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INFO-TURK

38 rue des Eburons - 1000 Bruxelles
Tél: (32-2) 215 35 76 - Fax: (32-2) 215 58 60
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 Chief Editor /Rédacteur en chef: Dogan Özgüden - Responsible editor/Editrice responsable: Inci Tugsavul


Earlier bulletins / Bulletins précédents

23e Année - N°249

Mai/May 1999
INTERIOR POLITICS/POLITIQUE INTERIEURE OCALAN'S TRIAL/PROCES D'OCALAN STATE TERRORISM/TERREUR DE L'ETAT ARMED FORCES/FORCES ARMEES PRESSURE ON THE MEDIA/PRESSIONS SUR LES MEDIAS KURDISH QUESTION/QUESTION KURDE MAFIA RELATION/RELATIONS MAFIA SOCIO-ECONOMIC/SOCIO-ECONOMIQUE RELATIONS WITH THE WEST/RELATIONS AVEC L'OUEST REGIONAL RELATIONS/RELATIONS REGIONALES MIGRATION/IMMIGRATION BELGIQUE-TURQUIE/BELGIUM-TURKEY EN BREF/IN BRIEF
(TIHV news on human rights violations/Dépêches de la TIHV sur les violations des droits de l'Homme)

 

INTERIOR POLITICS/POLITIQUE INTERIEURE

Turqueries: Tempête autour d'une foulard

La séance inaugurale, le 2 mai 1999, du Parlement turc tout fraîchement élu a été très perturbée par Mme Merve Kavakci, députée islamiste du Parti de la Vertu qui a fait son entrée à l'Assemblée nationale turque la tête couverte d'un foulard. Conspuée par des centaines de députés, notamment du parti de la Gauche Démocratique (DSP) de M. Bulent Ecevit qui ont crié "dehors, dehors!" en tapant dans leurs mains, la députée a été obligée de quitter l'enceinte du Parlement provoquant une suspension de séance pendant laquelle chaque député fait acte d'allégeance à "la république laïque" et "aux principes et réformes de Mustafa Kemal, dit Ataturk".
 Ecevit, hors de lui, a demandé à l'un des présidents de séance, "Je vous en prie, remettez cette femme à sa place" en ajoutant "personne ne doit s'immiscer dans la vie privée des personnes, mais ceci n'est pas un endroit privé. Nous sommes ici dans les fondations même de l'Etat. Ce n'est pas le lieu pour défier l'Etat."
 Le président turc Suleyman Demirel a, le 5 mai 1999, mis en garde indirectement contre une intervention de l'armée dans la crise provoquée. "Si elle prête serment, cela provoquera la réaction
 Je ne peux en dire plus" a-t-il déclaré. Nul doute qu'il s'agit de l'armée turque qui se considère comme la gardienne de la laïcité de l'Etat. Le Conseil de sécurité nationale, véritable exécutif du pays, qui avait évincé le 28 février 1997 le gouvernement islamiste de Necmettin Erbakan, avait, samedi 1 mai, mis en garde la députée contre toute tentation de se présenter avec un foulard à la séance inaugurale du Parlement. La crise divise également le parti islamiste puisque son président, Recai Kutan, ayant assuré mardi 4 mai que son parti irait "jusqu'au bout" dans cette affaire, le vice-président du parti, Aydin Menderes, a démissionné jeudi 6 mai de son parti.
 La justice turque a ouvert une enquête contre la députée pour "incitation à la haine raciale et religieuse" en se fondant sur l'article 312 du code pénal. La presse turque affirme qu'elle est engagée dans le djihad en citant des propos qu'elle aurait tenus lors d'un congrès de l'Union islamique palestinienne basée aux Etats-Unis en 1997 où elle aurait affirmé avoir "choisi la politique comme champ d'activité pour mon djihad". En attendant n'ayant pas prêté serment, elle est empêchée d'assurer son mandat. Une autre députée Nesrin Unal, issue du MHP, est arrivée tête nue au Parlement et a déclenché un tonnerre d'applaudissements. Malgré toute cette crise, le port du foulard n'est pas explicitement interdit au Parlement, il l'est en revanche strictement dans les écoles, les universités et la fonction publique en Turquie.
 Finalement cet événement n'est pas sans précédent puisqu'il rappelle étrangement les scènes de révolte hystérique des parlementaires et autorités turcs lors du serment de Leyla Zana en 1991. Le problème du foulard islamique est une question qui est remontée de la rue au Parlement turc par l'intermédiaire de Merve Kavakci. De la même façon par l'intermédiaire de Leyla Zana, la question et la langue kurdes avaient fait irruption dans l'Assemblée turque.
 Celle-ci n'avait pas eu le courage et la lucidité de prêter l'oreille aux aspirations d'une importante fractions de la population et d'y apporter une réponse politique. (CILDEKT, 6 mai 1999)

Le parti islamiste refuse de céder sur le foulard

 Le chef du parti islamiste de la Vertu (Fazilet) Recai Kutan, a assuré le 4 mai que son parti irait "jusqu'au bout" dans l'affaire du port du foulard islamique au parlement, accusant le président et le Premier ministre d'avoir "aggravé" la polémique. "Nous poursuivrons notre lutte jusqu'au bout dans le cadre des lois et de la constitution", a indiqué M. Kutan devant la presse. "Le président Suleyman Demirel et le Premier ministre Bulent Ecevit n'ont fait qu'aggraver l'affaire par leurs déclarations", a-t-il indiqué. Le procureur général de la Cour de sûreté de l'Etat (DGM) d'Ankara a ouvert une enquête contre elle pour "incitation à la haine raciale et religieuse". (AFP, 4 mai 1999)

Human rights associations react to FP closure case

 Turkey's leading human rights associations reacted over prosecutor Vural Savas' move on Friday to open a closure trial at the Constitutional Court against the Islamist Virtue Party (FP) on grounds that it was pursuing anti-secular activities.
 "Political parties are essential to democracy. Turkey has witnessed the closures of a number of political parties before. Banning a political party is not a solution. The solution is the promotion of freedom of thought within the framework of laws," the Human Rights Association's (IHD) Nazmi Gur told the Turkish Daily News during a telephone interview.
 Citing other banned political parties, Gur added that, "First they banned the Welfare Party (RP), shortly after the Virtue Party was founded and if they ban the FP, they would found a new party."
 Meanwhile, the Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People (Mazlum-Der) said, "Human rights activists are not surprised at Savas' call for the Constitutional Court to ban the FP. The reason for this is that the judiciary has been playing an ideological role in Turkey's political life. And this fact is once more proved by Savas' latest move."
 "Savas had applied twice to the Constitutional Court to suspend the People's Democracy Party [HADEP] from the April 18 elections, but he was unsuccessful. Savas, who battled to ban the RP last year, now seems determined to ban the FP," Mazlum-Der's Deputy General Secretary Omer Eksi asserted.
 Mazlum-Der claimed that Savas is acting not in the name of justice but for an ideological cause.
 There is still an ongoing closure case concerning HADEP in the Constitutional Court. (TDN, May 8, 1999)

Court to Prosecutor: "Substantiate the charges against FP"

 The Constitutional Court decided on May 13 to ask Court of Appeals Prosecutor Vural Savas to substantiate the charges he made in an indictment demanding the closure of the Islamist Virtue Party (FP).
 Completing the first evaluation of the prosecutor's petition for the closure of the FP on grounds that it is a continuation of the Welfare Party (RP), which was closed down by the Constitutional Court in early 1998, that it was exploiting religion for political purposes and that it was instigating separatism by dividing the nation into believers and nonbelievers, the Constitutional Court ruled that the prosecutor should provide additional information and documents to the court. (Turkish Daily News, May 13, 1999)

La députée au foulard déchue de la nationalité turque

 Le président turc Suleyman Demirel a ratifié un décret du conseil des ministres privant de la nationalité turque la députée islamiste Merve Kavakci, qui a provoqué un scandale en portant le foulard islamique au parlement, a annoncé samedi le Premier ministre turc Bulent Ecevit.
 Le décret prendra effet dès qu'il sera publié dans le journal officiel.
 Il sera remis ensuite au Haut comité électoral, chargé des affaires électorales en Turquie, qui pourrait retirer le mandat de député de Mme Kavakci, qui, privée de la nationalité turque, ne pourra plus sièger au parlement.
 Selon les lois turques, acquérir une nationalité étrangère est possible mais une personne doit obtenir au préalable l'autorisation des autorités turques.
 Le parti islamiste est de plus en butte à une procédure d'interdiction lancée par le procureur général de la Cour de cassation Vural Savas, pour activités anti-laïques. M. Savas a également demandé à la Cour constitutionnelle que tous les députés du Fazilet soient démis de leur mandat. (AFP, 15 mai 1999)

YSK's view about Merve Kavakci

 Sabri Coskun, the deputy chairman of the Supreme Election Board (YSK), stated on Tuesday that the final decision on whether to strip Virtue Party (FP) Deputy Merve Kavakci of her status as a parliamentarian rests with Parliament itself.
 Speaking after a YSK meeting, Coskun explained to reporters that because the May 13 Cabinet decision stripping Kavakci of her citizenship came after the elections the YSK would not have the authority to remove her from her post.
 Coskun explained: "The YSK has the authority to investigate situations that would negatively affect a person's eligibility to stand for election, and we have done that in this case and prepared a report on the matter. However, since the person in question lost her eligibility after the elections, Parliament will have to make the final decision about removing her from office. Parliament will make that decision according to Article 84 of the Constitution, which stipulates the procedures for removing a deputy from his or her seat in the legislature."
 The YSK report will be submitted to Parliament on Wednesday. (TDN, May 19, 1999)

Akbulut becomes 22nd speaker of Parliament

 Motherland Party (ANAP) Deputy Yildirim Akbulut was elected on May 21 in the fourth and final round of the voting as the new speaker of the Turkish Parliament, dealing a blow to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which wanted the post badly.
 With his election, Akbulut also made history by becoming the first-ever parliamentarian elected to the number-two post of the republic for the third time.
 Akbulut received 332 votes in Thursday's round, while Sadi Somuncuoglu of the MHP received 191 votes. Eleven ballots were empty, while seven deputies abstained. A total of 541 deputies attended Thursday's voting.
 In the first three rounds, the candidates for the position failed to pass the vote threshold stipulated in the Turkish Constitution.
 According to the Constitution and parliamentary bylaws, a candidate must secure the support of two-thirds of the entire parliamentary body during the first two rounds of voting in order to secure the position.
 Five political parties had initially nominated candidates from their ranks to represent them in the race. In the first two rounds of the voting, each competing party supported its own candidate. In the third round, in addition to his own party, Akbulut also garnered significant Virtue Party (FP) support. He succeeded in securing 172 votes among the FP lawmakers, while only 10 FP deputies voted for their own party's candidate, Nevzat Yalcintas. Somuncuoglu received 152 votes, while Democratic Left Party (DSP) candidate Uluc Gurkan got only 142 and failed to win a spot in the final round of the voting.
 In Thursday's fourth and final round of voting, the majority of those present in Parliament was sufficient. (TDN, May 21, 1999)

