Mainstream news on Turkey/Kurdistan

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

    ANKARA, Sept 21 (Reuter) - Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, reduced
to a caretaker after collapse of her unwieldy right-left coalition, could now
find her ambitious policy agenda largely hostage to early elections,
political analysts said on Thursday.

    At stake, they say, are the key goals of her 27 months in power --
customs union with Europe, a Turkey-bound Caspian oil pipeline, privatisation
and greater democratisation.

    Her 1994 austerity programme may also be in danger, as temptation rises
to secure her True Path Party's traditional rural base with greater farm
price supports and to meet fresh demands by public sector workers for pay
rises.

    Turkish financial markets, in a possible preview of broader economic
consequences, took a tumble early on Thursday. The Istanbul Stock Exchange
dropped 7.24 percent in morning trade, while the Central Bank stepped in to
defend the lira.

    ``Exactly at a time when decisiveness and action is needed in most
foreign (policy) issues, domestic priorities, such as the search for a new
colation or initiatives for early polls, will launch a process of indecision
and inaction,'' wrote leading analyst Sami Kohen in daily Milliyet.

    A senior adviser to Ciller was even less diplomatic. ``What a waste. She
was dealing with all these important problems, like the oil pipeline and the
customs union,'' he told Reuters.

    Ciller's coalition with the social democrats collapsed on Wednesday,
largely over her partner's demands that she sack the hardline police chief of
Istanbul.

    Most political observers say Ciller will likely cut a coalition deal with
the main opposition party, the centre-right Motherland (ANAP), sealed with a
pledge for early polls.

    ANAP has obstructed Ciller's bid to overhaul Article 8 of the anti-terror
law, seen by critics as a gross violation of freedom of expression. Members
of the European Parliament have suggested Article 8 must go before any
customs union.

    But Turkish political tradition, which demands a 90-day campaign season,
and its mountainous topography, which virtually seals off whole districts in
wintertime, suggests ``early'' elections could be no earlier than May.

    That could, say her supporters and some western analysts, give her enough
time to push through some of her programme and then head into elections with
a strong hand.

    ``In some ways she is incredibly in the cat-bird seat,'' said one Western
diplomat. ``She is now free of the social democrats (as coalition partners)
and can follow her own political instincts.''

    A senior aide says Ciller will put the time ahead of any polls to good
use. ``She will carry on the fight against terrorism. She will push for
economic stability.

    ``There is no panic. The prime minister is mad and really determined,''
he said.

    Such tough talk, however, is unlikely to win over the sceptics,
particularly among the business and political elite.

    Umit Firat, a leading member of the neo-liberal New Democracy Movement
(YDH), predicted any future coalition would have its eyes too firmly on the
upcoming polls, rather than on fundamental change.

    ``Any new government will be concerned with plans for new elections so a
new government won't be able to reform anything,'' Firat, whose YDH holds
some sway among westernised Turks, told Reuters.

    And even Ciller's well-wishers are fearful that her coalition-building
zeal could throw her into the arms of the far-right Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP), which has quietly supported her from outside the coalition.

Germany Frees Up Funds for Turkish Frigates

      BONN, Sept 20 (Reuter) - The German government, ready to put ties with
Turkey back on a normal footing, has asked parliament to release military
grants it froze after Ankara sent troops into northern Iraq in March,
officials said on Wednesday.

    A spokeswoman for parliament's budget committee said the panel would
address freeing up funds to help Turkey buy German-built warships at its
meeting on Thursday at the request of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government.

    Angered by Turkey's push into a neighbouring country to chase Kurdish
separatists, Bonn in March blocked 150 million marks ($101 million) it
promised Ankara in 1993 to help with the purchase of two frigates worth 800
million marks ($540 million).

    It also suspended transfers of military equipment.

    Ankara in turn accused Germany of turning its back on a NATO partner in
its hour of need and insisted it was well within its rights to use military
force to quell what it described as a ``terrorist threat.''

    Turkey pulled its troops out of Iraq in May after a six-week offensive
that highlighted Europe's policy dilemma over how to show displeasure with
Ankara's human rights record without isolating an important NATO ally.

    Bonn's discomfort was heightened by the fact that Ankara's decade-long
battle against the Kurds has sparked increasing tension within Germany's
two-million-strong Turkish community.

    Germany is home to some 400,000 Kurds, most of them from Turkey.


Turkish Foreign Ministry Dismisses US Senate Report on Kurds

      ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkey's foreign ministry  Wednesday
dismissed as biased a U.S. Senate report that criticizes Ankara's policy on
its minority Kurds.

    ``The report on Turkey, which was prepared by advisers of the minority
staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is seen as far away from
being objective,'' ministry spokesman Omer Akbel said in a statement.

    ``We would have expected the two advisers who prepared the report about
the so-called Kurdish problem to have placed the data, which they recently
got here first hand, on a balanced perspective,'' he said.

    The Senate report, released Sunday, said Turkey might be contributing to
the appeal of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) because of its
heavy-handed policies against Turkey's Kurds.

    The report said the Turkish government ``is unable -- or unwilling -- to
distinguish the genuine threat posed by the PKK from the legitimate rights
and aspirations of the Kurdish people.''

    ``Despite claims that it regards fundamentalism as a threat to its
secular heritage, the government of Turkey appears to be encouraging and even
sponsoring Islamic activities in an attempt to bind the country together and
defuse separatist sentiments,'' the report said.

    ``Such a strategy ... could backfire and inadvertently provide a foothold
for Islamic extremists,'' it said.

