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A non-government information service on Turkey
Un service d'information non-gouvernemental sur la Turquie

166-166

14th Year - N°165-166
 July-August 1990
38 rue des Eburons - 1000 Bruxelles
Tél: (32-2) 215 35 76 - Fax: (32-2) 215 58 60
 Rédacteur en chef: Dogan Özgüden - Editrice responsable: Inci Tugsavul
 


10 YEARS OF THE MILITARIST "DEMOCRACY"

    On September 12, 1990, the people of Turkey will observe with indignation, for the 10th time, the black anniversary of the Turkish general's coup of 1980.
    The putsch of September 12 was a ferocious attack on the acquired democratic rights and freedoms, setting loose an unprecedented State terrorism marked mainly by the arrest of more than 630,000 people, mass trials, executions, tortures, dissolving of the Parliament, banning of political parties, trade unions, associations and newspapers and the impoverishment of the working people.
    It was also the beginning of of a period during which Turkey has been turned into a military power in the region with a growing military-industrial complex. The United States has been the principal supporter of the military coup and the militarisation of the country with a view to having a militarily strong ally in the areas away from NATO's traditional battlefields, more precisely in the Middle East.
    The 10th anniversary of the coup coincides with Turkey's direct involvement in the Gulf Crisis under the pressure of the United States.

Inside

STATE
TERRORISM
REINFORCED BY
THE STATE OF WAR


    The current regime "à la turque", despite the holding a few elections since 1983, is still characterized by the constant violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
    Particularly:
    - Although martial law was lifted, state of emergency reigns in the southeastern provinces of the country where the regional governor has, by the government decrees adopted in April 1990, been empowered to use all repressive measures such as closing down publications and associations, deporting anti-establishment people and banning all meetings, demonstrations and strikes.
    - Using the Gulf Crisis as a pretext, Özal administration resorts to every means for proclaiming a state of war in a view to reinforcing State terrorism. 
    - Innumerable mass or individual trials continue before State Security Courts. Furthermore, some military tribunals set up by the junta still continue to try thousands of people despite the lifting of martial law.
    - Turkish prisons are still full of political detainees. According to the recent data given by the Justice Ministry on July 8, 1990, the total number of detainees in Turkish prisons is 46,492. Of them 39,311 were purging their prison terms while 16,981 were under arrest waiting for the conclusion of their trials. The number of those who are in prison for political reasons is 3,606.
    - Tribunals still pronounce capital punishment against political people and Turkey remains the only European country which keeps this inhuman penalty in its legislation. On July 21, 1990, the number of the capital punishments transmitted by the higher court to the Grand National Assembly for ratification reached to 275. Of the condemned, 138 are from the Left and 28 from the Right. In addition to this, more than 500 deaths sentences are still being dealt by the Court of Cassation and public prosecutors continue to claim death sentences at State Security Courts.
    - As a novelty of the Özal period, tens of children have been brought before tribunals for political crimes, and recently, on July 18, 1990, public prosecutor claimed death sentence for three Kurdish children aged 11,12 and 14.
    - Daily practice of torture in interrogation centres and inhuman treatment of political detainees in prisons are still the object of complaints by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.
    - The number of the Turkish nationals asked for political asylum in foreign countries since the military coup of September 12, 1980 until April 1990 climbed to 270,000. Of these refugees 161,000 fled Turkey after 1986.
    - About 14,000 self-exiled people have been deprived of Turkish nationality and the government does not take any initiative to abolish this inhuman practice as the East European countries are embracing their former dissidents.
    - Political rights of many left-wing and/or Kurdish leaders who have been sentenced for their opinions are still suspended, while the right-wing leaders such as neo-fascist Türkes are taking part in political life and heading their new parties.
    - Since the fascist articles 141 and 142 of the Turkish Penal Code are still in force, those Socialist and/or Kurdish people who have escaped any condemnation in the past and attempt today to set up legal political parties are subjected to pressures and prosecution.
    - National, cultural and religious rights of the Kurdish population and Christian minorities are not respected. Recently, on July 30, 1990, Prime Minister Akbulut said: "There are no Kurds in Turkey. The people who live in Turkey are Turks. We shall not allow Turkey to be divided." The Turkish Kurdistan is under the occupation of two thirds of the Turkish Army's troops and is subject to state of emergency under the exceptional rule of a "super-governor."
    - Social and trade union rights, as admitted by the ILO, are still extremely restricted.
    - The progressive trade union centre DISK is still excluded from labour relations and its leading members still face heavy prison terms at the Military Court of Cassation.
    - Journalists are constantly harassed by the state security courts and left-wing publications are often confiscated and banned. Recently, on the occasion of the Press Day of July 24, journalists associations made public that 32 journalists condemned by military or state security courts are still in prisons, purging a total of 3,315-year imprisonment. Besides, 13 journalists are being searched by police for arrest.
    - Only in 1989, prosecutors opened 394 legal pursuits against journalists, of which 183 at criminal courts. They face a total of 4,000-year imprisonment. In June, two periodicals were closed down definitely by the virtue of the Decree No.424 and 18 other reviews can no more be published because of the pressure exerted on printing houses.
    - Academic autonomy has not yet been restored and univesities are still subject to the barrack discipline of the Higher Educatiuon Council (YÖK), set up by the junta.
    - More than 1.6 million people are still recorded as "suspect." They are still deprived of the right to work in a public service or to travel abroad.
    All these facts show that the wounds opened during the three years (1980-83) of the military dictatorship are still very far from being healed.