Baykal causes confusion in CHP

 Former leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Deniz Baykal is still causing confusion within the party, political analysts assert.
 Baykal, who had resigned from the leadership of the CHP after its defeat in last month's parliamentary elections, was again defeated in Saturday's extraordinary convention. The party had failed to surpass the 10-percent national threshold necessary to enter the legislature.
 Analysts say that, despite his dual defeat, he still has his hands in the party, and his behavior is causing disputes within the CHP.
 Talk in CHP corridors is that his latest trick, of trying to wrap himself around the new leader of the party, Altan Oymen, is escalating the tension in the party.
 Oymen has been supported by Baykal sympathizers since the day his name was mentioned as a leadership candidate, prompting certain claims that he would be a perfect "caretaker" until Baykal takes his chairmanship post back.
 The extraordinary convention of the party, which was held with the aim of analyzing the CHP's defeat in the April 18 elections, was dominated by tension and power struggles between its heavy guns.
 Heated arguments between CHP delegates showed that it will still be hard for the CHP to enter Parliament again, political experts say.
 According to speculations, Baykal supporters, including Adnan Keskin and Esref Erdem, had prepared a list of candidates for the Party Assembly and had presented it as if it were Oymen's list. It is claimed that as this was happening, Oymen was busy preparing his own list, which included the names of some opposed members of the party.
 Oymen was quoted as characterizing the incident as a "conspiracy."
 Despite the reactions of Oymen and dissident CHP delegates, the voting for the Assembly was held, with 23 names from Baykal's list winning seats, having garnered the requisite 224 votes.
 After the vote had ended, newly elected CHP leader Oymen announced that Party Assembly elections would be repeated in 45 days because of claims of impropriety.
 It is speculated that in an effort to guarantee the re-election of Baykal as party chairman in a future party convention, he and his supports had pushed for their choices to be elected to the Party Assembly. (TDN,May 25, 1999)

Nationalists Join Turkish Government

 A picture of a soldier's grave hangs in the headquarters of Turkey's nationalist party. Carved on the tombstone is the slogan: ìThose who lift a hand against the Turk will die like dogs.î
 Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party may have moderated its tone and image during the past two years, but the party's line against Kurdish rebels remains uncompromising.
 The nationalists joined Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party in a coalition government Friday, the first time they have been in a government in more than two decades.
 The party has said it will insist that Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan be hanged for leading a rebellion against the state. It is also likely to oppose anything but a military solution to strife in the largely Kurdish southeast.
 Ocalan's trial for treason opens on Monday. Any death sentence must be approved by parliament.
 "We will finish off the terrorist organization and ease the troubles of the people of the southeast in the shortest time possible," said Tunca Toskay, the party's deputy chairman.
 European demands that Turkey spare Ocalan's life and work to improve its human-rights record are likely to backfire with the Nationalists, who call for closer relations with Central Asia and not the West.
 The group more than doubled its votes in April 18 parliamentary elections, capturing 18 percent of the electorate and emerging as the second-largest party in parliament.
 Many of those voters backed an Islamic party in the 1995 elections. That party was forced from power for challenging Turkey's secular laws.
 Like the Islamic party, the Nationalists are also pushing for an easing of Turkey's staunch pro-secular laws, but they have made it clear that they will not provoke the secular establishment or attempt to change the secular character of the state.
 Earlier this month, an Islamic legislator caused chaos in parliament when she attempted to take the oath of office wearing an Islamic-style head scarf. Religious dress is barred in public offices.
 In contrast, Nationalist deputy Nesrin Unal removed her head scarf when she entered parliament.
 "There is one thing the party will not do and that is exploit religion," Toskay said.
 The party program calls for the resumption of Koranic courses in primary schools and the easing of rules that bar women students from wearing head scarves at universities, two issues that the Islamic party also championed.
 The Nationalist party was established in the 1960s by the late Alparslan Turkes, an army colonel who was part of a military clique that staged a coup in 1960.
 The anti-communist Turkes aspired to unite the Turkic-speaking states within the former Soviet Union under a Turkish flag.
 His supporters, popularly called the Gray Wolves, battled leftists in the streets of Turkey. The clashes, which led to thousands of deaths, helped lead to a 1980 military coup.
 The party has since abandoned its pan-Turkic ideals but retains its Eastern focus, calling for closer economic ties with Central Asian states such as Turkmenistan and Kazakstan.
 After Turkes' death in 1997, Devlet Bahceli, a former university lecturer, began reforming the party. He shut down 500 of the 1,500 branches of the party's youth organization, which had a reputation for violence. He also purged ultra-nationalists linked to the mafia and ordered students to keep out of campus violence.
 But many Turks remember the days when Gray Wolves, sporting the long, droopy mustaches that were once worn by Central Asian warriors, roamed the streets, shooting leftist students and academics.
 "They armed their youths, they claimed countless lives, they embraced gangs. Can all these be forgotten?" asked Rahsan Ecevit, the wife and political partner of the prime minister.
 The Nationalists bristle at the claim.
 "During that period there was anarchy in Turkey, and many sides were involved in the clashes," Toskay said. "It is not a correct assumption that one side was to blame." (Suzan Fraser, AP, May 29, 1999)

Era of cohabitation opens

 A new era of cohabitation opened in Turkey on May 30 with the Nationalist Motherleft coalition of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the liberal Motherland Party (ANAP) taking over the administration of the country from the DSP minority government.
 Despite the deep ideological divide between the coalition partners, the Nationalist Motherleft coalition government is anticipated to last long because of domestic pressures for a stable government.
 It would have been a wild idea before the April 18 Turkish generals and local elections to think of a coalition government comprising the social democratic DSP of incumbent Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and the conservative MHP of Associate Professor Devlet Bahceli.
 However, the outcome of the April 18 polls that placed Ecevit's DSP as the largest party in Parliament with 136 seats and Bahceli's MHP with 129 seats as the second largest group; the blood feud between two center right parties, the ANAP of Mesut Yilmaz and the True Path Party (DYP) of Tansu Ciller that made the two impossible to come together in a government; public opposition to a nationalist-front coalition of right-wing parties; and the strong opposition from the establishment to the participation of the Islamist Virtue Party (FP) in any government, had left almost no alternative but to a test of cohabitation of the social democrats and the nationalists in a tripartite coalition government.
 Despite this background, the formation of the DSP, MHP, ANAP Nationalist Motherleft coalition government was a painful task for both Ecevit and Bahceli, with ANAP's Yilmaz playing the role of a mediator between the two.
 Ecevit's supporters and the nationalists had to overcome a decades-old dispute stemming from street clashes between their two groups in the late 1970s. The violence killed thousands and prompted the military takeover.
 Thus, because of the old enmities, the road to the establishment of the Nationalist Motherleft coalition was a very difficult one for both leaders. With some DSP deputies opposing partnership with their pre-1980 nationalist foes and allegedly threatening to quit the party, it was an extremely painful task for Ecevit to soothe the climate in his DSP. Perhaps in an attempt to satisfy the mavericks within the DSP, Ecevit's wife and DSP Deputy Chairperson Rahsan Ecevit made one of her rare public statements in such a fashion that coalition talks suffered a serious blow.
 "They armed their youths, they claimed countless lives, they embraced gangs. Can all these be forgotten?" asked Rahsan Ecevit, adding that although it was very difficult for herself to accommodate the idea of coalition with the MHP, she saw no other alternative.
 The impact of the statement in MHP headquarters was worse than the impact of NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia. MHP leader Bahceli immediately gathered his party executive and declared that unless Ecevit issued a public apology, coalition talks would not continue. It was only after intense lobbying of President Demirel, ANAP leader Yilmaz and a semi-apology by Ecevit that the MHP agreed eventually to resume the coalition talks.
 The efforts of Yilmaz in the establishment of the coalition government appeared to pay off when the distribution of government seats is analyzed. As if ANAP was not one of the losers in the April 18 polls and as if its parliamentary strength was at par with the DSP and MHP, the party received 10 ministerial posts, compared to the 12 posts the DSP and MHP each got. ANAP has only 86 seats in Parliament.
 Besides, ANAP got the powerful Energy Ministry and the state ministry in charge of privatization. Privatization was one of the key campaign issues raised by the MHP and the anticipation was that it would insist on having the state ministry in charge of the issue. Fighting corruption was another major campaign issue of the MHP but it agreed in the end to ANAP's domination of ministries in charge of the economy.
 However, it appears that the DSP and ANAP allied against the MHP in the coalition talks, the inexperience of the MHP helped them and in the end ANAP emerged as the victor in the bargaining.
 Ocalan's trial will be a test
 The presidential approval for the Ecevit-led Nationalist Motherleft government came only days before the scheduled May 31 start of the trial of Turkey's number-one public enemy, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
 While Ecevit is known to be against the death penalty in principle, the MHP has been defending that the separatist chieftain should face an appropriate sentence and that sentence should be carried out without any mercy.
 Both Ecevit's DSP and the MHP benefited politically from Ocalan's mid-February capture.
 Ocalan faces the death penalty on charges of treason and Turkey has been urged to ensure a fair trial for the separatist chieftain. Many fear it could spark violent protests from Kurds throughout Europe.
 In the coalition protocol signed on Friday, the three leaders agreed to immediately introduce a bill that would reform Turkey's state security courts and remove the military judge in order to prevent more criticism from international rights groups.
 In the protocol it was also clearly stated that there would be no compromise in the country's fight against separatist terrorism.
 The partners also vowed to continue the secular battle and to maintain the ban in the public offices and schools on Islamic-style head scarves, which the secular establishment views as a challenge to the country's secular principles.
 The coalition also took a nationalist stand toward the European Union, stating Ankara's goal of attaining full membership without "compromising our national rights and interests."
 Turkey has put its relations with the EU on hold since 1997, when the 15 nations excluded it from enlargement talks, citing a poor human rights record.  (Turkish Daily News, May 30, 1999)

OCALAN'S TRIAL/PROCES D'OCALAN

Les avocats d'Ocalan menacent d'abandonner la défense

 
 Les avocats d'Ocalan ont menacé d'abandonner la défense de leur client en dénonçant la "pression" exercée contre eux, a indiqué mardi la presse turque. "J'ai le sentiment que l'Etat ne veut pas une défense dans ce procès", a déclaré Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu, qui dirige l'équipe des avocats. "Il nous est impossible de faire notre devoir avec une telle pression et dans ces conditions", a-t-il ajouté. Les 17 avocats doivent se réunir pour discuter de la poursuite ou non de leur défense, a-t-il dit. "Cela ne peut pas continuer commme ça. Nous ne sommes pas des héros. Nous ne pouvons pas faire notre travail dans ces conditions", a déclaré Me Okcuoglu, cité par les journaux. Sept avocats d'Abdullah Ocalan ont indiqué avoir été "violemment battus" par la police après une audience de la Cour de sûreté de l'Etat à Ankara la semaine dernière. Deux autres défenseurs avaient été attaqués et battus par des hommes non identifiés à Istanbul le mois dernier. Les avocats se plaignent de ce que leurs entretiens avec Ocalan sur l'île prison d'Imrali (ouest) sont contrôlés par des soldats et reprochent à l'accusation de laisse filtrer des éléments contre leur client à la presse. "Ces obstacles à la défense doivent disparaître complètement", a dit Me Okcuoglu. L'équipe des avocats a annoncé dans un communiqué mardi qu'elle donnerait une conférence de presse à Istanbul mercredi pour évoquer "les attaques contre les défenseurs" et le procès d'Ocalan, jugé pour "trahison et atteinte à l'intégrité territoriale de la Turquie" à partir du 31 mai à Imrali. Les avocats avaient déjà suspendu la défense du chef du parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK, séparatistes kurdes) pendant un moment cette année en assurant craindre pour leur vie, avant de la reprendre. (AFP, 4 mai 1999)

