From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 6 11:27:35 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 06 Mar 1995 11:27:35 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 3/3/95, 08:00 TSI (1) Germany closes Kurds' office BONN, Germany (AP) -- Responding to attacks on Turkish-owned businesses, authorities shut down a Kurdish information office Thursday, calling it a front for an outlawed separatist group. Police closed and searched the Cologne headquarters of the Kurdistan Information Bureau and took similar action against its branches in five German states. They also searched nine apartments belonging to bureau workers. No arrests were reported. But police said they found a pistol and boxes of banners from the banned Kurdish Workers Party in the home of a founding member of the bureau. The violent Marxist group, which seeks Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey, was banned in November 1993 after a series of attacks on Turkish businesses and embassies. The Interior Ministry said Thursday the Kurdistan Information Bureau was acting as a front for the outlawed party. It seized personal computers, and copy and fax machines from the Cologne office. In the past, bureau members have insisted they are only trying to publicize the plight of Turkish Kurds, and are not part of the banned party. Over the weekend, Kurdish arsonists attacked Turkish travel agencies and other businesses in three cities. Five other cities were targeted Wednesday and more businesses were attacked overnight. The attacks caused minor damage and no injuries. (2) Germany bans Kurdish organisations BONN, March 2 (Reuter) - Germany on Thursday banned the Kurdish Information Office (KIB) in Cologne and five similar organisations in Bavaria which it said were closely linked to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said a spate of petrol bomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies in Germany in the last few days showed it was important for the federal states to enforce a ban already imposed on the PKK in November 1993. "The ban on the KIB is the state's answer to the PKK's constant efforts to circumvent the ban," Kanther said in a statement. "The KIB is an organisation which through propaganda has shown solidarity with the activities and aims of the PKK." The interior ministry said police had raided the KIB's premises in Cologne and nine apartments in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Berlin, Lower Saxony and Thuringia. It said the KIB had been established in December 1993, just one month after the PKK was outlawed, and had taken over the PKK's premises. "Security agency investigations show that through its active support of the banned PKK, the KIB has almost seamlessly kept going the dangerous activities for which the PKK was banned," Kanther said. Bonn banned the PKK and dozens of associated groups in 1993 after a series of spectacular raids against Turkish targets across Europe. PKK militants were again suspected of being responsible for fire-bomb attacks on 13 Turkish and German travel agencies in Germany late on Tuesday and last weekend. No one was injured in the attacks which caused slight damage to the agencies' premises in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Hanover and Munich. Windows were smashed and petrol bombs thrown into some of the buildings, police said. Leaflets saying "No holidays in Turkey" and signed "Children from the country of fire and the sun" were found scattered near the travel agencies in Hamburg. At the scene of one fire-bombing, police found a note from the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), the political wing of the separatist PKK. The note demanded a boycott of Turkey's tourism industry. The PKK has waged a 10-year war against Ankara for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Militant Kurds have frequently targeted Turkish installations in Germany to protest against what they see as Ankara's oppression of Kurds living in southeastern Turkey and Bonn's close ties with the Turkish government. (3) Turkish troops kill 37 Kurds DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish troops killed 37 Kurdish guerrillas in a three-day operation in southeastern Turkey, the regional governor's office said Thursday. Security forces killed 19 rebels Thursday in Bitlis province. A total of 18 guerrillas were also killed Tuesday and Wednesday, the statement added. No details of casualties on the Turkish side were given. The Kurdish guerrillas belong to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984. More than 15,000 people have been killed in the violence. Turkish newspapers reported on Thursday that there was extensive movement of Turkish troops in southeastern Turkey, reportedly massing on the border with northern Iraq. However, a Turkish military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that they were routine operations to replace old troops stationed in the region with new divisions. The Turkish press speculated the troops were preparing to stage massive attacks against PKK bases in northern Iraq. (4) Turkey probes detained Greek reporter and aide DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 2 (Reuter) - Turkish authorities are looking into the background of a Greek journalist detained with his interpreter in a security raid in southeast Turkey, a senior official said on Thursday. "We want to ascertain that he is a bona fide journalist. So far we don't know," the official from the southeastern emergency rule based in Diyarbakir said. Ioannis Kokkinidis and his intepreter Michael Yirmi were detained on Monday during a security raid on the offices of the human rights association (IHD) in Diyarbakir, the major city of the mainly Kurdish region. "They were among 16 people detained in the IHD premises which was searched after a security tip-off. Three have been released but inquiries into the journalist and the others are continuing," the official said. The Greek embassy in Ankara said Kokkinidis was employed by Greek newspaper Abesmeftos Pypos. Yirmi was a Greek national born in Turkey. Six members of the Diyarbakir IHD are on trial for issuing human rights reports that prosecutors say promote the separatist aims of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The court has rejected a prosecution demand that the association be shut down. (5) Greece protest to Turkey over detained reporter ATHENS, March 2 (Reuter) - Greece has protested to Turkey over the arrest of a Greek journalist and his interpreter in a security raid in southeast Turkey, the Greek Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. Ministry spokesman Constantinos Bikas told reporters the Greek ambassador in Ankara protested to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, asking for the immediate release of reporter Ioannis Kokkinidis and his interpreter Michael Yirmi. "We were only told that the two were in custody by court order," Bikas said. "We put great importance on this matter as it has to do with human rights and asked for their immediate release." He said the Foreign Ministry would lodge a further protest with the Turkish embassy in Athens on Thursday. The two men were detained on Monday during a security raid on the offices of a human rights association known as IHD in Diyarbakir, the major Turkish city in the mainly Kurdish region. "We want to ascertain that he is a bona fide journalist. So far we don't know," a senior official from the Turkish authorities in Diyarbakir said. "They were among 16 people detained in the IHD premises which was searched after a security tip-off. Three have been released but inquiries into the journalist and the others are continuing," he added. Kokkinidis is employed by the conservative Athens newspaper Adesmeftos Typos. Yirmi is a Greek national born in Turkey. Six members of the Diyarbakir IHD are on trial for issuing human rights reports that prosecutors say promote the separatist aims of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The court has rejected a prosecution demand that the association be shut down. Turkey has criticised Greek politicians for pledging solidarity with the PKK, which it outlaws as a terrorist group. More than 15,000 people have died since 1984 in the PKK's violent fight for a separate state. --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Tue Mar 7 23:18:22 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 07 Mar 1995 23:18:22 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 7/3/95, 08:00 TSI (3) Turkish writers form "closed university" behind bars By Aliza Marcus HAYMANA, Turkey, March 6 (Reuter) - Behind the stone and steel walls of Turkey's Haymana Prison, set in gentle hills an hour's drive from the capital Ankara, some of Turkey's most dangerous intellectuals languish behind bars. There is Fikret Baskaya, a 55-year-old economics professor schooled in France, who wanders this prison of small cells and open courtyards in a sweater and button-down shirt. Baskaya's cell-mate, Haluk Gerger, is a middle-aged writer with a paunch and an English honed to fluency as a student at Johns Hopkins University in Washington and Oxford in Britain. Just across the concrete corridor is the poet and journalist Yilmaz Odabasi, 32, who spends his days hunched over a pad of paper churning out verses. Their crimes? Baskaya wrote a book critical of Turkey's socio-economic development and its ideological underpinnings. Gerger theorised violent movements erupt when peaceful channels for dissent are closed. And Odabasi wrote poems. The charges? Separatist propaganda or racism -- because they criticised Turkey's policies towards its Kurdish minority and the 10-year Kurdish guerrilla war in the country's southeast. "In Turkey, the philosophical concept 'I think, therefore I am' is understood as 'I think, therefore I am a terrorist,"' said Gerger, who like Baskaya will spend 15 months in this prison now dubbed the "closed university" because of its rollcall of distinguished intellectuals. "I was trying to understand the reasons for the war (with Kurdish guerrillas) but even trying to understand this has become a crime of terrorism," the bespectacled Gerger told Reuters during a recent interview in the prison. Turkey has never enjoyed total freedom of expression in its 70-year history as a modern state. Longstanding laws can jail people for insulting the military, state authorities and the republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But human rights watchers and lawyers say over the past two years the state, nervous that the Kurdish issue and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgency in the southeast is spiralling out of control, is taking a harder line. The war, in which more than 14,000 people have been killed, costs an estimated $7 billion a year and has led to allegations of massive abuses by the security forces against civilians. The fate of the three men is not uncommon in Turkey, where both the U.S. State Department and Amnesty International have said dissent, especially over the Kurdish issue, is stifled. Zealous prosecutors armed with a wide-ranging penal code have put over 110 people behind bars for saying or writing something contrary to official views, mainly about the Kurds, said Turkey's Modern Journalists Association. Consider the couplets that got Odabasi four months behind bars: "What an unjust place I am in; I say I am a Kurd; my songs are full of pain; I am a melody of pain; Kurdistan..." And another 4,000 people -- including trade unionists, lawyers, journalists and human rights workers -- are on trial for separatist propaganda, according to figures collected by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. Turkey, on the point of a customs union with the European Union in what it hopes is a first step to full membership, is under pressure from its Western allies to make changes. But draft legislation, which in any case would only remove some restrictions on freedom of expression, languishes unprocessed in parliament. Allowing Kurdish-language education or television is not even on the agenda. "The de facto situation is that things are getting worse in Turkey and from whatever angle.. democracy, human rights, I do not see anything to be hopeful about," said Baskaya. Last December, eight Kurdish parliamentarians were convicted of supporting the illegal PKK on the basis of their public statements in favour of Kurdish rights. Six drew sentences of up to 15 years in a case that alarmed the West. This year, Yasar Kemal, one of Turkey's most famous writers, was charged in connection with an article accusing Turkey of "a campaign of lies" to justify oppression of the Kurds. In February, the leading pro-Kurdish newspaper was forced to shut down. "The state is scared of democracy because then their lies will be exposed," said Gerger. But observers in Turkey say if the goal of the state is to frighten people into speechlessness, it is backfiring. As the war hits home -- the PKK has set off numerous bombs in Turkey's western provinces -- discussion is growing. Some publishers regularly issue books about Kurdish history in Turkey and even publish interviews with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan from exile. The imprisonment of Baskaya and Gerger was satirised on television and bemoaned in newspaper cartoons and columns, while Turkey's overall human rights record is proving a stumbling block in its relations with Europe and the United States. This is a consolation to Gerger, whose time in prison will stretch into an additional three years if he refuses to pay a fine of 200 million TL ($5,000). "If I think my protest means something, then I will not pay. I want to live in a country where people can be ordinary, but at times in Turkey you have to act like a hero," he said. (4) Bonn to decide on Kurdish deportations next week BONN, March 6 (Reuter) - Germany will decide whether to resume deportations of Kurdish refugees after a parliamentary hearing next week, Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said on Monday. Kanther was speaking after meeting interior ministers from regional states, many of whom want Bonn to maintain its freeze on such deportations for the time being. Some state officials have said repatriated Kurds face torture or the death penalty in Turkey, which is fighting an armed insurgency by separatist guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeast of the country. Kanther, who has said in the past he wanted the deportation ban lifted by the middle of March, said Germany was still negotiating with Ankara about assurances on how returned refugees would be treated. Kanther last month extended the deportation freeze for a second time to allow parliament more time to discuss the matter. --- APS (Newsdesk) From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Sat Mar 18 05:19:16 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 18 Mar 1995 05:19:16 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 17/3/95, 08:00 TSI Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (1) Turk Clubs Attacked In Germany FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Two police officers were injured Thursday in clashes with about 100 Kurdish militants who tried to storm the Turkish Consulate office. Kurds also were blamed for the firebombing of Turkish businesses and clubs across Germany for the third night in a row. Armed with stones, planks and paint-filled bags, the Kurds pummeled a police car parked in front of the consulate with stones, injuring the officers. Police used water cannons to disperse the demonstrators, who were apparently protesting a government decision to deport Kurds denied asylum in Germany. No one claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in seven cities, which caused only minor damage and no injuries. But Eckart Werthebach, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, blamed Kurdish militants battling for a homeland in southeast Turkey. Some 2 million Turks live in Germany, where they are the largest minority. About 450,000 of the Turks are Kurds, roughly the same percentage as the Kurdish population of Turkey itself. Germany in 1993 banned the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Marxist group fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. Germany has detained thousands of Kurds for deportation but has been frustrated in its attempts to send them home. On Wednesday, the federal government lifted a temporary restraining order on the deportations, saying there was no evidence the Kurds faced wholesale persecution in Turkey. (2) Firebombers attack Turkish property in Germany BONN, March 16 (Reuter) - Firebombers attacked Turkish properties in Germany for the third night in succession, causing damage but no injuries, police said on Thursday. They said no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kassel, Dortmund and Dueren. Authorities have suspected Kurdish extremists of carrying out similar attacks in the past. In the latest incidents, a Turkish travel agency and an adjacent business were set on fire in Kassel, central Germany. Another travel agency was attacked in the western city of Dortmund. In Dueren, east of Aachen, police put out a fire in a Turkish cultural centre. Kurdish groups have carried out several waves of attacks on Turkish property in the past three years in protest against what they regard as oppression by Ankara in their homeland in southeastern Turkey, and against Germany's ties with Turkey. The attacks have led to the arrest of sympathisers of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is waging a guerrilla war against the Turkish government for their own homeland. Germany is home to more than 400,000 Kurds. Two weeks ago German authorities outlawed six more groups believed to be linked to the PKK, itself outlawed in 1993 after coordinated raids against Turkish targets in Europe. German media have quoted security sources as saying police fear the PKK plans demonstrations and violence in Germany around the Kurdish New Year on March 21. During last year's festival, Kurds blockaded German motorways with burning tyres, setting fire to themselves and clashing with police. The Bonn government announced on Wednesday it was lifting a moratorium on the deportation of Kurdish refugees to Turkey. Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said Bonn was resuming deportations on the grounds that Kurds were not subject to systemtatic persecution as a minority group. In the Swiss city of Zurich, three Turkish-owned travel agencies were firebombed overnight but no one was injured, police said on Thursday. Swiss police said they had no immediate clues about who carried out the attacks. (3) Ethnic Feuds Divide Turkey ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Religious rivalries have added to the bloodshed in Turkey, a country troubled by ethnic Kurdish violence and held at a distance by Western allies because of human rights abuses. The fighting that began Sunday centered on a shantytown inhabited by members of a minority Muslim sect, the Alawites, who have grown increasingly uneasy over the rise of Islamic fundamentalists in Turkey. Two radical Sunni Muslim groups, who advocate strict Islamic rule, claimed responsibility for the deaths of three people in the Gaziosmanpasa district of Istanbul. Hundreds of Alawites, outraged that it took police more than an hour to respond to the shootings Sunday, turned out to protest Monday. Alawite sources say 25 people died when police fired on the demonstration; the government puts the number at 16. Four other protesters died in Istanbul on Wednesday after an unidentified person opened fire on a demonstration and police responded by firing into the air. No unrest was reported Thursday in Turkey, but the climate remained volatile. "It is not difficult to provoke a community that has been humiliated and alienated by the state for years," said international law professor Izzettin Dogan, a prominent Alawite spokesman. Alawites account for one-third of the 60 million people in Turkey, which declares itself secular but promotes Sunni belief: Religious classes with a Sunni curriculum are compulsory in elementary and secondary schools. "Alawite children lived through harassments from their Sunni religious class teachers for years," said Ilhan Selcuk, a writer for the leftist newspaper Cumhuriyet. "The secular state became a Sunni state." Even though the two sects have lived in peace in the past, Sunnis always looked upon the Alawites as heretics, avoiding intermarriage and in most cases keeping to separate neighborhoods. The rift between the groups widened two years ago, when Muslim radicals set fire to a hotel where a group of writers, poets and singers was celebrating an Alawite festival. Thirty-seven people died. The Alawites' nervousness grew last year after the Islamic fundamentalist Welfare Party doubled its votes in local elections to 20 percent. In Istanbul, the new Islamic radical mayor, Recep Erdogan, sought to demolish Alawite mosques, but Alawites stood vigil at the mosques for weeks until he backed down. The friction between the religious sects compounds Turkey's problems over its war with separatist Kurds, which has killed 15,000 people since 1984. The government is accused of widespread rights abuses in its attempt to crush the Kurdish uprising. Reports in February by Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department allege forced evacuations and destruction of Kurdish villages. The abuses are threatening economic ties with Western Europe. The European parliament has threatened to block the European Union's recent trade agreement with Turkey unless Ankara improves its rights record. (5) Greece protests at Turkish accusations over unrest ATHENS, March 16 (Reuter) - Greece protested to Turkey on Thursday over alleged statements by Turkish officials blaming the recent riots in Istanbul on Greek "provocations." "Turkey has tried to blame its internal problems on Greece in the past," a foreign ministry statement said. "We recommend self-control, an effort to face its social problems and to treat its citizens equally." The statement said the Greek embassy in Ankara handed a demarche to the Turkish foreign ministry protesting about the alleged statements by Turkish officials, saying they lacked seriousness. At least 17 people have been killed in neighbouring Turkey in clashes with police that began on Sunday night when unknown gunmen fired on coffeeshops of the minority Alawite community. The Greek protest appeared to be aimed at comments by Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan after an emergency cabinet meeting late on Wednesday. Ciller said in a televised statement that her nation faced "a very big multifaceted provocation prompted by foreign circles" and that "these provocations are planned from abroad in a bid to undermine our country's path toward a brighter future." When asked by journalists, Golhan reportedly confirmed she meant Greece. The two NATO allies have been at odds over a number of issues, most recently Greece's efforts to block a lucrative customs union deal between Turkey and the European Union. (6) MEPs debate Turkey customs accord, human rights situation Press Release March 14, 1995 Tuesday, 14 March - Reporting on the outcome of the 6 March Council agreement designed to lead to a customs union with Turkey, Alain Lamassoure told MEPs he recognised the conditions attached by Parliament to the agreement in the resolution adopted last month and in particular the concern for human rights and democracy. These concerns had been taken up, he said, and commitments from Turkey secured for a changes in the constitution and further political reforms to bring this about. The ball was now firmly in Ankara's court, he said. The agreement would, he said, make available some 375m ECU to Turkey over a five year period from 1 January, 1996 and there was a further possibility of EIB loans. In all, as much as 2bn ECU in various forms of financial assistance could be available to Turkey. As to conditions for the accession of Cyprus, he emphasised that detailed negotiations would begin six months after the end of the IGC. A meeting of the Troika is heading for Turkey on 23 March. Mr Lamassoure emphasised the importance of the agreement in helping those struggling in Turkey for an acceptance of European values. For the Commission, Hans van den Broek welcomed the agreement in the context of improving Greek/Turkish relations and indeed reaching a solution to the problem of Cyprus. Like Mr Lamassoure, he emphasised that Turkey was now committed to amending its constitution with a view to improving political freedoms and respect for human rights. N.B. The agreement covers industrial cooperation, agriculture, transport and TENs, energy, telecommunicaitons, the environment, R & D and culture. MEPs, however, did not in general share the optimism expressed by the Council and Commission about events in Turkey. Panayotis Lambrias (Gr, EPP) thought there had been a hardening of positions in Turkey, while Jan Bertens (Nl, ELDR) said his group was insulted by the Council's action in ignoring Parliament's protestations against the agreement. The signing by Council of a customs agreement with Turkey just three weeks after Parliament passed a resolution opposing such a move at present because of concerns about human rights and Cyprus was described by Socialist Group leader Pauline Green (London North) as a matter of absolute astonishment. Leading a chorus of protests from MEPs, she said the Council's action showed the need for institutional reform and greater democracy in the EU. In the light of the Turkish Foreign Minister's threat to annex the northern part of Cyprus if the EU decided to begin negotiations with the island for membership of the EU, Mrs Green sought an assurance that talks with Cyprus would indeed begin six months after next year's intergovernmental conference. With MEPs' assent required to the customs agreement, Mrs Green warned that Parliament would be closely monitoring progress in Turkey over the next six months. Claudia Roth (D, Greens) asked where the improvements in human rights and democracy in Turkey were, while Catherine Lalumiere (F, EDA) criticised the Council for ignoring Parliament's resolution. She restated her support for a customs union with Turkey, with preconditions on human rights and Cyprus. Replying to MEPs' concerns, Alain Lamassoure acknowledged the problems but said the question was whether the EU was prepared to make a step forward. He rejected the assertion that the Council had not taken Parliament's views on board, but he added that the Council alone had the right of initiative in this matter. On the crisis triggered by remarks made by the Turkish Foreign Minister on Cyprus, Mr Lamassoure clarified that the Turkish Prime Minister had subsequently disavowed this statement, committing herself to search for a solution to Cyprus in line with the UN position. Advising MEPs to beware of excessive perfectionism, Mr Lamassoure said the customs agreement would facilitate progress on matters which had been bogged down for thirty years, namely Cyprus, human rights and overall EU relations with Turkey. With the agreement, he thought it would be possible to go half-way to solving these three problems. Commissioner Hans van den Broek, too, felt the EU had a chance to make progress with Turkey. The EU, he said, faced a choice. He appealed to MEPs to take account of all the various elements, saying he was in possession of information on plans for reforms to the Turkish Constitution. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sat Mar 18 23:22:06 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 18 Mar 1995 23:22:06 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 17/3/95, 08:00 TSI (1) Turk Clubs Attacked In Germany FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Two police officers were injured Thursday in clashes with about 100 Kurdish militants who tried to storm the Turkish Consulate office. Kurds also were blamed for the firebombing of Turkish businesses and clubs across Germany for the third night in a row. Armed with stones, planks and paint-filled bags, the Kurds pummeled a police car parked in front of the consulate with stones, injuring the officers. Police used water cannons to disperse the demonstrators, who were apparently protesting a government decision to deport Kurds denied asylum in Germany. No one claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in seven cities, which caused only minor damage and no injuries. But Eckart Werthebach, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, blamed Kurdish militants battling for a homeland in southeast Turkey. Some 2 million Turks live in Germany, where they are the largest minority. About 450,000 of the Turks are Kurds, roughly the same percentage as the Kurdish population of Turkey itself. Germany in 1993 banned the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Marxist group fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. Germany has detained thousands of Kurds for deportation but has been frustrated in its attempts to send them home. On Wednesday, the federal government lifted a temporary restraining order on the deportations, saying there was no evidence the Kurds faced wholesale persecution in Turkey. (2) Firebombers attack Turkish property in Germany BONN, March 16 (Reuter) - Firebombers attacked Turkish properties in Germany for the third night in succession, causing damage but no injuries, police said on Thursday. They said no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kassel, Dortmund and Dueren. Authorities have suspected Kurdish extremists of carrying out similar attacks in the past. In the latest incidents, a Turkish travel agency and an adjacent business were set on fire in Kassel, central Germany. Another travel agency was attacked in the western city of Dortmund. In Dueren, east of Aachen, police put out a fire in a Turkish cultural centre. Kurdish groups have carried out several waves of attacks on Turkish property in the past three years in protest against what they regard as oppression by Ankara in their homeland in southeastern Turkey, and against Germany's ties with Turkey. The attacks have led to the arrest of sympathisers of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is waging a guerrilla war against the Turkish government for their own homeland. Germany is home to more than 400,000 Kurds. Two weeks ago German authorities outlawed six more groups believed to be linked to the PKK, itself outlawed in 1993 after coordinated raids against Turkish targets in Europe. German media have quoted security sources as saying police fear the PKK plans demonstrations and violence in Germany around the Kurdish New Year on March 21. During last year's festival, Kurds blockaded German motorways with burning tyres, setting fire to themselves and clashing with police. The Bonn government announced on Wednesday it was lifting a moratorium on the deportation of Kurdish refugees to Turkey. Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said Bonn was resuming deportations on the grounds that Kurds were not subject to systemtatic persecution as a minority group. In the Swiss city of Zurich, three Turkish-owned travel agencies were firebombed overnight but no one was injured, police said on Thursday. Swiss police said they had no immediate clues about who carried out the attacks. (3) Ethnic Feuds Divide Turkey ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Religious rivalries have added to the bloodshed in Turkey, a country troubled by ethnic Kurdish violence and held at a distance by Western allies because of human rights abuses. The fighting that began Sunday centered on a shantytown inhabited by members of a minority Muslim sect, the Alawites, who have grown increasingly uneasy over the rise of Islamic fundamentalists in Turkey. Two radical Sunni Muslim groups, who advocate strict Islamic rule, claimed responsibility for the deaths of three people in the Gaziosmanpasa district of Istanbul. Hundreds of Alawites, outraged that it took police more than an hour to respond to the shootings Sunday, turned out to protest Monday. Alawite sources say 25 people died when police fired on the demonstration; the government puts the number at 16. Four other protesters died in Istanbul on Wednesday after an unidentified person opened fire on a demonstration and police responded by firing into the air. No unrest was reported Thursday in Turkey, but the climate remained volatile. "It is not difficult to provoke a community that has been humiliated and alienated by the state for years," said international law professor Izzettin Dogan, a prominent Alawite spokesman. Alawites account for one-third of the 60 million people in Turkey, which declares itself secular but promotes Sunni belief: Religious classes with a Sunni curriculum are compulsory in elementary and secondary schools. "Alawite children lived through harassments from their Sunni religious class teachers for years," said Ilhan Selcuk, a writer for the leftist newspaper Cumhuriyet. "The secular state became a Sunni state." Even though the two sects have lived in peace in the past, Sunnis always looked upon the Alawites as heretics, avoiding intermarriage and in most cases keeping to separate neighborhoods. The rift between the groups widened two years ago, when Muslim radicals set fire to a hotel where a group of writers, poets and singers was celebrating an Alawite festival. Thirty-seven people died. The Alawites' nervousness grew last year after the Islamic fundamentalist Welfare Party doubled its votes in local elections to 20 percent. In Istanbul, the new Islamic radical mayor, Recep Erdogan, sought to demolish Alawite mosques, but Alawites stood vigil at the mosques for weeks until he backed down. The friction between the religious sects compounds Turkey's problems over its war with separatist Kurds, which has killed 15,000 people since 1984. The government is accused of widespread rights abuses in its attempt to crush the Kurdish uprising. Reports in February by Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department allege forced evacuations and destruction of Kurdish villages. The abuses are threatening economic ties with Western Europe. The European parliament has threatened to block the European Union's recent trade agreement with Turkey unless Ankara improves its rights record. (5) Greece protests at Turkish accusations over unrest ATHENS, March 16 (Reuter) - Greece protested to Turkey on Thursday over alleged statements by Turkish officials blaming the recent riots in Istanbul on Greek "provocations." "Turkey has tried to blame its internal problems on Greece in the past," a foreign ministry statement said. "We recommend self-control, an effort to face its social problems and to treat its citizens equally." The statement said the Greek embassy in Ankara handed a demarche to the Turkish foreign ministry protesting about the alleged statements by Turkish officials, saying they lacked seriousness. At least 17 people have been killed in neighbouring Turkey in clashes with police that began on Sunday night when unknown gunmen fired on coffeeshops of the minority Alawite community. The Greek protest appeared to be aimed at comments by Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan after an emergency cabinet meeting late on Wednesday. Ciller said in a televised statement that her nation faced "a very big multifaceted provocation prompted by foreign circles" and that "these provocations are planned from abroad in a bid to undermine our country's path toward a brighter future." When asked by journalists, Golhan reportedly confirmed she meant Greece. The two NATO allies have been at odds over a number of issues, most recently Greece's efforts to block a lucrative customs union deal between Turkey and the European Union. (6) MEPs debate Turkey customs accord, human rights situation Press Release March 14, 1995 Tuesday, 14 March - Reporting on the outcome of the 6 March Council agreement designed to lead to a customs union with Turkey, Alain Lamassoure told MEPs he recognised the conditions attached by Parliament to the agreement in the resolution adopted last month and in particular the concern for human rights and democracy. These concerns had been taken up, he said, and commitments from Turkey secured for a changes in the constitution and further political reforms to bring this about. The ball was now firmly in Ankara's court, he said. The agreement would, he said, make available some 375m ECU to Turkey over a five year period from 1 January, 1996 and there was a further possibility of EIB loans. In all, as much as 2bn ECU in various forms of financial assistance could be available to Turkey. As to conditions for the accession of Cyprus, he emphasised that detailed negotiations would begin six months after the end of the IGC. A meeting of the Troika is heading for Turkey on 23 March. Mr Lamassoure emphasised the importance of the agreement in helping those struggling in Turkey for an acceptance of European values. For the Commission, Hans van den Broek welcomed the agreement in the context of improving Greek/Turkish relations and indeed reaching a solution to the problem of Cyprus. Like Mr Lamassoure, he emphasised that Turkey was now committed to amending its constitution with a view to improving political freedoms and respect for human rights. N.B. The agreement covers industrial cooperation, agriculture, transport and TENs, energy, telecommunicaitons, the environment, R & D and culture. MEPs, however, did not in general share the optimism expressed by the Council and Commission about events in Turkey. Panayotis Lambrias (Gr, EPP) thought there had been a hardening of positions in Turkey, while Jan Bertens (Nl, ELDR) said his group was insulted by the Council's action in ignoring Parliament's protestations against the agreement. The signing by Council of a customs agreement with Turkey just three weeks after Parliament passed a resolution opposing such a move at present because of concerns about human rights and Cyprus was described by Socialist Group leader Pauline Green (London North) as a matter of absolute astonishment. Leading a chorus of protests from MEPs, she said the Council's action showed the need for institutional reform and greater democracy in the EU. In the light of the Turkish Foreign Minister's threat to annex the northern part of Cyprus if the EU decided to begin negotiations with the island for membership of the EU, Mrs Green sought an assurance that talks with Cyprus would indeed begin six months after next year's intergovernmental conference. With MEPs' assent required to the customs agreement, Mrs Green warned that Parliament would be closely monitoring progress in Turkey over the next six months. Claudia Roth (D, Greens) asked where the improvements in human rights and democracy in Turkey were, while Catherine Lalumiere (F, EDA) criticised the Council for ignoring Parliament's resolution. She restated her support for a customs union with Turkey, with preconditions on human rights and Cyprus. Replying to MEPs' concerns, Alain Lamassoure acknowledged the problems but said the question was whether the EU was prepared to make a step forward. He rejected the assertion that the Council had not taken Parliament's views on board, but he added that the Council alone had the right of initiative in this matter. On the crisis triggered by remarks made by the Turkish Foreign Minister on Cyprus, Mr Lamassoure clarified that the Turkish Prime Minister had subsequently disavowed this statement, committing herself to search for a solution to Cyprus in line with the UN position. Advising MEPs to beware of excessive perfectionism, Mr Lamassoure said the customs agreement would facilitate progress on matters which had been bogged down for thirty years, namely Cyprus, human rights and overall EU relations with Turkey. With the agreement, he thought it would be possible to go half-way to solving these three problems. Commissioner Hans van den Broek, too, felt the EU had a chance to make progress with Turkey. The EU, he said, faced a choice. He appealed to MEPs to take account of all the various elements, saying he was in possession of information on plans for reforms to the Turkish Constitution. -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Tue Mar 21 15:52:34 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 21 Mar 1995 15:52:34 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 21/3/95, 08:00 TSI Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (1) Turkish Troops Attack Kurds ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey sent tens of thousands of troops into the mountains of northern Iraq on Monday to chase separatist Turkish Kurdish rebels from their sanctuaries there. Some 35,000 soldiers, warplanes and armored vehicles were on the move against bases that are the rebels' staging sites for hit-and-run attacks against Turkey. A military spokesman said 76 bombs were dropped on a single camp alone. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Turks went on the offensive after Kurdish rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraqi border Saturday. The operation apparently was timed to ward off violence on the Kurdish new year Tuesday. "It is the largest operation ever," eclipsing Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus, government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna said. Some 200,000 Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey are fighting a guerrilla force estimated at 10,000. The guerrillas, who belong to the illegal Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, launched the war in 1984. Since then, 15,000 people have died in the rebel battle to achieve self-rule for Turkey's 12 million Kurds. In Nicosia, a rebel leader said the offensive underscored how the Kurds are holding their own. Masallah Orca, a representative of the Turkish Kurds' parliament-in-exile, told The Associated Press his people will celebrate the Kurdish New Year Tuesday "stronger than they have ever been since our struggle began 11 years ago. The U.S. military canceled its routine flights over northern Iraq on Monday because of the fighting. American warplanes based in southern Turkey have patrolled the area since 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Turkey also kept its Habur border gate with Iraq closed. About 3,000 Turkish trucks massed at the border in an 80-mile-long line. The Turkish troops went after 12 camps in a 130-square-mile area, and Turkish F-104 and F-5 fighter jets and Cobra helicopters swooped down on bombing raids. A military spokesman, Col. Ihsan Ongun, said the operation would continue until all Kurdish rebel bases were wiped out. These bases replaced camps destroyed by Turkey in 1992. Aktuna said there were up to 2,800 Turkish Kurdish guerrillas at the 12 camps. In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Chief of Staff spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu said 14 fighter jets dropped 76 bombs in the Bote region alone. Silahcioglu said 50 armored vehicles were part of the operation. The soldiers were mostly commandos, but also included mechanized troops, he said. An Iraqi Kurdish opposition group, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, denounced Turkey's military incursion. A statement said the Turkish troops intimidated Iraqi Kurds when they searched their houses. The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied the charges and said no curfews were imposed and no civilians were arrested. Turkey's chief of staff said in a written statement that the guerrillas had reinforced their positions in northern Iraq, taking advantage of fighting between Iraqi Kurds. Turkey permits the U.S.-led allied air force to protect the Iraqi Kurds from possible Iraqi attacks, but was dismayed by the creation of the de facto Iraqi Kurdish state. Turkey, like Iraq, Iran and Syria, fears its sizable Kurdish minority would be encouraged in its separatist ambitions if the Iraqi Kurds were achieve independence. There are some 20 million Kurds in the region where the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey converge. (2) Rebel Leader: Kurds Holding On NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The Turkish army's offensive into northern Iraq to hit Kurdish rebel bases underlined how the Kurds are holding their own in their separatist campaign, a rebel leader said here Monday. Masallah Orca, a representative of the Turkish Kurds' parliament-in-exile, told The Associated Press his people will celebrate the Kurdish New Year Tuesday "stronger than they have ever been since our struggle began 11 years ago." "Despite all its efforts to crush our uprising, Turkey has lost control in many areas of Kurdistan, and our fighters operate there freely" Hoca said. Hoca spoke shortly after 35,000 Turkish troops poured across the border into Iraqi Kurdistan in a major operation to destroy alleged safe havens of the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party of Turkey, known as the PKK. The Turkish incursion came after PKK guerrillas killed 15 Turkish soldiers Saturday in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border. More than 15,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its campaign in 1984. The Turkish push into northern Iraq was an attempt "to camouflage its failure to crush our struggle" in the Kurdish provinces of eastern Turkey, Hoca declared. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two main groups ruling the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, denied there were PKK bases in the areas overrun by Turkish troops. A KDP statement said the Turkish troops have rounded up Iraqi Kurdish men and terrorist Iraqi Kurds. Hoca said Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, "who claimed that 1994 would be a decisive year marking the crushing of our struggle, has been proved wrong by developments. The military balance has changed in our favor and in many areas even the Turkish civil administration is no longer able to function," he claimed. Hoca said the Turkish incursion was part of a wider attempt by the Ankara government to intimidate Kurds on both sides of the border during Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year. "Turkey has not realized yet that its oppressive measures, its genocide and destruction of 3,000 Kurdish villages, have only strengthened our people's determination to fight for freedom and human rights," Hoca added. There are about 20 million spread over five states in the region -- 10 million in Turkey, 5.5 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, with small enclaves in Syria and the former Soviet Union. (3) Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, called the movement an "unjustified incursion" and appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces. "Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border through the main road into Zakho," it said in a faxed statement from London. "This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity," it said. Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in southeast Turkey. The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers. "The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho extensively," the INC said in a statement. The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds lived. Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air cover. (4) U.N. urges Turkish restraint against Kurd refugees GENEVA, March 20 (Reuter) - The U.N. refugee agency urged Turkey on Monday to exercise restraint in raids against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, expressing "deep concern" for the safety of thousands of Kurdish refugees in the region. The office of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received unconfirmed reports that at least two of five villages near the town of Zakho had been surrounded and subjected to house-to-house searches. It said the same reports spoke of hundreds of arrests. Turkish military officials said Turkey sent up to 35,000 troops backed by tank and artillery into northern Iraq on Monday to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. A government spokesman said some targets were destroyed in aerial bombing. "We are expressing our concern to the Turkish authorities," a UNHCR spokesman said. A UNHCR statement added: "While UNHCR does not consider all Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq to be refugees -- people involved in violent activities are not eligible for refugee status -- it is satisfied that the people in the five villages are civilians and in need of international protection." UNHCR said that at the beginning of February there were 634 Turkish Kurd refugees in the two villages, Hizawa and Darkar, mostly female or children. There were at least 2,600 others in Zakho, which it said had also seen extensive Turkish military activity. Overall in the region, there were 4,500 refugees. UNHCR said it was not the first time genuine refugees had been caught up in Turkish military action. Last year the U.N. agency relocated some 8,600 Turkish Kurd refugees to a village some 160 km from the Turkish border to ensure refugee settlements were not seen as a launch-pad for the Kurdish guerrilla movements. (5) Bonn minister wants Turks shielded from attacks BONN, March 20 (Reuter) - Interior Minister Manfred Kanther called on Germany's federal states on Monday to give more protection to Turks and speedily deport Kurds suspected of involvement in a series of attacks on Turkish premises. Kanther's call came as firebombers attacked a Turkish prayer room in Bonn in the seventh straight day of anti-Turkish violence in cities all across Germany. The daily newspaper Bild said security experts in Kanther's ministry feared worse on Tuesday, the Kurdish New Year which has been a traditional focus for guerrilla activity by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Kanther told ARD television the firebomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies, mosques and social clubs "clearly bear the hallmark" of the PKK, banned in Germany since two waves of spectacular coordinated attacks across Europe in 1993. The PKK has been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland in the southeast of the country. In the latest German incident, police said arsonists threw a petrol bomb at a Turkish prayer room in Bonn, but it bounced off the thick windows and caused little damage. They detained two Turks aged 54 and 22 on suspicion of carrying out the attack. Correcting an earlier report, they said the room belonged to Sunni Moslems, not the Alawite community. Attacks on Alawites in Istanbul last week sparked violent clashes between protesters and police. In a statement, Kanther urged the federal states responsible for general policing to step up protection of Turkish premises and added: "Intelligence on planned attacks must be improved." Bild said searches following the recent attacks had uncovered firearms and ammunition, and that these had alarmed authorities even further ahead of the New Year festival. Kanther urged a number of federal states controlled by the centre-left Social Democrats to give up their refusal to send back Turkish Kurds whose asylum requests had been rejected. "It is irresponsible and is highly inappropriate to the current situation, with attacks on Turkish premises," Kanther said. The regional states say Kurdish deportees are in danger of persecution in Turkey. The Kurdish Community in Germany, representing more than 400,000 Kurds here, said bans on Kurdish organisations and Kanther's refusal to exempt Kurds from deportation were leading to a "general branding of hundreds of thousands of Kurds and their democratic organisations in exile as criminal." (6) German police worry as anti-Turk arson continues BONN, March 20 (Reuter) - The German police union issued a call for help from politicians and the courts on Monday as firebombers attacked an Alawite prayer room in the seventh straight day of anti-Turkish violence. Klaus Steffenhagen, deputy head of the Police Union (GdP), said law-breaking foreigners must be deported immediately because police could not guarantee the safety of all possible targets of foreign conflicts that spill over into Germany. Bonn's ombudsman for foreigners also urged state and local leaders to agree on deportation guidelines to ensure foreign troublemakers were promptly thrown out. Police said arsonists threw a Molotov cocktail at a Turkish prayer room in Bonn overnight but it bounced off the thick windows and burned out without causing much damage. "The police are overworked, we cannot protect all endangered buildings," Steffenhagen told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but police suspect Kurdish militants, who have been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland. Germany's 1.8-million-strong Turkish community has been unsettled by the attacks and is worrily eyeing the approach of Tuesday's Kurdish New Year -- a traditional focus of guerrilla activity by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Last year, militant Kurds in Germany marked their New Year by blockading motorways and clashing with police. Steffenhagen said simply putting more men on the beat was not the solution. Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called at the weekend for more police protection for Turks in Germany. "More and more staff is not the way to solve the problem," said Steffenhagen, who said politicians should also do more to help integrate Turks living in Germany. Ombudsman Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen said the officials had waited far too long before deciding to admit foreigners, especially Turks, into state and local police forces. Bonn police said they were searching for one suspect in the arson attack. Police have yet to make any arrests for the attacks, which have taken place all across the country. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 05:36:36 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 05:36:36 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 21/3/95, 08:00 TSI Lines: 405 from HH the DemiGod: (1) Turkish Troops Attack Kurds ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey sent tens of thousands of troops into the mountains of northern Iraq on Monday to chase separatist Turkish Kurdish rebels from their sanctuaries there. Some 35,000 soldiers, warplanes and armored vehicles were on the move against bases that are the rebels' staging sites for hit-and-run attacks against Turkey. A military spokesman said 76 bombs were dropped on a single camp alone. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Turks went on the offensive after Kurdish rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraqi border Saturday. The operation apparently was timed to ward off violence on the Kurdish new year Tuesday. "It is the largest operation ever," eclipsing Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus, government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna said. Some 200,000 Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey are fighting a guerrilla force estimated at 10,000. The guerrillas, who belong to the illegal Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, launched the war in 1984. Since then, 15,000 people have died in the rebel battle to achieve self-rule for Turkey's 12 million Kurds. In Nicosia, a rebel leader said the offensive underscored how the Kurds are holding their own. Masallah Orca, a representative of the Turkish Kurds' parliament-in-exile, told The Associated Press his people will celebrate the Kurdish New Year Tuesday "stronger than they have ever been since our struggle began 11 years ago. The U.S. military canceled its routine flights over northern Iraq on Monday because of the fighting. American warplanes based in southern Turkey have patrolled the area since 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Turkey also kept its Habur border gate with Iraq closed. About 3,000 Turkish trucks massed at the border in an 80-mile-long line. The Turkish troops went after 12 camps in a 130-square-mile area, and Turkish F-104 and F-5 fighter jets and Cobra helicopters swooped down on bombing raids. A military spokesman, Col. Ihsan Ongun, said the operation would continue until all Kurdish rebel bases were wiped out. These bases replaced camps destroyed by Turkey in 1992. Aktuna said there were up to 2,800 Turkish Kurdish guerrillas at the 12 camps. In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Chief of Staff spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu said 14 fighter jets dropped 76 bombs in the Bote region alone. Silahcioglu said 50 armored vehicles were part of the operation. The soldiers were mostly commandos, but also included mechanized troops, he said. An Iraqi Kurdish opposition group, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, denounced Turkey's military incursion. A statement said the Turkish troops intimidated Iraqi Kurds when they searched their houses. The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied the charges and said no curfews were imposed and no civilians were arrested. Turkey's chief of staff said in a written statement that the guerrillas had reinforced their positions in northern Iraq, taking advantage of fighting between Iraqi Kurds. Turkey permits the U.S.-led allied air force to protect the Iraqi Kurds from possible Iraqi attacks, but was dismayed by the creation of the de facto Iraqi Kurdish state. Turkey, like Iraq, Iran and Syria, fears its sizable Kurdish minority would be encouraged in its separatist ambitions if the Iraqi Kurds were achieve independence. There are some 20 million Kurds in the region where the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey converge. (2) Rebel Leader: Kurds Holding On NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The Turkish army's offensive into northern Iraq to hit Kurdish rebel bases underlined how the Kurds are holding their own in their separatist campaign, a rebel leader said here Monday. Masallah Orca, a representative of the Turkish Kurds' parliament-in-exile, told The Associated Press his people will celebrate the Kurdish New Year Tuesday "stronger than they have ever been since our struggle began 11 years ago." "Despite all its efforts to crush our uprising, Turkey has lost control in many areas of Kurdistan, and our fighters operate there freely" Hoca said. Hoca spoke shortly after 35,000 Turkish troops poured across the border into Iraqi Kurdistan in a major operation to destroy alleged safe havens of the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party of Turkey, known as the PKK. The Turkish incursion came after PKK guerrillas killed 15 Turkish soldiers Saturday in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border. More than 15,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its campaign in 1984. The Turkish push into northern Iraq was an attempt "to camouflage its failure to crush our struggle" in the Kurdish provinces of eastern Turkey, Hoca declared. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two main groups ruling the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, denied there were PKK bases in the areas overrun by Turkish troops. A KDP statement said the Turkish troops have rounded up Iraqi Kurdish men and terrorist Iraqi Kurds. Hoca said Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, "who claimed that 1994 would be a decisive year marking the crushing of our struggle, has been proved wrong by developments. The military balance has changed in our favor and in many areas even the Turkish civil administration is no longer able to function," he claimed. Hoca said the Turkish incursion was part of a wider attempt by the Ankara government to intimidate Kurds on both sides of the border during Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year. "Turkey has not realized yet that its oppressive measures, its genocide and destruction of 3,000 Kurdish villages, have only strengthened our people's determination to fight for freedom and human rights," Hoca added. There are about 20 million spread over five states in the region -- 10 million in Turkey, 5.5 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, with small enclaves in Syria and the former Soviet Union. (3) Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, called the movement an "unjustified incursion" and appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces. "Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border through the main road into Zakho," it said in a faxed statement from London. "This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity," it said. Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in southeast Turkey. The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers. "The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho extensively," the INC said in a statement. The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds lived. Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air cover. (4) U.N. urges Turkish restraint against Kurd refugees GENEVA, March 20 (Reuter) - The U.N. refugee agency urged Turkey on Monday to exercise restraint in raids against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, expressing "deep concern" for the safety of thousands of Kurdish refugees in the region. The office of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received unconfirmed reports that at least two of five villages near the town of Zakho had been surrounded and subjected to house-to-house searches. It said the same reports spoke of hundreds of arrests. Turkish military officials said Turkey sent up to 35,000 troops backed by tank and artillery into northern Iraq on Monday to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. A government spokesman said some targets were destroyed in aerial bombing. "We are expressing our concern to the Turkish authorities," a UNHCR spokesman said. A UNHCR statement added: "While UNHCR does not consider all Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq to be refugees -- people involved in violent activities are not eligible for refugee status -- it is satisfied that the people in the five villages are civilians and in need of international protection." UNHCR said that at the beginning of February there were 634 Turkish Kurd refugees in the two villages, Hizawa and Darkar, mostly female or children. There were at least 2,600 others in Zakho, which it said had also seen extensive Turkish military activity. Overall in the region, there were 4,500 refugees. UNHCR said it was not the first time genuine refugees had been caught up in Turkish military action. Last year the U.N. agency relocated some 8,600 Turkish Kurd refugees to a village some 160 km from the Turkish border to ensure refugee settlements were not seen as a launch-pad for the Kurdish guerrilla movements. (5) Bonn minister wants Turks shielded from attacks BONN, March 20 (Reuter) - Interior Minister Manfred Kanther called on Germany's federal states on Monday to give more protection to Turks and speedily deport Kurds suspected of involvement in a series of attacks on Turkish premises. Kanther's call came as firebombers attacked a Turkish prayer room in Bonn in the seventh straight day of anti-Turkish violence in cities all across Germany. The daily newspaper Bild said security experts in Kanther's ministry feared worse on Tuesday, the Kurdish New Year which has been a traditional focus for guerrilla activity by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Kanther told ARD television the firebomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies, mosques and social clubs "clearly bear the hallmark" of the PKK, banned in Germany since two waves of spectacular coordinated attacks across Europe in 1993. The PKK has been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland in the southeast of the country. In the latest German incident, police said arsonists threw a petrol bomb at a Turkish prayer room in Bonn, but it bounced off the thick windows and caused little damage. They detained two Turks aged 54 and 22 on suspicion of carrying out the attack. Correcting an earlier report, they said the room belonged to Sunni Moslems, not the Alawite community. Attacks on Alawites in Istanbul last week sparked violent clashes between protesters and police. In a statement, Kanther urged the federal states responsible for general policing to step up protection of Turkish premises and added: "Intelligence on planned attacks must be improved." Bild said searches following the recent attacks had uncovered firearms and ammunition, and that these had alarmed authorities even further ahead of the New Year festival. Kanther urged a number of federal states controlled by the centre-left Social Democrats to give up their refusal to send back Turkish Kurds whose asylum requests had been rejected. "It is irresponsible and is highly inappropriate to the current situation, with attacks on Turkish premises," Kanther said. The regional states say Kurdish deportees are in danger of persecution in Turkey. The Kurdish Community in Germany, representing more than 400,000 Kurds here, said bans on Kurdish organisations and Kanther's refusal to exempt Kurds from deportation were leading to a "general branding of hundreds of thousands of Kurds and their democratic organisations in exile as criminal." (6) German police worry as anti-Turk arson continues BONN, March 20 (Reuter) - The German police union issued a call for help from politicians and the courts on Monday as firebombers attacked an Alawite prayer room in the seventh straight day of anti-Turkish violence. Klaus Steffenhagen, deputy head of the Police Union (GdP), said law-breaking foreigners must be deported immediately because police could not guarantee the safety of all possible targets of foreign conflicts that spill over into Germany. Bonn's ombudsman for foreigners also urged state and local leaders to agree on deportation guidelines to ensure foreign troublemakers were promptly thrown out. Police said arsonists threw a Molotov cocktail at a Turkish prayer room in Bonn overnight but it bounced off the thick windows and burned out without causing much damage. "The police are overworked, we cannot protect all endangered buildings," Steffenhagen told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but police suspect Kurdish militants, who have been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland. Germany's 1.8-million-strong Turkish community has been unsettled by the attacks and is worrily eyeing the approach of Tuesday's Kurdish New Year -- a traditional focus of guerrilla activity by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Last year, militant Kurds in Germany marked their New Year by blockading motorways and clashing with police. Steffenhagen said simply putting more men on the beat was not the solution. Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called at the weekend for more police protection for Turks in Germany. "More and more staff is not the way to solve the problem," said Steffenhagen, who said politicians should also do more to help integrate Turks living in Germany. Ombudsman Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen said the officials had waited far too long before deciding to admit foreigners, especially Turks, into state and local police forces. Bonn police said they were searching for one suspect in the arson attack. Police have yet to make any arrests for the attacks, which have taken place all across the country. -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 00:39:47 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 00:39:47 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 23/3/95, 08:00 TSI Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (1) Turkey Hits Kurds By Air, Land DARKARJAN, Iraq (AP) -- Turkish troops rolled past Kurdish villages in a massive offensive against a rebel movement, raising worldwide concern Wednesday for civilians caught on the battleground. Air strikes, shelling and combat continued for a third day in a 20-mile-wide strip of northern Iraq. Turkey sent 35,000 troops across the border Monday in an attempt to wipe out camps of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. "They drove into my house with a tank," said Suleyman Shivan, standing beside his half-demolished home in this village. His wife rocked their 10-month-old baby to sleep in a cradle among the ruins. Shivan said that like most of the men in the village, he was a fighter for an Iraqi Kurdish opposition party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). "They ordered everybody out, searched the houses and seized our party's weapons," Shivan told The Associated Press. Seven people from the village were detained, he said. A few hundred soldiers later settled in a KDP building and erected tents outside. They came with tanks, personnel carriers and trucks. A 5-year-old girl was killed during an air raid Monday in the village of Pilingan, and four other civilians were injured, said Shazad Saib, an Iraqi Kurdish spokesman in Ankara. Baghdad, in its first comment on the offensive, on Wednesday protested a "violation of Iraq's sovereignty" and demanded withdrawal, the official Iraqi News Agency said. Ankara defended its actions and rejected charges it was endangering civilians. Turkey complied with international law by acting to "exterminate a threat to the lives and security of its citizens," said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ferhat Ataman in Ankara. Turkish officials say about 2,800 guerrillas were operating in northern Iraq. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees expressed worry for some 4,500 Kurds who fled Turkey last year, claiming assaults on their villages. Witnesses said the refugees remained at the Atrus camp and several villages near the border. "No, they are not forced back," Shivan said. The Red Cross on Wednesday appealed to Turkey to spare civilians and said it was "deeply concerned" about their safety. Belgium and Denmark joined France in criticizing the offensive. The United States had offered general support but raised a new note of caution Wednesday. "We have urged (Turkey) to keep the operation limited in duration and scope, and to give full respect for human rights and international law," U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said in Paris during a diplomatic swing. A high-level European Union delegation was due Thursday on a previously scheduled visit and would seek "clarification" on the offensive, the EU said. Ratification of a customs agreement between Turkey and the EU depends on Turkey's human rights record, which has been under fire of late in the Kurdish war. Helicopters Wednesday ferried in reinforcements and at least seven battles were raging, the Anatolia news agency said. F-5 and F-16 fighter jets attacked unspecified targets. Planes also dropped leaflets calling on the rebels to surrender. Col. Dogu Silahcioglu in the southern Turkish city of Diyarbakir said five more soldiers were killed on Wednesday, increasing the death toll to 13. A total of 15 soldiers were wounded. The government said more than 200 guerrillas were killed and 89 bodies have been recovered. The army erected three field hospitals on the border. Tanks patrolled up and down the border and established checkpoints. A military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the army's stay could last until the end of summer. Turkey has carried out large operations before, but each time the guerrillas regrouped and continued their attacks. The war has killed more than 15,000 people since 1984. Kurds make up one-fifth of Turkey's 60 million people. A suppression of their cultural rights and the harsh military crackdown has won the PKK hundreds of thousands of sympathizers over the past decade. Iraq's Kurds set up an autonomous zone under Western military protection after the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S.-led allied air force set up to protect them has canceled routine flights for the time being. (2) Kurd Rebels: 170 Turks Killed NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Turkey's Kurdish rebels claimed Wednesday they have killed 170 Turkish troops since they struck into northern Iraq three days ago. A communique by the Kurdish Workers' Party, known as the PKK, also claimed that its guerrillas killed 17 Turkish troops in a raid on a barracks inside Turkey near the Iraqi border Wednesday. The communique sent to The Associated Press in Nicosia said rebel losses were "negligible," but gave no numbers. A Turkish announcement Tuesday said that at least 200 rebels and eight soldiers had been killed in the fighting in northern Iraq. By all accounts, the estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas based in northern Iraq, in a self-rule enclave run by Iraqi Kurdish groups, have dispersed into the mountains to avoid pitched battles with the vastly superior Turkish force of some 35,000 troops. The communique said the Turkish rebels blasted the Bustan Barracks in Silopi, eight kilometers north of the border, with rockets and mortars Wednesday, primarily to demonstrate that the Turkish assault will not halt raids inside Turkey. The PKK communique said the heaviest clashes have been in the regions of Haftanin, Cicaye and Zawite, some 50 kms south of the Turkish border. The PKK said Turkish troops were forcing thousands of Kurdish refugees who had sought refuge in northern Iraq to cross back into Turkey "in a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention." It said that Turkish fighter-bombers have bombed civilian targets in northern Iraq, but added that it has not been possible to ascertain casualty figures yet. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said in an interview with a Turkish newspaper Wednesday that the incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan would continue until all rebel bases in the region were wiped out, indicating that the operation could last for some time. "We haven't put down any time limit. It will be a final blow to the PKK," she said. In Damascus, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish factions and close to the PKK, denounced ther Turkish operation as a "flagrant intervention" against the Kurds. The party's representative in the Syrian capital, Dana Mejid, alleged that the PUK's main rival in thr Iraqi Kurdish zone, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was working with the Turkish forces and attacking PUK positions. The PUK and KDP have been fighting since last May for control of the self-rule enclave. But it was not clear whether large-scale clashes have resumed. (3) Turkey risks rift with NATO over Iraq incursion By Suna Erdem ANKARA, March 23 (Reuter) - Turkey's military thrust into Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels threatened on Thursday to provoke a rift with its NATO allies, although Ankara says the operation will be limited and "will not take months or years." With up to 35,000 troops engaged in a fourth day of ground and air attacks deep in northern Iraq, Baghdad has condemned the Turkish incursion and demanded the troops be withdrawn. Turkey's forces have advanced 40 km into Iraq and its jets have bombed targets there. Army officers near the Iraqi town of Zakho said Turkish soldiers were closing in from two sides on a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) border base. Western governments and human rights groups, fearing for the safety of Kurdish refugees and thousands of other civilians, have urged Ankara to show restraint. In its first official comment since the operation began on Monday, Iraq said it was "a violation of its sovereignty." Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said this was "not the case at all." She said the assault would be limited, without specifying. "It will take as long as it takes to ensure that the camps are no longer there," she said in a live interview with CNN international television. "It will not take months or years." Military officials said about 200 guerrillas and 13 soldiers had been killed since the operation began at dawn on Monday. Iraqi Kurds say at least one civilian had been killed, and others hurt, but Turkey denies all such claims. The assault threatened disarray within NATO, with the United States tacitly endorsing the incursion as its European allies questioned its legality and raised fears for thousands of refugees and civilians in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. "Turkey's actions in north Iraq give rise to the greatest concern," said German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. Kinkel, due in Ankara for a visit on Thursday by past, present and future European Union (EU) presidents, was joined by Britain in urging Turkey to tread carefully in its biggest assault on PKK bases. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Tuesday said the incursion broke basic principles of international law and that the air and ground raids violated Iraq's sovereignty. Norway on Wednesday barred arms exports to Turkey, citing a law referring to countries at war or in war-like situations. The United Nations said it was worried about refugees, particularly 4,500 Turkish Kurds settled in border villages. It fears Turkish forces may have seized some near the border town of Zakho and taken them back to Turkey. It was echoed by aid and rights groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International, in its concern. For all the diplomatic and humanitarian risks involved, Turkey's heavy-handed show of force is unlikely to score strongly against well-trained, highly-mobile Kurdish guerrillas, according to military analysts. One said the guerrillas had probably moved out of the area, leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the attack. Soldiers in Zakho acknowledged PKK mines were hindering an assault on the rebels' Haftanin camp, to the east. They said many guerrillas had slipped away before the incursion, with only a token force left at some of the PKK positions being attacked. Ciller said Turkey, a target of Western criticism on human rights, was not jeopardising aspirations for closer relations with Europe as the assault was clearly against "terrorists." (4) Turkish troops hound rebel Kurds in north Iraq By Aliza Marcus ZAKHO, Iraq, March 22 (Reuter) - Turkish soldiers attacked a Kurdish rebel position from two sides on Wednesday during a huge land and air operation in northern Iraq that has aroused international concern. "In the end, (the guerrillas) will either give up or they will be destroyed," said a Turkish officer at an artillery post 25 km from the northern Iraqi city of Zakho. As he spoke, a 155mm howitzer fired shells 10 km northwards at a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) base almost on the Turkish-Iraq border. Troops crossing the border from Turkey were closing in on the rebels from the other side of the base, the officer said. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said the operation would be limited, but would not specify a duration. "It will take as long as it takes to ensure that the camps are no longer there," she said in a live interview with CNN International television. "It will not take months or years." Baghdad denounced Turkey's attack and demanded troops be withdrawn. "Iraq considers this operation on Turkey's part as a violation of its sovereignty," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a first official comment since the operation began on Monday. Western governments and human rights groups, fearing harm to Kurdish refugees and other civilians, have urged Turkey to tread carefully in Iraq. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said Turkey's actions "give rise to the greatest concern," while French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said the Turkish incursion broke basic principles of international law. Both are due in Ankara on Thursday for scheduled European Union talks. Britain was also watching the situation with concern, a Foreign Office spokesman said. Witnesses said on Wednesday troops had detained about 200 villagers from Derkar, near Zakho, under suspicion of PKK links. Colonel Dogu Silahcioglu, spokesman for the Turkish General Staff, denied any moves against civilians, dismissing the reports as "terrorist propaganda." He told a news briefing that a "security coordination centre" was being set up in Zakho, under a foreign ministry official, to attend to the needs of civilians in the area. Turkish forces, on the third day of their mission, have penetrated 40 km into Iraq to root out the PKK, which uses camps in the border area in its 10-year-old fight for an independent state in southeast Turkey. Ciller said there had been no civilian casualties in the operation. But the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), an Iraqi Kurdish group sharing power in the north, said Turkish forces killed a girl and wounded four other civilians on Monday. Turkey's Anatolian news agency said the operation commander, Lieutenant-General Hasan Kundakci, had confirmed a report by the defence minister that 200 rebels had been killed since Monday. Colonel Silahcioglu told reporters that 13 soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded since Monday. The defence minister's rebel casualty toll on Tuesday had contrasted sharply with a military spokesman who put the death toll at 24 rebels and eight soldiers. Turkey has said about 2,500 PKK fighters were sheltering in northern Iraq. Troops displayed weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, mortars and anti-tank mines, they said were captured from the PKK. Villagers said the arms belonged to local PUK members. (5) Red Cross urges Turkey to safeguard Kurd civilians GENEVA, March 22 (Reuter) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" about the plight of civilians in northern Iraq after a Turkish military advance against Kurdish guerrillas. Joining an international chorus of unease, the ICRC said it had sent a note to the Turkish government reminding it of its obligations under international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians during armed conflicts. "The ICRC further requested immediate access to Kurdish combatants and civilians detained by the Turkish armed forces," the ICRC said in a statement. Major Western governments including France, Britain and Germany have all urged Turkey to tread carefully in its military incursion into Iraq. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has also expressed its concern for some 4,500 Turkish Kurd refugees who it fears may get caught up in the fighting. "The ICRC appeals to the Turkish military authorities and to all the parties involved to respect international humanitarian law," the ICRC statement added. "It calls upon them to refrain from launching any indiscriminate attack that may endanger the civilian population and to accord humane treatment to captured combatants and arrested civilians. It also requests them to care for the wounded and sick and to respect the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems." (6) Germany concerned at Turkish incursion into Iraq By Michael Christie BONN, March 22 (Reuter) - Turkey's attacks on separatist Kurds in north Iraq faced mounting criticism on Wednesday from Germany, where Kurdish attacks on Turkish property have reflected the state of Ankara's war against the guerrillas. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, visiting Kuwait on a Middle East tour, expressed his "greatest concern" and appealed to the Turkish government to exercise restraint, respect human rights and protect the civilian population from harm. "Turkey has justified security interests in its conflict with the terrorist activities of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) in north Iraq," the Foreign Ministry quoted Kinkel as saying in a statement issued in Bonn. "But Turkey's actions in north Iraq give rise to the greatest concern. The Kurdish problem must be solved...through political and legal means and not military ones." Other NATO governments were also alarmed at the prospect of a new crisis in the Western alliance, with NATO-member Turkey's military offensive into Iraq in its third day. Karl Lamers, foreign affairs spokesman of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU), said it would only worsen tensions between Kurds and Turks, both in Turkey and Germany. "I fear it will only make the problem worse," Lamers told German radio. Noting that "fighting in Kurdistan means there will also be fighting in Germany" where 1.85 million Turks live, Lamers said it was in Bonn's interest to press Ankara to seek a political solution to its war against Kurdish separatists. German prosecutors meanwhile said they had formally arrested a woman, identified only as Zulfiye S., suspected of being a PKK leader in southern Bavaria responsible for a series of fire-bomb attacks on Turkish premises. Arsonists set fire to a Turkish cultural centre in the northeastern city of Salzgitter in the ninth consecutive night of attacks on Turkish property in Germany, police said. In separate incidents in Braunschweig, Hanover and Gifhorn, car tyres were set ablaze in the streets, police said. In the southern city of Mannheim, some 300 Kurds rallied to commemorate two Kurdish women who set fire to themselves last year in protest at what they saw as Bonn's support for Ankara. Kohl's top security aide, Bernd Schmidbauer, has blamed the PKK for the anti-Turkish violence in which scores of shops, travel agencies and cultural centres have been hit. Amid the furore over Turkey's venture in Iraq, Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein said the state would this week start deporting Kurds found guilty of violence in Germany. Most other states have decided to ignore for now a federal directive lifting a moratorium on the deportation of Kurds. But Beckstein said that so long as they were sent back to western Turkey and not the southeast their welfare would be assured. The Foreign Ministry said Kinkel would express his concern on a visit to Ankara of the European Union "troika" -- past, present and future holders of the EU presidency -- on Thursday. (7) Turkey's assault gives West concern By Suna Erdem ANKARA, March 22 (Reuter) - Turkey's huge cross-border attack on separatist Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq continued unabated into a third day, raising concerns abroad about the fate of refugees in the region. The operation, involving up to 35,000 troops advancing 40 km into Iraq, also provoked concerns about its legality, particularly in Europe, where Turkey aspires to closer economic and political ties. President Suleyman Demirel said Turkey was "absolutely determined to eliminate this major provocation" (of separatist Kurds), but said care was taken not to hurt civilians. He spoke on Turkish television as reports flowed of Turkish planes pounding Kurdish rebel camps along a 300-km front inside northern Iraq and ground forces advancing in pursuit of guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkish troops, speaking from Iraq on Turkish television, vowed to stay until the PKK was destroyed: "We will not leave until they are finished. Wherever they go, we will chase them." "The aim is to cause as much destruction as possible," said one military official back in Turkey, summing up the operation which started before dawn on Monday. The United Nations said it would be a "very serious matter" if reports were verified from the Iraqi border town of Zakho that Turkish troops had rounded up Turkish Kurdish civilians and taken them across the border to Turkey. The U.N. refugee agency assists a total of 13,000 Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. The European Union said the incursion broke international law, violating Iraq's territorial integrity. But, while the United States asked Ankara to keep the operation as limited as possible, it tacitly endorsed the move after assurances that civilians would be safeguarded. "There is nothing that warrants foreign reaction," Demirel said. "The terrorists...cross the border to come and kill our people. It is impossible to tell us not to do anything in the face of this...This is also in line with international law." The Anatolian news agency quoted Prime Minister Tansu Ciller as saying she was sure no civilians had been killed. An Iraqi opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), said in a statement that Turkish paratroopers had dropped on villages 25 km northeast of Dohuk in the east of the region, controlled by Iraqi Kurds since the 1991 Gulf War. But a tank advance towards the district of Shiranish, northeast of the Iraqi border town of Zakho, had met heavy resistence from Kurdish guerrillas, it said. The INC also said troops carried out house-to-house searches in villages near Zakho and arrested suspected PKK sympathisers. Turkey's general staff spokesman Colonel Dogu Silahcioglu said in Diyarbakir, command centre for the operation, that at least 24 PKK members were killed. Eight soldiers were also dead. The colonel's casualty figure contrasted sharply with one of 200 PKK rebels being killed, with no Turkish casualties, given earlier on Tuesday by Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan. First Turkish television pictures showed soldiers in northern Iraq deployed on steep hilltops, their guns and rocket launchers pointing towards an empty horizon. Snow lay in some parts, with troops snaking their way through it in long lines. In Silopi, near the Iraqi border, the mission commander told reporters his men had secured a swathe of Iraqi territory 300 km wide and more than 32 km deep, and progressed virtually unhindered on the second day. Military analysts in Ankara said much of the surprise element had been lost by the lengthy troop buildup, giving the well-trained PKK rebels time to slip away, or back into Turkey. (8) Turkey's heavy-handed approach to guerrila war By Jonathan Lyons ANKARA, March 22 (Reuter) - Turkey's big show of force in northern Iraq is likely to yield little against well-trained, highly-mobile Kurdish guerrillas, military analysts said on Wednesday. For a third day running F-16 jets bombarded suspected PKK camps deep inside Iraq, while mechanised units and ground forces sought to cut off any lines of retreat. But this heavy-handed approach to guerrilla warfare, especially against hardened PKK forces now in their 11th year of insurgency, has raised fears that those bearing the brunt of the attacks may be Kurdish refugees, not armed fighters. "This kind of thing -- with pincer movements and tanks -- looks good in the cabinet room or on a World War One map," one analyst, following the campaign from Ankara, told Reuters. "It will accomplish nothing significant against the PKK. Most guerrillas probably melted away before the assault, leaving Kurdish civilians behind." A retired Turkish military officer, with experience fighting the rebels, called the incursion "a disaster." "You cannot get rid of guerrillas this way. It's just a show-off tactic," he said. In fact, early reports indicate the guerrillas took full advantage of the slow, public buildup of troops and material along the border to slip away or infiltrate back into Turkey. A source close to the PKK in Turkey's Tunceli province said stepped up guerrilla activity there reflected the arrival of fresh reinforcements from Iraqi bases, 350 km to the east, in time for the traditional spring offensive. Turkish army spokesmen told a briefing on Tuesday that just 24 PKK rebels were confirmed dead in the first two days of the operation -- highlighting the problems of taking on mobile insurgents. Eight Turkish soldiers were also killed. Foreign observers in Ankara suggested a small commando force, dropped deep inside the 40-km security zone that army planners have mapped out, would have been far more effective. "You launch that kind of thing from Ankara, not from the border. That way there is an element of surprise," one said. A spokesman for the Iraqi Kurds, who nominally control the theatre of operations, said innocent civilians were paying the price for bungled military operations. Shazad Saib, Ankara representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told Reuters Turkish planes killed one young girl and wounded four other civilians in a bombing raid near the Iranian border on Monday. The target was a suspected PKK camp at Bote, he said, but three other villages, inhabited only by civilans, were also hit in the attack. "They are not good at shooting. When the Israelis go in, they pick a target and hit it," Saib said. "But the Turks get four or five targets around it." (9) Britain joins chorus of concern over Kurds LONDON, March 22 (Reuter) - Britain added its voice on Wednesday to international concern about Turkey's land and air operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. "We are watching the situation closely and with concern. We have made clear to the Turks our expectation that the principle of territorial integrity should be upheld and we have received assurances that this should be the case," a Foreign Office spokesman said. Western governments and human rights groups, fearing harm to Kurdish refugees and other civilians, have urged Turkish forces, on the third day of their mission, to tread carefully in Iraq. "We have already emphasised to the Turks that they should be scrupulous in ensuring that no harm comes to non-combatants and there should be no interruption to normal relief efforts," the Foreign Office spokesman said. He said a European Union mission would have a timely opportunity to reinforce these points when it meets the Turkish government in Ankara on Thursday. (10) Arsonists hit Turkish cultural centre in Germany BONN, March 22 (Reuter) - Arsonists set fire to a Turkish cultural centre in the northeastern city of Salzgitter in the latest attack on Turkish property, police said on Wednesday. Nobody was injured in the incident on Tuesday night in which a canister full of burning petrol was thrown at the entrance of the cultural centre which also housed a sports club. The flames were quickly put out by a group of policemen driving by on patrol. In separate incidents in Braunschweig, Hanover and Gifhorn, car tyres were set on fire on the streets overnight, police said. Chancellor Helmut Kohl's top security aide, Bernd Schmidbauer, has accused the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of the anti-Turkish violence in which scores of shops, travel agencies and cultural centres have been hit. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk at aps.nl Wed Mar 29 05:27:31 1995 From: newsdesk at aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Date: 29 Mar 1995 05:27:31 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 28/3/95, 09:00 TSI Reply-To: newsdesk at aps.nl (1) Kurdish history -- broken promises and bloodshed ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - The history of the Kurds has been one of broken promises, failed deals, repression by the governments of the region, and internal feuding. The Kurds, estimated to number 15 million to 20 million, are a non-Arab, Sunni Moslem people who speak a language related to Persian and live in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Azberbaijan and Syria. They were mentioned by the Greek historian Xenophon as long ago as 400 B.C. Saladin, the Islamic leader who fought the Christian Crusaders in the 12th century, was a Kurd. But for virtually all their history they have been subjugated by stronger neighbours. In modern times, Turkey, Iraq and Iran have firmly resisted an independent Kurdish state and the Western powers have seen no reason to help establish one. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August, 1990, and subsequent victory by allied forces over the Iraqi army in February, 1991, sparked a rebellion against Baghdad by the Kurds as well as other Iraqi dissidents. The crushing response by the Iraqi army caused a mass exodus of Kurdish refugees and the United States, Britain and France responded by imposing a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, using bases in Turkey. The two main Iraqi Kurdish groups in the region failed to work out a power-sharing agreement and fighting flared sporadically between them. Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Turkish Ottoman empire was on its last legs. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which imposed a settlement on Turkey after World War One, promised them independence. But three years later the Turkish republican leader Mustapha Kemal Ataturk tore up the treaty. For the Kurds, one of history's losers, it was a story that was to be repeated again and again. They fared little better in Iraq, then under British mandate from the League of Nations, where revolts were put down in 1919, 1923 and 1932. In Iran, the Kurds succeeded in establishing a Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad in 1946. But Reza Shah crushed the embryonic state the following year. Under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi Kurds waged an intermittent struggle against Baghdad after World War Two. Their "peshmerga" (meaning "those who face death") guerrillas continued the fight after the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958. Finally in 1970 an agreement was reached allowing for linguistic rights and self-rule in Kurdish areas as well as Kurdish participation in the Baghdad government. But it broke down, partly over distribution of oil revenues and exclusion of the oil-producing Kirkuk area from Kurdistan. By 1974 it was open war again and a government offensive forced some 130,000 Kurds to take refuge in Iran. The rebellion collapsed the following year after Iran withdrew aid in return for border concessions from Iraq in the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The Iran-Iraq war, which broke out in 1980 and lasted eight years, gave the Kurds another chance to exploit regional hostilities for their own benefit. The revolutionary turmoil in Iran allowed them to establish a no-go area for government troops but they were unable to hold onto it for long. In 1984, the Iraqi government was reported to have reached a settlement with Jalal Talabani, leader of one of the main Kurdish parties. But this too broke down over questions of cabinet posts for Kurds and the control of Kurdish forces. The same year a Kurdish revolt broke out in Turkey, where the Kurds were not recognised as a separate race or allowed to speak their own language in public -- a ban since lifted. More than 15,000 people are estimated to have died in Turkey since 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its fight for a separate state in the southeast. The Kurdish question again hit the headlines in March 1988, when some 5,000 Iraqi Kurds died in a poison gas attack by government forces on the town of Halabja. But the incident produced little action by world governments to help the Kurds. (2) Kurdish rebel chief mixes nationalism and Marxism By Alistair Bell ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, a revolutionary of the 1970s who has fought successive Turkish governments since 1984, has never given up his Cold War brand of nationalism mixed with Marxism-Leninism. "Even if 100,000 people die this year, our movement cannot be disrupted," Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group, told a Turkish newspaper in 1992. More than 15,000 people have been killed since the PKK, at first only a few hundred dedicated followers of Ocalan, took up arms 11 years ago for a separate Marxist-Leninist state. The group is now a well-oiled guerrilla army of 5,000-10,000 men and women with urbane representatives in Europe and battle-hardened fighting units in both Turkey and northern Iraq. Turkey has launched the biggest military expedition in its modern history, involving 35,000 troops, to drive the PKK out of mountain bases in northern Iraq. A thick-set man in his mid-40s with a bushy black moustache, Ocalan has said he prefers a federation with Turkey over a separate state but PKK literature emphasises independence. Also known as Apo, Ocalan is believed to be based in Damascus or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa valley in Lebanon. In 1993 journalists saw him arrive in the Bekaa in a car bearing Syrian diplomatic licence plates. Late last year he launched a diplomatic offensive to secure a ceasefire and international mediation to end the insurgency. "International organisations can play a major role in finding a solution," he wrote to Western leaders in November. Successive Turkish administrations have ruled out a political solution or talks with the PKK, arguing that Kurds have equal rights in Turkey and are not an ethnic minority. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller flatly turned down the ceasefire offer, branding Ocalan "a terrorist," and Western governments showed no willingness to act as peace brokers. Just over a week after Apo's peace overture, two PKK gunmen shot dead a teacher in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin, raising doubts over his sincerity to halt the campaign. The PKK, using mostly hit-and-run tactics against the much larger Turkish army, has defied frequent government assertions it is all but defeated inside Turkey. Ciller says a final push in Iraq will finish them for good. Ocalan, born to a poor peasant family in the Kurdish village of Omerli in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, developed his revolutionary ideas amid the violent political turmoil of Turkey in the 1970s. He fled to Syria before Turkey's 1980 military coup, which disrupted a secret movement he founded in 1974 after dropping out of Ankara University's political science faculty. He later acquired a reputation for ruthlessness in the southeast with killings of suspected collaborators, pro-government tribespeople and left-wing rivals. Alliances he has forged with the main Kurdish groups in Iraq have fallen apart because of the Iraqi Kurds' anger at the PKK's willingness to kill Kurdish civilians. (3) Turk-Kurd Fighting Nears Syria ZAKHO, Iraq (AP) -- As Turkish troops hammered Kurdish rebels Monday in northern Iraq, Germany protested Turkey's military campaign by suspending military sales. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said $105 million in government subsidies to German shipbuilders, part of a $560 million deal to sell German frigates to Turkey, would be suspended pending review by a parliamentary committee. Clashes were reported Monday near the Syrian border and to the east, close to Iran. Some 35,000 Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, crossed the Iraqi border March 20 to wipe out bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. The Turkish campaign is taking place in the section of Iraq controlled by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Saddam Hussein's government. Patrolled by allied warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, the area is beyond the reach of Iraq's military. Military spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu said Monday that 172 rebels and 17 Turkish soldiers had been killed in the 8-day-old campaign. Twelve rebels have been captured or have surrendered, he told reporters in Diyarbakir, Turkey, about a three-hour drive from this border town. Turkey contends about 2,800 PKK guerrillas have been operating in northern Iraq. Silahcioglu said Sunday some rebels were eluding troops by blending into the local population. Turkish troops raided a house in Zakho and killed two PKK rebels Sunday, residents said. Also killed in the firefight was a member of a village militia of Turkish Kurdish villagers armed by the government. In another incident, guerrillas reportedly ambushed and killed two Kurdish village guards as a captured PKK rebel was leading them to other rebels in hiding. Military and Iraqi Kurdish officials could not immediately confirm either incident. A Swedish aid official, Sidney Petersson, said Turkish troops "pushed around civilians" and searched women in villages around Zakho. The soldiers also prevented health workers from getting to around 100 villages in the region to give polio vaccines, said Petersson, of the Qandil Project. Turkey's Western allies have warned it to spare civilian lives and leave the area as soon as possible. The United Nations also has expressed concern for civilians. With its suspension of military sales, Germany -- which has been one of Turkey's biggest arms suppliers in the past but has no other pending military aid -- became the first ally to act on its criticism of the offensive. In Turkey, meanwhile, the first signs of public dissent about the campaign in Northern Iraq emerged. A prominent jailed academic, Haluk Gerger, went on a 48-hour hunger strike Monday. And questions are being raised publicly about the financial burden of the campaign. (4) Turks battle rebel Kurds at ends of Iraq border By Suna Erdem ZAKHO, Iraq, March 27 (Reuter) - Turkey battled rebel Kurds in Iraq at opposite ends of the long Turkish-Iraqi border on Monday while making it harder for journalists to get in to cover the week-long conflict. The fighting took place near Iraq's borders with both Syria and Iran, some 330 km apart, Turkish soldiers and security sources said. "The operation against defined targets is continuing. The necessary work is being done," a military spokesman told Reuters in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, nerve centre of the drive. He gave no further details. Turkey, in the largest military campaign of its modern history, sent 35,000 troops into northern Iraq in a bid to smash bases of the rebels -- guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- who are fighting for a homeland in southeast Turkey. Turkey toughened press restrictions at the Iraqi border on Monday. Border guards said they received a new directive requiring permits for journalists to enter northern Iraq. "No one can come in without a pass," said an officer at the main crossing point at Habur in Turkey. But it was unclear how the necessary passes could be obtained. "The border has been closed to the foreign press because they are wandering around irresponsibly (in Iraq)," a spokesman for the General Staff told Reuters in Diyarbakir. He did not say how long the restriction would last. The new policy appeared aimed at curtailing reports, largely by the foreign press, of civilian casualties from Turkish artillery, tanks and air raids. Despite Turkish denials, Iraqi Kurds and Western aid workers said two civilians were killed and about nine were wounded. Turkish soldiers in the Iraqi border town of Zakho told of frequent clashes with the rebels near Iraq's border with Syria. Rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is believed to be based in Damascus or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. "We won't let them get across of course," a soldier said. Near the Iranian border, the rebels were taking on troops in the high mountains and valleys of Khwakurk district, the security sources said, and a large number of guerrillas were holed up in almost inaccessible caves and other hideouts. Iranian Television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati as saying Iran believed the Turkish incursion into northern Iraq "will compound the difficulties" in the region. In an interview published on Monday, Turkey's mission commander said his troops must remain in Iraq indefinitely. Authorities have so far placed no time limit on the operation. "There are some critical points where we could stay and must stay," Lieutenant-General Hasan Kundakci told Milliyet daily. Turkey, which this month took a big step closer to the European Union by signing a customs union with Brussels, has come under harsh criticism from its Western allies over civilian casualties and human rights. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel last week warned things would get tough for Ankara the moment the world saw pictures of civilian casualties. Little or no footage of such incidents has so far appeared on major television networks. On Monday, Germany temporarily froze grants it had promised to give Turkey for the purchase of three German frigates. (5) Germans suspected of PKK sympathies freed in Turkey BONN, March 27 (Reuter) - Six Germans arrested in southeastern Turkey as suspected collaborators with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Saturday were released on Monday, the German foreign ministry said. A ministry spokesman could not give any information about a Belgian photographer and a Briton also reportedly detained in Cizre, south of Diyarbakir, the same day. The Germans were released from house arrest in a hotel at around midday and were on their way to Ankara, a receptionist at the hotel said. The foreign ministry spokesman said they would make their way back to Germany. The Belgian photographer, Koen Obgenhaffen, told Belgian VTM television on Sunday he and the Germans were detained when they refused to hand over their photo equipment. PKK guerrillas have been fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey since 1984. More than 15,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The Nowrouz Coordination Bureau in Frankfurt, a group of German Kurdish sympathisers, said the six Germans were academics from the northern city of Bremen who went to the region to observe the Kurdish new year, known as Nowrouz. The group's Bremen office said one British and four Turkish journalists were also detained in Cizre on Saturday. It identified the Briton as Richard Wayman but did not say for whom he worked. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 21:17:32 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 21:17:32 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 29/3/95, 09:00 TSI (1) Turk Troops Seize More Kurds ZAKHO, Iraq (AP) -- More than 1,500 villagers, their belongings and even goats packed into cars and trucks, fled Tuesday as Turkish troops attacked Kurdish rebels along the border with northern Iraq. At least 70 rebels were reported killed. Growing numbers of refugees could increase Western pressure on Turkey to abandon its assault against Turkish Kurdish rebel bases inside Iraq. The fighting involves the section of northern Iraq controlled by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, the area is beyond the reach of Iraq's military. At least 269 rebels have died in the operation that began March 20. The military said 17 Turkish soldiers have died. Some 35,000 troops are involved in the invasion to wipe out bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. The PKK has fought for autonomy in Turkey in a war which has killed more than 15,000 people. Turkey contends about 2,800 PKK guerrillas are based in northern Iraq. In Washington, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said the international community's support would be "promptly withdrawn" if Turkey breaks promises "that the operation would be of limited scope and duration." Turkey's president, Suleyman Demirel, has suggested troops could remain in northern Iraq for up to a year. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has said the military will withdraw once rebel bases are destroyed. Ciller plans to meet with President Clinton in Washington on April 18. Fighting broke out on several fronts Tuesday. Army spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu said 62 rebels were killed in a clash in the Khakurk region near Iran and eight others in Sindi region, six miles east of Zakho in Iraq. Fierce fighting also was reported in the mountains northeast of Zakho. As many as 2,000 villagers fled the fighting south along the road to Sarsang, about 48 miles east of Zakho, a U.N. guard returning from a patrol in the area told The Associated Press. In Zakho, 177 Turkish Kurdish refugees appealed for help from U.N. officials on Tuesday. Some refugees feared house-to-house searches by the Turkish military, aid officials said. U.N. officials were organizing convoys to escort them away from the fighting, said U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville. Turkey staged a six-week offensive in northern Iraq involving 20,000 troops in 1992. But the PKK regrouped right after their withdrawal. (2) Turks keep triple border watch at Saddam fortress By Suna Erdem FISHKHABUR, Iraq, March 28 (Reuter) - At a hill-top fortress overlooking the point where Iraq meets Turkey and Syria, Turkish sharpshooters with infra-red night sights scan the horizon for Kurdish guerrilla border infiltrators. "This area is called the triangle. It's the entrance and exit for all the terrorists," a Turkish special forces major said on Tuesday in reference to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels who regularly cross the borders in all directions. Troops in the area killed two rebels trying to cross to Iraq from Syria the night before. Their bodies were washed away by the Tigris River which marks the Iraq-Syria frontier at its northern end, soldiers said. The fortress at Fishkhabur, 40 km east of the Iraqi town of Zakho, is one of dozens originally built by President Saddam Hussein at strategic points throughout north Iraq to control his own restive Kurds. Turkish forces hunting the PKK in northern Iraq positioned tanks and armoured personnel carriers there late last week to control cross-border rebel traffic. Troops reported frequent clashes between the Turkish army and the PKK close to the Syrian border on Monday although it was unclear whether the rebels were fleeing into Syria or coming into Iraq. Armed fighters are not the only ones to skip across the border. Villagers, unconcerned by breaching international frontiers, often cross the Tigris to ferry back food from fellow Kurds on the other side. "We tell the villagers we'll help them get supplies, but we tell them they must not use the river at night," the officer told Reuters. Otherwise they could be mistaken for guerrillas by troops squinting through their night sights, capable of picking out targets at 10 km, he said. The troops' attempts to block the PKK, fighting for a Kurdish state in southeast Turkey, are watched by other forces with more than a passing interest in the region. Another hill fortress, holding soldiers loyal to Saddam, can clearly be seen across a green plain to the south-east. That outpost marks one of the most northerly points of Baghdad's authority. Saddam's government affirms sovereignty over the area now held by the Turks and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas and has termed the Turkish offensive as "interference." Syria has made no comment on the Turkish push. (3) Kurds Rally In Geneva GENEVA (AP) -- Protesting attacks by Turkey's military, about 200 angry Kurds forced their way into the U.N. European headquarters Tuesday before police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. One policeman was injured. The protesters, including women and children, agreed to leave after human rights officials met with a Kurdish delegation. U.N. guards called in Swiss police after protesters surged through the main gates. Turkish soldiers invaded into northern Iraq on March 20 to wipe out bases of the rebel Kurdish Workers Party, known as the PKK. The demonstrators in Geneva claimed Turkish troops have killed hundreds of civilians. "This atrocity is taking place before the eyes of the United Nations," said a statement issued by the demonstrators. "The noise of Turkish warplanes, the bombs they are dropping and the cries of the defenseless seem to have deafened U.N. members who either support or passively observe this massacre." The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey in a war which left more than 15,000 dead. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Fri Mar 31 18:01:50 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 31 Mar 1995 18:01:50 Subject: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 30/3/95, 09:00 TSI Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (1) Turks raise fresh ire over Iraqi drive 10 days on By Howard Goller ANKARA, March 30 (Reuter) - Turkey, under growing international fire for its 10-day-old push against rebel Kurds in Iraq, seemed set to launch a diplomatic initiative to press its view of the affair. The newspaper Hurriyet said new Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu would visit four major Western allies -- the United States, Germany, France and Britain -- to calm their fears. It gave no date for the planned trip. Meanwhile concern and anger over the fate of civilians in northern Iraq and fears that the 35,000 Turkish troops may stay there a long time mounted abroad. Germany, Turkey's NATO partner and a main military supplier, suspended a shipment of army hardware on Wednesday over the land-and-air operation, the biggest in Turkey's modern history. "Turkey has to pull out immediately," Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel insisted in Bonn. In London, British Prime Minister John Major joined a growing international chorus, saying: "We look to Turkey to withdraw its forces as soon as possible and to avoid harm to non-combatants and relief efforts." The United States has put the onus back on Turkey to suggest an international plan to halt Kurdish cross-border attacks from Iraq. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller last week urged the international community to produce such a plan. "It's up to Turkey to now come forward with something more concrete in terms of how that might be done," State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said. Ankara says the drive against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who are using Iraq in their fight for a separate homeland would safeguard Turkey against terrorism. Its army chief, General Ismail Hakki Karadayi, told the Anatolian news agency on Wednesday that anyone who criticised the incursion was supporting terrorism. Turkish officials said they were taking every precaution to ensure the safety of Kurdish refugees and Iraqi civilians. The head of the U.N. contingent in Iraq accused Turkish troops of preventing his guards from carrying out normal patrols in the Kurdish villages of the combat zone. The United Nations was due on Thursday to evacuate a third convoy of displaced Turkish Kurds, who said they feared Turkish harassment, from the Iraqi border town of Zakho. On the rebel side a PKK commander in the Iraqi city of Arbil vowed Turkish troops trying to subdue his mobile rebel force would "go home in body bags" if they stayed in northern Iraq. "There is no military solution, even if Turkey sends in thousands more soldiers," said the commander, 34, who spoke on condition his name be kept secret. The on-the-ground situation meanwhile remained unclear, with the two sides giving hugely conflicting death tolls. The PKK said it had killed a total of 515 troops but Ankara said it had lost 17. Turkey said it killed 269 rebels, the PKK that it had lost 18. (2) Villagers Show Turks' Path BESHILLE, Iraq (AP) -- The mountain village is empty now. A black pile of burned shoes at a doorstep is a sign that there once was life here. "Turkish planes bombed our village and then the soldiers moved in and burned our houses," said Fevzi Rashid, who returned to his village Wednesday. Rashid said the air attack occurred a week ago, followed by Turkish soldiers two days later. His claims add to the charges of abuse and intimidation from villagers caught in the cross-fire in Turkey's military offensive against Kurdish guerrilla bases in northern Iraq. Turkey sent 35,000 troops across the border March 20 to wipe out bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. The Turkish army's offensive involves the section of northern Iraq controlled by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, Baghdad has no authority in the region. The PKK has fought for autonomy in Turkey in a war that has killed more than 15,000 people. Turkey contends about 2,800 PKK guerrillas are based in northern Iraq. Other Iraqi Kurds have claimed that Turkish soldiers stormed villages and searched houses. One villager said a Turkish tank rolled into his house. A 5-year-old Iraqi Kurd was killed during an air raid while four other civilians were injured in the raids in the first days of the operation, according to Iraqi Kurdish sources. Turkey denies that the army has given any harm to the civilians. In Beshille, villager Izet Mohammed pointed to splintered trees he said were hit by fighter bombs. Out of the total 25 houses, many were burned out, the roofs caved in, wood beams charred. The villagers showed a ditch some 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide which they said a bomb opened in the ground. A burned water tank stood by the ditch. "Soldiers threw our belongings into the river," Mohammed said. Tea leaves could be seen at the side of a stream flowing through the village, 42 miles east of Zakho. Rashid said there had been no casualties because most villagers had earlier fled when Turkish jet fighters bombed Dergela village, about three miles east of Beshille. Rashid, 43, said the Turkish soldiers believed his village was cooperating with the Kurdish rebels who have waged an 11-year battle for autonomy. "When the soldiers found United Nations-supplied tents in our village, they said we were helping he PKK," Rashid said. (3) Turkey Eases Kurd War Coverage ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey reopened the border Wednesday to some journalists covering the military incursion in northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels. A statement from the government's press and information office said Turkish journalists and foreign reporters living in Turkey could cross the frontier. The ban still applies to foreign media without residence permits in Turkey. The Turkish army's offensive involves the section of northern Iraq controlled by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied warplanes since the end of the Persian Gulf War, Baghdad has no authority in the region. Turkey sent 35,000 troops inside northern Iraq on March 20. The Turkish government has grown increasingly uneasy about reports in the foreign media that the military offensive was causing civilian casualties and disrupting daily life. Some Western officials and rights groups have appealed to Turkey to steer the offensive away from civilian areas and quickly pull back across the border. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New-York-based U.S. media-watch organization, condemned the restrictions in a letter Tuesday to Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. (4) Germany Axes Turkey Supplies BONN, Germany (AP) -- Stepping up pressure on Turkey to stop its war on Kurdish rebels, Germany has canceled the delivery of 106 armored vehicles and other war materiel to the NATO ally. Before aid is restored, Turkey must halt its invasion of northern Iraq, stop human rights abuses and resolve its conflict with the Kurds through political means, Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel told reporters Wednesday. In an attempt to force Turkey to halt its military offensive, the German parliament suspended $105 million in subsidies Tuesday to shipyards building two frigates for Turkey. Later in the day, the Cabinet stopped the delivery of $107 million worth of supplies including armored vehicles for the engineering corps, a supply ship, radios and spare parts. The materiel was to have been delivered in the next three months as the last installment of a $1 billion 1990 military grant sending old NATO and former East German tanks, weapons and munition to Turkey. (5) Britain urges Turkey to remove troops from Iraq LONDON, March 29 (Reuter) - British Prime Minister John Major urged Turkey on Wednesday to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq. "We look to Turkey to withdraw its forces as soon as possible and to avoid harm to non-combatants and relief efforts," he told a London conference on Britain's role on the international scene. "I understand Turkish concerns about PKK terrorism. But Turkey should remain within the rule of law," Major said. (6) Turkey says German aid freeze may kill big project ANKARA, March 29 (Reuter) - Turkey said on Wednesday that Germany's freeze of military aid in response to its incursion into northern Iraq could kill Turkey's $500.7 million order for two warships. "The frozen amount of 150 million marks ($107 million) is only part of the total project value for two frigates to be built for Turkey and worth 840 million marks ($609.6 million)," foreign ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman said. "Under the contract, the project can work only if the German grant is realised. It is worth thinking about how the suspension of the grant could affect the overall project," he said. German sources said earlier the project was valued at a total 800 million marks ($571 million). Ataman said Turkey would be paying 690 million marks in cash and the German grant would go not to Turkey but as subsidy to the German builders Blohm and Voss for two Meko frigates. "The amount involved should not be a negligible resource for the German armaments industry," he said. Germany, a major military supplier to its NATO partner, on Monday froze the 150 million marks in reaction to the Turkish offensive against rebel Kurds in northern Iraq and concern that Turkey plans an indefinite military presence there. German politicians, accusing Turkey of violating human rights in northern Iraq, are calling for a total ban on all military supplies to Turkey. Ataman said Turkey's defence purchases from Germany totalled $7.2 billion as compared to $4.2 billion received in aid. "This has been Turkey's contribution to the German economy." The defence cooperation between Ankara and Bonn dates back to the 1960s. In response to German criticism, Ataman said the operation aimed to repel a "terrorist" threat from outside its borders. "We have every right to expect our NATO allies to adhere to the letter and spirit of the alliance treaty when a member is faced with such threats." ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 6 11:26:14 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 06 Mar 1995 11:26:14 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Germany Bans PKK Affiliated Groups BONN, March 2 (Reuter) - Germany on Thursday banned the Kurdish Information Office (KIB) in Cologne and five similar organisations in Bavaria which it said were closely linked to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said a spate of petrol bomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies in Germany in the last few days showed it was important for the federal states to enforce a ban already imposed on the PKK in November 1993. ``The ban on the KIB is the state's answer to the PKK's constant efforts to circumvent the ban,'' Kanther said in a statement. ``The KIB is an organisation which through propaganda has shown solidarity with the activities and aims of the PKK.'' The interior ministry said police had raided the KIB's premises in Cologne and nine apartments in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Berlin, Lower Saxony and Thuringia. It said the KIB had been established in December 1993, just one month after the PKK was outlawed, and had taken over the PKK's premises. ``Security agency investigations show that through its active support of the banned PKK, the KIB has almost seamlessly kept going the dangerous activities for which the PKK was banned,'' Kanther said. Bonn banned the PKK and dozens of associated groups in 1993 after a series of spectacular raids against Turkish targets across Europe. PKK militants were again suspected of being responsible for fire-bomb attacks on 13 Turkish and German travel agencies in Germany late on Tuesday and last weekend. No one was injured in the attacks which caused slight damage to the agencies' premises in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Hanover and Munich. Windows were smashed and petrol bombs thrown into some of the buildings, police said. Leaflets saying ``No holidays in Turkey'' and signed ``Children from the country of fire and the sun'' were found scattered near the travel agencies in Hamburg. At the scene of one fire-bombing, police found a note from the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), the political wing of the separatist PKK. The note demanded a boycott of Turkey's tourism industry. The PKK has waged a 10-year war against Ankara for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Militant Kurds have frequently targeted Turkish installations in Germany to protest against what they see as Ankara's oppression of Kurds living in southeastern Turkey and Bonn's close ties with the Turkish government. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-02 08:10:52 EST Baghdad Attacks Kurdish Areas ANKARA, March 2 (Reuter) - An Iraqi opposition group said government troops advanced on Thursday on areas held by Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq and clashed with opposition forces. Fighting took place in the town of Shoursh, the London office of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) told Reuters in Ankara. First reports were sketchy and there was no immediate word on casualties or the extent of the fighting. The INC account could not be independently confirmed. Earlier on Thursday an Iraqi Kurdish group said Iraqi troops were massed close to its positions. Shazad Saib, Ankara representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said infantry units and 30 tanks had gathered near the PUK-held town of Kifri, about 170 km (105 miles) north east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. ``We are taking this seriously and taking defensive measures,'' Saib told Reuters. Iraqi artillery has stepped up its previously sporadic shelling of Kurdish areas near Kifri since Tuesday, he said. The PUK has blamed the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for a bomb explosion which killed 76 people in the Kurdish city Zakho on Monday. Iraq's other main Kurdish militia, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has charged the PUK with the bombing. The PUK and KDP ostensibly share power in the Kurdish administration which governs northern Iraq but they have been fighting for the last 10 weeks. An Iraqi opposition umbrella group said on Tuesday around 20,000 Turkish troops had gathered on the border with northern Iraq close to Zakho. Turkish journalists in the area say the troop movement was probably related to Ankara's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels inside Turkey. Iraq's Kurds have been under the protection of a Western air force based in southern Turkey since 1991. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-02 14:13:43 EST --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 6 14:40:01 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 06 Mar 1995 14:40:01 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Germany Bans PKK Groups BONN, March 2 (Reuter) - Germany on Thursday banned the Kurdish Information Office (KIB) in Cologne and five similar organisations in Bavaria which it said were closely linked to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said a spate of petrol bomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies in Germany in the last few days showed it was important for the federal states to enforce a ban already imposed on the PKK in November 1993. ``The ban on the KIB is the state's answer to the PKK's constant efforts to circumvent the ban,'' Kanther said in a statement. ``The KIB is an organisation which through propaganda has shown solidarity with the activities and aims of the PKK.'' The interior ministry said police had raided the KIB's premises in Cologne and nine apartments in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Berlin, Lower Saxony and Thuringia. It said the KIB had been established in December 1993, just one month after the PKK was outlawed, and had taken over the PKK's premises. ``Security agency investigations show that through its active support of the banned PKK, the KIB has almost seamlessly kept going the dangerous activities for which the PKK was banned,'' Kanther said. Bonn banned the PKK and dozens of associated groups in 1993 after a series of spectacular raids against Turkish targets across Europe. PKK militants were again suspected of being responsible for fire-bomb attacks on 13 Turkish and German travel agencies in Germany late on Tuesday and last weekend. No one was injured in the attacks which caused slight damage to the agencies' premises in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Hanover and Munich. Windows were smashed and petrol bombs thrown into some of the buildings, police said. Leaflets saying ``No holidays in Turkey'' and signed ``Children from the country of fire and the sun'' were found scattered near the travel agencies in Hamburg. At the scene of one fire-bombing, police found a note from the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), the political wing of the separatist PKK. The note demanded a boycott of Turkey's tourism industry. The PKK has waged a 10-year war against Ankara for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Militant Kurds have frequently targeted Turkish installations in Germany to protest against what they see as Ankara's oppression of Kurds living in southeastern Turkey and Bonn's close ties with the Turkish government. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-02 08:10:52 EST Saddam's Tanks Machinegun Kurds ANKARA, March 3 (Reuter) - An Iraqi opposition group said government tanks sprayed machinegun fire on a Kurdish-held town in northern Iraq on Friday, a day after clashes with Kurdish fighters elsewhere in the region. Tanks fired their machineguns on civilian areas in the town of Kifri and shot smoke shells into the air to determine future shelling targets, the Iraqi National Congress (INC) said. The report could not be independently confirmed. The number of Iraqi tanks gathered near Kifri increased to about 55 on Friday from 30 in recent days, a spokesman for the INC's London office told Reuters in Ankara by telephone. He said tanks moved into Kurdish-held areas northeast of Kifri on Thursday in an apparent bid by Baghdad to win back territory lost to the Kurds in 1991 following the Gulf War. Thursday's reported tank push took place in the Chem Chamal district, 55 km (35 miles) south of a line defining a Kurdish enclave protected by Western air power from Iraqi attacks. Kifri lies another 100 km (60 miles) further south. The INC, an alliance of groups opposed to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Kurdish guerrillas repulsed one group of tanks and halted another on Thursday. There were casualties on both sides and extensive damage to property, the spokesman said. He could give few more details. Iraq's Kurds have been under the protection of a U.S.-led allied air force based in southern Turkey since they broke from Baghdad's authority four years ago. The two main Kurdish militia groups have fought with each other frequently in the last 10 weeks. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-03 14:19:42 EST --- APS (Newsdesk)) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sat Mar 18 23:22:58 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 18 Mar 1995 23:22:58 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Turkey warns Iraqi Kurds against goading Iraq ANKARA, March 15 (Reuter) - Turkey criticised an Iraqi Kurdish faction on Wednesday for goading Iraqi troops across a Western-protected safe haven and warned it against any moves to seize the Baghdad-held oil city of Kirkuk. ``We have reports that local (Kurdish) forces in northern Iraq are opening harassing fire on Iraqi troops permanently positioned south of the 36th parallel,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman said. ``We praise the cool attitude of the Iraqi side in the face of such harassment,'' he said. ``We are also receiving reports that the local forces plan to start an assault on Kirkuk. I wish to stress that Turkey will in no way accept such a development that will harm Iraq's territorial integrity,'' Ataman said. For more than a year, Turkey has been leading delicate talks with Baghdad and United Nations to flush an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to its own Mediterranean coast. In line with U.N. sanctions, Ankara shut the pipeline shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. It says the expensive investment is corroding after four years of disuse. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major Iraqi Kurdish guerrilla factions, has claimed successful raids recently agaist Iraqi forces positioned south of the demarcation line set by a Western coalition to protect the Kurds. ``Turkey has always backed Iraq's territorial integrity... (and) opposed moves that will increase tension and damage peace and order in northern Iraq,'' said Ataman. PUK's rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani, is locked in a bitter conflict with PUK forces and opposes attacks on Iraqi troops as a sure way of drawing the wrath of Baghdad on innocent civilians. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-15 10:47:50 EST Kazakhstan -- vast state in constitutional turmoil ALMA-ATA, March 15 (Reuter) - These are the key facts about Kazakhstan, where parliament was dissolved last weekend after the country's first post-Soviet parliamentary elections last year were declared illegal. Kazakhstan is the second biggest former Soviet republic and occupies a territory the size of Western Europe. Its 17 million people inhabit a swathe of steppe, desert and mountains covering 2.6 million square km (one million square miles) from China to the Caspian Sea. POLITICS: President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the son of a shepherd and a former steelworker, won the country's first presidential elections in December 1991 when he was the republic's Communist Party boss. Although he is regarded at home and abroad as a force for stability, there are underlying ethnic tensions in the vast country -- particularly between Russians and Kazakhs, who each make up about 40 percent of the population. Kazakhs are descendants of Moslem Turkic tribes who ruled the Central Asian steppe 1,000 years ago, and speak a Turkic language easily understood by Turks. They were absorbed into the Russian empire in the mid-19th century and their numbers were drastically reduced by the forced resettlement policies of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Russians generally have greater literacy and better education, dominate skilled professions and still occupy key posts in the government and industry. The government uses Kazakh as its national language and Russian for inter-ethnic relations. Nazarbayev has been a frequent advocate of closer integration with other former Soviet republics as part of a ``Euro-Asian'' federation. He clearly hoped last year's general elections would return a compliant parliament willing to give him a free hand to proceed with reforms. But the assembly frequently stood against him. Opponents say the dissolution of parliament -- on the basis of a court ruling declaring the election illegal -- was a pretext to take more power into his hands. ECONOMY: The Kazakh economy faced major problems after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, with trade turnover falling steeply and industrial output sharply down. Output fell 28.5 percent in 1994, although officials say the worst is over. February production was 11 percent above year-ago levels. Kazakhstan is the second-biggest former Soviet oil producer after Russia, with an annual output of about 22 million tonnes. It produces around 12 tonnes of gold a year and contains much of the former Soviet Union's silver, lead, zinc, copper and other mineral resources. The republic's industry is based mainly on metallurgy, heavy machinery, agro-processing, petrochemicals and textiles. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-15 21:35:08 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Tue Mar 21 09:27:26 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 21 Mar 1995 09:27:26 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald KURDS, GERMANY STRUGGLE RESUMED DEPORTATIONS TO TURKEY SPARK BATTLE Washington Post BERLIN -- After a third consecutive night of firebomb attacks against Turkish cultural centers and other targets in Germany, authorities Thursday braced for a political battle over a government plan to resume deportations of Kurdish refugees to Turkey. The attacks in at least seven German cities late Wednesday night caused property damage but no reported injuries. Targets were similar to those struck earlier in the week, including Turkish businesses, a mosque and a social club. Turkish travel agencies, for example, were hit in the western German cities of Kassel, Dortmund and Saarbrucken, according to police. WAVES OF ATTACKS Authorities have blamed Kurdish extremists for such attacks, which have occurred in waves across Germany for three years. Kurdish nationalists periodically have used this country as a battleground in fighting the Turkish government. About 2 million Turks -- 450,000 of them Kurds -- live in Germany, making them this country's largest minority group. German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther announced Wednesday that the government intended to resume deporting illegal Kurdish immigrants. The repatriation of Kurds denied political asylum was suspended last year because of concern that those sent back to Turkey could face imprisonment and torture. WRITTEN GUARANTEES Kanther, who had twice extended the moratorium, said he had received written guarantees from Turkey's interior minister that the human rights of those deported would be observed. Nevertheless, a number of human-rights activists and opposition officials expressed deep skepticism at Ankara's promises. MERCURY CENTER Transmitted: 95-03-17 06:14:57 EST Firebombers strike new Turkish targets in Germany BONN, March 17 (Reuter) - The wave of firebomb attacks on Turkish offices and mosques in Germany continued for a fourth consecutive night, police said on Friday. Police said molotov cocktails were thrown into Turkish travel agencies, cultural clubs and a mosque in at least four cities in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, but no one was hurt. Police have blamed Kurdish militants, fighting Ankara for an independent homeland in southeast Turkey, for similar attacks in the past and say they could increase this weekend ahead of the Kurdish New Year. On Thursday, about 40 people were detained in Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital, after Kurdish protesters threw stones outside the Turkish consulate. Three police officers were hurt, a spokesman said. Kurdish groups have carried out several waves of attacks on Turkish property in the past three years in protest against what they regard as Ankara's oppression in their homeland and against Germany's ties with Turkey. In the latest attacks, a Turkish club in Gengenbach near Offenburg, a mosque in the town of Lahr in the Black Forest and a travel agency in Ulm were firebombed, the interior ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg said. In North Rhine-Westphalia, two molotov cocktails were thrown at a German-Turkish cultural club in Guetersloh. Witnesses saw two men fleeing the scene, police said. Politicians from Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) called for the culprits to be deported if identified. The German parliament was due to hold a debate on the deportation of Kurds to Turkey later on Friday. Interior Minister Manfred Kanther on Wednesday lifted a moratorium on the deportation of Kurds but most of the 16 federal states have so far decided not to pay heed to his decision. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-17 04:48:53 EST Turkish politician scraps Belgium trip over Kurds ANKARA, March 17 (Reuter) - Turkish parliament speaker Husamettin Cindoruk on Friday cancelled a trip to Belgium next week over reports separatist Kurds would set up a parliament in exile there. ``The setting up of a Kurdish parliament in exile in Belgium is an act aimed at hurting Turkey's territorial integrity, its sovereignty and political unity,'' Cindoruk said in a statement. He was due to travel to Belgium on Tuesday as the guest of his Belgian counterpart Charles Ferdinand Nothomb. Turkey's foreign ministry this week condemned a move by Kurdish exiles to declare a parliament in the Belgian city of Louvain on the same day, March 21, the Kurdish new year. Six Kurdish deputies of Turkey's banned Democracy Party (DEP), in self-imposed exile in Europe, are seeking Western support for the parliament backed by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). More than 15,000 people have died in Turkey since 1984 when the PKK began its fight for a separate state in the southeast. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-17 13:29:49 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Tue Mar 21 09:28:22 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 21 Mar 1995 09:28:22 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Kurds stone police, Turks protest in Swiss cities BASLE, Switzerland, March 19 (Reuter) - Kurdish protesters pelted police with stones and police replied with teargas after authorities closed down a Kurdish cultural centre in this Swiss city, officials said on Sunday. The disturbances in Basle late on Saturday followed fire-bomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies in two other northern Swiss towns and demonstrations in Zurich over alleged police violence in Turkey. In neighbouring Germany Turkish businesses were firebombed for the six consecutive night in attacks linked by German police to Kurdish unrest. A police statement in Basle said the Kurds, chanting slogans in support of the Kurdish (communist) Workers' Party (PKK), blocked traffic near the city's old town and responded with volleys of stones when a riot squad tried to disperse them. A policeman and a policewoman were injured but the 200-odd protesters later agreed to leave the area, the statement said. Earlier on Saturday, police fired rubber bullets after Kurds in the cultural centre threw missiles in a bid to prevent the building being forcibly evacuated and six people were detained. Police said they moved against the centre after the Kurdish association which ran it ignored a deadline to leave because fire and other safety regulations had not been observed. The fire-bomb attacks took place early on Saturday in the towns of Aarau and Saint Gallen, and followed similar incidents earlier last week in Basle and Zurich. Police said no-one was hurt although there was extensive damage in both attacks, believed linked to tension between the large ethnic Turkish and Kurdish communities in the eastern part of Switzerland. A man of Kurdish origin had been detained after the incident in Aarau, police there said. In Zurich, Turkish Moslem Alawites and Turkish and Kurdish communists staged separate demonstrations to protest against police violence in Istanbul and Ankara and the Turkish army's drive against Kurdish separatists. In the suburb of Oerlikon, about 2,000 Alawites from all over Switzerland marched in protest at the violence in Turkey over the past week in which leaders of the community in Istanbul say at least 30 people died. Similar marches were held in German, Austrian and French cities on Saturday. The Alawites, who follow a moderate version of Islam, say Turkish police targetted them in demonstrations after Islamic fundamentalists attacked coffee shops in an Alawite area of Istanbul, sparking riots. The Oerlikon protesters declined to join the extreme left-wing protest in central Zurich. ``We want a social democracy in Turkey, not extremism,'' one told Swiss television. Both marches passed off without incident. Kurds in Basle interviewed on Swiss television said the police had used undue violence in the incidents there. ``They seem to be treating all Kurds the same, whether we are moderates or not, just like the police in Germany,'' one said. Basle, in northern Switzerland, is close to the border with France and Germany. Switzerland has given shelter to many Kurds from Turkey, but has recently begun to crack down on foreigners who fail to observe residence rules. It also has a large population of Turkish workers, especially in German-speaking towns in the northeast. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-19 08:29:54 EST Turkish violence seen spilling over into Germany By Michael Christie BONN, March 17 (Reuter) - Violence rocking Turkey for the past week has spilled over into Germany as Kurdish militants take advantage of it to sow discord in the largest Turkish community in northern Europe, experts said on Friday. They also warned a series of arson attacks on Turkish targets in Germany could escalate before next week's Kurdish New Year in a repeat of last year's self-immolations, motorway blockades and violent clashes between police and Kurds. ``The Kurdish militants are out to sow discord,'' said Faruk Sen, director of the Centre for Turkish Studies at Essen University. ``I'm very afraid that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is trying to split the Turkish community here.'' A wave of fire-bomb attacks on Turkish offices and mosques in Germany persisted for a fourth consecutive night on Friday. Police have in the past blamed such attacks on the separatist PKK, which has waged a 10-year war against Ankara for an independent Kurdish homeland. The PKK was outlawed by Bonn in November 1993 after a series of spectacular raids on Turkish targets across Europe. Germany, home to two million Turks, among them 400,000 Kurds, has always been a hotbed of PKK activity. In the latest attacks, police said petrol bombs were thrown into Turkish travel agencies, cultural clubs and a mosque in at least four cities in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. No one was hurt. In Turkey, officials lifted a curfew in Istanbul's Umraniye suburb, the latest flashpoint in four days of rioting that killed at least 17 people after gunmen fired on coffee shops of the minority Moslem Alawite community. ``It is clear that extremist groups such as the PKK are taking advantage of the unrest in Turkey and are terrorising the Turkish minority in Germany,'' Sen told Reuters. ``I fear the violence will escalate,'' said Udo Steinbach, an Islam expert at the German Oriental Studies Institute. ``It's man versus man, it's one Kurd against a Turkish baker, one Kurd against a Turkish travel agency,'' Steinbach told RTL television. ``And I fear the police will have a problem because the longer it continues, the more impossible it will be for them to put a stop to it.'' German security sources said leaflets signed in the name of the Alawites were found at the scene of some fire-bombings. Sen said the Alawite community in Germany had denied involvement and that it was a PKK ploy to make Turks take up arms against the Alawites. One security official said this was ``speculative'' but added that many Alawites were Kurds and sympathetic to the PKK. ``We see a diversity of interests behind the attacks,'' said the offical, who asked not to be named. He suggested that political discord between left- and right-wing Turkish groups lay behind some of them. But most, he said, could be blamed on the PKK or related splinter groups. ``At first it was a coordinated PKK campaign against Turkish travel agencies. They started targeting tourists in Turkey and now they've come to the source. After all, it's the holiday booking season.'' Eckart Werthebach, president of Bonn's BfV domestic security agency, said in a newspaper interview the PKK, despite being banned, was the greatest extremist threat in Germany. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-17 17:40:06 EST Stockholm arsonists attack Turkish tourist office STOCKHOLM, March 19 (Reuter) - Unknown attackers set fire to a Turkish government tourist office in the Swedish capital overnight, after a week of violent unrest in Turkey itself. Sweden's TT news agency said police patrolling bars in the city centre shortly after midnight discovered small fires burning at the office of the Turkish State Travel Bureau and called for a patrol car which put them out. TT said damage was slight and added that security was stepped up at a Turkish Airlines office elsewhere in the city. Travel agencies were among the targets in a spate of fire bombings against Turkish offices and mosques in German cities last week. German authorities have in the past blamed such attacks upon the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is fighting a 10-year war for Kurdish independence from Ankara. Stockholm police did not say whom they suspected of carrying out Sunday's attack. Turks, among them Kurds, make up one of Sweden's biggest immigrant communities. Turkey suffered a week of bloody ethnic turmoil. At least 17 people died in Istanbul riots which exploded after unknown gunmen sprayed coffee shops used by the minority Alawite sect and on Saturday Kurdish rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an ambush in the mountains of eastern Turkey. German security sources said that leaflets signed in the name of the Alawites were found at the scene of the fire bombings there but local Alawite leaders said they were PKK forgeries designed to split the Turkish immigrant community. Turkish affairs experts said the situation was complicated by the fact that some Alawites were themselves Kurds and sympathetic to the PKK. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-19 08:38:54 EST Alawites protest in Germany against violence By Christopher Zoerner COLOGNE, Germany, March 18 (Reuter) - Thousands of supporters of Turkey's minority Moslem Alawite community marched in several German cities on Saturday to demand an end to violence against the group in Turkey. Organisers said other Alawite demonstrations were held in Vienna, Innsbruck, Zurich and Paris. In Cologne, police said about 25,000 people took part in a march called to denounce an attack by unknown gunmen on Alawite coffeeshops in Istanbul. The incident sparked four days of riots in Turkey this week in which at least 17 people died. Police, edgy after a series of firebomb attacks against Turkish property in Germany that have been blamed on Kurdish extremists, said Saturday's Cologne march went off peacefully. But five people were detained during an Alawite protest in the financial hub city of Frankfurt after they displayed banners of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), police said. Germany's 1.8-million-strong Turkish community has been unsettled by the firebombings, which police warned could increase with the approach of Tuesday's Kurdish New Year. The date is a traditional focus of guerrilla activity by the PKK. Organisers from the Union of Alawite Communities in Europe estimated the turnout at the Cologne rally at about 50,000. ``We will not forget the massacre,'' Ali Ritzan-Gulcicek, the group's chairman, told the crowd. He called for international solidarity to end repression of Alawites in Turkey. Its spokesman, Hidir Teml, urged Chancellor Helmut Kohl to use Bonn's influence with Ankara to help protect the Alawites. Security was tight for marches by Alawites and Kurds in other German cities. About 700 people marched in Frankfurt and 300 gathered in the northern port city of Hamburg. Police said around 500 protestors demonstrated peacefully in Hanover on Friday night. Alawites, whose relaxed practice of Islam has long made them a target of hardline Islamists, constitute about one third of Turkey's 60 million people. They complain Turkey does not respect their religious rights and say state money only goes to build mosques for the majority Sunni population and fund Sunni religious education. Police remained on alert across Germany after arsonists attacked Turkish targets for a fifth consecutive night. No one claimed responsibility but police have blamed Kurdish militants, fighting Turkey since 1984 for an independent homeland in the southeast, for the fire-bombings. In the southwestern city of Stuttgart, about 200 Kurds urged the Turkish government to stop repressing their kin. In Munich, around 150 Kurds demonstrated against Bonn's decision to resume deportations of Kurdish refugees to Turkey. Interior Minister Manfred Kanther ended a moratorium on such deporations this week, saying Kurds were generally not subject to persecution as a minority group. In Switzerland, Basle police fired rubber bullets in a clash with Kurdish squatters and a Kurd was detained after a fire-bomb attack on a Turkish travel agency in the town of Aarau. Officials said the incident in Basle, where another Turkish agency was attacked this week, began when police tried to evacuate premises illegally occupied by a Kurdish cultural association. In Austria, about 300 people demonstrated outside the Turkish embassy in central Vienna around midday and dispersed peacefully after a couple of hours, Vienna police said. Transmitted: 95-03-18 13:52:21 EST Swiss police clash with Kurds, use rubber bullets BASLE, Switzerland, March 18 (Reuter) - Swiss police fired rubber bullets on Saturday in a clash with Kurdish squatters in Basle and a Kurd was detained after a fire-bomb attack on a Turkish travel agency in the town of Aarau. The incident in Basle, where another Turkish agency was attacked earlier in the week, occurred when police moved in to evacuate buildings illegally occupied by a Kurdish cultural association, local officials said. Police said they had given an ultimatum to the Kurds to leave the buildings by early Saturday but it had been ignored. The Swiss news agency ATS said police fired rubber bullets after people in the buildings pelted the police with missiles and chanted slogans denouncing them as ``fascists.'' Police said they detained six people, who were later released. Several others in the buildings were injured in the clashes which were watched by some 200 Kurdish demonstrators who later dispersed. Basle is close to the border with France and Germany in northern Switzerland. The fire-bomb attack in Aarau, east of Basle, caused serious damage to the travel agency -- mainly serving Turkish immigrant workers -- but no-one was injured, police said. They said the detained man was of Kurdish origin but gave no further details. Soon after the Aarau incident, which occurred early on Saturday, another Turkish-owned travel agency in the nearby town of Saint Gallen was damaged when assailants broke its windows and threw in a petrol bomb. Police said men were seen lurking near another Turkish agency in the town but ran off when challenged. Police said there had been similar attacks on Turkish travel agency offices in Basle and Zurich earlier this week. Swiss authorities believe the incidents are linked to Turkey's domestic drive against Kurdish separatists. Switzerland has given shelter to many Kurds, mainly from Turkey, but has recently begun to crack down on foreigners who fail to observe residence rules. It also has a considerable population of Turkish workers, especially in German-speaking towns in the northeast, and there is considerable tension between the two communities. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-18 12:34:50 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 05:45:41 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 05:45:41 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald KURDS UNDER HEAVY ATTACK 3/20/95 Mercury News Wire Services ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Turkish troops poured into northern Iraq today to wipe out the bases of Turkish Kurdish guerrillas fighting for autonomy. The operation is the largest of its type in three years, and included air attacks on the camps in northern Iraq, where rebels stage hit-and-run attacks against Turkey. A military spokesman said 76 bombs were dropped on a single camp alone. No casualty figures were immediately available. Military and local sources said fighter jets and Cobra helicopters were backing 35,000 ground troops and 50 armored vehicles who moved into the rugged mountain terrain. The operation was launched after Kurdish rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraqi border Saturday. It apparently also was timed to thwart any terrorist attacks or other violence on the Kurdish new year on Tuesday. Some 200,000 Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey are fighting a guerrilla force estimated at 10,000. The guerrillas, who belong to the illegal Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, launched the war in 1984. Since then, 15,000 people have died in the rebel battle to achieve self-rule for Turkey's 12 million Kurds. German police also suspect the party is behind recent firebombings of Turkish targets in Germany, most recently a Molotov cocktail thrown at a mosque Sunday night in Bonn. The U.S. military said it was canceling its routine flights over northern Iraq today because of the fighting. American warplanes based in southern Turkey have patrolled the area since 1991 to protect Iraq's dissident Kurds from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. ''It was not a scheduled down day. But we are not flying today,'' U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Patrick Ryder told The Associated Press from Incirlik airbase in Turkey. The Turkish troops targeted 12 camps in an area covering 130 square miles. A military spokesman, Col. Ihsan Ongun, told reporters at the foreign ministry that the operation would continue until all Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq were wiped out. These bases replaced camps destroyed in a similar Turkish operation in 1992. Ongun said there were up to 2,800 Turkish Kurdish guerrillas at the camps. In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Chief of Staff spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu told reporters that 14 jet fighters joined the operation and dropped a total of 76 bombs in the Bote region. Silahcioglu said 50 armored vehicles were also part of the operation. The soldiers were mostly commandos, but also included mechanized troops, he said. Turkey's chief of staff said in a statement that the guerrillas reinforced their positions in northern Iraq, taking advantage of fighting between rival Iraqi Kurdish factions. One of the Iraqi Kurdish factions denounced Turkey's offensive as ''a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity.'' In a statement issued in London, the Kurdistan Democratic Party said the area ''has no PKK bases and is strictly populated by Iraqi Kurds.'' The party appealed to the United Nations and the U.S.-led alliance to pressure Turkey to pull out its forces. Turkey permits the U.S.-led allied air force to protect the Iraqi Kurds from possible Iraqi attacks, but was dismayed by the creation of the de facto Iraqi Kurdish state. Turkey, like Iraq, Iran and Syria, fears its sizable Kurdish minority would be encouraged in its separatist ambitions if the Iraqi Kurds were achieve independence. There are some 20 million Kurds in the mountainous region where the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey converge. MERCURY CENTER Transmitted: 95-03-20 12:57:34 EST Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, called the movement an ``unjustified incursion'' and appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces. ``Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border through the main road into Zakho,'' it said in a faxed statement from London. ``This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity,'' it said. Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in southeast Turkey. The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers. ``The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho extensively,'' the INC said in a statement. The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds lived. Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air cover. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-20 09:57:06 EST Kurds stone police, Turks protest in Swiss cities BASLE, Switzerland, March 19 (Reuter) - Kurdish protesters pelted police with stones and police replied with teargas after authorities closed down a Kurdish cultural centre in this Swiss city, officials said on Sunday. The disturbances in Basle late on Saturday followed fire-bomb attacks on Turkish travel agencies in two other northern Swiss towns and demonstrations in Zurich over alleged police violence in Turkey. In neighbouring Germany Turkish businesses were firebombed for the six consecutive night in attacks linked by German police to Kurdish unrest. A police statement in Basle said the Kurds, chanting slogans in support of the Kurdish (communist) Workers' Party (PKK), blocked traffic near the city's old town and responded with volleys of stones when a riot squad tried to disperse them. A policeman and a policewoman were injured but the 200-odd protesters later agreed to leave the area, the statement said. Earlier on Saturday, police fired rubber bullets after Kurds in the cultural centre threw missiles in a bid to prevent the building being forcibly evacuated and six people were detained. Police said they moved against the centre after the Kurdish association which ran it ignored a deadline to leave because fire and other safety regulations had not been observed. The fire-bomb attacks took place early on Saturday in the towns of Aarau and Saint Gallen, and followed similar incidents earlier last week in Basle and Zurich. Police said no-one was hurt although there was extensive damage in both attacks, believed linked to tension between the large ethnic Turkish and Kurdish communities in the eastern part of Switzerland. A man of Kurdish origin had been detained after the incident in Aarau, police there said. In Zurich, Turkish Moslem Alawites and Turkish and Kurdish communists staged separate demonstrations to protest against police violence in Istanbul and Ankara and the Turkish army's drive against Kurdish separatists. In the suburb of Oerlikon, about 2,000 Alawites from all over Switzerland marched in protest at the violence in Turkey over the past week in which leaders of the community in Istanbul say at least 30 people died. Similar marches were held in German, Austrian and French cities on Saturday. The Alawites, who follow a moderate version of Islam, say Turkish police targetted them in demonstrations after Islamic fundamentalists attacked coffee shops in an Alawite area of Istanbul, sparking riots. The Oerlikon protesters declined to join the extreme left-wing protest in central Zurich. ``We want a social democracy in Turkey, not extremism,'' one told Swiss television. Both marches passed off without incident. Kurds in Basle interviewed on Swiss television said the police had used undue violence in the incidents there. ``They seem to be treating all Kurds the same, whether we are moderates or not, just like the police in Germany,'' one said. Basle, in northern Switzerland, is close to the border with France and Germany. Switzerland has given shelter to many Kurds from Turkey, but has recently begun to crack down on foreigners who fail to observe residence rules. It also has a large population of Turkish workers, especially in German-speaking towns in the northeast. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-19 08:29:54 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 05:34:39 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 05:34:39 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald EU criticises Turkish raids against Kurds in Iraq PARIS, March 21 (Reuter) - The European Union on Tuesday criticised a massive Turkish military incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish guerrillas as breaking basic principles of international law. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking for the presidency, said the air and ground raids violated Iraq's sovereignty. ``We support, in Turkey as elsewhere, the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty...This applies to all, including the current incursion of Turkish troops into Iraq,'' he told journalists after a two-day European stability conference. Turkish jets pounded Kurdish rebel camps and ground forces secured a zone 40-km (25 miles) deep inside north Iraq on Tuesday in the second day of a massive incursion. In contrast to the European reaction, The United States tacitly endorsed the incursion on Monday after receiving assurances from Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller that the operation would be limited and civilians safeguarded. Turkish troops used the Kurdish new year holiday of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist unrest -- to hunt Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist guerrillas inside the Western-protected ``safe haven'' for Iraqi Kurds. Juppe said that while the EU regarded the PKK as a terrorist organisation, Ankara had a duty, whatever its difficulties, to abide by the basic principles of legality and human rights as an associate member of the EU and a member of NATO and the Council of Europe. ``We have drawn (Turkey's) attention to the fact that these principles are not currently being respected,'' he said. He pointed to the recent jailing of Kurdish parliamentarians tried for treason for allegedly sympathising with the PKK. Juppe is to head the EU troika of foreign ministers on a one-day trip to Ankara on Thursday to discuss human rights, Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus, and the implementation of a customs union accord signed this month with the EU. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-21 11:34:34 EST\ NEWS SUMMARY: France condemns Turk attacks; Brazil ports on strike KNIGHT-RIDDER FINANCIAL NEWS--London, Tuesday, Mar 21 --France condemns Turkish offensive against Kurds --Nationwide 48-hour warning strike idles Brazil's ports --Gasoline prices double in Iran as government urges austerity --Commerce's Brown says US-Japan auto talks may resume shortly --Kuwait premier threatens to quit over newspaper suspension uproar --Poland's Premier Oleksy rejects Walesa forecast of govt failure --Cabinet posts seen as reward for Nigeria constitutional conference FRANCE CONDEMNS TURKISH OFFENSIVE AGAINST KURDS--France condemned the massive Turkish offensive against Kurdish bases in Iraq today, saying the operation violated Iraq's territorial integrity and democratic principles. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Turkey had to respect the basic principles of human rights, democracy and the right to self-defense. (7626) -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 27 18:17:57 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 27 Mar 1995 18:17:57 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald PKK Plans Diversion Attacks Inside of Turkey By Ferit Demir TUNCELI, Turkey, March 25 (Reuter) - Turkish military officials said on Saturday Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan has ordered his forces in Turkey to launch diversionary attacks to undermine Ankara's incursion into northern Iraq. ``You must continuously carry out actions to distract the Turkish soldiers (in north Iraq),'' one official quoted Ocalan as saying in a radio message intercepted by the Turkish army. Ocalan told his regional commanders in southeast Turkey to exploit the operation, which has taken 35,000 soldiers away from their posts in Turkey's Kurdish region. A statement from the Kurdish Information Centre in London appeared to support this, quoting Ocalan as saying Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters would resist Turkey ``primarily in the north'' -- meaning Kurdish areas inside Turkey. Turkish troops have deployed across the border in a land and air operation against an estimated 2,500 PKK fighters who use northern Iraq to strike into Turkey. Turkish officials said guerrillas have carried out an increased number of hit-and-run attacks near Tunceli, about 570 km (350 miles) east of the capital Ankara, in recent days. They said Ocalan, speaking on Wednesday, gave most of the responsibilty for the diversionary tactics to Semdin Sakik, a well-known Kurdish commander operating out of Tunceli. The PKK ambushed an army truck convoy on a remote road in Tunceli the same night, killing three soldiers. Twelve rebels died when soldiers fired back, the military said. Ocalan was believed to be speaking from a base in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Sakik, known as ``Fingerless Zeki'' after losing a thumb while firing a rocket in northern Iraq, leads a group of about 1,000 rebels based in Tunceli's almost impenetrable Alibogaz ravine. In the Kurdish statement faxed to Reuters, Ocalan accused Ankara of launching the campaign to divert attention from domestic economic and political problems. ``The army had its way, the so-called civilian government of (Prime Minister) Tansu Ciller was obliging in every sense... It is not that they want to crush the PKK bases; the crisis facing the republic has forced them to undertake this military operation to cover their mismanagement,'' said the statement. ``Our resistance is primarily in the north. In Southern Kurdistan there are (other) revolutionary forces'' it added. The PKK refers to Kurdish areas in Turkey as the north, and in Iraq as ``Southern Kurdistan.'' A 200-strong group of guerrillas, with Sakik at their head, killed 18 soldiers last weekend in a well-planned ambush which cast doubts on Turkey's frequent assurances that the rebels were as good as defeated inside its borders. Turkish military sources say there are about 200,000 troops in the mainly-Kurdish southeast fighting an estimated 5,000-10,000 rebels. The military says it has killed nine guerrillas in a series of clashes in Tunceli in the recent days. But soldiers acknowledged they had been hindered from pressing home attacks by a lack of helicopters, most of which have been sent to northern Iraq, they said. Military spokesman Colonel Dogu Silahcioglu said on Friday Ankara's troops inside Iraq had killed 161 rebels against 14 soldiers dead, revising down earlier Turkish estimates of 200 dead guerrillas. But a PKK official in Brussels said 13 PKK guerrillas and 178 Turks had been killed since the offensive began last Monday and the Kurdish Information Centre statement, received on Friday, said only 11 guerrillas have been killed. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-25 20:51:30 EST German Labor Minister: Turks Treat Kurds Worse Than Animals BONN, March 25 (Reuter) - German Labour Minister Norbert Bluem accused Turks on Saturday of treating minority Kurds worse than animals and said NATO could not stand idly by while Kurds' human rights were trampled. In a guest column for the Bild am Sonntag weekly, Bluem said his positive image of Turkey was shattered in April 1991 when he visited Kurdish refugee camps on the Turkish-Iraqi border and saw children and old people suffering. ``These were not all terrorists, but people who had fled to save their lives,'' the Christian Democrat wrote, referring to Kurds' flight from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's forces. ``The Turkish army barred them from entering the life-saving valley, hard-heartedly and coolly as you please leaving them to hit bottom in their camps. Since then I have known that one cannot treat even animals the way Turks treat Kurds.'' His column was released ahead of Sunday publication as Ankara pressed on with a military offensive against separatist Kurdish guerrillas from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) operating from northern Iraq. Bluem said Turks' treatment of Kurds did not justify Kurdish attacks against Turkish targets. German officials have blamed the outlawed PKK for a rash of recent firebomb attacks on Turkish properties in Germany. But Bluem added: ``NATO would lose its respect and justification if it stood idly by and looked on as human rights were trampled in Turkey.'' He did not elaborate. A few hundred Kurds demonstrated in Berlin on Saturday against Turkey's military campaign in northern Iraq. Witnesses reported some scuffles between demonstrators and police. In the southwestern city of Stuttgart, several thousand Kurds publicly celebrated the Kurdish new year. Organisers said several PKK supporters took part in the peaceful gathering. In Mainz, around 500 Kurds demonstrated for a free Kurdistan homeland on Saturday. Police did not intervene even though some participants displayed flags of a banned Kurdish group. German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther this month ended a moratorium on deporting Kurdish refugees to Turkey, dismissing human rights groups' warnings that some repatriated Kurds faced torture or death. Some regional states governed by the opposition Social Democrats have refused for the time being to resume deportations. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-25 13:13:14 EST Incursion May Increase Ire of West By Aliza Marcus DERGELE, Iraq, March 25 (Reuter) - Turkey's armed thrust into Iraq entered a sixth day on Friday with allegations of air strikes on remote Kurdish villages threatening to intensify Western criticism of the anti-guerrilla operation. The United States, worried about civilians and Kurdish refugees, said it would monitor the Turkish operation daily to ensure Ankara kept promises to respect human rights. Six houses in the village of Dergele, 100 km (60 miles) east of the Iraqi border town of Zakho, were badly damaged and residents said on Friday that one person had been injured in air strikes earlier in the week. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said the United States would scrutinise the behaviour of the Turkish military. ``We're going to be following that situation very closely. I expect to be in touch with my counterparts in the Turkish government over the next few days,'' Christopher said on Friday. ``I think that we have an opportunity to assess the situation on a day-to-day basis,'' he told reporters in Washington. His comment suggested a hardening of the U.S. line on its NATO ally's move against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). President Bill Clinton had earlier expressed his tacit approval of the thrust into northern Iraq in a telephone call with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who assured him civilian life and property would be safeguarded. European Union countries France, Britain and Germany have demanded a swift end to the land and air operation which could jeopardise Ankara's long-held ambition to enter a customs union with the EU. Colonel Dogu Silahcioglu, spokesman for the Turkish General Staff, denied any air raids on Dergele. ``There is definitely nothing like that,'' he told Reuters. Turkish officials say there have been no civilian casualties at all. An Iraqi Kurdish group has reported that one girl died and four other civilians were injured in a bungled Turkish air raid near Iraq's border with Iran on Monday, the operation's opening day. About 35,000 Turkish troops have deployed in northern Iraq to hunt for PKK fighters based there who often strike across the border in their fight for a Kurdish state in Turkey. Turkey has often been criticised by the West for heavy-handed tactics while fighting the PKK inside its own borders. On Friday, Ciller called for an international solution to prevent the rebels from exploiting lawlessness in northern Iraq left behind by the Gulf War in 1991. ``This is not our making. If we do not want the Turkish soldiers to be there to protect our innocent people, then we have to come up with an international solution to the problem,'' Ciller told BBC radio. ``The European Union has to help us to provide that security to the borders,'' she said. Military spokesman Silahcioglu told a news conference in Diyarbakir, nerve centre of the anti-PKK drive, that the army had killed 161 rebels against 14 soldiers dead. However, a PKK official in Brussels said 13 PKK guerrillas and 178 Turks had been killed since the offensive began. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-25 07:00:56 EST Istanbul Stock Market Keeps Booming Knight-Ridder Istanbul--Mar 24--A bull-run on the Istanbul stock exchange continued this week as investors moved out of the domestic credit market in pursuit of higher returns, analysts said. At the close of the exchange's second session today, the composite ISE index stood at 36,693 points, up from 33,802 a week ago. Brokers and dealers expected the index to continue rising over the next week or so to around 38,000, where it might settle on profit taking. The long-term trend, however, is upwards, they said. During the week, investors continued to turn to the exchange for lack of better yields from other short-term investment instruments, analysts said. High foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank are also lending support to stocks by deterring excessive arbitrage against the Turkish lira on foreign exchange markets. An average of around 10 billion Turkish lira is entering the bourse daily, analysts said. Neither reports of sectarian religious violence here, nor the security forces attack against the Kurds in northern Iraq have had a sobering impact on stock market activity, they added. Instead, traders said Turkey's political outlook actually stabilized with an agreement on Mar 23 renewing the present coalition government between Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's conservative True Path Party, and the left-wing Republican Peoples Party. The average price/earnings (P/E) ratio on the exchange dropped yesterday to around 14/6 from 18/2 in the previous week, mainly due to good audited results emanating from many of the exchange's 183 listed and traded companies. Interest was high in stocks of state-run companies slated for full privatization, including the Eregli Iron and Steelworks and the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corp. By Jim Bodgener, Knight-Ridder Financial News Transmitted: 95-03-24 17:15:48 EST Ocalan Blasts USA for Helping Turks LONDON, March 24 (Reuter) - A Kurdish separatist leader on Friday accused the United States of secretly helping Turkey in its military push against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. ``We emphasise the clandestine support given by the U.S. to this operation and the massacres,'' said Abdullah Ocalan, general secretary of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). ``We want the United States government to withdraw its support from this dirty war and provide opportunities for political solution,'' Ocalan said in a statement released by the Kurdistan Information Centre in London. Turkey launched its military campaign into northern Iraq five days ago in an attempt to root out PKK guerrillas, who use bases there to attack targets inside Turkish territory. ``We call on progressive, democratic, international public opinion to oppose these massacres and this occupation of south Kurdistan,'' Ocalan said in his statement. Turkish officials on Friday denied Kurdish reports of air raids on the village of Dergele. Earlier they had insisted there had been no civilian casualties during the week's campaign. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said this week that Washington had urged Ankara to limit its incursion and to respect human rights and international law. But President Bill Clinton has also expressed ``understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively'' with the rebels, angering the PKK leadership. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-24 14:16:32 EST US Unveils Plan for Iraqi Oil Sales Through Turkey By Anthony Goodman UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Reuter) - A U.S. official detailed a revised scheme Friday that would allow Iraq to sell $2 billion in oil to buy food and medicine. The proposal to permit Iraq to export and sell limited quantities of the oil over six months requires most oil to flow through a pipeline to Turkey but some could be exported from Iraq's Gulf terminal of Mina al-Bakr, the official said. Iraq has been under stringent U.N. sanctions, including a ban on oil exports, since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The new scheme would replace one drafted by the Security Council in 1991 allowing export of $1.6 billion of oil over six months but which Iraq has repeatedly rejected as leaving it with too little money and violating its sovereignty. This is because both the oil deals and the distribution of supplies bought with part of the proceeds were to be closely monitored by the United Nations to ensure the goods reached all sectors of the Iraqi population, not just those favoured by the Baghdad government. The new resolution would ease monitoring provisions so that instead of tracking the actual distribution of humanitarian goods, the U.N. would conduct so-called ``impact monitoring'' by checking later that they went where needed. Under the new resolution, $2 billion worth of oil could be sold in the first 180 days instead of $1.6 billion, and the scheme could be renewed for another 180 days if all went well. For each $1 billion in oil sold, $300 million would be earmarked for a U.N. Gulf war reparations fund and another $200 million for U.N. agencies providing relief to Kurds and others in northern Iraq. The deal would leave Baghdad with $1 billion over the six months for humanitarian purchases. Under the 1991 scheme, some $900 million of the $1.6 billion in oil sales proceeds would have been available to Iraq, with the rest going for reparations and other costs. Another inducement to Iraq is that while much of the oil would still have to flow through a pipeline to Turkey which has lain rusting since sanctions were imposed, the rest could be sent through Mina al-Bakr, as preferred by Baghdad. The resolution is being submitted to the Security Council by Argentina, also on behalf of the United States and Britain. But it is not yet known when it might come to a vote nor is there any immediate indication whether Iraq would find the new scheme more palatable. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-24 21:04:58 EST Cyprus Displays Exocet Missles By Annie Charalambous NICOSIA, March 25 (Reuter) - Cyprus displayed six French-made Exocet shore-to-sea missiles at a military parade in Nicosia on Saturday, hoping to put the lid on a French magazine report that alleged it had secretly shipped them to Iran. Hundreds of Greek Cypriots cheered when the six MM 40 missiles appeared at the military parade to mark Greece's anniversary of independence from Turkish rule. Officials said they hoped the presence of the missiles would end this week's allegations in L'Express which reported French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua arranged the export of missiles to Tehran via Algeria and Cyprus last year. According to the weekly magazine, this was to appease Iran's rulers before the Paris trial of the killers of the shah's last prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar. France, Cyprus, Algeria and Iran all denied the report. Officials say Cyprus has a total of 24 Exocet missiles, the first six bought last October. ``We categorically deny the allegations. All of our military equipment is bought for the occupied island's own defence. Whoever doubts that all 24 French missiles we've got are not here, he is free to come and inspect them,'' spokesman Yiannakis Cassoulides said. Saturday's parade in the divided capital of Nicosia coincided with an official visit to the island of Greek Defence Minister Yerasimos Arsenis. Arenis presence was behind the reason army units, including men from the some 200-strong Greek contingent stationed on Cyprus, took part in the traditional students' parade to mark the Greek anniversary. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after a Turkish invasion sparked by a short-lived coup in Nicosia engineered by a military junta then ruling Greece. Arsenis, who leaves the island on Sunday, told journalists after the two-hour parade, that Greek airforce planes will be coming to Cyprus often within the framework of joint military exercises. ``The timing will be decided in cooperation with the Cyprus government,'' he added. Also on show on Saturday were the French-made AMX 30B2 tanks, advanced Milan and Hot-2 anti-tank rockets, Aspide surface-to-air launchers, the Brazilian Cascavel armoured vehicles, the French VAP and Greek Leonidas troop carriers. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-25 10:06:40 EST Russia: Captured Gold Was For Arms for Chechnya MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuter) - Russian federal agents seized 79 kg (2,875 ounces) of gold in Siber From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 27 20:05:31 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 27 Mar 1995 20:05:31 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald TURKISH CLASHES SPILL INTO GERMANY VIOLENCE: BONN FEARS A NEW ANTI-FOREIGNER BACKLASH. By Alan Cowell New York Times BONN, Germany -- A wave of firebombings of Turkish mosques, travel agencies and cultural centers has confronted Germany with a perilous spillover of Turkey's own deepening divisions, raising fears that they could spawn a new xenophobic backlash among Germans. Two million Turks live in Germany, splintered along the same notions of identity that are increasingly dividing Turkey's 60 million people into camps of Alawites and Islamic fundamentalists, secularists and Kurdish separatists. They were invited into the country as ''guest workers'' to drive the postwar building boom, and many have never returned home. As turmoil has seized Turkey -- reflected most recently in the Turkish army's incursion into northern Iraq and clashes between Alawites and the police in Istanbul -- divisions and fear have begun to spread among Turks in Germany. ''We do not know where the next attack will come from,'' said Farouk Sen, head of the Institute for Turkish Studies in Essen, Germany. ''So people are very frightened.'' SCORES OF ATTACKS Over the past two weeks, assailants with gasoline bombs have struck scores of times at Turkish institutions in many parts of Germany -- banks in Cologne and Gelsenkirchen, a newspaper advertising office in Berlin, a Turkish cultural institute in Erlenbach. No one has publicly taken responsibility. The German authorities, however, have blamed the separatist Kurdish Workers Party, an outlawed Marxist-Leninist movement, for most of these nighttime attacks. While no one has died in the attacks, they have left a sense of vulnerability among Turks, and a feeling among Turkish Kurds that other Turks here have turned against them. ''There have been arguments in the schools between Kurdish and Turkish pupils,'' said Hassan Yildiz, a Kurdish mathematician in Berlin. ''Up to now it's been verbal. Soon it could be for real.'' TURKISH UNDERWORLD The Kurdish Workers Party, known by its Kurdish initials, PKK, is believed to be seeking to disrupt tourism in retaliation for Germany's decision in 1993 to outlaw it as a terrorist organization. But the German authorities also confront another spinoff from the decades of close ties with Turkey. The postwar relationship made Germany an economic magnet, but also produced a Turkish underworld of organized crime, secretive left- and right-wing extremist groups and widespread fund-raising activities for Islamic fundamentalists and Kurdish separatists. ''The worst thing of all'' about the current violence, said Freimut Duwe, an opposition Social Democratic expert on Turkey, ''is that it creates an atmosphere in which Germans as such become less willing to accept the existence of large minorities. The hatred toward the Turks is growing in Germany.'' Such comments reflect concerns that German right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis may again feel emboldened to attack Turks in their campaigns against foreigners. The German authorities themselves seem unable to shake free of their ambiguous attitude toward Turkey. KURDS ARE SUSPICIOUS The readiness of Germany to sell arms, including armored cars, to Turkey and its outlawing of the PKK leave some Kurds with the suspicion that it has taken sides against them, even though the weapons are not supposed to be used in the 10-year-old war against the PKK. Equally, though, the desire of Germany to distance itself from the horrors of its past makes it reluctant to expel Kurds convicted of crimes or to refuse asylum. The reluctance stems from suspicions that Kurds face systematic persecution in Turkey. The policy has prompted some Turks here to say that Bonn is tacitly supporting the PKK, which has staged frequent protests in Germany, including the occupation of the Turkish Consulate in Munich in 1993 and sit-down protests on German highways last year. According to unofficial estimates, the Turkish population in Germany breaks down roughly into 400,000 to 600,000 Alawites, 400,000 Kurds and more than 1 million ethnic Turks. The figures are uncertain, though, because many Kurds -- particularly those from the Tunceli region of eastern Turkey -- are also Alawites, members of an Islamic sect held to be heretical by Islamic fundamentalists. MERCURY CENTER Transmitted: 95-03-26 06:11:53 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:15:41 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:15:41 Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Arab League to Turkey: Get Out of Iraq CAIRO, March 26 (Reuter) - The Arab League on Sunday slammed Turkey's military offensive in northern Iraq as a violation of international law and called on Ankara to withdraw its troops. ``The League... sees this invasion as a violation of the principles of international law and legitimate international resolutions,'' the 22-member league said in a statement. The statement stressed Arab support for the territorial integrity of Iraq, standing ``alongside fraternal Iraq in defending its sovereignty and regional unity.'' It said the league also regretted the loss of life caused by Turkey's incursion, aimed at wiping out guerrilla bases belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). ``The Arab League calls on the Turkish Government not to escalate the situation further but to withdraw from Iraqi territory,'' it said. Turkey said it has killed 168 PKK fighters and lost 16 of its soldiers, while the PKK put its death toll at up to 13, with 178 Turks killed. Europe has condemned Turkey's massive week-long military operation, but Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin was quoted as saying on Sunday Turkey cannot let separatist Kurds control northern Iraq, whatever international pressures it may face. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-26 15:12:44 EST Turkey Defends Push Into Iraq By Suna Erdem ZAKHO, Iraq, March 26 (Reuter) - Turkey sought to assuage growing international concern over its military offensive into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish separatists, despite mounting reports of Iraqi civilian casualties. ``Everything that can be done will be done in order to save civilians and civil organisations. Turkey always respects the laws,'' Prime Minister Tansu Ciller told the nation in a televised address. Turkey, in the largest military expedition in its modern history, sent 35,000 troops backed by air power into northern Iraq almost a week ago to ``eliminate'' bases there of the separatist Kurdistan People's Party (PKK). The situation on the ground remained unclear amid a welter of contradictory reports from Turkish military officials, doctors and local residents. Turkish officials insisted there had been no civilian casualties, but doctors in the border town of Zakho said a man from the village of Kashan was dead on arrival at their hospital on Friday, ripped apart by Turkish shrapnel. The doctors told Reuters at least five other civilians were injured, two seriously, while Iraqi Kurds reported more casualties from Turkish air raids. Iraqi Kurdish leaders, who assisted Turkey in a similar sweep in 1992, condemned the military operation but have apparently not resisted it. Ironically, Iraqi Kurds battling Baghdad rely on Turkey for a lifeline to the outside world. International pressure continued to mount on Turkey and U.S. President Bill Clinton again talked to Ciller by telephone. Germany's Labour Minister Norbert Bluem, ditching diplomatic language in favour of populist outrage, said: ``One cannot even treat animals the way Turks treat Kurds.'' The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced plans to move up to 2,000 Turkish Kurd refugees from Zakho to Atrush, more than 100 km (60 miles) further east, where 10,000 Turkish Kurds are already encamped. Few new military details emerged on Saturday. Turkish officials said they were closing in on two main PKK bases, at Haftanin, 30 km (19 miles) east of Zakho, and Betufa. Turkey said it had killed 168 PKK fighters and lost 16 of its soldiers, Anatolian news agency said. The PKK put its death toll at either 11 or 13 against 178 Turks killed. Turkish ground troops are known to have advanced about 40 km (25 miles) into Iraq, mainly around Zakho. There have also been reports of air raids near the Iranian border, 200 km (125 miles) to the east. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-26 07:00:40 EST German Collaborators With PKK Busted In Turkey BONN, March 26 (Reuter) - Six Germans have been arrested in southeastern Turkey as suspected collaborators with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an official said on Sunday. Bonn Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Erdmann said the German embassy in Ankara was trying to arrange their release from house arrest in a hotel in Cizre, south of Diyabarkir, where they have been held since Saturday. PKK guerrillas have been fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey since 1984. More than 15,000 people have died in the conflict. The Nowrouz Coordination Bureau in Frankfurt -- a group of German Kurdish sympathisers -- said the six were academics from the nothern city of Bremen who had travelled to the region to observe events on the Kurdish new year, known as Nowrouz. It said police in Turkey had said they needed more time to examine film and a laptop computer confiscated from the group before they could be released. Nowrouz's Bremen office said in a statement one British and four Turkish journalists had also been detained in Cizre on Saturday. It identified the Briton as Richard Wayman but did not say for whom he was working, neither did it name the four Turkish journalists. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-26 11:02:08 EST Turkey Airlifts Supports Troops Into Iraq DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 26 (Reuter) - Turkish aircraft on Sunday ferried reinforcements and equipment into northern Iraq to strengthen Ankara's operation against rebel Kurdish bases, a Turkish security source said. ``A constant run of men, materiel and logistic supplies is maintained from the points at Silopi, in Sirnak province, and at Cukurca, in Hakkari province, to the east,'' said the source in Diyarbakir, nerve centre for the anti-rebel fight. The operation was contining on Sunday, the source said, but there were few early details of other military activity. In the latest military briefing from an army press centre in Diyarbakir on Saturday, a spokesman said troops had taken and destroyed 25 mountain bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since the campaign began before dawn last Monday. Turkish television footage showed the camps, mountain caves and some lean-tos covered by plastic sheeting, apparently emptied by the guerrillas, leaving behind ammunition and food stores. Lieutenant General Hasan Kundakci, commanding the operation, told reporters that Turkish troops were moving under cover of darkness to get close to PKK-held positions. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-26 06:33:17 EST From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sat Mar 25 19:07:04 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 25 Mar 1995 19:07:04 Subject: TRKNWS-L News References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L News PROMINENT TURKISH NOVELIST MAY BECOME A CASUALTY OF WAR Nicole Watts, Chronicle Foreign Service Ankara If an Istanbul public prosecutor has his way, one of Turkey's greatest living authors will be locked behind bars this spring, the most prominent victim of sweeping anti-terror laws that give the government nearly free rein to restrict discussion of this country's ``Kurdish problem.'' Yashar Kemal, an internationally acclaimed novelist whose tales of a vanishing way of life on the punishing Anatolian plains are standard fare in Turkish literature textbooks, is scheduled to appear before a state security court May 5 to answer charges of advocating separatism. The accusations stem from an article he wrote for the January 10 edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel. His strongly worded essay, ``Campaign of Lies,'' argued that Turkey's leaders have tried through systematic oppression ``to kill the Kurdish language and culture since the founding of the republic.'' The article caused a furor at a time when the government is trying to reconcile demands for democracy by liberals, leftists and Turkey's Western allies with deep and widespread fears of the growth of Islamic extremism and the intractability of the Kurdish conflict. Kemal's prosecution demonstrates the lengths to which Ankara will go to silence critics after more than a decade of unofficial civil war with Kurdish separatists. The conflict has cost more than 15,000 lives and has been marked by rampant human rights abuses. ``If I am sentenced, the Turkish Republic won't be able to look foreigners in the face,'' the 71-year-old Kemal said recently. He wrote in his Der Spiegel article that Turkey ``must not enter the 21st century as a nation accursed.'' About 150 academics, journalists, writers, human rights activists and lawyers currently are imprisoned for ``crimes of expression,'' according to the Ankara-based Human Rights Association. Many, like Kemal, were prosecuted under the eighth article of the Turkish Law Against Terrorism, which states that any ``written or spoken propaganda'' that threatens the ``indivisible integrity of the state'' is punishable with a prison sentence of two to five years. Nearly 8,000 others are either appealing jail sentences or awaiting trial for alleged violations of Article 8. Intellectual ``terrorists'' now in prison include Fikret Baskaya, an economics professor who wrote a book criticizing Turkey's socioeconomic development and its underlying ideology; writer Haluk Gerger, who argued that violent movements emerge when peaceful channels for dissent are closed; and sociologist Ismail Besikci, who has spent more than a decade in jail for his studies of the Kurds. ``Yashar Kemal is one of many similar cases,'' said Yavuz Onen, president of the independent Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. ``But he is one of the best-known personalities ever prosecuted under the anti-terror law, so he created quite a stir.'' Kemal's Der Spiegel essay prompted heated debate in the Turkish media. Although some columnists said Kemal had betrayed the country, others rallied to his defense in an unprecedented show of support for freedom of expression. ``Even those who give the appearance of being the most democratic of people accused Yashar Kemal of being a traitor,'' wrote the weekly magazine Aktuel, which called his piece a ``writing event dividing Turkey.'' Throwing down the gauntlet, publisher Erdal Oz released a collection of controversial essays -- including Kemal's Der Spiegel article -- titled ``Freedom of Thought and Turkey.'' The book was signed by about 1,080 writers and artists in an attempt to force the state to charge them all under the same law as Kemal. An additional 50,000 people signed declarations supporting them. ``While Kemal got bad press, he catalyzed this sort of lobby among writers and artists,'' said Semih Idiz, an editor and columnist at the Turkish Daily News. ``This hasn't happened before. But it also shows the intelligentsia is divided on the Kurdish issue. It's something like the McCarthy period in your country -- Will people fall behind the government line no matter what? It's a choice between `my country right or wrong' and `democracy right or wrong.' '' Turkey is substantially more democratic today than in 1983, when civilians returned to power after three years of military dictatorship. Discussion of the Kurdish issue -- once strictly taboo -- is now a national pastime, and the formerly prohibited Kurdish language is now legal. About a quarter of Turkey's 60 million people are of Kurdish origin. But the government's fight to subdue the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, which uses terrorist tactics in its war for Kurdish autonomy, have stalled long-promised constitutional reforms. Kurdish-language education and TV is still banned under the rationale that it will weaken national unity, and 10 predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces are under oppressive emergency law. Kemal's case could scarcely have come at a worse time for the Turkish government, which is eager to prove that its talk of democratization is more than just talk since it signed a customs union with the European Union early this month. Ratification of the agreement by the European Parliament is conditional upon Turkey taking immediate steps to improve human rights. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has been promising democratic reforms since she took office in the summer of 1993. But a much-heralded ``democratization package'' discussed last year never reached the parliamentary floor, and a new year's pledge to reform the constitution has not materialized. On March 14, eager to maintain momentum toward the customs union, Ciller again outlined a number of proposals, including a general amnesty for all political prisoners of conscience and a gradual lifting of the state of emergency in the southeast. But Turks are skeptical that real progress will emerge from the current parliament, which is dominated by conservative hard-liners who view democratization as a ``softening'' on terrorism. Turkey's powerful generals, generally given a free hand in the southeast, also resist reform. _________________________________________________________________ -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Fri Mar 31 17:01:20 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:01:20 Subject: TRKNWS-L News References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L News WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The United States Tuesday said it is up to Turkey to put forward an international plan to deal with Kurdish extremists on the border with Iraq. ``I think Turkey is the country that has indicated its interest to possibly look at some kind of international approach to the problem along the border,'' State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly told reporters. ``It's up to Turkey to now come forward with something more concrete in terms of how that might be done,'' she said. ``I don't know how long it's going to take Turkey to develop its own thinking on that, but I'm not expecting some kind of answer to that question within the next day or so.'' Turkey more than one week ago sent 35,000 troops into northern Iraq to try and crush Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas who have been launching attacks against Turkey in their push to create a separate Kurdish homeland. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who is due to visit Washington next month, has called for an international solution to the Kurdish guerrilla problem. Many countries have criticized the incursion. The U.S. response initially was sympathetic, but recent statements have indicated increasing unease in Washington because of the prolonged nature of the campaign and attacks on civilians. On Monday Shelly acknowledged that because Washington and its allies established a ``no fly zone'' in northern Iraq after the Gulf War to keep Bagdhad from harassing Iraqi Kurds, there is a resulting ``administrative vacuum'' in the region that allows the PKK to operate there. But on Tuesday she attempted to lay some blame for PKK activities on Iraq. She noted that a U.N. Security Council resolution imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War required Iraq not to allow terrorist groups to operate within its territory. Although a good portion of northern Iraq is effectively controlled by the United States and its allies, ``the fact of the matter is that the PKK is there and the operations of a terrorist nature do take place from Iraqi territory going into Turkey,'' she said. From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Mon Mar 6 03:15:14 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 06 Mar 1995 03:15:14 Subject: KURD-A News Updates: February 26-28 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Arm The Spirit Subject: KURD-A News Updates: February 26-28, 1995 KURD-A News Updates February 26-28, 1995 Kurdish guerrillas attacked two Turkish army troop transporters on the road between Nusaybin and Cizre. Both troop transporters were driving towards Cizre when they were attacked by Kurdish guerrillas and destroyed by rockets and heavy machine gun fire. During this attack, 21 soldiers were killed and 4 were wounded. (26.02.95) An army operation which was started a few days ago in the Cudi mountain region has been halted by ARGK guerrillas. During three days of heavy fighting, several Turkish soldiers were killed. According to the press office of the ARGK in Botan, the Turkish army had deployed a large number of soldiers and its most modern weapons during this operation. (26.02.95) The Haftanin region of the UN security zone in South Kurdistan has been attacked once again by fighter jets. On February 25, the region was bombarded for two hours. According to guerrillas, there were neither civilian nor guerrilla casualties. (26.02.95) This afternoon, a powerful carbomb exploded in the city of Zakho in South Kurdistan. According to incomplete reports, approximately 100 people were killed in the city centre and many more were wounded. One witness reported that the car had been parked in the city centre the day before. It is still unclear who is responsible for this attack. (27.02.95) Turkish security forces operating in the Sason-Kozluk-Silvan region were attacked by Kurdish guerrillas on February 25. Several soldiers were killed in the fighting, which lasted for several hours. 3 Kurdish guerrillas were also killed. Military observers have reported to us that its appears that the Turkish army, which is trying to prevent a major spring offensive from ARGK guerrillas, was unsuccessful in this operation. (27.02.95) Fighting between the southern Kurdish factions the KDP (Barzani) and the PUK (Tablani) in South Kurdistan is still continuing. Despite several peace accords, the fighting has not stopped. Our correspondent in South Kurdistan reported that there was fighting in several areas. (27.02.95) Turkish fighter planes have bombarded the Haftanin region in the UN security zone in South Kurdistan for the second time this week. Today, the Haftanin region was bombarded for two hours. There were no casualties in this attack. This region was last attacked on February 25. (28.02.95) The Turkish army has launched a major operation in the Lice-Kulp- Silvan and Hazzo regions. The 30,000 soldiers involved in this operation have still not recorded any successes. (28.02.95) The political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein, held its party congress from February 25-27 in the Irish city of Dublin. A delegation of representatives from the Kurdish exile parliament also took part in the congress. At the end of the congress, a resolution was passed which in which Sinn Fein called on Turkey to recognize the Kurdish people's right to self-determination. Sinn Fein also stated that Turkey continues to lie unabashedly about the massacres and massive human rights abuses committed against the Kurdish people, despite international protests. Sinn Fein has called for a tourism boycott against Turkey. (28.02.95) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit E-mail: ats at etext.org P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada WWW: gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Mon Mar 6 19:42:56 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 06 Mar 1995 19:42:56 Subject: Turkish Barbarity continues-UState Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: Turkish Barbarity continues-UState department part 2 US STATE DEPARTMENT HUMAN RIGHTS COUNTRY REPORT-1994 part two TURKEY b. Disappearance Disappearances continued to occur in 1993, while, with one exception, those reported in 1992 and earlier remained unsolved. Some disappeared after witnesses reported they had been taken into custody by security forces. In some of these cases, the person's body was later discovered, as happened in the disappearance of Ferhat Tepe (see Section 1.a.). Ayse Malkac, a correspondent working in Ozgur Gundem's Istanbul bureau, disappeared midmorning on August 7 after leaving her office and has not been seen since. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen her being detained in the street by plainclothes police officers, but local authorities denied taking Malkac into custody. Human rights groups, journalists, and others alleged the complicity of security forces in this and other disappearances. PKK terrorists continued their frequent abductions of local villagers, teachers, religious figures, and officials in the southeast, many of whose bodies were later discovered. The PKK expanded its kidnaping activities to include foreign tourists. Several Western tourists were kidnaped during the summer but eventually released unharmed, after periods of captivity ranging from 2 to 5 weeks. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Despite the Constitution's ban on torture, Turkey's accession to the U.N. and European Conventions Against Torture, and the public pledges of successive governments to do away with torture, the practice continued. Human rights attorneys and physicians who treat victims of torture state that most persons charged with, or merely suspected of, political crimes suffer torture, usually during periods of incommunicado detention in police stations and Jandarma headquarters before they are brought before a court. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the implementation of the CMUK facilitated more immediate attorney access to those arrested for common crimes. However, human rights groups have not yet ascertained a related decrease in allegations of torture. The U.S.