Outside

A BELLICOSE
MISSION
TO TURKEY IN
THE GULF CRISIS

    Turkey has captured international media attention in August by halting the loading of Iraqi oil and opening its airbases to US aircrafts just after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. In fact, together with the Great Britain, Turkey has been one of the two NATO members who have hastily taken an active part in the application of the US plans related to the Gulf. The Western newspapers have been full of praise for Özal's crisis management.
    However, Özal's all opponents in the country, as well from the Left as from the Right, accuse him of having put national interests in jeopardy. Critics say he has sacrificed too much in the short term to protect US interests in expectation of problematical long-term returns. He has also been charged with indulging in self-promotion and being carried away by the praise lavished on him by the West.
    It is not at all astonishing to see Özal giving priority to the US interests in the detriment of the national ones. It is the United States that has, since the September 12, 1980 Coup, played the greatest role in determining Turkey's foreign policy and in keeping pro-American figures such as Özal at the head of the State.
    In fact it is the United States that had pushed the Turkish generals in 1980 to take over the country's administration in a view to having  more easily implemented the plans of the IMF and the Pentagon in Turkey.
    Until 1980, one of the tenets of the Turkish foreign policy was to keep clear of trouble spots and hold Turkey's involvement in international conflicts to the lowest possible level, a tenet engendered by the events which drew Turkey into World War I.
    In 1914, three pro-German generals -Enver, Talat and Cemal- leading the Ittihad-i Terakki (Union and Progress) Party which had run the Ottoman Empire, went along with a German ploy which led Turkey into the war. This war ended in disaster for the empire.
    The Republic of Turkey was built on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire only after four years of fighting against the Western Allies.
    Turkey's second president Ismet Inönü, the father of Erdal Inönü -leader of the main opposition SHP- has always been lauded for keeping the country out of World War II.
    One of the major mistakes of the post-Inönü period was Turkey's siding with the French and Americans against Arab nations in the 1950s.  During the Lebanon Crisis the Menderes Government allowed the United States to use Turkish air bases. At the United Nations, Turkey voted against the Algerian nationalist movement.
    In the 1960s when Turkey became aware of the importance of Arab oil it tried hard to put its relations with the Arab nations on a normal footing. But the Arabs never forgot the position Turkey took during the 1950s. From 1960 up to 1980, all governments had carefully escaped any pro-American move in the Middle East which might bother Arab countries.
    After the Oil Crisis in the 1970s, the United States seemed eager to put an end to Turkey's policy of prudence. Especially the closing down of all US military bases and installations in Turkey by the Demirel Government in a retaliation to the embargo on the deliverance of US made arms to Turkey was a real headache of the Pentagon. Although social-democrat premier Ecevit reopened in October 1978 the bases when the US Congress lifted the arms ban on Turkey, a permanent status for all US and NATO bases and installations had been confronted with a strong opposition of democratic forces. After the ultimatum of the pro-American Turkish generals on January 2, 1980 the Turco-American Defense Cooperation Agreement (DECA) was initialled.
    A report entitled "Turkey's Problems and Prospects: Implications for US Interests", issued by the US Congress on March 3, 1980, said: "...Turkey and the United States still have important issues to resolve between themselves in the important area of defense cooperation. Turkey's value as a NATO ally and partner of the United States in helping stability and security in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East has been accentuated by the recent upheaval in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Successful resolution of these matters would permit Turkey to assume once again an effective role in protecting the vital security interests of NATO and the free world in an increasingly volatile region of the globe."
    It is the September 12, 1980 Coup that, eliminating all democratic and peace-loving forces in the country, cleared the way for an absolute US military hegemony on Turkey. One of the first thinks that the 5-man junta did was the ratification of the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DECA).
    The Gulf and Middle East question was discussed to a great extent between General Kenan Evren and US Secretary of State Haig, during the latter's visit to Turkey on May 14, 1982.
At the time Turkey was still suffering from the consequences of the Oil Crisis and was obliged to maintain good relations with oil-producing Arab countries. Haig was informed that Turkey could deal the Middle East Problems, not bilaterally with the United States, but within the within the NATO framework.
    A few days later, on the suggestion of the United States, the Ministerial Council of NATO, held on May 17-18, 1982 in Luxembourg, declared in its final communiqué that "Some members of the NATO can take certain measures for defending any region out of the NATO zone." This was a green light to bilateral cooperation between Turkey and the USA, and to a US military intervention to the Gulf area.
    The summit of NATO held on June 10, 1982, in Bonn, confirmed the "common interest in the security, stability and sovereign independence of the countries outside the NATO area" and readiness of the members of the Alliance to "contribute either directly or indirectly" to ensuring them. Having taken the US Rapid Deployment Force under its aegis, the NATO Summit authorized Turkey to open her territories to this force. And on October 7, 1982, it is the first time that the US Rapid Deployment Force took part in the NATO manoeuvre code-named "Determination 82" carried out in Turkey.   
    On October 31, 1982, Turkey and the United States reached an agreement to improve and modernize the Turkish air bases and facilities for use by US Forces "in time of major crisis or war."
    On November 29, 1982, Turkey and the United States signed in Brussels a new agreement stipulating to build new airfields in Turkey and to give the USA the right of military storage on Turkish soil. In the meantime, it was announced in Washington that the USA had set up a new military command in the Middle East for defending US interests in the Gulf Area and Indian Ocean.
    On February 1, 1986, The Wall Street Journal reported that Turkey's strategic importance had grown since the construction of new pipelines which start from Iraq and run to the Mediterranean Sea by passing through Turkey's south-eastern territories. These new pipelines had also decreased the strategic importance of the Iranian Gulf. While 41 percent of the oil exported to Western countries were being sent from the Gulf ten years ago, in 1986 this had fallen to 15 percent. The newspaper also described these new pipelines as "the major supply line of NATO." (See: Info-Türk, Turco-American Relations after the Coup, Brussels 1988)
    If, today, the USA rushed to the Gulf Area, it is not for the sake of defending Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, but for protecting US oil interests in the region.
    As for Ozal's support to this intervention, he is the USA's man-on-the-spot and he cannot act against the Pentagon's expectation. It is the USA that had assured his staying in the government after the September 12, 1980 Coup.  Prior to the coup, he was already economic brain behind the austerity government of Demirel, charged with putting in force the drastic economic measures imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. The Financial Times of September 13, 1980 reported: "Mr. Özal's fate will be a pointer to whether IMF and World Bank relations will continue smoothly with Turkey." In fact, in the new military government, Özal was kept as Vice-premier while Demirel was being sent to prison.
    When the military organized first legislative elections in 1983, it was the USA that encouraged Özal to set up a political party and gave all support to obtain absolute majority in the new parliament. (See: Info-Türk, Black Book on the Militarist "Democracy" in Turkey, Brussels, 1986).
    Besides, Özal's family has very close relations, both economically and ideologically,  with the Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and and the United Arab Emirates. Turgut Özal and his brother Korkut Özal were among those young technocrats of Turkey who were won over in 1960s by the Saudi Arabia in a view to propagating Saudi Fundamentalism in Turkey. His two brothers, Korkut Özal and Yusuf Bozkut Özal, are currently at the head of many joint ventures set up in Turkey with Saudi investments. (See: Info-Türk, Extreme-Right in Turkey, Brussels 1988).
    No doubt, an old dream of the Turkish expansionist circles too pushes Özal administration to take adventurist steps. Already four years ago, the daily Milliyet of October 16, 1986, referring to reliable sources, reported: "More than one million Turks live in Mosoul and Kirkuk regions of Iraq. At the beginning of the National Liberation War (1919), these regions figured inside the borders claimed by the national liberation movement. But, after the war, this question could not be resolved in a favourable way because of Turkey's weakness at the time, and the Mosoul and Kirkuk regions were left to Great Britain. However, Turkey historically has right to these regions."
    What will be the cost of this adventurist policy to Turkey?
    Already, the daily Cumhuriyet of August 17, 1990 estimates that Turkey's losses at 3 billion dollars: Iraq's debts: $753 million, exports: $600 million, pipeline revenues: $250 million, transport revenues: $500 million,  Turkish business in Iraq and Kuwait: $250 million, Rise of oil costs: $800 million. It should be added this the rise of military expenditures and their direct or indirect effects on the inflation and unemployment rates.
    That is why all Turkish opposition parties, both from the left and the right, unanimously protest Özal's adventurist stand and try to obstruct further steps in the detriment of Turkish interests. The reaction is so great that, in a closed session on August 12, the National Assembly refused to give the government an unconditional mandate to declare war. The bill which was later passed by Parliament gives the government authority to use the armed forces only if Turkey is attacked.
        "Özal has been praised in the Western media but at the cost of great sacrifices by Turkey. I would like to ask Özal whether Turkey got any guarantees from the European Community (EC) in return for these sacrifices" said Inönü, leader of the SHP.
        "The enemy is unknown, the threat against Turkey is not specified, where the government felt the need to ask for such authority from Parliament? No one can make promises on behalf of Turkey that would jeopardize the security of the nation. Turkey has no need to play the role of a hero or a saviour. Who is that you are striving to please and get a pat on the back? You are throwing Turkey into fire claiming you are promoting its image," said Demirel,  leader of the DYP.
    Besides,  both the SHP and the DYP rejected Özal's invitation to go to Çankaya to discuss the Iraq crisis.   
    According to The Turkish Dateline of August 25, 1990, Özal's confidants justify his hasty support to the USA in following terms:
    "The president's expectations are great. Through his crisis management policy he hopes to shed problems which have troubled Turkey's foreign policy for many years. The important role which Özal considers Turkey is playing in the Gulf Crisis he believes will finally remove the objections of European Community members to Turkey's entry into the EC. He hopes Turkey's importance as an ally will impress Washington enough to encourage the United States to tilt more favours to Ankara than to Athens. Özal also believes European nations and the United States are likely to remove trade restrictions on Turkey's exports to offset the economic losses incurred by implementing trade sanctions against Iraq."
    Whatsoever be Turkey's sacrifices for defending US interests in the region, will the European Community really accept it as a full member. Can the European democracies forget the poor human rights record of Turkey, detailed in the other columns of this issue?