Ocalan's Top Lieutenant Gets Death

 The top lieutenant to rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was sentenced to death today for masterminding hundreds of deaths in Turkey in a bid to win autonomy for the Kurds.
 A panel of three judges gave Semdin Sakik the death penalty for treason. He was held responsible for the slayings of 283 people in 191 acts of violence carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
 Turkey has not carried out a death penalty in more than a decade and the court's decision for Ocalan's second-in-command does not bode well for the PKK leader. Ocalan himself has been accused in the deaths of over 30,000 people.
 Sakik's brother, Arif, was also sentenced to death for treason in the trial today in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's southeast, where the guerrilla war has been carried out since 1984.
 Sakik, 46, known by his nom de guerre "Fingerless Zeki" for his missing finger, was the mastermind of PKK operations in Turkey.
 He reportedly fell out with the PKK leader after military crackdowns on the group and found refuge with an Iraqi Kurdish group before being captured last year in northern Iraq. (AP, May 20, 1999)

L''île prison d'Imrali, décor du procès d'Ocalan

 L'île prison d'Imrali, dans l'ouest de la Turquie, où s'ouvre le 31 mai le procès du chef rebelle kurde Abdullah Ocalan, a un passé chargé: c'est là que fut pendu au début des années soixante l'ancien Premier ministre Adnan Menderes.
 L'îlot en mer de Marmara, dont Ocalan est l'unique prisonnier, a été déclaré "zone interdite" et placée sous sécurité maximale depuis qu'il abrite l'ennemi public numéro un de l'Etat turc, arrêté mi-février au Kénya.
 Imrali a connu des scènes dramatiques au cours de son histoire: Adnan Menderes y fut pendu en 1961, avec deux de ses ministres, à l'issue d'un procès sur une petite île voisine. L'année précédente, Menderes avait été renversé par un coup d'Etat militaire.
 La construction de la prison elle-même a commencé en 1933, elle a été officiellement ouverte le 11 août 1935. En temps normal, les détenus y bénéficient d'un régime semi-ouvert qui leur permet de sortir sur l'île, où ils se livrent notamment à des activités agricoles.
 Le premier bâtiment à l'entrée de l'île porte une citation célèbre du fondateur de la République turque, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: "Heureux celui qui peut se dire Turc".
 Avant l'arrivée d'Ocalan, la prison abritait 247 détenus, qui ont été transférés dans d'autres établissements pénitentiaires.
 Parmi ses détenus célèbres a figuré le cinéaste d'origine kurde Yilmaz Guney, auteur de "Yol" (le chemin), Palme d'or au festival de Cannes.
 Les parages sont patrouillés en permanence et l'accès à l'îlot est interdit au commun des mortels.
 Il se fait par bateau depuis la ville côtière la plus proche, Mudanya, distante d'une dizaine de kilomètres. Une ville également chargée d'histoire puisque c'est là que fut signée en 1922 l'armistice qui avait conclu la guerre de libération lancée par Ataturk.
 Imrali est large de 10 km et longue de 20 km environ. Elle est située à 50 kilomètres au sud-ouest d'Istanbul, devant le golfe d'Izmit. (AFP, 25 mai 1999)

Un avocat d'Ocalan inculpé pour aide au PKK

 Le parquet de la Cour de sûreté de l'Etat (DGM) d'Istanbul a inculpé Niyazi Bulgan, l'un des avocats d'Ocalan, pour "aide" au PKK, séparatiste), a rapporté mardi l'agence Anatolie.
 Cette inculpation suit l'arrestation le 7 mai à l'aéroport d'Istanbul de Sibel Ceylan, une jeune interprète turco-belge d'origine kurde, qui serait la secrétaire de Me Bulgan, selon l'agence Anatolie.
 Le parquet a requis entre trois et cinq ans de prison contre l'avocat et Sibel Ceylan pour "aide à une organisation terroriste" (ndlr: dénomination officielle pour le PKK) et "recel de documents", selon Anatolie.
 Sibel Ceylan avait été arrêté en possession de documents concernant le procès d'Ocalan qui doit s'ouvrir lundi prochain sur l'île prison d'Imrali, où est détenu le chef du PKK.
 L'acte d'accusation élaboré par le parquet de la DGM d'Ankara contre Ocalan figurait parmi les documents saisis sur Sibel Ceylan, toujours selon Anatolie.
 Me Bulgan est membre de l'équipe d'avocats turcs qui assure la défense du chef rebelle kurde.  (AFP, 25 mai 1999)

La Cour de sûreté de l'Etat, organe judiciaire controversé

 La Cour de sûreté de l'Etat (DGM), qui va juger le chef rebelle kurde Abdullah Ocalan à partir du 31 mai, est une institution controversée, en raison de la présence d'un juge militaire siégeant aux côtés de deux juges civils.
 Ce type de juridiction (il en existe plusieurs) a été créée par la Constitution de 1982, élaborée lors de la période militaire découlant du coup d'Etat de 1980 du général Kenan Evren.
 La DGM peut intenter un procès concernant tous les crimes visant directement l'Etat et la République turcs ainsi que les crimes relatifs à la sécurité intérieure et extérieure du pays.
 Dans ce contexte, Abdullah Ocalan, chef du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK, séparatiste), en rébellion armée contre Ankara depuis 1984 pour créer un Etat kurde indépendant dans le Sud-est de la Turquie à majorité kurde, sera jugé par la Cour de Sûreté de l'Etat d'Ankara numéro 2.
 Ocalan, capturé le 15 février à Nairobi après avoir passé douze jours dans les locaux de l'ambassade de Grèce, sera jugé en fonction de l'article 125 du code pénal turc qui prévoit la peine de mort pour tentative de diviser le territoire turc et d'y créer un Etat distinct.
 Les membres de la DGM se déplaceront pour ce procès sur l'île prison d'Imrali où Ocalan est détenu depuis son transfèrement en Turquie le 16 février.
 Il sera jugé par les magistrats Mehmet Turgut Okyay, président de la DGM, Huseyin Eker et le lieutenant-colonel Abdulkadir Davarcioglu. Les procureurs de la République Cevdet Volkan et Talat Salk représenteront le parquet de la DGM.
 En raison de la présence d'un juge militaire siègeant aux côtés de deux autres juges civils, la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme a estimé l'an dernier que la DGM ne pouvait être considérée comme entièrement indépendante et impartiale.
 Elle argue que le juge militaire est sujet à la discipline militaire et ne peut pas être considéré comme indépendant.
 Des verdicts prononcés par le passé par les DGM ont fait l'objet de procès en appel devant la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme, qui a condamné la Turquie à verser des compensations.
 Les doutes sur ces Cours sont partagés par bon nombre de Turcs, dont le Premier ministre Bulent Ecevit, qui a proposé des amendements législatifs pour les abolir dans un proche avenir.
 Le président turc Suleyman Demirel s'était de son côté déclaré en mars en faveur d'une modification de leur structure en vue du procès d'Abdullah Ocalan, arguant que la Turquie "doit rester au sein du système judiciaire européen" et "amender sa constitution". (AFP, 25 mai 1999)

Conseil de l'Europe: appel à ne pas utiliser la peine de mort contre le PKK

 La commission permanente de l'Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l'Europe a appelé le 26 mai la Turquie à ne pas utiliser la peine de mort à l'encontre des militants du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), selon un communiqué.
 Renate Wohlwend (Liechenstein, PPE/CD), rapporteur de cette commission qui siège entre deux sessions plénières, a appelé "instamment les autorités turques à ne pas appliquer les peines capitales prononcées en relation avec les activités du PKK", a indiqué le communiqué.
 Le rapporteur a saisi cette occasion pour lancer un appel en faveur d'une accélération de la procédure conduisant à l'abolition officielle de la peine capitale dans les 41 Etats membres.
 "Tous les pays qui ont adhéré récemment au Conseil de l'Europe se sont engagés à le faire", a indiqué Mme Wohlwend précisant : "nous ne pouvons pas appliquer des normes différentes à des Etats membres de l'organisation depuis très longtemps, comme la Turquie".
 Jeudi dernier, l'ancien bras droit du chef du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK, séparatiste) Abdullah Ocalan, Semdin Sakik, avait été condamné à mort par la Cour de sûreté de Diyarbakir (sud-est).
 Le procès d'Abdullah Ocalan qui doit s'ouvrir lundi prochain en Turquie.
 Le Premier ministre turc Bulent Ecevit a évoqué toutefois mercredi un possible report de ce procès indiquant que son futur gouvernement a l'intention de modifier la Constitution sur le plan judiciaire. (AFP, 26 mai 1999)

