parliamentarians, could still help Turkey get the trade pact if Ankara can also
deliver promised changes to article 8 of its tough anti-terrorism law.

Turk and Yurtdas, standing before the prison where they had been held for more
than a year, criticised planned changes to the phrasing and penalties of
article 8 as merely cosmetic, and expressed disappointment in the lack of real
human rights change in Turkey.

Turk had been serving 15 years for taking orders from the banned separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Yurtdas was given 7.5 years for aiding PKK
guerrillas. All MPs from the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) were stripped of
their parliamentary immunity and their MP status last year.

Seven DEP deputies and an independent were tried and convicted last December
but two of them were released for time served. Six others fled to Europe before
they could be prosecuted.

(3)

ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Two Kurdish parliamentarians, fresh from Ankara
central prison, Friday slammed the appeals court that set them free but ordered
four others to serve out 15-year sentences for separatist activities.

"We were not pleased at all by the decision," said former Mardin MP Ahmet Turk,
sitting in his parliamentary residence while his children and grandchildren ran
up for hugs. "We say it today and we will say it tommorrow, who profits from
this situation where the elected representatives of the people are thrown out
of parliament?" Turk, looking wan and thin from 20 months behind bars, told
Reuters.

Turk and former Diyarbakir MP Sedat Yurtdas, released from prison more than 24
hours after the court's decision, accused the court of trying to boost Turkey's
bid for a lucrative customs deal with the European Union.

The release of the jailed deputies has been demanded by Ankara's critics in the
European Parliament, which must ratify the customs union deal due to go into
effect at the start of 1995. The court's move, although seen as insufficient by
many European diplomats and parliamentarians, could still help Turkey get the
trade pact if Ankara can also deliver promised changes to article 8 of its
tough anti-terrorism law.

But Turk said Ankara's planned rewrite of the anti-terror law was a "window
dressing" for Turkey's Western allies and called on Europe to reject the
customs union bid. Turk had been serving 15 years for taking orders from the
banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Yurtdas was given 7 1/2 for
aiding PKK guerrillas. They were not accused of taking part in armed actions.

(4)

By Jonathan Lyons

ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - The Turkish parliament Friday accepted changes to an
anti-terror law, paving the way for the release of intellectuals, lawyers and
politicians convicted for publicly demanding greater rights for the country's
10 million Kurds.

The changes, sponsored by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and championed by her
social democratic allies, would allow for reduced jail terms or freedom for
those already convicted under the law.

Turkey's partners in the European Union have for months been seeking the
changes in return for a lucrative customs union worked out early this year. But
some in the European parliament, due finally to debate the customs union in
December, have sought broader changes such as gutting or even scrapping the
1991 law which bans "separatist propaganda." It is not yet clear if the changes
proposed on Friday would satisfy them.

The proposed law would reduce maximum jail terms under the law to three years
from five, make it possible to commute jail terms to fines and require
prosecutors to prove a defendant's remarks were intended to undermine the
unitary Turkish state.

"The basic intent is to make the law compatible with the commitments in our
existing (human rights) treaties and conventions," Onur Oymen, foreign ministry
undersecretary, told a press briefing as MPs began debate. If the reform bill
passes, as Turkish political analysts expect, it would be another shot in the
arm for Ciller, due to form a new government with the social democrats more
than one month after they left her previous government.

Thousands of workers ended a five-week strike Friday, the biggest in the modern
history of Turkey's state sector, after the government offered a $1.3 billion
settlement.

Oymen said the reforms also called for review of all convictions within one
month: "This shows it will have an immediate impact... we think this is a
rather substantial change in our law."

The release from jail Thursday of two of six Kurdish MPs -- some of whom were
convicted under Article 8 of the law -- has so far done little to win over
Turkey's European critics. But opposition even to the current set of proposed
reforms remains entrenched in Turkey's nationalistic parliament, particularly
to any commutation of jail time to fines. "With this law, those who defend
terrorists will pay money and stroll around... while the martyrs lie under the
ground," Orhan Erguder, an Istanbul conservative, told parliament.

Social democrats said the reforms reflected ordinary Turks' yearnings for
greater democracy. "This is not being done because the West wants it, we are
doing it for our people," said social democrat deputy Coskun Gokalp.

Rights activists estimate about 100 people are in jail under Article 8, many of
whom could be freed under the planned review. The terror law dates back to
1991, when it replaced other laws barring communist, fundamentalist and
separatist "activities." It has been used effectively to stifle debate of
Kurdish and human rights issues.

(5)

By Aliza Marcus

ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkish human rights monitors and lawyers have
slammed changes to a restrictive law on freedom of expression, charging the
reforms will not stop people from going to jail for things they say or write.

"This is just a trick, a type of cosmetic change that will not protect us from
being punished for our thoughts," said Akin Birdal, head of the independent
Human Rights Association of Turkey, said.

Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has called the changes -- passed by parliament late
Friday -- to Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law banning "separatist propaganda" a
key part of Turkey's drive for greater democratisation.

Article 8, which in Europe became a symbol of alleged human rights abuses in
Turkey, has been used to jail scores of writers, lawyers and others who
demanded broader freedoms for the Kurdish minority or criticised alleged
abuses. But many analysts say the changes do not go far enough to protect
freedom of speech and are little more than a sop to Europe before a trade pact
with Turkey comes to a vote in the European Parliament in December.

"These changes are not acceptable to us, now we have to see whether they are
acceptable for the Europeans," said Haluk Gerger, a Turkish intellectual
released from prison last week after 16 months under Article 8 for writing that
violence results when peaceful channels for dissent are closed.

Rights-conscious Euro-MPs have threatened to veto the customs union -- which
will give Turkey close ties to the European Union and access to financial
credits -- unless Ankara made concrete steps to improve its human rights
record.

Under the amended law, the maximum prison sentences were dropped to three years
from five, jail terms can be commuted to fines or suspended and courts must
prove the defendant intended to disrupt the territorial unity of the Turkish
republic.

Pressure from European allies was seen as the catalyst that led parliament to
approve the changes, which will allow many of the some 100 people now in prison
to be released. Analysts say the changes will not open the way for unfettered
criticism of Turkey and its policies toward the Kurds, some 15 percent of
Turkey's 60 million people.

"The changes are nonsense, a joke, it's like make-up that doesn't fit," said
Mehmet Ali Birand, host of an influential public affairs television program.
"All it showed is that pressure from the European parliament worked because
otherwise you couldn't have pushed parliament to make even this kind of
change," he told Reuters.

The changes also will not affect the estimated 70 additional people human
rights groups say are in prison under other laws for stating their views, such
as Turkish sociologist Ismail Besikci, sentenced to a total of 103 years in
prison for books and articles on the Kurds.

The ban in Article 8 on "separatist propaganda" remains and lawyers say because
intent is not defined, courts could say that simply writing for a pro-Kurdish
publication is proof of intent.

Many Turkish politicians argue limits on speech are needed as long as Kurdish
guerrillas continue their 11-year battle for autonomy or independence in the
mainly Kurdish southeast. More than 18,000 people have died in fighting. But
others say the battle by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is fuelled by
restrictions on freedom of speech and Kurdish identity, such as bans on
Kurdish-language education and broadcasts and the imprisonment of people who
write about Kurdish history or criticise alleged abuses.

(6)

BRUSSELS, Oct 27 (Reuter) - EU foreign ministers are expected to approve the
last technical details to allow a customs union with Turkey to enter into force
on January 1, 1996 even though it is widely believed the pact is dead.

The foreign ministers will hold an Association Council with Turkey in the
margins of next Monday's GAC in Luxembourg.

"The Association Council is also expected to bolster the current framework of
cooperation between Turkey and the EU including in the financial area," the
Turkish delegation to the EU said in a statement.

The customs pact, which would give Turkey better access to EU markets than
almost any other non-member, must be approved by the European Parliament which
objects to Ankara's human rights record.

The chances of the pact garnering sufficient votes to pass through the
parliament declined further this week when the country's supreme court
confirmed long prison sentences against four Kurdish members of parliament.

The parliament has frequently said ratification of the accord is conditional
upon the freeings of the MPs who were sentenced to up to 15 years in jail last
year for belonging to or abetting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The PKK, a guerrilla group fighting against the army in south-eastern Turkey
for the past 11 years, has been blamed by the government for a series of
vicious terrorist attacks.

The European Parliament is due to vote on the issue at its December session.
"The view at the moment is that it may be better to put off a vote rather than
to hold one and lose it," said one EU diplomat.

(7)

BONN, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Germany said on Friday the decision by a Turkish court
to uphold sentences imposed on four Kurdish deputies on separatist charges
would not help Ankara's bid for a customs union with the European Union.

"The verdict of the Turkish court of cassation in the case of the Kurdish
deputies is disappointing," Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said in a statement,
adding that the German government would study the ruling.

Turkey's appeals court on Thursday ordered the release of two Kurdish deputies,
but upheld the 15-year sentences against four others jailed last year for
separatism. The charges were largely based on speeches made in favour of
broader Kurdish cultural and political rights.

"Bearing in mind the (forthcoming) decision of the European Parliament on the
creation of a customs union between the EU and Turkey, everything must be done
on the Turkish side to create the appropriate conditions," Kinkel said.
"Yesterday's verdict certainly did little to help in this respect. I appeal to
the Turkish national assembly to create the legal conditions so that such
trials cannot be repeated. The appeals decision must not be the last word,"
Kinkel said.

He said Germany had repeatedly put the case of the jailed deputies from the
Democracy Party (DEP) to the Turkish authorities.