ÖZAL VERSUS CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

    The main opposition Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) has taken the controversial decrees that give extraordinary power to the regional governor in the Southeast, to the Constitutional Court and demanded their abrogation because they contravene basic constitutional principles.
    President Ozal has immediately reacted against this action by saying that he would not let anyone change the emergency decrees.
    Ozal's this stand has given rise a series of protests from judicial circles.Yekta Gungor Özden, acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court, said no one had the right to comment on cases under study by the Constitutional Court. "Recently we have witnessed incidents that should not take place in a country where government is based on the rule of law. No one can do whatever he wants. Everyone should abide by the law," said Özden.
    The chief justice said the rulings of the Constitutional Court were binding on everyone. He pointed out that it was the Constitutional Court which tried cabinet members charged with breaking the law.
    On July 30, Önder Sav, chairman of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), announced his support for Özden: "It is a constitutional crime to make comments on a case before a court that should be completely independent. Loyalty and respect for the constitution should be shown by those who have taken the oath to abide by the constitution, democracy and belief in the superiority of law," said Sav.
    He also criticized the power already given to the President of the republic: "Presidents should no longer have the power to select members of the judiciary including the constitutional court."
    The opposition party spokesmen also accused Ozal of violating the constitution by his remarks. Onur Kumbaracibasi, the spokesman of the SHP parliamentary group, said the government decrees were put in force without being submitted to the legislative assembly. "With this attitude in government Turkey can have no place in the community of modern nations, let alone become a member of the European Community," he added.
    On the other hand, a petition claiming that the state of emergency be lifted in the Southeastern Anatolia, signed by more than 15 thousand people was transmitted on June 22 to the Prime Minister's Office by the representatives of 20 left-wing periodicals. Since Prime Minister Akbulut refused to receive the delegation, the petition was handed over to his press office.