Ocalan se déclare prêt à servir l'Etat turc pour la paix

 Abdullah Ocalan s'est déclaré prêt à servir l'Etat turc pour la "paix et la fraternité" entre Kurdes et Turcs, à l'ouverture de son procès le 31 mai sur l'île prison d'Imrali (ouest).
 "Je veux oeuvrer pour la paix et la fraternité et atteindre ce but au sein de la République turque. C'est pourquoi je veux vivre", a-t-il déclaré depuis la cage de verre où il comparait, selon les images retransmises en différé par la chaîne de télévision publique TRT.
 Le procès du chef rebelle, accusé de trahison et de tentative de diviser la Turquie, passible de la peine de mort, s'est ouvert à 10H00 (07H00 GMT) devant la Cour de sûreté de l'Etat d'Ankara n2.
 "Je veux être au service de l'Etat", a déclaré Ocalan pour sa première apparition publique depuis son arrestation mi-février au Kenya, amaigri, les tempes grisonnantes, portant chemise bleue et costume sombre.
 "J'essaierai d'arrêter cette effusion de sang et je promets de travailler pour cela", a-t-il dit en référence aux combats dans le sud-est à majorité kurde entre son Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) et les forces de sécurité turques, qui ont fait 31.000 morts depuis 1984.
 "Je partage les peines des familles des martyrs", soldats et agents de sécurité tués dans le sud-est, a-t-il souligné, en s'excusant auprès d'elles alors que certains des parents des victimes étaient dans la salle d'audience, portant des photographies de leurs fils morts et des drapeaux turcs.
 "Je veux dire que la Grèce, la Russie et l'Italie n'ont pas obéi aux lois internationales", a-t-il ajouté, en allusion aux pays qui ont refusé de lui accorder l'asile politique après son expulsion de Syrie mi-octobre.
 "Je n'ai été soumis à aucune sorte de pression", a précisé le chef du PKK.
 La Cour a ensuite rejeté une demande de ses avocats d'ajourner le procès afin d'avoir plus de temps pour préparer la défense. Cette demande devait aussi laisser le temps au nouveau gouvernement turc dirigé par Bulent Ecevit de réformer les DGM en remplaçant par un civil le juge militaire qui y siège aux côtés de deux civils.
 La présence de ce juge militaire a été mise en cause notamment par la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme, selon qui les DGM ne peuvent être entièrement indépendantes et impartiales.
 Vingt journalistes, dont un de l'AFP, ont été autorisés à assister à la première audience, mais sans moyen de transmettre des informations depuis Imrali, notamment en raison des mesures de sécurité draconiennes qui entourent le procès.
 Douze avocats d'Ocalan et 12 pour la partie civile se trouvaient dans la salle, ainsi que des parents du leader kurde.
 Douze étrangers --dont des diplomates-- ont été autorisés "à titre privé" à suivre les audiences, la Turquie ayant refusé des "observateurs internationaux" en y voyant une ingérence. Parmi eux se trouvait lundi Walter Schwimmer, observateur du Conseil de l'Europe pour la Turquie.
 Tous ont été amenés à bord d'un bateau sur Imrali depuis Mudanya, à une vingtaine de kilomètres, après des contrôles de sécurité draconiens.
 Le procès s'est ouvert dans une atmosphère fortement passionnelle, bon nombre de Turcs y voyant l'occasion d'un règlement de comptes avec l'ennemi public numéro de l'Etat turc, tandis que pour le PKK, il s'agit d'attirer l'attention internationale sur sa cause.
 Quelques pancartes dénonçant "Ocalan, l'assassin de bébés" en plusieurs langues ont été posées devant le quai d'où partent les bateaux pour Imrali.
 "Jour du règlement de compte", titrait le quotidien populaire Sabah lundi. "La Cour a la parole", écrivait plus sobrement le journal à grand tirage Hurriyet. (AFP, 31 mai 1999)

STATE TERRORISM/TERREUR DE L'ETAT

Arrests and pressure at May Day Celebrations

 The celebrations of 1 May Workerís Day were banned in general over Turkey, and it was allowed for one hour in Istanbul. The rally at Istanbul Sisli Abide-i Hürriyet Square ended uneventfully. Istanbul Security Director Hasan Özdemir disclosed that 275 people were detained prior to and after 1 May.
 Again in Istanbul, over 100 people were detained by the police from the HADEP provincial and district offices, which were surrounded by the police prior to and after 1 May. In Diyarbakir, celebrations were banned.
 However, some trade unionists assembled in Dagkapi Quarter, and the police quelled the rally, detaining Diyarbakir SES (the Trade Union of Health and Social Service Workers) Branch Chairperson Huseyin Bayrak, BTS (United Transportation Trade Union) Branch Chairperson Hasan Soysal, IHD Regional Representative Hanifi Isik, HADEP Provincial Organization executive member Cemal Kocer, and thirteen other persons.
 In Adiyaman, people were dispersed by the police when they went to the meeting area. Twenty people were wounded during the incident, whereas 47 people were detained. Cetin Tas, whose ribs were broken, and Mustafa Altin and Saime Altin were hospitalized.
 In Adana, a group of people assembled at Barbaros quarter, but they were reportedly dispersed by the police who opened fire into the air, and some people were detained. (Ozgur Bakis-Radikal-TIHV, May 2-3, 1999)

Denmark Accuses Turkey of Torturing Danish Citizen

 For the second time since the Cyprus conflict of 1974, Turkey has been accused of being a Ñstate that torturesì. In a complaint lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, Denmark accused Turkey of detaining and torturing Kemal Koc, a Danish citizen of Kurdish origin, when Koc visited Turkey for family reasons two years ago. Koc was charged with being a sympathizer of the PKK.
 In its complaint, Denmark pointed out that this was not an isolated incident, because detainees are systematically tortured by the police and security forces in all parts of  Turkey. Denmark referred not only to the testimony of the plaintiff  and medical certificates confirming his injuries due to torture, but also to reports compiled and published by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and the US State Department. (Milliyet, May 6, 1999)

The scandal of wiretapping connected with Susurluk

 There are allegations that the wiretapping gang known as Tele Kulak, accused of listening to the phone conversations of a number of high-ranking people in Turkey, was receiving orders from certain individuals connected with the Susurluk affair. During the interrogation of four individuals who are still being held in custody, police found out that certain intelligence agents whose names had been linked with Susurluk had given orders for the phone conversations of Murat Karayalcin, Ankara municipal mayor candidate in the April 18 elections, and certain State Security Court (DGM) prosecutors to be wiretapped.
 The interrogation of 18 people, including part-owner of Senkron TV Levent Altinay, at the Istanbul DGM failed to reveal any significant information. Ankara Police detained three people employed at the Ankara Phone Administration because it was believed that they had taped the phone conversations of certain prosecutors and high-ranking bureaucrats and conveyed the information to the team headed by Levent Altinay in Istanbul.
 Information led the police to Korkut Eken and other high-ranking civilian police officers alleged to have ties to the Susurluk incident. The Istanbul police have stopped the proceedings temporarily since they have not yet been able to interrogate these people. It is likely that Istanbul Police Chief Hasan Ozdemir was referring to this team when he stated that the wiretapping gang was larger than it seemed.
 Eight members of the Tele Kulak gang were arrested, but it is likely that the case will be covered up because of the Susurluk connection.
 The wiretapping incident, which might well be one of Turkey's greatest scandals, ended with the arrest of eight people. The failure to capture the head of the gang, who was bold enough to listen to phone conversations at the Cankaya Kosk, the presidential palace in Ankara, has raised a number of questions. It suggested that this event, which might offer important clues to the illicit connections of criminal gangs to powerful individuals in Turkey, will most probably be forgotten in the whirlwind of Turkey's changing agenda. (TDN, May 18, 1999)

IHDís Balance Sheet for April 1999

 The Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) has published its balance sheet of human-rights violations committed in April 1999. The report concludes that during this month a total of 220 years of imprisonment and fines amounting to more than 200,000,000 Turkish lira (TL) were imposed in cases involving freedom of opinion and freedom to organize. During April 1999 7,078 persons were taken into police custody; 256 of them were subsequently arrested, and 44 of them claimed to have been tortured. The IHDís statistics are as follows:
 - Murders by unidentified assailants: 15
 - Extrajudicial executions, death by torture and in police custody: 24
 - Deaths in clashes with the security forces: 86
 - Forced disappearances: 1
 - Armed actions against civilians: 3 dead, 20 wounded
 - Persons put into police custody: 7,078
 - Persons tortured: 44
 - Persons arrested: 256
 - Persons attacked: 84
 - Attacks on political prisoners in the prisons: 7 wounded
 - Banned organizations: 21
 - Police raids on publishersí offices: 37
 - Confiscated and banned publications: 19
 - Prison terms and fines imposed: 220 years; 503,000,000 TL
(IMK: Hevi, 22.5.99)

Call for solidarity with Akin Birdal

 Human rights advocate Akin Birdal is awaiting imprisonment due to the sentence issued by the State Security Court (SSC). The State Security Courts are, in line with their purposes of establishment, continuing with their efforts at silencing the human rights advocates.
A number of people who think and speak on behalf of human rights and peace are now in prison due to the sentences issued against them by the State Security Courts and ratified by the Supreme Court. Muzaffer Ilhan Erdost, one of the founders of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, has also been sentenced to imprisonment because of the quotations he had included in his book for purposes of criticizing. And journalist Oral Calislar was sentenced in connection with the interviews he had conducted. The legal and judicial system in our country produces decisions which are in clear contradiction with human rights and law, thus destroys the possibilities of public debate on the most vital and fundamental issues.
 The imprisonment passed on Akin Birdal had been overturned by the Supreme Court on grounds that his speech had been delivered within the framework of criticism, but the General Penal Board of the Supreme Court had ratified the interpretation by the State Security Court.
 Akin Birdal is awaiting imprisonment on 3 June 1999.
 The treatment of Akin Birdal, who had been subjected to an armed attack as a consequence of the press campaign staged against the human rights movement and him, will be impeded should he be imprisoned.
 The advocate of peace and human rights Akin Birdal, who was sentenced in a period when racism and militarism were on the rise, on charges of ìinciting people to hatred and enmity on racial and regional differences,î would also be restricted from public rights, and he would have to resign from the Office of Chairperson of IHD and would never become a chairperson or an executive in any association.
 We call all human rights and peace advocates for solidarity with Akin Birdal, who is still under treatment because of his injuries following the armed attack he was subjected to in IHD Headquarters on 12 May 1998.
 Akin Birdal, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and a Founding Member of Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), will be imprisoned because of the sentence passed by the State Security Court in connection with his speeches. In his speeches, Akin Birdal demanded that peace should be established on the basis of human rights and the Kurdish Problem should be resolved through peaceful means.
 Akin Birdal was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by two alleged members of the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT), in the IHD Headquarters on 12 May 1998. He is still under treatment, and faces the risk of paralysis of his left arm if not provided with continuous medical treatment. Declared that he have to be under treatment for two house daily, Akin Birdal applied to the Minister of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights in order to eliminate the medical risks he would face in prison.
 On 21 October 1997, Akin Birdal was sentenced to 1 yearís imprisonment and fined TL 420,000 (USD 3) by Ankara State Security Court in the trial which was launched in connection with the speech he delivered in the Peace Meeting held by Ankara Democracy Platform on 1 September 1996, the World Peace Day.
 The sentence was given under Article 312 § 2 of the Turkish Penal Code on charges of ìinciting people to hatred and enmity on class, racial and regional differencesî in his speech.(*) The Supreme Court overturned the SSCís verdict on 19 February 1998, ruling that ìthe speech was delivered within the limits of criticism.î
 However, Ankara SSC insisted on its first decision, and the case file was referred to the General Penal Board of the Supreme Court, which upheld on 27 October 1998 the 1 yearís imprisonment and the fine of TL 420,000 given by Ankara SSC.
 Akin Birdal will serve 5 months 18 days in prison in line with the Law on Execution of Sentences. For he was convicted under Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code, he will be prohibited from public rights for life, he would have to resign from the Chair of the IHD, and he will never be a founder or executive of an association.
 Akin Birdal said, according to the case file, the following in his speech that led to his conviction:
 ìIt is obvious that the Kurdish problem is no longer a problem of the oppressed Kurdish people. The lack of solution to the Kurdish problem leads to the undermining of the politics, economy, social and cultural life of Turkey... Those who eliminated this brotherhood will be sentenced not only in the conscience but also in the history of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples.î
 More than 20 trials were launched against Akin Birdal in connection with the speeches he delivered, activities he performed, and reports and articles he published as the Chairperson of the IHD and as a human rights advocate. Akin Birdal was sentenced in some of the trials, ìwhich he himself hardly followed up,î and he was acquitted in some of them. Some of the trials which were brought against Birdal are still under way. (TIHV, 26 May 1999)

