Don't Sell Weapons To Turkey

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.cic.net>

Don't Sell Weapons To Turkey

By Jennifer Washburn

        It is highly unusual for the public to learn of a pending U.S.
weapons sale before formal Congressional notification. Recently, however,
unnamed administration officials leaked word of a proposal to sell the
Turkish government 10 AH-1W "Super Cobra" attack helicopters, which human
rights organizations and arms control advocates are preparing to oppose.
Given Turkey's abysmal human rights record, and the precarious economic and
political turmoil it finds itself in, this sale is sure to provoke a
serious debate over the Clinton administration's arms control policies, its
commitment to human rights and democracy, and its ability to nurture a
productive and positive relationship with an important regional ally.
        The administration is well aware that Turkey's brutal civil war
against its Kurdish minority has been made possible only with strong U.S.
military backing. Last June, the U.S. State Department issued a report to
Congress acknowledging for the first time that Turkey regularly uses U.S.
weapons in operations where gross violations of human rights occur. The
report specifically cites the Turkish military's use of the Bell-Textron
Cobra and Super Cobra attack helicopters, Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter
planes, United Technologies-Sikorsky Black Hawk troop transports, and
other U.S. tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery systems to
attack and forcibly evacuate Kurdish villages suspected of supporting the
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish opposition group. In
recent years, the U,S, has supplied Turkey 85% of its arms imports and 90% of
its foreign military aid. Since 1980, this has amounted to the Turkish
military receiving $6.6 billion in U,S, taxpayer money.
        Despite extensive documentation by human rights groups and even the
U.S. State Department of U.S. weapons being used to commit severe human rights
abuses and violations of the rules of war, the Clinton administration has
consistently refused to link U.S. arms sales to improvements in Turkey's
human rights. Shortly after the State Department's report came out,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Shalikashvili wrote a
letter specifically urging Congress not to cut military aid to Turkey based
on its human rights record. Heeding his advice, Congress approved $320
million in American credits in FY1996 to finish Turkish production of F-16
fighter planes under a U.S. co-production deal.
        But while the Clinton administration denies the role of U.S. military
support in perpetuating Turkey's civil war - which has already led to
countless cross-border invasions into Northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK
guerrillas - Turkey's political landscape continues to grow dangerously
unstable. To date, according to a Human Rights Watch report issued last
November, the war has caused an estimated 19,000 deaths (including some
2,000 death-squad killings of suspected PKK sympathizers), two million
internally displaced who have fled to overcrowded urban shantytowns, and
more than 2,200 villages destroyed, most of which were burned by Turkish
security forces who aim to eliminate all "logistical support" for the PKK
in the countryside.
        Beyond this devastating cost to human life, the civil war poses a
serious drain on Turkey's purse at a time when Turkey's economy is
plummeting and its political parties are in a stalemate, unable to form a
new coalition government. In 1994, State Minister Ali Sevki Erek estimated
that Turkey would spend $8.2 billion in its war against the PKK, roughly
20% of Turkey's $41 billion 1994 projected military budget. Given that
Turkey's counterinsurgency war has only escalated since 1994, with military
spending continuing to skyrocket, there can be little doubt that Turkey's
present day economic woes would be greatly eased if the country were not
trying to sustain such a bloated military.
        The obvious solution to Turkey's crisis is a political resolution
of the PKK conflict, but the Turkish government - led by former Prime
Minister Tansu Ciller - has adamantly refused to negotiate with what it
calls a terrorist organization. Recently, Turkey was allowed to join a
trading alliance with the European Union, after it made largely cosmetic
improvements to its Anti-Terror Law, long used to suppress free speech and
justify the imprisonment and torture of 170 writers, intellectuals, and
journalists. Shortly after joining the customs union, graphic photographs
appeared in the European press showing Turkish soldiers gloating over the
severed heads and mutilated bodies of their Kurdish victims. The pictures
drove home Europe's failure to stop Turkish abuses.
        Because Turkey is so reliant on U.S. military aid, the U.S. is in a
unique position to pressure Turkey to finally seek a political solution.
In a 1994 poll by the daily Milliyet, 86% of the Turks questioned favored a
political solution to the Kurdish conflict. In December, PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan sent a letter to President Clinton once again offering to
participate in a unilateral cease-fire if Turkey would call off its own
attacks. The letter further clarified that the PKK does not insist on a
separate state, but would be "open to a federal solution", such as
"prevails in the United States of America".  Yet the Clinton administration
continues to bolster the military. In December, the Administration sold
Turkey 120 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), the first foreign sale
of the U.S. Army's most advanced surface-to-surface missile. Approved just
two weeks before Turkish elections, the deal was specifically timed to
demonstrate U.S. support for Ciller's teetering government.
        If the Clinton administration approves the sale of 10 additional
Bell-Textron Super Cobra helicopters to Turkey, it plays directly into the
hands of a powerful arms industry lobby. Congressional letters in support
of the sale all reference the same Bell-Textron talking points. U.S. foreign
policy should not be dictated by the U.S. weapons industry. A recent CIA
study by the "State Failure Task Force" identified Turkey as one of the
world's states most at risk of collapsing. Every delivery of U.S. weapons to
Turkey's undemocratic government sends a clear and dangerous message:
Continue to pursue a costly civil war against the Kurds, prop up a
pro-Western government with sheer military might, ignore all indications of
economic decline. Instead, the administration should forcefully oppose
this sale, insisting that all future military aid be tied to verifiable
improvements in Turkey's human rights. Turkey's recovery depends on
finding an end to the bloodshed.

Jennifer Washburn is a research associate at the World Policy Institute at
the New School in New York City.

Note: a slightly editied version of this article first appeared in the
Journal of Commerce on Friday, February 23, 1996

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