PRESSURE ON TURKISH BIG BUSINESS

    It is the first time in Turkey where until now only the working class and Kurdish activists have undergone repression that the State terror has recently been extended to the representatives of the big business as well.
    Cem Boyner, president of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association (TUSIAD), appeared before the Sisli public prosecutor in Istanbul on July 23. He may face charges of violating the constitutional rule which bans professional associations from participating in politics.
    Boyner is one of the youngest businessmen of Turkey and has been criticizing government policies since his election to the head of this businessmen association. "The investigation was probably instigated by the government to intimidate TUSIAD and stop it from criticizing government policies," said a leading TUSIAD member.
    Immediately after he testified before the prosecutor, Boyner said the case "shamed Turkish democracy."
    "My appearance here does not shame me. It shames those who started this judicial process because they find it hard to tolerate the basic conditions of democracy," said Boyner.
    In a speech earlier this year, Boyner had said the only way out of the present economic deadlock and political instability was to hold early parliamentary elections.
    Boyner found support in unlikely quarters: Two social democrat parties as well as the United Communist party of Turkey (TBKP) upheld his position.

ARREST OF TWO FOREIGNERS

    Two foreign tourists, US citizen Chris Royer and British citizen Allister MacDonald, were arrested in Istanbul on July 7 while distributing Christian propaganda leaflets. They were held in a cell in the Sisli police station without food or water. Both were refused a statutory telephone call to a lawyer or their consulate, and were not told for over two hours why they were being held.
    A trial, which lasted 20 minutes, was held the following day acquitting the two men.  Despite this acquittal, police did not leave them alone and took them back to the police station and locked them up again.  They were made to stand to attention in front of a statue of Atatürk for 20 minutes.
    On July 9, Mac Donald and Royer were escorted to Sirkeci train station and forcibly deported to Greece.

EXECUTION WITHOUT TRIALS

    123 writers, artists, journalists and political activists announced on July 17 that police shoot to kill instead of trying to seize people suspected of terrorist activities.
    The communique was published after police killed a young man and woman on July 12 in an apartment in an uptown residential neighborhood of Istanbul. Both of them were suspected of belonging to an underground organization, the Armed Popular Units (SHB).
    The parents of Gülay Arici and Alper Ersoy, both 20, said that the policed killed the two deliberately although they could have seized them alive.

NEW ACTIONS AGAINST CHILDREN

    Despite protests from human rights circles, the prosecution of children is being carried on throughout Turkey. To such extent that recently three Kurdish children were put under the menace of capital punishment at a tribunal.
    On July 18, in Diyarbakir, 20 alleged PKK militants were brought before the State Security Court on the charge of having participated in an armed confrontation with security forces in Beytusebap in April 1990. Among the defendants are also three Kurdish children aged 11,12 and 14 and public prosecutor claims death sentence for all of them.
    Other legal actions against children:
    June 27, in Istanbul, seven high school students, aged between 15 and 18, were indicted by the State Security Court on grounds that they were affiliated to an underground organization and distributed its tracts. Seven youngsters, of whom two young girls, face prison terms of up to 14 years each. Although they were, after being kept under arrest for more than two months, released on bail at the first session, the trial will be carried on.
    July 12, two high school students, both 17 years old, were brought before the State Security Court of Istanbul. Accused of being members of an outlawed organization, two youngsters claimed at the opening of the trial that they had been tortured under police arrest. The court released them on bail.
    July 22, four children aged 11 and 12 were reportedly tortured by police in the district of Bünyan of the province of Kayseri. According to the daily Günes, these children had been taken into police custody after they quarrelled with a group of children of police officers. A local clinic delivered a medical report establishing torture bruises on the children's bodies.