ARMED FORCES/FORCES ARMEES

Turkish Soldiers Traumatized by War against Kurds

 A recently published book of interviews with Turkish veterans has revealed that the war against the PKK is causing severe psychic damage to the soldiers themselves.
 Mehmet's Book, by the Turkish journalist Nadire Mater, consists of interviews with forty-two former soldiers and non-commissioned officers who were involved in the war against the PKK from its beginning in 1984 until the present day. Mater estimates that a total of about 2,500,000 Turkish men have been sent to the front in the southeastern part of the country. The title refers to the term "little Mehmet", which is popularly used to refer to draftees.
 The Turkish government and the state-supported media cultivate the image of "little Mehmet" as the heroic and self-sacrificing soldier who does his duty by protecting his fatherland from terrorist gangs. But Mater's interviewees tell of officers who beat their soldiers and take payoffs from heroin smugglers, soldiers who are shaken by panic fear, flee into drug abuse, or commit massive atrocities against the civil-ian population.
 All of Mater's interviewees wish to remain anonymous. Many of them express doubts about the necessity of the war. One soldier who was stationed in Diyarbakir says: "I don't know what we're fighting for. Who are we aiming our weapons at? They (the PKK) have a reason to go to the mountains (to fight as guerillas). But why am I going into the army?" The soldiers tell of their fear of PKK attacks and their rage when a comrade has been killed: "At that point your humanity ends. You're like a wild animal. You kill whoever crosses your path without batting an eye. You see corpses every day, every kind of torture, people burned alive, absolutely everything." The greatest atrocities are per-petrated by the "özel tim", or special units, which include many members of right-wing nationalist gangs. They call themselves "headhunters" and are in fact paid a bounty for each PKK member they kill.
 The government's claim that the civilian population supports the army and vice versa is denied by the interviewed soldiers. "The people don't like the army and don't want it," says a man who was stationed in Samsun. "With their eyes they tell you to disappear or die." Another recalls a major who repeatedly told his men: "You should be like terrorists. People have to be afraid of you." In one case, an officer cut off an entire village's water supply for three months as a punishment because they complained to his superior officer after he had shot a village dog. Veterans explain that the local people are automatically regarded as helpers of the PKK: "If a peasant asks you why there are no paved streets in his village, he automatically becomes a PKK militant."
 The worst thing for the soliders is their demobilization and their return home. Many of them feel that society has left them to deal alone with their nightmares and traumatic memories. "Since I came back I always think of shooting people when I get angry," confesses one soldier. Another says his father had burst into tears "because he didn't recognize me any more".  Particularly painful is the fact that the veterans have nobody to talk to about their experi-ences. This phenomenon, known as "Vietnam syndrome" in the USA, was also experienced by Russian soldiers who had fought in Afghanistan. But unlike the USA and Russia, Turkey is still a society  in which no open discussion of  the government's "dirty war" is tolerated. (Süddeutsche Zeitung-IMK, May 19, 1999)

Turkish Army Accused of Using Chemical Weapons Against Kurds

 According to reports, Turkish security forces fired poison-gas missiles at PKK camps in the Sirnak/Silopi region near the village of Balikaya on 11 May. Twenty people were killed in the attack. The General Staff of the Turkish military forces vehemently denied these reports, but the PKK press bureau told journalists it had collected verifiable proofs such as parts of the spent missiles and soil samples, as well as the bodies of the dead guerillas.
 In a press statement the German-based NGO Medico International called the attack a blatant violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Geneva Convention of 1972, both of which ban the use of chemical warfare. Turkey is one of the signatories of these international agreements.
 Medico called on the German government to send a team of experts to investigate the incident and, if the team confirms the reports, to implement the international mechanisms for calling Turkey to account for violations of international law.
 The German MP Ulla Jelpke of the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) called on the German Parliament to investigate whether German firms and institutions provided any of the chemical materials or weapons used in the attack, pointing out that German firms had played an important role in the poison-gas attack on Halabja in northern Iraq in 1988.  (Medico International, Özgür Politika,IMK,May 18, 1999)

PRESSURE ON THE MEDIA/PRESSIONS SUR LES MEDIAS

Turkish playwright to receive Freedom-to-Write Awards

 Blind Turkish playwright, poet, short story author, screenwriter, and lawyer Esber Yagmurdereli, fifty-three, has been in and out of prison since 1978. He was released in 1991, only to suffer ongoing persecution and frequent arrests for speaking out against the Turkish government's human rights abuses. Since 1998, Yagmurdereli, an Honorary Member of several PEN centers, has been incarcerated near Ankara. In addition to his distinguished literary and legal careers, he has also edited several magazines and political journals, including Yeni Eylem.
 Syrian poet Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, forty-eight, remains one of the longest-detained writers in the world. His work on behalf of free expression and nonviolent political action led to his arrest in 1987 on suspicion of membership in the Party for Communist Action. In 1993, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, after being held without charge or trial for more than six years. He suffers from various health problems resulting from the brutal torture he has endured. An Honorary Member of the American, English, Netherlands, and Slovak PEN Centers, Birqdar received a Hellman/Hammett Free Expression Award in 1998.
 The annual awards, administered and selected by PEN's Freedom-to-Write Committee, recognize and support two foreign writers who are in prison or in danger as a consequence of their writing. Each year since their establishment in 1987, the awards have brought international attention to notable cases of authors persecuted for their work; the $3,000 granted in each case has assisted writers to gain release from prison, overcome financial crises, or pursue initiatives that further their work against censorship.
 Nearly half the previous twenty-five recipients were released from prison shortly after receiving the honor. In 1992, PEN member Barbara Goldsmith began underwriting half the cost of the prize; since 1995, she has underwritten the entire award.
 The awards will be presented in New York at the PEN Gala, May 12, 1999, along with the 1999 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award to ReLeah Lent. (PEN/IFEX, May 1st, 1999)

Turkish journalists wish for freedom of the press

 "It is a pity that the freedoms of thought and communication are under such pressures, are limited and still facing obstacles in Turkey in the 21st century."
 This comment by Nail Gureli, the chairman of the Turkish Journalists' Association (TGC), was part of a written statement issued by the TGC on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.
 It is not fair for journalists and authors who are not in favor of violence, terrorism and discrimination and who are not inciting people on those issues to be in prison in a democratic country, Gureli commented in the statement, which continued:
 "In the belief that assuring the protection of human rights and the freedoms of thought and expression and furthermore maintaining the supremacy of the rule of law are the basic requirements of democracy, the TGC, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, again requests that amendments to the Constitution and the law are completed with the aim of upgrading Turkish journalism."
 Oktay Eksi, the chairman of the Press Council, criticized the political parties for not addressing freedom of the press in their election campaigns and called on the new government to involve itself in this important issue.
 "We, Turkish journalists, are observing World Press Freedom Day with embarrassment because of our politicians," said Eksi.
 "May 3 is a very important date for those in favor of press freedom. May 3 was deemed Press Freedom Day by the United Nations in 1993. An overview of freedom of the press is made in all countries on that day," he explained.
 Turkey, Eksi stated, is not in a good condition. In 1998, the Press Council investigated 186 complaints filed against journalists. According to their report, 12 journalists were sentenced to 12 years in prison for "being members of outlawed organizations," when in reality, they were only following journalistic standards. An additional 28 journalists were sent to prison for violating the anti-terror law, the report states.
 "The publishing houses forced to close by court decisions, the journalists arrested or taken under custody, the television and radio stations banned from broadcasting by the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK), the journalists beaten by different groups or assaulted by police or members of Parliament are the realities that are a disgrace to Turkey and the practice of journalism in the country," he said.
 He added that it was unfortunate that only one political party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), has promised to upgrade standards of journalism in Turkey.
 "On World Press Freedom Day, we wish the new government and its possible prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, originally a journalist, would fulfill our expectations." (TDN, May 3, 1999)

Le rapport du RSF sur la Turquie

 A l'occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du Conseil de l'Europe, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), a publié le rapport suivant:
 La Turquie, membre du Conseil de l'Europe depuis le 13 avril 1950, est tenue de respecter la Convention de sauvegarde des droits de l'homme et des libertés fondamentales, dont l'article 3 stipule que "nul ne peut être soumis à la torture ni à des peines ou traitements inhumains ou dégradants". Ankara a également ratifié la Convention européenne pour la prévention de la torture le 24 juin 1988.
 Malgré l'adhésion aux textes européens qui interdisent la torture, celle-ci est toujours pratiquée à grande échelle dans tout le pays. Si elle est appliquée dans de nombreux cas par la police à des prisonniers de droit commun, elle est utilisée régulièrement par les forces de l'ordre à l'encontre de militants politiques, de défenseurs des droits de l'homme et de journalistes.
 Au cours des deux dernières années, Reporters sans frontières a reçu des témoignages de journalistes affirmant avoir été torturés pendant leur garde à vue ou leur détention provisoire : ils étaient neuf en 1998 et seize en 1997. L'organisation a retenu deux cas significatifs des pratiques de la police.
 La dénonciation d'actes de torture et de mauvais traitements, et les procédures judiciaires engagées à l'encontre de membres de la police, se font de moins en moins rares. Mais l'issue de ces procès dépend beaucoup de la volonté politique des autorités turques de voir punir les membres de forces de l'ordre responsables de tels actes.
 Aussi afin d'accélérer les réformes annoncées par le gouvernement turc et de mettre fin à l'impunité des tortionnaires, Reporters sans frontières demande :
 - à l'Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l'Europe de voter une résolution condamnant la pratique de la torture et des mauvais traitements envers les journalistes en Turquie,  - au Comité des ministres du Conseil de l'Europe d'adopter une recommandation sur les mesures visant à protéger les journalistes contre la torture et les mauvais traitements,
 - au Comité contre la torture (CPT) du Conseil de l'Europe d'enquêter sur les tortures et mauvais traitements dont sont victimes les journalistes en Turquie. (RSF/IFEX, 6 mai 1999)