(8)

(Reuter) - Turkish President Suleyman Demirel Saturday approved a bill calling
for early general elections, paving the way for Dec. 24 polls despite fears
there is not time to update voting lists. But parliamentarians opposed to early
polls immediately started collecting signatures to force the constitutional
court to review the law in hopes of having it overturned.

"We want the law to be revoked," social democrat MP Mumtaz Soysal told the
state-controlled Anatolian news agency.

Parliament has passed two laws to hold early general elections, one which can
be reviewed by the high court and one which analysts say cannot be reviewed.
But Soysal threatened to find a way to get the second decision overturned as
well.

The bill was originally submitted by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's True Path
Party and the social democrat Republican People's Party. Ciller's minority
government, which lost a vote of confidence on Oct. 15, holds power on a
caretaker basis.

Some politicians have already cast doubts on whether the polling can be held
because of tough winter conditions that make parts of the country impassable
and the need to update voting lists in line with recent constitutional changes.

Debate now centres on whether Turkey can register 18-year-olds in time for
polling and make provisions to allow citizens overseas to vote. Previously the
voting age was 20. There is also the issue of re-registering voters because of
huge migration from southeast Turkey, where millions of Kurds have fled their
homes because of fighting between separatist Kurdish guerrillas and the Turkish
army.

Last year by-elections were cancelled after the Turkish constitutional court
ruled voting lists had to be updated to allow Kurds driven from their homes the
chance to vote where they had taken refuge.

(9)

By Suna Erdem

ANKARA, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Beleaguered Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has
been boosted by the end of a big labour strike, but doubts over planned early
polls and the economic strain of a workers' pay rise deal still cloud her
horizon.

Her aim of sealing a customs union with Europe ahead of polls set for December
remains in the balance as Turkey's European allies appear disappointed with an
appeals court decision to release just two of six jailed Kurdish MPs.

Thousands of state workers returned to work on Friday after a five-week strike
ended when the government and trade unions reached a pay rise settlement worth
$1.3 billion.

"Most sectors are resuming work immediately from today," said Yildirim Koc, a
senior official at Turkey's largest trade union confederation Turk-Is, which
struck the pay deal with Ciller's government on Thursday. He told Reuters all
workers who took part in the strike that helped sink Ciller's minority
government in a confidence vote earlier this month would be back at work by
Monday.

The end of the strike of up to 335,000 public workers comes as immediate relief
for Ciller, but Thursday's big pay settlement, expected to cost $1.3 billion in
1995 alone, will hamper her efforts to cure the economy's rampant ills.

Turkish economists expect the next government will have to launch a tough
stabilisation package similar to Ciller's 1994 economic austerity plan, brought
in after a financial crisis.

Ciller had resisted early elections until she lost the vote of confidence,
saying an election economy would hinder her stringency plan and vote-seeking
campaigning would detract from vital aims such as passing laws for customs
union. But after the vote, her True Path Party (DYP) and its prospective social
democrat coalition partners proposed the bill that was passed early on Friday
setting early elections for December 24. Elections are due any time before late
October, 1996.

Several hurdles remain before the date is fixed for good, and opposition
parties and the state election authority cast doubts the polls could be held
that soon.

Opposition MPs say the poll date is a Ciller ploy to find an unfeasible
election formula, enabling her to stay in office longer until the ensuing
confusion is sorted out. "We believe she either expects the constitutional
court will annul the bill or that the High Election Committee (YSK) will say it
cannot organise elections in time," said Oltan Sungurlu, a deputy chairman of
main opposition Motherland Party (ANAP).

The liberal Yeni Yuzyil daily quoted YSK chairman Nihat Yavuz as saying it
would be very hard to hold polls in December, saying plans to do so were out of
"political caprice".

But President Suleyman Demirel told the Anatolian news agency that early polls
would breathe new life into Turkish politics, in turmoil since September 20 when
Ciller ended her right-left coalition and the workers strike began.

Also on Friday, two pro-Kurdish MPs, jailed last year for "separatism", left
Ankara central prison more than 24 hours after Turkey's appeals court overturned
their convictions. But the decision to keep four other Kurdish members of the
Turkish parliament behind bars after the court rejected their appeals has
disappointed Turkey's Western allies and left in doubt a vote by the European
Parliament on customs union.

"Yesterday's verdict certainly did little to help in this respect," German
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said in Bonn. The rights-conscious Euro-MPs are
due to vote in December on Turkey's goal for a customs deal with Europe.

(10)

ANKARA, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Thousands of Turkish state workers returned to work
on Friday after a five-week strike ended when the government and trade unions
reached a pay rise settlement worth $1.3 billion, union officials said.