STATE TERROR IN JUNE AND JULY

    16.6, a soirée organized by the Association for Solidarity With the Parents of Prisoners (TAYAD) to commemorate the victims of hungerstrikes in prisons was banned by the Governor of Istanbul.
    18.6, in Izmir, the Human Rights Association (IHD) announced that unrest was growing again in the Buca Prison because of the ill-treatment of political prisoners. 40 detainees were reportedly deprived of the right of to communicate with the exterior for three months on grounds that they had led a hungerstrike. Besides, the prison cells are entirely filthy and a prisoner, Mustafa Aday, was bitten by rats in his cell.
    18.6, the prisons No.1 and No.2 in Diyarbakir again became the scene of new fracas between parents and warders when usual visits on the occasion of Fathers Day were banned this year on pretext that the prison personnel had to pass some examinations that day.
    19.6, in Istanbul, 34 automotive workers were taken into police custody for having led a demonstration in protest against the firing of some workers during collective bargainings at car accessories factory.
    19.6, The Doctors' Order of Izmir, in a report entitled "Hungerstrikes and Doctors", made public the pressures exerted on doctors and medical personnel during the hungerstrikes led by political prisoners in the Aydin Prison in August 1989.  The report reveals that prison doctors had been forced to work for 36 hours without interruption and to sign some documents refuting torture allegations by prisoners. According to the prison doctors, prisoners were beaten up, tortured and chained to their bed when they were hospitalized.
    20.6, a 70-year old peasant, Cumali Celik, was taken into custody in Elazig in relation to the investigation on a bomb explosion in Istanbul during which her daughter Suna Celik perished.
    23.6, Chairman of the Municipal Workers' Union, Hidir Bal, after being released, accused the Istanbul Police Chief Hamdi Ardali of having tortured himself and other detainees of the May Day incidents. "Police committed crime against humanity on May Day. First they opened fire upon demonstrating workers and beat up with truncheons all those apprehended on the spot. Then, all detainees were subjected to torture at the police headquarters," he said.
    25.6, political detainees in the Bayrampasa Prison of Istanbul were brutally beaten up in the night by soldiers and guards. The Human Rights Association (IHD) claimed that 39 inmates were wounded during the discipline operation and three of them were hospitalized.
    26.6, Chairman of the Izmir Section of the Human Rights Association (IHD), Alparslan Berktay and 17 other persons were brought before a criminal court in Izmir for having signed an appeal to a meeting of the Socialist Party (SP).
    27.6, the chairman of the Socialist Party (SP) Adiyaman branch, Abuzer Yavas was taken into police custody.
    28.6, the Military Court of Cassation approved death sentences against nine members of the Revolutionary Way (Dev-Yol). Eight life-prisons and 325 other prison terms varying between one year and 20 years were also approved by the higher court. Only four death sentences and two life prisons were overruled.
    30.6, a group of political detainees, accused of pro-Iranian activities, revolted at the Bayrampasa Prison. During the skirmish six warders and three detainees were wounded.
    30.6, Chairman of the Adana Section of the Human Rights Association (IHD), Sener Ekiz was tried for having allowed a group of parents of political prisoners to make a hungerstrike at the association's local in July 1989. He faces a prison term of up to 3 years for breaking the Law on Associations.
    3.7, driver Abdurrahman Uykur was indicted by the State Security Court of Diyarbakir for having painted his lorry in the colours of the PKK's flag. Tried under arrest, he faces a prison term of up to 10 years.
    3.7, the commander of a gendarmery post at the village of Konur in the province of Mardin, Sergeant Teoman Biresellioglu was accused by a SHP deputy, Ahmet Türk, of having shot dead a taxi driver who refused to transport his personal luggages. Türk claimed that the victim had earlier resigned from the pro-government Village Protectors team and very often been subjected to menace for this act. He also claimed that there were traces of torture on the victim's body.
    11.7, in Diyarbakir and its districts 30 people were taken into custody for having forced local tradesmen to pull down their shutters for protesting against emergency measures. The detainees are also accused of being members of the outlawed Socialist Party of Turkish Kurdistan (TKSP).
    12.7, six officials of the Izmir branch of the Teachers' Association (EGIT-DER) were indicted by a criminal court for having organized an opinion poll on trade union rights of public servants. Each faces a prison term of up to one year.
    13.7,     a Radical activist, Ibrahim Eren, appeared in an Istanbul criminal court on charges of running a homosexual prostitution service at Huzur Banyo, his Turkish bath (hamam). The trial was adjourned until October 3 after witnesses and the complainant withdraw their claims against Eren, testifying that police had pressured them into signing documents incriminating the hamam owner.
    13.7, the Doctors' Order of Ankara launched a new campaign against the ill-treatment of political detainees subject to medical care in hospitals. According to the order, political detainee Sedat Karaagac who suffers from cancer and is under treatment at the Hacettepe University Hospital, was chained to his bed, not allowed to go to WC and to have in his room a TV or radio set.
    14.7, the trial of 19 people accused of being members of the outlawed Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP) began at the State Security Court of Ankara. The public prosecuted claimed a total of 228 years imprisonment for the defendants.
    16.7, the chairman of the newly founded Teachers' Union (EGITIM-IS), Niyazi Altunya was dismissed from his post at the Beyazit Vocational School in Ankara by the Governor of Ankara.
    19.7, police reported the arrest of 11 militants of the Armed Popular Units (SHB), military wing of the Revolutionary Communist Party (DKP) in Istanbul.
    21.7, the trial of 44 people accused of having made unauthorized demonstrations on May Day began at he State Security Court of Istanbul. A young woman, Gülay Beceren who was crippled by a police bullet is taking part among the defendants. At the first session, the court decided to ban all news and photos about this trial. Besides, police brutally harassed the journalists and detained journalist Irfan Yildiz from the monthly Yeni Demokrasi.
    23.7, the trial of 34 Kurds, accused of being members of the outlawed Vanguard Workers Party of Kurdistan (KOIP), began at the State Security court of Diyarbakir. 26 of the defendants claimed at the first session that they had been tortured under police arrest. Many of the defendants are members of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD). Although they were released on bail, the IHD announced that 12 more people were taken into custody same day on similar charges.
    24.7, the Chairman of the Steel Workers' Union (CELIK-IS), Metin Turker was detained by police on the eve of a meeting organized in Iskenderun by the union.
    25.7, the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) announced that a detainee named Ibrahim Ates, taken into police custody in Mersin ten days ago, was tortured during his interrogation and killed by throwing out from the window of his 4th floor appartment.
    25.7, the State Security Court of Istanbul sentenced six people to different prison terms of up to 36 years for having taken part in some political actions organized by the outlawed Revolutionary Left (Dev-Sol).
    26.7, the State Security Court of Ankara began to try nine alleged members of the Revolutionary Communists' Union of Turkey (TIKB). Each faces a prison term of up to 15 years.
    26.7, a cultural club in the Sisli Quarter of Istanbul was closed down by the governor of the province.
    26.7, the trial of 20 alleged members of the Islamic Party of Kurdistan (KIP) began at the State Security Court of Istanbul. At the opening of the trial, all the defendants declared that they had been subjected to torture during their police interrogation. One of the defendants, Hamit Turgut said that he eyewitnessed a left-wing woman be tortured and raped by police officers at the same police station. During the trial a group of party sympathizers, mostly women, attacked the police when they were refused to enter in the court room. During the incidents two persons were wounded and 20 people detained.
    27.7, the central office of the Nurses Association in Istanbul was raided by a police team. During the operation, police took into custody 22 nurses.
    27.7, the State Security Court of Ankara sentenced five alleged members of an outlawed organized, Ekim (October) to different prison terms of up to 9 years and 2 months.
    28.7, a student of the Medicine Faculty of the Ankara University, Günay Kaptan alleged that he was tortured at police center.
    30.7, a 19 years old person named Bayram Günes, detained by police for having put posters on walls, said after his release that he had been tortured at the police center of Izmir.
    30.7, a naval NCO, Haci Bayram Yüksel, was indicted for having sent a reproaching letter to the President of the republic.He faces a prison term of up to 5 years.
    31.7, a new incident broke at the Bayrampasa Prison in Istanbul when an Army officer insulted a group of prisoners were being taken to tribunal. Two officers, six soldiers and many prisoners were wounded during the clash.   
    31.7, the mayor of the township Kozluca was sentenced by the State Security Court of Izmir to a 20-month prison term on the charge of antisecular activities.