Meurtre d'un journaliste : 6 policiers condamnés à 7,5 ans

 Six policiers jugés pour avoir battu à mort le journaliste turc Metin Goktepe pendant sa garde à vue ont été condamnés jeudi en Turquie à sept ans et demi de prison chacun par la cour d'assises d'Afyon (ouest), a rapporté l'agence Anatolie.
 Les policiers ont été reconnus coupables d'"homicide involontaire". Cinq de leurs collègues ont été acquittés pour "manque de preuves", selon Anatolie.
 Cinq policiers avaient déjà été condamnés en mars 1998 à sept ans et demi de prison pour homicide involontaire, et les six autres avaient été acquittés pour manque de preuves. Mais la Cour de cassation avait annulé le verdict pour "vice de procédure", arguant du "manque d'enquête approfondie", et un nouveau procès s'était ouvert en août.
 Jeudi, la cour d'assises d'Afyon a confirmé la sentence et a également condamné l'un des policiers précédemment acquitté.
 Les avocats de Goktepe ont estimé "insuffisantes" les peines infligées aux 6 policiers et indiqué qu'ils allaient faire appel.
 L'organisation française de défense de la liberté de la presse Reporters sans frontières (RSF) s'est déclarée "profondément indignée" par le verdict, s'insurgeant "contre le fait que seuls les lampistes ont été condamnés après plus de deux ans et demi de procès", dans un communiqué parvenu à l'AFP à Ankara.
 L'organisation "est profondément indignée que les hauts responsables de la police d'Istanbul ne comparaissent toujours pas devant un tribunal turc", précise le communiqué.
 Journaliste de l'ex-quotidien de gauche Evrensel, Metin Goktepe, 27 ans, avait été battu à mort par un groupe de policiers, selon des témoins, après son arrestation en janvier 1996 à Istanbul alors qu'il couvrait les obsèques de deux détenus tués lors de la répression d'une mutinerie dans une prison de la ville.
 Goktepe avait succombé à une hémorragie et son corps avait été retrouvé dans l'enceinte d'une salle de sports du quartier d'Eyup, dans la partie européenne d'Istanbul.
 Au total, 48 policiers avaient été initialement inculpés dans cette affaire. En 1997, les cas des 11 principaux prévenus avaient été séparés pour fixer ultérieurement le sort des autres policiers, accusés seulement de complicité.
 Une altercation a en outre éclaté avant l'audience entre des policiers et un groupe de manifestants, faisant quatre blessés légers --trois policiers et la mère de Metin Goktepe--, selon Anatolie.
 RSF a dénoncé dans son communiqué les "violences policières" dont ont été victimes certaines personnes présentes à Afyon pour suivre le procès. (AFP, 6 mai 1999)

Urgent appeal for writer Muzaffer Ilhan Erdost

 By the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), May 7, 1999:
 Writer and publisher Muzaffer Ilhan Erdost (67), one of the founding members of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), has been convicted, and awaits imprisonment.
 He was put on trial at Ankara State Security Court on the accusations of ìdisseminating separatist propaganda which questions the indivisible integrity of the Turkish stateî in his book, ìThree Sivas in the Focus of New-Sevres Imposed on Turkey (Türkiye'nin Yeni Sevre Zorlanmasinda Üç Sivas),î which was published in 1996.
 At the end of the proceeding, Muzaffer Ilhan Erdost was sentenced to 12 monthsí imprisonment and fined TL 100 million under Article 8 § 1 of the Anti-Terror Law on 12 March 1997. Besides, the Court Board ordered the confiscation of the book in question. The original ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court. However, the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court appealed against the decision, and referred the case file to the General Penal Board of the Supreme Court, which has upheld the sentence on 20 April. Erdost will serve 8 months and 20 days in prison.
 Muzaffer Erdost had been sentenced to 37,5 years in prison after the coup díetat of 12 March 1971 on charges of ìcommunist propagandaî in five books published by Sol (Left) Publishing House. Having served 3 years behind the iron bars, he was released by general amnesty in 1974.
 A few weeks after the military coup of 12 September 1980, he was re-arrested along with his brother Ilhan Erdost, director of Onur Publishing House, this time under the accusation of keeping banned publications in their house. Ilhan Erdost was killed under severe beating by soldiers, in front of his brother, in the military prison of Mamak on 7 November 1980. (Thereafter Muzaffer Erdost added his brotherís name to his.)
 Human Rights Association (IHD), in the press release dated 27.02.1999, commented that ìErdost, a representative of the enlightenment tradition, a man of culture and art who contributed to the cultural life and intellectual history of Turkey since 1960s, either by his own creations or by presenting the fundamental works of scientific socialism, is again ëguiltyí of thought."
 The trial in question clearly demonstrates once again that the State Security Courts in Turkey have assumed the task of destroying the freedom of expression.
 We invite the human rights defenders to lend support to Muzaffer Ilhan Erdost who will be imprisoned soon."

Kucuk sentenced to jail, Gerger acquitted

 An Ankara State Security Court (DGM) sentenced on Friday dissident academic and writer Yalcin Kucuk to 16 months in prison for "disseminating propaganda against the indivisible integrity of the state and the people" in a speech he made in 1995 on Med-TV, the presently shut-down television station of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
 Journalist and writer Haluk Gerger, who was tried in the same case, was acquitted.
 Kucuk is presently serving another jail sentence in the Haymana Prison.
 The court also decided to separate the cases of the other three suspects in the case, Mahir Sayin, Mehmet Canakci and Kemal Burkay, who are being tried in absentia.
 The prosecutor had demanded up to eight years in prison for the five suspects under an Anti-Terror Law article dealing with "aiding and sheltering  terrorist organizations." (TDN, May 14, 1999)

Calislar condamné à la prison pour une interview d'Ocalan

 Un journaliste turc a été condamné mardi à 13 mois de prison par un tribunal d'Istanbul pour avoir réalisé deux interviews du dirigeant kurde Abdullah Ocalan et d'un autre dissident kurde en 1993, a rapporté l'agence Anatolie.
 Oral Calislar du quotidien Cumhuriyet a été déclaré coupable de propagande séparatiste selon l'article 8 de la loi anti-terroriste turque.
 Ses interviews d'Abdullah Ocalan, chef du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), de Kemal Burkay, dirigeant du Parti socialiste kurde, avaient été publiés par Cumhuriyet en 1993 et n'avaient alors soulevé aucune objection de la part des autorités turques.
 Mais la Cour de sécurité d'Etat d'Istanbul a engagé des poursuites contre le journaliste lorsqu'il publié un livre regroupant ses articles.
 Calislar a annoncé dans un communiqué qu'il allait faire appel.
 Plusieurs interviews d'Ocalan ont été publiés dans des journaux turcs depuis la capture du chef du PKK en février. (AFP, 18 Mai 99)

PEN protests against the outcome of the Goktepe trial

 On 21 May, PEN sent the following letter to the President of Turkey with copies to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice:
 "On behalf of the International PEN, the writers' association with a 78-year history of defending freedom of expression, we write to express concern that six of the police officers indicted for the killing of Metin Goktepe have been found guilty of manslaughter.
 They have been sentenced to relatively light terms of imprisonment, though guilty of what we can only regard as a brutal murder.
 The verdict of manslaughter has been delivered after more than two-and-a-half years of deliberation and repeated postponements.
 According to our information, Metin Goktepe, a journalist for the far-left newspaper, Evrensel, was detained in Istanbul on 8 January 1996 while covering the funeral of two political prisoners killed during the suppression of a demonstration in an Istanbul prison.
 Medical reports confirm that Goktepe was beaten to death in custody.
 After an investigation by the Ministry of Internal Affairs fifteen police officers were suspended from duty and eleven were later indicted.
 At the last hearing on 6 May 1999 six officers were found guilty of manslaughter and each sentenced to seven-an-a-half years in prison.
 However, as the officers have served seventeen months already, with the standard remission, they shall only be required to serve a further one year and six months if the ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court.
 The trial of these police officers has been monitored internationally as a test case for gauging your country's commitment to bringing to an end a long pattern of police brutality.
 The outcome has caused general dismay. We respectfully urge that so far from manslaughter, the killing of Goktepe could not have been more deliberate and inexcusable.
 He was without any means of defence and the beatings, to have been as severe as they were, must have been protracted.
 In attacking him as they did, the police officers flouted their duties and showed utter disrespect for the rule of law, which they are in fact supposed to uphold.
 We urge you therefore to work towards ensuring that the police do become fully accountable for their actions, by issuing a clear statement of intent in this regard from the top levels of government, backed up by concrete proposals to bring reforms about in as speedy a manner as possible.
 In this case, it is clear that the legal procedures were too elastic and protracted and subject to individual, and hence biased, interpretations of what crime had actually been committed.
 Legal reforms are thus essential also.
 While the killers of Goktepe are allowed to serve a prison term equivalent to that being served by those convicted for minor theft, international observers will be left with the impression that Turkey has no genuine commitment to bringing to its citizens a full enjoyment of their human rights.
 And, since Metin Goktepe was killed as a result of his attempts to carry out his journalistic duties, freedom of expression will have taken a severe blow.
 The initial arraignment of the police officers was seen as a significant and promising step forward; their light sentencing after a trial in which many irregularities occurred is a damaging and distressing relapse.
 We welcome your comments on this matter. (IFEX, May 21, 1999)

CPJ condemns conviction of journalist Calislar

 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the criminal conviction of journalist Oral Calislar, a columnist for the daily "Cumhurriyet".
 On 18 May 1999, Calislar was convicted of disseminating "separatist propaganda" under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law and sentenced to 13 months in prison by the Istanbul State Security Court. The charge against Calislar stemmed from a 1993 book he wrote, titled "The Kurdish Problem with Ocalan and Burkay". The book contains interviews -originally published in "Cumhurriyet" in June and July 1993 - with Kemal Burkay, head of the Kurdistan Socialist Party, and Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, who is now awaiting trial in Turkey on treason charges.
 After the book's release, Calislar was charged under Article 8 and convicted of the charge in 1995. He was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 250 million TL (approx. US$630). However, while the case was under appeal, the Turkish Parliament approved amendments to Article 8, resulting in the nullification of the conviction.
 In 1996, the State Security Court arraigned Calislar on charges of violating Article 6 of the Anti-Terror Law (publishing the statements of a terrorist organization), again citing the book as the principle evidence. He was convicted of the charge, and fined 5 million TL (approx. US$12). But on 5 March 1998, the Court of Cassation quashed the 1996 ruling, stating that Calislar's book instead constituted "separatist propaganda," and ordered a retrial under Article 8, leading ultimately to the 18 May sentence. Calislar intends to file an appeal against the ruling.
 Calislar's prosecution and conviction constitute flagrant violations of the norms for free expression under international law. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees journalists the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
 Nearly two years ago, Turkish government officials - including Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit - promised a delegation from CPJ that they would work to end state restrictions on the press and to implement comprehensive legal reforms to end the criminalisation of journalism in Turkey. On July 14, 1997, then-Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz told the delegation that the jailing of journalists and other restrictions on press freedom "were explained away in the past by the fight against terrorism. That was unacceptable then, and it is unacceptable now." Mr. Yilmaz added that journalists and others should no longer be prosecuted on the basis of "their thoughts and their opinions." Regrettably, since that meeting 22 months ago, the prosecution and imprisonment of journalists in Turkey have continued and the government's promise of reform failed to materialize.
 As of 1 January 1999, 27 journalists were in prison in Turkey for the expression of opinion or for their association with pro-Kurdish and leftist publications, and dozens more are believed to face imprisonment in cases still pending before the courts.
 In July 1997, Prime Minister Ecevit told CPJ's delegation that, as a former journalist who had been imprisoned for his work, he "consider[s] freedom of expression as a vital component of democracy." (IFEX, May 20, 1999)