"Most sectors are resuming work immediately from today," said Yildirim Koc, a
senior official at Turkey's largest trade union confederation Turk-Is, which
struck the pay deal with Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's minority government on
Thursday. He told Reuters all striking workers, whose number fell to about
200,000 from 335,000 on October 17 after the government ordered workers in key
sectors back to work, would return to the workplace on Monday at the latest.

Union officials from non-sugar agriculture and cement sectors said their
workers resumed work on Friday.

Ciller's government gave the workers retroactive 16 percent pay rises for each
half of this year. It also pledged a rise of 18 percent for the first six
months of 1996 and 20 percent for the second half.

The 1995 rise will cost the cash-short treasury 65 trillion Turkish lira
($1.3 billion), officials said.

Economy officials say the back-dated wage payments will put a substantial
strain on the over-burdened treasury, whose outstanding domestic debt stood at
1,190 trillion lira ($23.6 billion) in September.

At its height, the strike caused losses of $10 million a day in foreign trade
alone. Under Thursday's agreement, the minimum net monthly wage for a state
worker will rise to 12 million lira ($238) from the current 6.6 million
($131).

The average annual increase for 1995 comes to 34.6 percent -- well below the
year-on-year consumer price inflation of 91.3 percent. The government's 1996
inflation target of 45 percent is also higher than the 41.6 percent rise for
workers next year.

(11)

By Servet Yildirim

ANKARA, Oct 27 (Reuter) - Turkish economists expect the next government to
launch a tough stabilisation package after parliamentary elections planned for
late December.

But any effort to cure the economy's rampant ills will be further hampered by
Thursday's big pay settlement for public sector workers, expected to cost $1.3
billion in 1995 alone.

"Turkey must implement a new stability package which I believe should have
been introduced (already). It has been delayed due to political concerns,"
Izzettin Onder, a professor of economics at Istanbul University, told Reuters.

The Turkish parliament approved a bill on Friday for early general elections on
December 24, but several hurdles remain before the date is fixed for good.

The inflation-ridden economy, struggling with big deficits, may suffer more
ahead of the polls from increased farm subsidies and the new pay deal, which
ended a five-week strike. Both were seen by economists and analysts as
pre-election manoeuvres by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller to win votes.

"Pay rises will boost domestic demand, push up inflation and increase public
borrowing needs. Its effect will be felt in inflation over the next four
months," a planning official said.

Businessmen and economists say Turkey must stabilise its economy in 1996 when
it hopes to begin a customs union with Europe. They fear some Turkish producers
will not be able to compete with their rivals after the accord takes effect,
unless interest rates and inflation are brought down to European levels.

Inflation is now running at around 80 percent and compound interest rates on
treasury bills hit 130 percent.

Any new government will have to focus efforts on curbing inflation, narrowing
budget and trade deficits, managing high debts, and speeding up privatisation.

Turkey last launched a stabilisation programme in April 1994 when the country
was hit by a financial crisis. The 1994 measures, also backed by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) through a stand-by loan, calmed the markets,
reduced inflation from triple digits to 80 percent and helped the economy
recover after a contraction of 6.1 percent in 1994.

But the economy has worsened since mid-September when Turkey was hit by
political turmoil after Ciller's right-left coalition collapsed and some
350,000 workers went on strike over a pay dispute. The dispute was solved on
Thursday and workers are returning to their jobs.

Cutting real wages was part of the 1994 IMF recipe which most economic analysts
say Turkey must retain.

"A new government may also seek to extend the duration of the IMF stand-by
agreement," Fettullah Acil, deputy general manager of Tekstil Bank, said. The
accord will end in February.

Professor Onder thinks the government may also support the package with a
"reasonable dose of devaluation" to eliminate the overvaluation of the lira in
a move to increase Turkish exporters' competitiveness in Western markets.

But Ergun Ozen, assistant general manager of Garanti Bankasi, said Turkey
should depreciate the lira smoothly instead of devaluing the currency sharply
in a one-off move in order to avoid boosting inflation and destabilising the
markets.

Under a new package, Turkey will probably impose delayed public sector price
increases and curb wage rises. The central bank is likely to restrict monetary
expansion which economists say blocked Turkey's efforts to bring down
inflation. Bankers say Turkey will pursue tight monetary policies under which
interest rates are to be held at high levels.

(12)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkish security forces killed 38 Kurdish rebels
and lost four of their own in fresh clashes in southeastern Turkey, the
regional governor's office said Sunday.

Twenty-six guerrillas of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were
killed during an operation Saturday night near Genc town in Bingol province.
Four soldiers died and five others were wounded in the clash, the office said.

On the same day, troops killed five PKK rebels in Cukurca town near the Iraqi
border. Seven other PKK guerrillas were killed in two separate clashes in the
southeastern towns of Hazro and Yuksekova.

More than 18,000 people have died since 1984 when the PKK launched an armed
campaign for an independent Kurdish state in the southeast.


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