STATE MASSACRED KURDISH PEASANTS

    The bloodiest fight since 1987 in Turkish Kurdistan claiming 27 lives, on June 9, has given rise a widespread polemics in the Turkish press. The Turkish authorities accused the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) of having killed in this attack thirteen children, seven women, four village guards and three unarmed men. On this claim, opposition parties blamed the government of remaining incapable to stop the PKK raids.
    However, on June 21, Chairman of the  newly founded People's Labour Party (HEP), Fehmi Isiklar announced that 27 peasants perished in the village of Cevrimli in Sirnak were in fact assassinated not by the PKK guerrillas but  by the security forces. He said that they were killed because of refusing to adhere to be Village Protectors in the service of the government forces.
    This assertion was later supported by the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) as well.
    As for the PKK, it announced in a press communique putting the blame on the Turkish security forces.
    After this massacre the armed clashes between PKK guerrillas and security forces gave gained a bigger dimension claiming about one hundred victims including army majors, captains and lieutenants. The Regional Governor announced that only in last ten days of July, 39 PKK militants and 15 security members had been killed in the Southeast.
    Kozakcioglu also said that during his post as security chief in the Southeast, 929 "separatists" had been either killed or arrested by security forces. Since the beginning of this year 159 PKK members were killed and 133 members or sympathizers were arrested.
    The regional governor added that 24,000 Village Protectors are currently effective in warding off PKK attacks in villages not easily accessible by security forces.

SHP'S REPORT ON THE KURDISH QUESTION

    The Social Democrat Populist Party (SHP), which had been widely criticized for not drawing up a well-defined policy regarding the Kurdish question, issued on July 16 a report titled A Look at the Problems of eastern and Southeastern Anatolia and Suggestions, putting  under fire the government's cultural, economic, political and security policies in the Southeast region and proposing alternative policies.
    The report criticizes what it refers to as government ill-treatment of the inhabitants of the region "for the sake of safeguarding the integrity of the state." It defends the right of the people to use language other than Turkish and calls for the abolition of all emergency measures in the Southeast.
    "The SHP will accept the Kurdish identity and allow citizens of Kurdish origin the right to express themselves freely and in all fields of life," the report says, promising that the party will lift the ban on the use of ethnic languages if it comes to power.
    The following are the main points of the SHP's report:
    "The region's population of about five million people has been subjected to 12 years of martial and emergency laws, which, coupled with extraordinary living conditions, has created an identity crisis among the inhabitants. There is a sense of alienation and a lack of trust in the state.
    "Citizens who are not directly involved with the armed (Kurdish separatist) struggle are subject to mass interrogations, arrests and injustices for the sake of capturing a single terrorist. All inhabitants are considered potential subversive elements. This attitude has resulted in resistance against state authorities in the region.
    "The ban on speaking, writing and communicating in ethnic languages did not exist even in the single-party era (1923-1945) when 'fascist winds were blowing in the world.'
    "The 1983 Emergency Law opened the way for several bans which conflict with the international judicial system and with international agreements to which Turkey is party. Also, a 1987 decree on judicial measures applicable to regions under emergency law was never brought before Parliament, despite constitutional obligations to do so.
    "New decrees were introduced in April 1990, which sidestepped Parliament and further restricted rights and liberties in the region through censorship, exile, and interference with court rulings.
    "The village guard system used to differentiate between pro- and anti-state sentiment among villagers. This 'security' tool, a serious drain on the already weak economy of the Southeast, should be abolished.
    "The separatist struggle is not an important threat on its own, but it becomes dangerous when the government seeks to crack down on the people instead of getting to the root of the problem.
    "If these measures cause the population to sympathize with the terrorists, this shows the state has fallen into the terrorists' trap. The best tool against terrorism is the support of the people.
    "If the SHP comes to power the party will review the constitution and all laws restricting the use of basic rights and freedoms.. Establishing full democracy is not a question of timing, as the government claims.
    ''The SHP aims at giving priority to the human element in creating a society where there is no discrimination between citizens because of their ethnic roots or faiths."
    Making comparative analyses of various economic criteria between 1975-86, the SHP report claims the Southeast became poorer during this period, before the Southeast Anatolian Project (GAP) was launched, and stresses the importance of giving the Southeast a special region status in development plans.
    "About 20 percent of the Turkish population lives in the 18 eastern and southeastern provinces, according to the 1985 census. The per capita monthly income in the Southeast was 24,744 TL in 1979, when the per capita income in the Marmara and Aegean regions was 71,954 TL. In real terms, income in the Southeast rose by 0.6 percent, to 25,723 TL per month, between 1979 and 1986, while that in the Marmara and Aegean regions rose by 2.9 percent to 88,164. This means that while the per capita income in the Marmara and Aegean regions was 2.9 times that in the Southeast in 1979, seven years later this discrepancy increased to 3.4 times,.
    "Five percent of the inhabitants of the region owned 66 percent of the land, while 70 percent of the population owned only 10 percent of the land. These figures indicate a great inequality in the allocation of land, and the continuing role of feudal relations in the region. This feudal structure could only be changed through the industrialization of the region.
    "It is important to educate the local population, only 43 percent of whom are literate as opposed to 77 percent in the rest of Turkey, to make possible the industrial development of the area.
    "The Southeast region, where 8.6 percent of the population live, receives only five percent of the total investment in Turkey. When GAP and the Turkey-Iraq pipeline project, which SHP considers national projects as opposed to investments made specificly to develop the region, are deducted from the amount of public investments in the Southeast, the region is left with only 1.6 percent of the all public investments in Turkey."
    According to the SHP report, investment incentives provided by the government to the private sector have had no effect. "Industrial and infrastructural development in the Southeast should be promoted at a faster rate than in other regions, for only then can the region catch up with the rest of the country."
     SHP announced that the report will be translated into English, French and German and distributed to social democratic and socialist parties that are members of the Socialist International.