Violations de la liberté de la presse en Turquie

 Ci-dessous, un communiqué de RSF sur la Turquie pour la période du 16 avril au 18 mai 1999:
 Mandat d'arrêt lancé contre le journaliste Haluk Gerger La Cour de cassation a confirmé la peine d'un an, un mois et dix jours de prison à l'encontre de Haluk Gerger, éditorialiste du quotidien prokurde Ozgür Bakis. Le journaliste avait été condamné le 11 mars 1997 par la cour de sûreté d'Etat pour "propagande séparatiste" à la suite de la publication dans le quotidien prokurde Özgür Gündem, en décembre 1993, d'un article intitulé "Qui est le vrai perdant de la guerre?". Haluk Gerger se trouve actuellement en Allemagne.
 Le journaliste Oral Çalislar condamné à treize mois de prison pour avoir interviewé Abdullah Öcalan. Le 18 mai, Oral Çalislar, éditorialiste du quotidien kémaliste Cumhuriyet, est condamné par la cour de sûreté d'Etat d'Istanbul à treize mois de prison pour "propagande séparatiste" (article 8 de la loi antiterroriste) et à 111 111 111 livres turques (1 850 francs). En octobre 1993, le journaliste avait édité un recueil regroupant des interviews d'Abdullah Öcalan, chef du PKK, et Kemal Burkay, président du Parti socialiste du Kurdistan, publiées dans Cumhuriyet entre mai et juillet 1993. Oral Çalislar a fait appel et reste en liberté. Le tribunal a levé l'accusation contre l'éditeur du livre, Muzaffer Erdogdu.
 Trois journalistes interpellés Le 21 avril, Elif Bulut, du quotidien d'extrême gauche Yeni Evrensel, Ali Kalay, du quotidien prokurde Özgür Bakis, et Manolya Gültekin, de l'hebdomadaire d'extrême gauche Alinterimiz, sont interpellés alors qu'ils couvrent un rassemblement dénonçant les conditions de détention dans la prison d'Ümraniye (Istanbul). Un des responsables de la police aurait répliqué à Ali Kalay qui l'apostrophait : "Ici c'est la montagne. Les lois sont sans effets". Les journalistes sont libérés le lendemain. Une plainte, qui sera examinée par la justice le 28 mai prochain, a été déposée contre eux pour "infraction de la loi 2911 sur les manifestations publiques".
 Trois périodiques suspendus et cinq autres saisis Le 20 avril, la cour de sûreté d'Etat n°3 d'Istanbul suspend l'hebdomadaire d'extrême gauche Halkin Günlügü pour une période de quinze jours en vertu de l'article 5680 de la loi sur la presse pour "propagande d'une organisation illégale" et "atteinte à la sécurité de l'Etat". En raison d'un article publié dans l'édition du 1-16 août 1997, le rédacteur en chef Zeynel Engin est également condamné à six mois de prison et 540 millions de livres turques. Le 18 avril, le numéro 41 de l'hebdomadaire avait été saisi sur ordre de la cour de sûreté d'Etat n°2 d'Istanbul pour "propagande d'une organisation illégale (le TKP-ML)".
 Le 3 mai, l'hebdomadaire prokurde Hêvi est suspendu pour une semaine par la cour de sûreté de l'Etat n°3 d'Istanbul pour "propagande séparatiste" (article 8 de la loi 3713 antiterroriste). Le 19 juillet 1997, le magazine avait publié un article intitulé "La liberté ne se gagne pas en accusant n'importe comment". Selon des journalistes de Hêvi, un mandat d'arrêt aurait été lancé contre le rédacteur en chef Sores Erdogan. Le 21 avril, Hêvi avait déjà été suspendu pour quinze jours par la cour de sûreté d'Etat n°2 d'Istanbul pour "propagande séparatiste".
 Le mensuel d'extrême gauche Odak est suspendu pour une période d'un mois par la cour de sûreté d'Etat d'Istanbul pour "propagande séparatiste" à la suite de la parution, le 8 mai 1997, dans le courrier des lecteurs, d'une lettre intitulée "La vérité de la vie et les propos d'amnistie". Odak avait précédemment été suspendu pour quinze jours par la cour de sûreté d'Etat pour "propagande séparatiste" et "propagande d'une organisation illégale (Dirinis et Dev-Genc)". Le mensuel n'était pas paru entre le 17 mars et le 17 avril.
 En outre, durant la même période, les périodiques d'extrême gauche Devrimci Hedef, Alevi Halk Gercegi, Kurtulus, Uzun Yürüyüs et Alinterimiz sont saisis pour "propagande séparatiste" ou "propagande d'organisations illégales".
 Özgür Bakis interdit de distribution dans la région d'urgence Depuis le 7 mai, le quotidien prokurde Özgür Bakis, qui paraît depuis le 18 avril 1999, est interdit de distribution dans les villes de Diyarbakir, Hakkari, Siirt, Sirnak, Tunceli et Van de la région d'urgence (OHAL, sud-est anatolien) en vertu de l'article 11 (e) de la loi de la région d'urgence.
 Güney fermé par le préfet de Siirt Le 28 avril, le prefet de Siirt, dans la région d'urgence (OHAL, sud-est anatolien), ordonne la fermeture de l'hebdomadaire régional Güney pour "moquerie contre l'autorité de l'Etat" à la suite d'articles critiques à son encontre parus dans le numéro 55.
 Le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (RTÜK) prend vingt-quatre mesures de suspension et avertit vingt-six médias Entre le 16 avril et le 18 mai, le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel ordonne vingt-quatre mesures de suspensions à l'encontre de dix-huit radios ou chaînes de télévisions. De plus, en vertu de l'article 4 alinea a, i et g de la loi 3984, le RTÜK doit prochainement prendre des sanctions à l'encontre de Radyo Foreks, Radyo Fon, Radyo Box, Net FM, Radyo Aktif et Radyo S pour avoir diffusé en direct les bulletins d'information de la section turque de la radio britannique BBC. Au cours d'un des reportages, la BBC avait diffusé les déclarations d'un représentant du PKK.
 Une émission sur la corruption censurée avant diffusion Le 4 mai, le tribunal de grande instance de Fatih (Istanbul) censure "par précaution" un programme intitulé "Arena", réalisé par Ugur Dündar, que devait diffuser Kanal D. L'émission était consacrée à la corruption supposée au sein de la municipalité d'Istanbul. Les juges ont décidé que, l'enquête étant toujours en cours, la diffusion du programme pouvait violer le secret de l'instruction.
 Reporter sans frontières:
 - dénonce la décision d'arrêter Haluk Gerger, simplement coupable d'avoir exprimé son opinion sur le problème kurde,
 - proteste contre la peine de prison prononcée à l'encontre d'Oral Çalislar qui n'a fait qu'exercer son métier de journaliste,
 - proteste contre l'interpellation de journalistes,
 - s'élève contre les mesures de censure prononcées contre les journaux, les radios et les télévisions turques, notamment contre celles touchant les médias qui s'expriment pacifiquement sur le problème kurde ou qui enquêtent sur les affaires de corruption.
 Reporters sans frontières demande toujours:
 - la libération immédiate et inconditionnelle des quatre journalistes suivant : Ismail Besikçi, du quotidien prokurde Özgür Gündem, interpellé le 12 novembre 1993; Hasan Özgün, du quotidien prokurde Özgür Gündem, interpellé le 9 décembre 1993; Ayten Öztürk, de l'hebdomadaire d'extrême gauche Kurtulus, interpellée le 13 octobre 1997; Dogan Güzel, du quotidien prokurde Özgür Gündem, interpellé le 31 juillet 1998.
 - un procès juste et équitable pour les deux journalistes suivant: Nureddin Sirin, du quotidien islamiste Selam, interpellé le 6 février 1997; Asiye Zeybek Güzel, de l'hebdomadaire d'extrême gauche Atilim, interpellée le 22 février 1997. (RSF/IFEX, 20 mai 1999)

IPI protest against Calislar's jailing

 IPI, meeting at its World Congress and 48th General Assembly in Taipei, Taiwan from 16 to 19 May 1999, is strongly condemning the jailing of Turkish journalist Oral Calislar.
 Calislar, a columnist for the daily "Cumhuriyet", was convicted under the Anti-Terror Law in the Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) on 18 May and sentenced to thirteen months in prison by a two-thirds majority.
 He has been on trial for the past six years on charges relating to his book, "The Kurdish Problem with Ocalan and Burkay." IPI understands that if the higher court approves the DGM decision, Calislar can expect to serve nine months in prison. (IPI/IFEX, 20 mai 1999)

KURDISH QUESTION/QUESTION KURDE

Grey Wolves attack Kurdish origin people

 A person named Raif Levent Koçak (18), reportedly an adherent of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), was killed in Tasucu town of Silifke District of Icel on 2 May, and this led to incidents. A group of MHP adherents, reportedly drunk, raided a shop belonging to Tayyip Atabay, who is from Diyarbakir, at about 14.00. The dispute that arose during the raid turned into a fight short afterwards, and Raif Levent Koçak was killed.
 Upon this, the MHP adherents burnt the shop of Tayyip Atabay and ran away. Hearing about the incident, the MHP adherents in the town, in groups of 30 to 40 people, began to attack against the shops belonging to the persons of Kurdish origin. They destroyed about 10 shops, which were closed as it was Sunday.
 Besides, a group of MHP adherents reportedly attacked and harassed workers of Kurdish origin who are working at Mersin-Cyprus ferries.
 Special team members and gendarmeries were sent to the region in panzers 2 hours after the incidents broke out.  Journalists, who went to the town in order to follow the incidents, were not allowed to enter the region by special team members and MHP adherents.
 During the incidents, which lasted until late in the evening, about 10 houses were reportedly attacked. It is reported that many of the Kurdish people in Tasucu left the town, and that the ones who stayed in the town took shelter in their houses. (Ozgur Bakis-TIHV, May 4, 1999)

Kurdish Language Rights Discussed at International Hearing

 The Kurdish language was one of six exemplary cases of threats to linguistic human rights dealt with at an international public hearing on the Peopleís Communication Charter in the Hague from 1 to 3 May. The main theme of the hearing was the worldwide problem of disappearing and oppressed languages.
 It was the first time that violations of the Charter were discussed and judged by an international forum of experts, which heard testimony from linguists and human-rights advocates on the prohibition of languages and on inadequate state provisions to ensure the survival of minority languages. The Peopleís Communication Charter was written in the early Nineties as the result of social movements such as the Third World Network and the Worldwide Association of  Community Broadcasters, which had concluded that the quality of information and communication services could not be left with governments and markets, but required broad civil action.
 This first public hearing focused on Article 9 of the Charter, which begins: ÑAll people have the right to a diversity of languages. This includes the right to express themselves and have access to information in their own language (and) the right to use their languages in educational institutions funded by the stateì.
 At the hearing, human-rights advocate Sertac Bucak presented a long list of Turkeyís violations of the linguistic rights of its Kurdish minority, which numbers about  20 million, or one-fifth of the countryís population. This includes the prohibition of Kurdish in schools, universities and official bureaus, and the absence of radio and television channels broadcasting in Kurdish. (IMK, May 6, 1999)