    More than 18,000 people have been killed in the PKK's 11-year-old fight
for autonomy or independence in southeast Turkey.


Political Crisis in Ankara Bad for Customs Union
      By Jeremy Lovell

    BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (Reuter) - The resignation of Turkish Prime Minister
Tansu Ciller is a blow to the country's hopes of sealing a key customs union
with the European Union by the end of the year, politicians and diplomats
said on Thursday.

    ``I think it's not good news for...the progress we expect from Turkey in
order to be able to ratify the agreement on a customs union,'' Euro-MP Willy
De Clercq, who heads the parliament's external economic affairs committee,
told Reuters.

    The European Parliament has threatened to veto the customs union deal,
finally agreed by Turkey and EU foreign ministers in May after Greece lifted
its Cyprus-related veto, unless Ankara cleans up its human rights act.

    This particularly relates to amending article eight of the country's
anti-terror law.

    Although the parliament has a record of blustering loudly about issues
but finally backing down, in this case it has made such an issue of Turkish
constitutional and human rights reforms that a U-turn seems less likely.

    ``The resignation of Mrs Ciller is a bad thing. Her government was doing
as good a job as possible considering the domestic balance of power and the
great difficulties the government had in parliament in trying to put through
the reforms,'' de Clerq said in Strasbourg.

    Ciller, prime minister for just 27 months, took her True Path Party out
of a left-right coalition on Wednesday, was promptly made caretaker premier
and set about forming a new coalition.

    Diplomats in Brussels said Ciller realistically had two options: to form
a minority government or to form a coalition with the centre-right Motherland
(ANAP) Party.

    Calling, or being forced to call early elections to get a new mandate
would ensure that the January 1, 1996 target date for starting the customs
union could not be met.

    Turkish political tradition demands a 90-day election campaign.

    Political observers in Turkey predict that a coalition with ANAP coupled
with a pledge for early elections would be Ciller's most likely objective.

    But ANAP has obstructed her bid to overhaul article eight and therefore
such a coalition would not go down well with the European Parliament.

    Similarly forming a minority government with the tacit support of the
far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which has supported her so far
outside the coalition, would also not necessarily augur well for reform.

    However, the Brussels-based diplomats refused to be pessimistic.

    ``Ciller is the only person capable of forming a government at this
stage, and she has stuck her neck out quite a long way on the customs union,
so it is sure that this will feature in any negotiations on forming a new
government,'' one said.

    ``It is quite true to say that the collapse of the coalition adds to the
difficulties for the customs union, but at this stage it is far too early to
say now that it is out of the question.''
Turkey Downplays PKK Ceasefire Offer
      ANKARA, Sept 20 (Reuter) - Turkey on Wednesday played down a possible
ceasefire offer by the rebel leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
which is fighting an 11-year separatist campaign in the southeast.

    ``I won't comment on any PKK announcement,'' Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu
told a news briefing. ``Suffice to say everyone knows our position. We want
terror to end, and our security forces are working for that.

    ``At the same time, we are continuing to make all necessary initiatives
in parliament for the development of democratic rights in our country,'' he
said.

    The Germany-based DEM Kurdish news agency on Tuesday quoted PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan as saying he was considering calling a ceasefire, similar to
one called by the rebels in 1993.

    ``If the Turkish state does not come against us with the intention of
destroying, we want to start a new ceasefire process,'' Ocalan said.

    The PKK's unilateral ceasefire in 1993 held for nearly three months until
the guerrillas killed 33 unarmed soldiers in a bus ambush after complaining
Turkey had not reciprocated.

    More than 18,000 people have been killed in the PKK's fight for Kurdish
autonomy or independence in southeast Turkey.

    Turkey, which has flatly rejected all previous calls for international
mediation and a truce with ``terrorists,'' has often said it is on the brink
of defeating the PKK militarily.

    DEM said Ocalan, believed based in Syria or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa
Valley in Lebanon, was considering holding a news conference to announce a
possible ceasefire ``in the following days.''

Appeals Court to Rule on Kurdish MPs Next Month

      ANKARA, Sept 21 (Reuter) - Turkey's appeals court said on Thursday it
would decide late next month whether to release jailed Kurdish deputies in a
case that has threatened to undermine Ankara's customs union deal with the
European Union.

    After the first appeal hearing for the eight MPs jailed in December for
up to 15 years, Judge Demirel Tavil said a verdict would be given at a final
session, to be held on October 26.

    The deputies' lawyers and two of the MPs -- released after the December
trial for time served -- made defence statements, saying they were victims of
a ``political action'' by the government ahead of municipal elections last
March.

    The MPs were stripped of their parliamentary immunity in March 1994 and
later convicted for up to 15 years for complicity with the banned Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), fighting for autonomy or independence in southeast
Turkey.

    ``We came with the votes of the people, without arms and violence...Our
common aim is to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem,'' said
Sirri Sakik, one of the freed MPs. ``I do not want Turkey to be divided.''

    Deputies from the European Parliament, which must approve the customs
union deal before it can be enforced, have been calling for the release of
the remaining six MPs as a condition for a ``yes'' vote.

    The court of appeals' chief prosecutor's office made a recommendation in
June that three of the MPs be released because they were improperly charged,
but that the remaining three in prison serve out their 15 year sentences.

    A release of any of the MPs is likely to help Turkey's case, although the
deputies' lawyers say that, in a bizarre twist, the two released MPs may
actually have to go back to serve another year or more due to a technical
mistake in their original sentences.

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