PREMIER: "NO KURDS, ONLY TURKS!"

    Prime Minister Yildirim Akbulut accused the SHP on July 30, of encouraging separatism in Turkey by issuing a report on the Kurds. "There are no Kurds in Turkey. the people who live in Turkey are Turks. We shall not allow Turkey to be divided. Those who attempt such a thing will regret their actions. But SHP prepares a report and calls it the Kurdish report," he said.
    Encouraged by the Prime Minister, the Prosecutors of the Ankara State Security Court started an investigation on the SHP's report. They said when the investigation is completed the file would be sent to the Chief Prosecutor in Ankara who would decide whether to take action at the Constitutional Court that could close down the SHP. Only the Constitutional Court has authority to sue political parties on charges of violating the constitution.
    The public prosecutor of Ankara has also launched investigations against some members of Parliament for their stand on the Kurdish question.
    On June 26, two deputies of SHP, Fuat Atalay and Cumhur Keskin, who had proposed that the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) make broadcasting in Kurdish as well was indicted by the SSC of Ankara. Next day, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Halim Aras was subjected to the same action for having claimed that speaking the Kurdish language be freed.    
    The Chief Prosecutor of the SSC announced that 25 members of Parliament had been subjected to legal investigation for their declarations on the Kurdish question.

HEP'S LONG MARCH TO KURDISTAN

    Eleven deputies of the newly founded People's Labour Party (HEP) made a nine-day symbolic March, from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, demanding freedom and human dignity in Turkey. The marchers are all former SHP members who resigned last year.
    When they started their march from Istanbul on July 17, police prevented other party members and sympathizers to take part in the group on pretext that they had no authorization to march. Since eleven deputies have parliamentary immunity, they were not obliged to ask such a permission.
        In all big cities which the passed by, police took repressive measures and did not allow the people to contact the marchers. On July 25, when they arrived in the township of Batman, policed used force to disperse the people and harassed the deputies as well.

PROTESTS ON THE PRESS DAY

        Press associations of Turkey refused to celebrate July 24, Turkish Press Day, and said the day would not be one of festivities until censorship is truly lifted in Turkey.
        The date for the Press Day was set in 1948 by the Journalists' Association to mark the end of the 33-year reign of oppression by Red Sultan Abdulhamit II in 1908. During his rule, all printed materials, from books to tram tickets, advertisements and bottle labels, were inspected by a censorship committee before being allowed onto the market.
        However, the practice of censorship again was put in practice after the September 12, 1980 military coup d'état.
        "In a country where the most loathsome censorship -self-censorship- is forced upon the press, we cannot accept celebrating the anniversary of censorship being lifted years ago," Oktay Eksi, president of the Press Council, said: "Sorrow, not joy, is more appropriate for July 24."    
        Same day,the Contemporary Journalists' Association (CGD) attempted to lay a wreath to Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara. However, an Army colonel charged at the place took off the band on the wreath because it was written on it: "No to censorship, Yes to democracy!".

ISMAIL BESIKCI RELEASED

        Dr. Ismail Besikci, the Turkish sociologist who had been jailed since March on charges of making separatist propaganda in his three books recently published, was freed on bail on July 25 by the State Security Court of Istanbul. His trial continues, however.
        A third case against sociologist Ismail Besikci for his book entitled "An Intellectual, An Organization and the Kurdish Question" was opened on June 16 at the SSC of Ankara for "separatist propaganda."
        Besikci, who faces a prison sentence of up to 45 years in his three cases, said during the court session that Turkey's official ideology concerning the Kurds was incorrect. "When we say restrictions on the Kurdish people should cease, we find the police in front of us. Making such a statement is considered detrimental to the nationalist feelings of the Turks," he said. He accused as well the Turkish State as some Turkish intellectuals who are in submission to the official ideology.
        Same day,the Labour Party of People (HEP) and the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) transmitted to the Ministry of Justice a petition signed by more than ten thousand people claiming Besikci be released.
        The US Section of the International PEN gave the title of "honorary member" to Ismail Besikci and to a journalist in prison, Erhan Tuskan.

DOGU PERINCEK ARRESTED

        Dogu Perincek, chief editor of the weekly 2000e Dogru which was shut down under the Southeast Decrees issued in April, was arrested on August 7 after his first trial at the Diyarbakir State Security Court. The public prosecutor demanded a 25-year prison sentence for Perincek, who is currently on trial.
        The Diyarbakir court had issued a warrant April 10 for Perincek's arrest for speeches he made in February and March at the Socialist Party (SP) meetings in five towns in the Southeast, on grounds that they "weakened national sentiment and propagated separatism."
        Perincek reminded the court that he was acquitted on August 1, in an Istanbul SSC trial, of separatism charges brought against him for his speech last year in a Paris conference on Kurds. Perincek made similar speeches in western regions in Turkey last year, but was not taken to court. "The fact that my speeches in the Southeast are considered crimes reveals the state's attitude with respect to this region. The Kurdish problem cannot be solved by bashing the Kurds," Perincek said in court.
        Earlier, on July 14, the responsible editor of 2000e Dogru, Tunca Arslan, was sentenced to a prison term of 6 years and 3 months for an article entitled "Kurds are one of the oldest peoples of the Middle East". His prison term was later commuted to a fine of 11,4 million TL ($4,000).