Turkey Has Tight Rein on Kurd Center

 In what must be one of the most tightly controlled towns in the world, it was perhaps understandable that a young man in the billiards parlor wanted to talk only about the weather.
 As a fragrant breeze from the mountains brought an end to a glorious spring day, the man said quietly, "Weather is very bad here."
 Pressed for an explanation, he said, "We speak with our eyes."
 At a cafe around the corner, an older man said: "You can see us, but you can't hear us. Our lips are sealed." At that moment, two plainclothes police officers sat down at the table, and all conversation ceased.
 Lice (pronounced LEE-jay) is a legend in Turkey, a rumor, a place few have ever visited, but many believe they know. It was here that the Kurdistan Workers Party was founded in 1978 and went on to launch an uprising that has cost the lives of more than 30,000 soldiers, rebels and civilians. To this day it remains a symbol of Kurdish militancy.
 In the early 1990s, when the surrounding area was largely controlled by guerrillas, the army began a fierce campaign to recapture it. Soldiers razed the outlying villages, which they suspected of being guerrilla havens, and burned forests in which guerrillas had found refuge.
 In 1993, under circumstances that remain unclear, the town was virtually burned to the ground. Much has been rebuilt. But in the wreckage of desolate blocks it is still possible to find strangely shaped pieces of glass that melted together in the inferno.
 Today 10 percent of the 10,000 people who lived in Lice a decade ago remain. The rest have left for other places. They have been partly replaced by refugees from destroyed villages, making the total 6,000.
 Virtually everyone who lives here is Kurdish, except for the large number of soldiers and security officers who patrol the streets with guns that bulged from their belts. Most male residents refused to serve in the village guard, a paramilitary force that is supposed to help defend towns against guerrilla attacks, but were ordered to do so under the threat of imprisonment.
 The political and ethnic conflict here is as stark as anywhere in Turkey. Residents say they are Kurds, and the authorities are determined to make Turks out of them.
 "They saw this place as some kind of temple, and they wanted to destroy it," said a man who, like every other civilian encountered here, refused to give his name. "Now the town is like an open prison. We can't talk and we can't move without being watched. But we still feel free, because realfreedom comes from inside you."
 In an election campaign last month, the military and police officials who rule here warned people not to vote for the mayoral candidate of the People's Democracy, the pro-Kurdish party that prosecutors say is an arm of the guerrilla movement. Campaigning for People's Democracy was effectively forbidden, and its candidate, Zeynal Bagir, was not allowed to return after he left for what he thought would be a quick trip several weeks before the election. Nonetheless, he won an overwhelming victory.
 "It was about identity," a man attending a wedding party in a field on the edge of town said. "We showed that we exist. It was all we could do. The world knows our situation. We can't speak. In fact, right now I see the security police watching, and since they don't want us to talk to you, I say goodbye."
 The distribution of basic foodstuffs, like sugar and flour, is controlled by the police here. They allot a limited quantity to each family, fearing that if free sales were allowed, people would buy extra and smuggle it to guerrillas. Families believed to have supported People's Democracy in the election have had their rations cut.
 "They told us, 'You voted for that party, so let that party give you your flour,"' said a youth who was leaning against a car.
 Lice has one main street. There are a half-dozen cafes where unemployed men spend much of the day sipping tea and smoking. A larger-than-life statue of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, stands on a platform bearing the admonition, "The nation is one and cannot be divided."
 At a grocery store, a Kurdish woman evidently on a suicide mission blew herself up and injured nine others this year.
 Lice is under a strict curfew, and after 8 p.m. the only sound outside comes from armored personnel carriers that rumble through the streets, searchlights probing the darkness and men at the ready behind machine guns.
 Residents said, however, that conditions were better than they were a few years ago. They may be worse in Tunceli, 50 miles northwest of here, another town known as a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism. Journalists are forbidden to enter Tunceli.
 There are still regular clashes in this region of Turkey. Six soldiers were killed when their jeep ran over a mine south of here on Friday night, and 10 guerrillas were reportedly killed soon afterward. On that night, a sniper shot another soldier dead. But the guerrilla force, whose leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured this year, enjoys nowhere near the military power that it once had.
 "Things are much better than when I got here three years ago," the security chief of Lice, Hasrettin Bayraktar, said. "We lost a lot of people to migration. But not many are leaving now. We have a factory here. People are free to farm their land. When people don't work they get bad ideas in their heads. But now that there are more jobs, fewer people are thinking like that."
 Bayraktar and his officers insisted that Lice was all but pacified. One officer assigned to follow foreigners seemed offended when asked tokeep his distance.
 "Why are you afraid to ask questions when we are around?" he asked. "We are completely integrated with the people here. There is no problem."
 But even when people speak privately, they choose their words carefully. Asked whether soldiers and security officers considered everyone in Lice a terrorist or potential terrorist, one man replied, "That's the way it is."
 Perhaps inevitably, those who spoke most freely were children. Asked whether he was afraid of the police, an 8-year-old replied, "Of course we are, because if they arrest you they either torture you or kill you."
 At that, a 15-year-old who seemed unusually mature interrupted to say: "Don't ask too much. Don't make us say too much. Otherwise it's trouble for everyone."
 To the suggestion that he should consider running for mayor when he turns 18, the boy replied, "In this town you don't even know if you will be alive in three years." (The New York Times, May 10, 1999)

Kurds to launch national congress in Amsterdam

 Kurds from all continents will meet in Amsterdam on Monday to establish a National Congress of Kurdistan, organisers said on Friday.
 The aim of the new body will be to defend Kurdish people's identity, language and rights, notably in the  Middle East where their population is around 40 million, although they have no separate nation.
 The congress, which plans to meet once a year, will be formed of representatives  from the Kurdish diaspora, religious and culturalinstitutions, political entities  and ethnic groups.
 The Preparatory Committee issued on May 21 the following press statement:
 The Opening of the National Congress of Kurdistan is  a Cause for Celebration by the Kurds!  After a long preparatory period, the National Congress of Kurdistan has finally reached the phase of establishment. On the 24th of this month, the National Congress of Kurdistan will be officially announced much to the celebration of the Kurdish community.
 May 24, 1999 will henceforth be a monumental day in the modern history of the Kurdish people
 Formidable obstacles were overcome to realize this day. The National Congress of Kurdistan. could only be instituted after tireless talks, meetings, and discussions with Kurdish political parties, organizations, institutions, and independent personalities which spanned a period of four years.
 The National Congress of Kurdistan (NCK) is a unique body comprised of representatives from the Kurdish diaspora in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia as well as representatives of political parties which exist in all parts of Kurdistan (constituting 45% of the Congress), religious and cultural institutions (20%), independent political entities and intellectuals (30%), and ethnic groups (5%). In this aspect, the NCK possesses the characteristics not of a political party but rather a democratic institution.
 The Kurdish people are nearly 40 million in the Middle East and thus one of the four largest nations of the region; they continue to live on the same lands their ancestors lived on from the dawn of history.
 For the Kurds to claim their inherent right for progress and cultural and lingual development, the Kurds need to assert their legitimate right to free political and cultural organization and their right to determine their own fate like all the other nations of the world. The division of the Kurdish people along with their lands has threatened their language, identity, culture, the very civilization it has helped to create, and has even imperiled their very existence.
 Despite the overwhelming odds, the Kurds have resisted despite being separated as a result of international agreements. Moreover, until this day, the Kurds have asserted their existence as a reality by sociologically, culturally, nationally and lingually establishing themselves as a distinct people.
 The NCK will defend the Kurdish people's identity, language, culture, political and societal rights in all the lands where the Kurds live and will provide the needed support for Kurdish political parties and organizations. The NCK's efforts will be towards finding a peaceful and political solution to the Kurdish Question. To this end, it defends the brotherhood of peoples based on equality and mutual respect.
 The NCK's principal aim is to establish peace for the people of Kurdistan and to create a platform where they can express themselves freely. The NCK can also play a decisive role in the creation of peace and dialogue between the various Kurdish parties and organizations. (Reuters, May 21, 1999)

Turkey bans public offices from using Kurd-related terms

 The Turkish interior ministry has banned public offices from using a series of terms relating to Turkey's Kurdish population as a precautionary measure, a Turkish newspaper  said on Thursday.
 The ministry has introduced a list of phrases that should be employed, rather than the banned terms, by the media, in official  press releases and in activities that receive coverage in Turkey and  abroad, the liberal daily Milliyet said.
 The report said that the underlying reason for the ban was to "avoid terms that could lead to debate or exploitation in the  future."
 The list of "bad" and "good" words has already been conveyed to the state-run Anatolia news agency and the Turkish television and  Radio Agency (TRT), it added.
 According to the list published by Milliyet, it is forbidden to use the terms "Kurdish origin" or "citizens of Kurdish origin": they  should be replaced by "Turkish citizens" or "Turkish citizens who  are described as Kurds by separatist circles."
 The phrase "people of southeastern and eastern Anatolia" is no longer safe either. According to the list, they should be called  "citizens who live in the east of Turkey."
 With respect to the term "Kurdish leaders," the list strictly advises the usage of "Northern Iraqi clan leaders."
 Turkey's eastern and southeastern provinces, mostly populated by Kurds, have been the scene of a bitter struggle between Turkish  troops and the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has  been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in the region for the past 15 years.
 Turkey calls the PKK a "terrorist organization" and categorically rejects the existence of a "Kurdish question," arguing  that its citizens of Kurdish origin have the same rights as any other.
 Accordingly, the list says that any activity relating to the PKK has to be preceded by the adjective "terrorist."
 The fact that the PKK follows a Marxist-Leninist policy can only be mentioned in "face-to-face talks abroad." (AFP, May 20, 1999)

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Bucak Case suspended, Agar's referred to Council of State

 Istanbul's State Security Court (DGM) No. 6 declared on Monday that the case pending against Sanliurfa True Path Party (DYP) Deputy Sedat Edip Bucak was to be suspended. Bucak, whose parliamentary immunity was lifted last year to allow his trial to proceed on charges of being involved in criminal gangs within the government, has been re-elected to Parliament. Under the circumstances, he is now immune from prosecution unless and until the new Parliament decides to lift his immunity once again.
 Independent Elazig Deputy Mehmet Agar, Bucak's fellow defendant in the trial known popularly as the Susurluk case, has had his case referred to the Council of State for a decision.
 The Susurluk case arose out of an automobile crash outside of a small village of the same name in northwest Turkey. Bucak was injured in the accident, and a police chief, a wanted criminal and his girlfriend were killed. The ensuing inquiry led to the uncovering of criminal gangs working from within the framework of the government.
 Bucak claims that he cannot remember anything from the accident. Agar, a former Interior Minister, was implicated because his signature appeared on documents related to the criminal who died in the crash, Abdullah Catli.
 Haluk Kirci, another defendant in the case, asked to be acquitted, but the court on Monday refused his request. He has been accused of involvement in the mu