TWO REVIEWS DEFINITELY CLOSED

        The Interior Ministry, on June 29,, using its emergency powers, closed down two political reviews, 2000e Dogru and Halk Gercegi, on pretext that they gave falsified information on the situation of the Southeastern Turkey.
        The Ministry also closed down for ten days the Ilicak Printing House which printed these forbidden reviews.
        Following the ban on the weekly 2000e Dogru, 29 journalists of this periodical opened a suit at law against the Interior Ministry and claimed indemnities and reparations for their losses due to this interdiction.
        The same journalists began to publish from August 5 a new weekly magazine, Yüzyil (Century).

AI CONCERT CENSORED IN TURKEY
        A video program of the Amnesty International  on a concert tour entitled Human Rights Now and held two years ago, was censored by the Turkish Ministry of Culture's Film Inspection Council on grounds that parts of the speeches made at the concert "offended and humiliated all governments world-wide."
        The Efes Film Company, which imported the concert video to be screened in cinemas, said the council had deleted a speech by Sting who accused governments of relying on torture and military oppression more than ever to maintain their power. Also cut from the video was a segment in which John Healey, US director of Amnesty International, said governments should behave themselves.
        On the other hand, the screening in Turkey of David Zucker's comedy film The Naked Gun was first censored and then, on July 30, banned following the pressure coming from Iran. Along with Khomeini, Gorbachev, Arafat, Quaddafi and Idi Amin Dada are all impersonated in the film.
        As the film was being screened, theatre operators in Istanbul received threatening calls from unidentified persons.

UMRAN BARAN DIED IN EXILE

        Journalist Umran Baran, a distinguished Turkish intellectual who has been deprived of Turkish nationality by the military regime, died in exile in July. Umran Baran, 59, was the founder and chief editor of the Turkish daily Yorum which has been published in Australia since 1977. Umran Baran and his son Askin Baran, also journalist, were stripped of their nationality because of criticism they forwarded to the military rulers.
        On the other hand, a petition by Gultekin Gazioglu, the chairman of the defunct Teachers' Association of Turkey (TOB-DER) asking for his Turkish nationality be restored was rejected on July 12 by the Government. Gazioglu, one of the some 200 opponents of the September 12 regime who were deprived of their nationality, is still living in exile. He also requested on June 6 a special permission to visit his brother ailing in Turkey, yet this demand has not been satisfied.

RECENT PROSECUTION OF THE MEDIA

    16.6, journalist Alev Er was tried at the State Security Court of Ankara for having published the minutes of the Özal-Bush talks. He is accused of revealing top secret information.
    19.6, in Istanbul, Cetin Tasci was detained by police for having duplicated with a photocopier a forbidden political review, Deng.
    22.6, in Istanbul, publisher Mehmet Ali Eser appealed to the Prosecutor's Office by claiming that he had been tortured after his detention on June 10, 1990 and requested a legal proceeding against Police Superintendent Ibrahim Aslan. The traces of torture on Eser's body were established by a forensic expert.
    23.6, the responsible editor of the weekly Halk Gercegi, Ismail Safter was arrested for two articles he published in the magazine. He faces a prison term of up to 15 years for publication weakening national feelings.
    23.6, the weekly magazine of humour Limon was confiscated by the order of a criminal court of Istanbul.
    24.6, Muzaffer Tekek, Diyarbakir representative of political magazine Medya Günesi, was arrested along with some 14 other in Diyarbakir.
    25.6, a musical concert organized by the Municipality of Kadikoy and the Cumhuriyet Books Club was banned by the police.
    30.6, a group of writers, journalists and artists held a demonstration in Istanbul in protest against the practices violating the press freedom.
    3.7, a book about the Dev-Genc, a revolutionary youth organization closed down in 1971, written by Lawyer Ali Yildirim, was confiscated by the State Security Court of Istanbul. The author is accused that he aims to incite the people to uprising.
    14.7, the responsible editor of the monthly Devrimci Genclik, Gülten Demir was sentenced to a one-year prison term for separatist propaganda. Her imprisonment was later commuted to a fine of 1 million 840 thousand TL ($600).
    16.7, famous folk singer Ahmet Kaya was indicted by the State security Court of Istanbul for having caused to some political incidents during his concert given in Istanbul.
    19.7, the public prosecutor of Gaziantep opened a legal proceeding against journalist Erbil Tusalp for his address to a panel organized in Gaziantep by the Human Rights Association (IHD). He is accused of separatist propaganda for having said "I esteem the Kurdish people's struggle aimed at obtaining the recognition of their cultural identity."
    20.7, a prison term of four years and two months sentenced against the responsible editor of the monthly Emek Dunyasi, Mehmet Emin Sert, was approved by the Court of Cassation. Sert had been condemned by the State Security Court for having made separatist propaganda during a press conference held in 1988.
    21.7, two writers of the daily Cumhuriyet, Ilhan Selcuk and Ali Gitmez were interrogated by the public prosecutor of Istanbul for their articles criticizing President Ozal.
    23.7, the July issue of the Islamist periodical Ak-Dogus was confiscated by the State Security Court of Istanbul for anti-secular propaganda. Six preceding issues of the review had also been confiscated on the same ground.
    24.7, the first issue of a new monthly review, Mücadele, was confiscated by the State Security Court of Istanbul on grounds that it contains communist and separatist propaganda. This new review was published to replace the monthly review Yeni Cözüm which could no more find any printing house.
    25.7, a journalist for monthly review Deng, Mazhar Kaya, was under arrest in Turkey according to a communique released by the review's representative abroad.
    26.7, a musi-cassette produced by folk singer Ozan Cagdas was banned on grounds that it contains songs against law and order and public interests.
    27.7, the July issue of the monthly Adimlar was confiscated on grounds that it contains separatist propaganda.
    27.7, the public prosecutor of Istanbul started legal proceedings against three journalists of the daily Cumhuriyet, columnists Ilhan Selcuk, Oktay Akbal and responsible editor Okay Gönensin. Each faces a prison term of up to four years for having criticized President Ozal.