-based Helsinki Watch advised that its reports indicated that torture continued to be used in police interrogation centers against about half of ordinary criminal suspects. CMUK does not apply to those detained under the Anti-Terror Law. The HRF reported that there was no indication either of the amelioration of treatment of those charged under the Anti-Terror Law or of an overall decrease in the incidence of torture in 1993. Human rights observers report that the system whereby the arresting police officer is also responsible for interrogating the suspect is conducive to torture because the officer seeks to obtain a confession that would justify the arrest. According to those familiar with Turkish police operations, in petty criminal cases, the arresting officer is responsible for following up on the case, whereas in major cases such as murder and political or terrorism-related crimes, "desks" responsible for the area in question are responsible for the interrogation. Credible reports from former detainees and professionals who rehabilitate victims state that commonly employed methods of torture include: high- pressure cold water hoses, electric shocks, beating of the genitalia, hanging by the arms, blindfolding, sleep deprivation, deprivation of clothing, systematic beatings, and vaginal and anal rape with truncheons and, in some instances, gun barrels. HRA offices have also reported the use by police of tiny cells in which detainees are incarcerated for periods up to 10 hours to coerce confessions. Within the last 2 months of 1993, the HRF received three reports from former detainees who say they have been taken to a deserted construction site and tortured there. Nilufer Koc, an interpreter who has lived in Germany for the past 20 years, was detained in Sirnak province while accompanying a German delegation in Turkey. She claimed that her torture included being hung by handcuffs from a hook for 2 hours, repeatedly hosed with cold water while naked, beaten, grabbed by the hair and having her head hit against the wall, and a weapon held against her forehead and told to make a last wish. Security forces believed her to be involved in PKK activities and wanted information about the activities of the PKK in Germany. After her release, Koc returned to Germany. The Turkish Government denied there was a problem. Although the Government asserted that medical examinations occur once during detention and a second time before either arraignment or release, former detainees asserted that some medical examinations took place too long after the event to allow any definitive findings, some examinations were cursory, and some were done in the presence of police officials. Human rights groups reported that some doctors were occasionally under pressure to submit false or misleading medical certificates, denying evidence of torture. According to the HRF, practice varies widely; in some cases proper examinations are conducted, and in others doctors sign off on papers handed to them. Authorities do not consistently investigate allegations of such abuses, and perpetrators are rarely sanctioned. Credible sources in the human rights and legal communities estimate that judicial authorities investigate only about one-half of the formal complaints involving torture and prosecute only a small fraction of those. Lawyers report harassment and threats for taking on torture cases, for example, anonymous telephone calls threatening they will suffer the same fate as Metin Can (see Section 1.a.). In one case, however, five policemen charged in a 1986 torture case which occurred in the Sebin Karahisar township of Giresun on the Black Sea coast were sentenced by the Giresun criminal court to terms ranging from 10 months to 6 years and 8 months. Two officers were acquitted. The Court of Appeals upheld the sentences, leaving the convicted policemen no further legal recourse. More typically, if law enforcement officers are convicted of torture, the sentences tend to be light, as was the case with three policemen convicted in March by the Ankara criminal court. Each received a 3-month prison sentence and was suspended from duty for 3 months. In many instances, cases drag on for years. Nazli Top, a nurse (pregnant at the time) who alleged she was tortured and raped with a truncheon during 10 days of detention in April 1992 before police released her without charge, filed criminal charges against her alleged torturers, but the case has yet to come to trial. Under the Anti-Terror Law, officials accused of torture or other mistreatment may stay on the job while under investigation and, if convicted, may only be suspended. Special provincial administrative boards, rather than regular courts, decide whether to prosecute such cases, and suspects' legal fees are paid by their employing agencies. Under the state of emergency, any lawsuit directed at government authorities must be approved by the regional governor, which rarely happens, preventing legal pursuit of torture allegations. As Turkey has recognized the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, Turks may file applications alleging violations of the European Convention on Human Rights with the European Human Rights Commission, and several have done so. On December 15, 1992, the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) issued an unprecedented public statement concerning Turkey, noting that torture and other forms of severe ill-treatment of persons in police custody remained widespread, that such methods were applied to both ordinary criminal suspects and persons held under antiterrorism provisions, and that torture was a deep-rooted problem. In both the Ankara Police Headquarters and the Diyarbakir Police Headquarters, the CPT reported finding furniture and equipment consistent with detainees' reports of how they were tortured. The CPT recommended several actions it considered necessary for the Government to take to deal with the problem and emphasized that legislative measures alone would not be sufficient to eradicate the phenomenon of torture. On November 19, 1993, the United Nations Committee on Torture called on Turkey to end what it called the systematic torture of prisoners. "The Committee remains concerned at the number and substance of the allegations of torture received, which confirm the existence and systematic character of the practice of torture." The Government contested the accuracy of the report and stated that events were taken out of context and many examples were unconfirmed. The CMUK, which went into effect on December 1, 1992, appeared to improve attorney access to detainees, but its efficacy in decreasing incidents of torture cannot yet be ascertained. Human rights groups criticized the CMUK because its allowable, maximum, prearraignment detention periods still exceed Council of Europe maximums, it codified two different classes of suspects with different rights, and the arresting officer had the power to determine whether or not the CMUK applied. Besides CMUK, the Government did not appear to implement any other major initiatives that could contribute to a reduction of abuse. In November the Government introduced amendments to the Anti-Terror Law that would, among other things, broaden the definition of terrorism and increase the permissible length of incommunicado prearraignment detention. As of the end of the year, the bill was still pending in the Parliament's joint Justice- Interior committee. As of September, 158 applications claiming torture, maltreatment, or arbitrary detention had been filed with the parliamentary Human Rights Commission (since its September 1991 inception), and the Commission had written to the public prosecutors in the provinces on each case, as well to the governor's office or that of the security directorate general for that province. It is unclear to what extent the Commission has followed up on these cases. The HRF's torture rehabilitation centers in Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul reported that, within the first 6 months of 1993 they had received a total of 172 applications for treatment. Prison conditions--and prison reform--remained an important issue in 1993. Prompted by a number of prisoner escapes, as well as hunger strikes by prisoners protesting conditions, the Government in February prepared a prison reform bill. As of the end of the year, the bill remained with the Justice Ministry and had not yet been formally submitted to Parliament. Furthermore, while the incidence of torture in prisons has decreased in the last few years, there are continued reports of torture. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile In order to take a person into custody, a prosecutor must issue a detention order, except in limited circumstances, as when a person is caught in the act of committing a crime. The detention period for those charged with common, individual crimes is 24 hours. Those detained for common, collective crimes may be held for 4 days, and the detention period may be extended for an additional 4 days. Under the CMUK, suspects are entitled to immediate access to an attorney and may meet and confer with the attorney at any time. In practice, attorney access under the CMUK improved for detainees charged with common crimes. Persons detained for individual crimes which fall under the Anti-Terror Law must be brought before a judge within 48 hours, while those charged with crimes of a collective, political, or conspiratorial nature may be detained up to 15 days in most of the country and up to 30 days in the 10 southeastern provinces under a state of emergency. There is no guaranteed attorney access under law. The decision concerning access to counsel in such cases is left to the independent prosecutor, who routinely denies access, usually with the explanation that it would prejudice an ongoing investigation. The Justice and Interior Ministries generally have not intervened in prosecutors' decisions or police actions denying access to counsel. Although the Constitution specifies the right of detainees to request speedy arraignment and trial, judges have ordered a significant number of persons detained indeterminately, sometimes for years. While many cases involved persons accused of violent crimes, it is not uncommon for those accused of nonviolent political crimes to be kept in custody until the conclusion of their trials. By law, a detainee's next of kin must be notified "in the shortest time" after arrest. Once formally charged by the prosecutor, a detainee is arraigned by a judge and allowed to retain a lawyer. After arraignment, the judge may release the accused if he presents an appropriate guarantee, such as bail, or order him detained if the court determines that he is likely to flee the jurisdiction or destroy evidence. The detention of large numbers of people occurred on several occasions in 1993, including the demonstrations on August 14 and 15 in Digor, Kars province, and Malazgirt, Mus province (see Section 1.a.). In most such cases, the majority of detainees are subsequently released without charges being filed. In the southeast there were several mass roundups of ethnic Kurds in the wake of a crime. For example, after a night watchman was killed in Adana in August, within 24 hours, police arrested large numbers of ethnic Kurds (estimates range up to 500). Police charged them under the Anti-Terror Law so the CMUK did not apply, enabling police to hold them in incommunicado detention for 15 days without access to a judge or lawyer (though they were released earlier). Some detainees alleged they were tortured. All were subsequently released without being charged. There is no external exile, and Turkey's internal exile law was repealed in 1987. In 1990, however, under decree 430, the Government granted the southeast regional governor the authority to "remove from the region," for a period not to exceed the duration of the state of emergency, citizens under his administration whose activities (whether voluntary or forced) "give an impression that they are prone to disturb general security and public order." Although there were no known instances of the use of this broad authority in 1993, human rights monitors and residents of towns in the southeast report credibly that officials continued to rely on "administrative transfers" to remove government employees thought liable to "create trouble." --- APS (Newsdesk) From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Mon Mar 6 19:52:45 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 06 Mar 1995 19:52:45 Subject: Poem By An Anonymous Kurdish Guerri Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Arm The Spirit Subject: Poem By An Anonymous Kurdish Guerrilla Fighter Poem By An Anonymous Kurdish Guerrilla Fighter We are a hurricane, we sweep down from the hills to the town. We roam with the soaring bird and the rushing wind. We strike by night and by day pass on. We are the armed hand of the Kurdish people. We rise like the sun over the darkness. We destroy our miserable destiny. We roar, hurl bombs, and are ardent. We are the life blood of the Kurdish people. We flow crimson like the Munzur. We smash every obstacle like the Tigris. We cascade deliriously like the Euphrates. We are the swelling anger of the Kurdish people. We are red roses, we open on the mountains. If one branch falls a thousand take root, If one dies we are reborn in hundreds of thousands. We are the flowers of honour of the Kurdish people. We are Bloka, we are Axshun and Teman. We are Sason, Hezil, and Gabar. We are thousands souls martyred in Botan. We are the Kurdish people's chain of martyrs. We were born with the longing of the Kurdish people. We were created with Kemal and Agit. We've endured pain and suffering. We are the pillar of science of the Kurdistan people. We swore to live like human beings. We have come as far as today with blood. We have made peace with the sullen mountain. We are the cries of joy of the Kurdish people. We are the army, fire, and rancour. We are workers, villagers, we are united. We are hundreds of thousands crying vengeance. We are the voice of the Kurdish people shouting "rebellion". From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Tue Mar 7 13:46:16 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 07 Mar 1995 13:46:16 Subject: TRKNWS-L Germans Arrest PKK Firebom Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Germans Arrest PKK Firebombers HANOVER, Germany, March 5 (Reuter) - German police have arrested two Kurds after a series of fire-bomb attacks against Turkish travel agencies, police said on Sunday. The police said the two Kurds were believed to be sympathisers of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and thought to have been involved in arson attacks in the northern city of Hanover at the end of last month. The news magazine Focus, citing security sources, said police feared that the PKK planned to unleash a wave of demonstrations and violence in Germany around the Kurdish New Year on March 21. German police believe militant Kurds are responsible for attacks against dozens of Turkish travel agencies and German agencies selling holidays in Turkey in the past week. In response, last Thursday, Bonn banned the Kurdish Information Office (KIB) in Cologne and five similar groups in Bavaria which it said were closely linked to the PKK. Bonn had banned the PKK and dozens of associated groups in 1993 after a series of spectacular raids against Turkish targets across Europe. Leaflets saying ``No holidays in Turkey'' and signed ``Children from the country of fire and the sun'' were found scattered near travel agencies damaged last week in the northern city of Hamburg. At the scene of one fire-bombing, police found a note from the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), the political wing of the separatist PKK. The note demanded a boycott of Turkey's tourism industry. The PKK has waged a 10-year war against Ankara for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Militant Kurds have frequently targeted Turkish institutions in Germany to protest against what they see as Ankara's oppression of Kurds living in southeastern Turkey and Bonn's close ties with the Turkish government. REUTER --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Tue Mar 7 23:17:49 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 07 Mar 1995 23:17:49 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MAR 6, 1995 GERMAN MEASURES AGAINST THE PKK The German government is going to make more use of the Dusseldorf-based "DSW Security" group in new measures against the banned PKK terrorist organization. As a result of recent fire-bomb attacks against Turkish owned travel agencies throughout Germany, new security measures are being taken by the German police. From now on, individuals suspected of being involved with anti- Turkish activities will be watched much more closely, and slogan writers and others will be handed over to the police. /Hurriyet/ --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Wed Mar 8 19:46:37 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 08 Mar 1995 19:46:37 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MAR 7, 1995 [EU-STUFF DELETED] AID PROMISE FROM KOHL TO CILLER It is reported that the German government, which suspended military aid to Turkey a while ago, has decided to resume aid facilities. Hannoversche Allegemeine Zeitung (HAZ) pusblished in Lower Saxony, said that German Foreign Ministry officials stated that aid to Turkey would be completed within one or two years. It noted that military aid worth DM 150 million was promised by Prime Minister Helmut Kohl on 20 September, 1993, to Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. German Foreign Ministry officials said: "This aid for Turkey is a demonstration of our lasting friendship, a gesture to an allied country". /Milliyet/ --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Thu Mar 9 23:36:13 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 09 Mar 1995 23:36:13 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MAR 8, 1995 ANSWERS TO CHARGES OF DEP PARTY MEMBERS The Turkish government has sent an answer to the charges of the DEP party members sentenced in Turkey for their political affiliation with the terrorist PKK organization. The DEP party members have long since applied to the European Council Human Rights Commission to examine their their case, and now Turkey has sent a 33 page-reply to the claims of the imprisoned DEP party members. The statement of the government claims that the DEP party was prepared to use violence to reach its target of creating terror and division in Turkey. Another way of achieving this was to be through the political arm of the PKK, also an instrument to be used in the creation of an independent state. The statement adds that the DEP members misused parliamentary privileges in pursuit of their aims. Also the government defence says that the DEP parliamentarians are not beyond the reach of the law and must be dealt with accordingly. /Milliyet/ GERMANY APPROVES WEAPON EXPORTS TO TURKEY The German government yesterday approved weapon exports to Turkey. A spokesman from the German Foreign Ministry said that two frigates for Turkey will be constructed in Germany and that Turkey will also profit from a DM 150 million financial aid package. German Prime Minister Helmut Kohl promised the financial aid to Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller on September 20, 1994. /All papers/ --- APS (Newsdesk) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Fri Mar 17 09:31:27 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 17 Mar 1995 09:31:27 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review US AGAINST FORMATION OF KURDISH PARLIAMENT Although the former DEP party members, tried and sentenced in Turkey for promoting the interests of the terrorist PKK organization, are also trying to win support for the formation of a Kurdish parliament -the US administration has come out in opposition to the move. Former members of the DEP party, now lobbying for the foundation of the Kurdish parliament, have started to meet with more US opposition among US government members in Washington. Nevertheless, individuals in the House of Representatives are showing some interest in the case being put forward by the pro-Kurdish former parliamentarians. /Hurriyet/ BELGIUM IGNORING PKK MOVES TO FORM PARLIAMENT Turkey has announced that it will take diplomatic action against Belgian indifference to PKK supported moves to form a Kurdish parliament in-exile. Although Turkey has expressed dismay over Belgian views in relation to the terrorist PKK organization, there has been no positive reaction from the Belgian government. The Turkish government has conveyed to Belgian officials that further action can be expected if the Belgian stance does not change. /Hurriyet/ TURKISH OFFICES IN GERMANY SET ON FIRE German police have reported that two tourism agencies in Berlin, a culture center in Duisburg and an office in Leunen that belong to Turkish citizens have been set on fire. Although in most cases damage was severe, there have been no reports of death or injury. It has been stressed that the incidents by fire, bombers took place following the German government's decision to ban the activities of Kurdish organization in Germany. /Cumhuriyet/ -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sat Mar 18 23:23:46 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 18 Mar 1995 23:23:46 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MARCH 17, 1995 Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning CURFEW LIFTED IN ISTANBUL Authorities lifted the curfew that was in effect in three districts of Istanbul after daily life returned to normal yesterday. Meanwhile, local judicial organs have started an investigation into the incidents that left nearly 20 people dead. Prime Minister Ciller will fly to Istanbul today to visit the injured in hospitals and wish them a speedy recovery. /All papers/ KARAYALCIN WARNS ATHENS Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin informed the US administration about the incidents that have taken place in Istanbul since the weekend. In reply to journalists' questions, Karayalcin said that some reports indicated Greek involvement in the Istanbul incidents. He noted that some terrorists interrogated by the police also suggested Greek involvement, adding that the government had been receiving information regarding terrorists who had infiltrated into Turkey from Greece. In the meantime, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced last night that the Greek tolerance of anti-Turkish acts in Greece was preventing the formation of an atmosphere of confidence between the two countries. Yesterday, about 50 militants of the terrorist PKK group staged a protest demonstration in Athens near the Turkish Embassy, burning Turkish flags and shouting separatist slogans. PASOK MP Dimitris Vunachos was also reported as saying that the security of Greek borders and regional peace depend on Kurdistan and the mountains of Karabakh. /Cumhuriyet/ COMMENTS Today most of the major newspapers point out in their commentaries that the whole nation had seen on TV the real perpetrators of the incidents: members of illegal terrorist organisations opening fire on the security forces. Daily newspaper Sabah publishes photographs of suspects participating in demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara, alleging that these terrorists instigated the violence. Emin Pazarci of Aksam and Guneri Civaoglu of Sabah notes that nearly 100 militants from illegal terrorist groups took part in the recent demonstrations and provoked people, concluding that the incidents cannot be viewed only as the reaction of Alevi citizens. Hasan Cemal of Sabah notes that Greece has been trying to use the PKK as a trump card against Turkey by tolerating PKK acts in Greece, and maintains that such an attitude would not serve the interests of Greece. He also points out that both foreign and domestic circles have so far failed to provoke unrest either between the Turks and Kurds or between the Sunnis and Alevis. Rauf Tamer of Hurriyet says that the cool-headed approach of the security forces and particularly of the police prevented further bloodshed, noting that police officers did not intervene while terrorists were destroying their vehicles. Emin Colasan, in his commentary in Hurriyet also notes tha fact that the local people were not responsible for the violence that was instigated by members of left, right and fundamentalist terrorist groups. Altan Oymen of Milliyet also notes that everybody watching the radio transmitted police order "do not fire" and saw elderly women trying to stop militants attacking the police. GROWING PAINS OF A NEW DEMOCRACY Top US officials have assessed the recent violence in certain districts of Istanbul, Ankara and other places throughout the country as the "pains that always accompany a growing democracy." David Johnson, spokesman for the US State Department, said that the US administration applauded the efforts of Turkey's prime minister and hoped that the inter- national community would lend its support to the people of Turkey. The US has conveyed its hope to Turkish officials that the Turkish parliament will agree to the "courageous" proposals of Prime Minister Ciller, and the measures she recommends to resolve domestic unrest. Although recognizing that Turkey has passed through a period of massive change and development, the US also notes that human rights still remain as a major problem for Turkey. /All papers/ TURKISH FLAG BURNT IN GREEK DEMONSTRATION Greek supporters of the terrorist PKK organization staged a protest demonstration yesterday against Turkey. About fifty people shouted anti-Turkey slogans in the centre of Athens and gathered out- side the Turkish Embassy there. Protestors carried banners with slogans showing support for the PKK and Kurdistan. Women protestors were quite prominent in the crowd, note reports from Athens. /Hurriyet/ TURKEY REACTS TO BELGIAN SUPPORT FOR KURDS Turkey has reacted strongly to Belgian support for moves to establish a Kurdish parliament in exile in that country. Turkey has told Belgian government officials that Turkey will impose an economic embargo against Belgium and severe diplomatic connections by withdrawing the Turkish Ambassador from Brussels if the move goes ahead. Ankara has also tried to enlist the support of NATO and the European Union (EU). The government has also made it known that it views the formation of a Kurdish parliament as a threat against Turkey's territorial integrity. /Hurriyet/ PAINT BOMB ATTACKS ON TURKISH CONSULATE About 100 demonstrators attempted to storm the Turkish Consulate in the German city of Frankfurt yesterday, the Anatolia news agency reported. Armed with stones, planks and paint bombs, the demonstrators, most of whom wore masks, stoned the police car parked in front of the Consulate, injuring two officers. The police were forced to use water cannons to disperse the crowd and the incident ended with 60 of the demonstrators being taken into custody. -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sun Mar 26 00:22:57 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 26 Mar 1995 00:22:57 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MARCH 24, 1995 Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning. NO YIELDING TO PRESSURE In response to pressure from some foreign governments, Prime Minister Ciller said yesterday that she would not bow to outside pressures when it came to developments in northern Iraq. A number of foreign governments, including the European Union, have called for Turkey's quick withdrawal from the region of northern Iraq, and have claimed that Turkey is flouting international laws about national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Following an interview with Britain's BBC yesterday evening, Ciller went on to detail Turkey's position with Sabah newspaper and said that Turkey was fighting against terrorism. Noting that Turkey had launched a massive military operation against terrorism in northern Iraq to beef up domestic security, Ciller added that Turkey was doing this with US government support and with the approval of European countries like France. Commenting on the problems of the huge anti-terrorist campaign, Ciller said that it was no easy task to eliminate the PKK. Claiming that the military operation had created no difficulties with either the US or the European Union, Ciller explained to Sabah newspaper that the process of democratization in Turkey would not be adversely affected by the northern Iraq military operation. /Sabah/ US BLOW AGAINST PARLIAMENT IN EXILE Former deputy of the now defunt Democracy Party (DEP), Ali Yigit cancelled a press meeting in Washington after US government officials failed to agree to support initiatives to establish a Kurdish parliament in exile. Christine Shelly, State Department Spokeswoman confirmed the decision of US administration by saying: "The US government is determined not to recognize a Kurdish parliament in exile because of PKK support for this initiative." The statement by Shelly shows that the connection between the Democracy Party and PKK has been carefully documented by the US government. Continuing, Spokeswoman Shelly said: "The US will not establish any connection with the PKK or with groups trying to legalize the PKK, and therefore will not hold talks with former Democracy Party Deputy Ali Yigit". /Hurriyet/ EU-TROIKA MEETINGS IN ANKARA The foreign ministers of three key EU members, in high- level talks with Turkish officials in Ankara yesterday, expressed concern over Turkey's military operation against separatist Kurdish camps in northern Iraq. Officials responded by indicating that the end of the Gulf War had left a power vacuum in the region which was working to Turkey's disadvantage by endangering security and necessitating this kind of action by the Turkish armed forces. Indicating that the current arrangement by the West vis-a-vis northern Iraq did nothing to enhance Turkey's security, Ankara also asked the EU to recommend means whereby this security could be provided, thus relieving the Turkish armed forces of having to take such big and costly measures. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Spain arrived in Ankara yesterday for a visit representing the so-called EU "troika" which comprises the Union's past, present and next term presidents. They were accompanied by the EU commissioner in charge of foreign affairs, Hans van den Broek. Addressing a joint conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin after the talks, French Foreign Minister Juppe admitted that if a vote were to be taken tomorrow in the European Parliament on Turkey's customs union with the EU, it would not pass. Juppe added that despite their various concerns about the method and duration of Turkey's military operation, they were pleased that Turkish officials they had met with had made it clear that Turkey would withdraw from northern Iraq as soon as it had completed its mission there. Juppe also stressed that Ankara had the right to ensure its own security and he condemned the separatist PKK terrorist organization. He added, however, that the EU was concerned over possible civilian losses and said that the Union was following developments closely. Turkish Foreign Minister Karayalcin also gave similar messages to Europe: "We are carrying out this operation in a region where Iraq has no de facto sovereignty. If Iraq had the de facto sovereignty in that region, we would not have had to carry out this operation. The decisions which the Western allies are implementing, block the establishment of Iraq's sovereignty there. If Iraq re-establishes its sovereignty there, then we will not have to carry out this kind of operation again". He also called upon the US and Baghdad to find a solution to the northern Iraq problem. He said to Baghdad: "If you fulfil the UN decisions, we will not have to carry out any other operations". Karayalcin gave this message to the US: "If Europe continues its reactions, we will bring the Provide Comfort into question". He added that conditions should be created to either ensure Iraq's total control over the region, or an international mechanism could be established to fill the authority vacuum there. The foreign ministers of the three countries met with Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Hikmet Cetin. They were also received by President Suleyman Demirel, Parliament Speaker Husamettin Cindoruk and Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. During the meetings, Cindoruk, Ciller and Cetin talked about the aim of the military operation, Turkey's steps towards democratization and amendments to the law and Constitution. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel met with New Democracy Movement (YDH) leader Cem Boyner and independent deputy Abdulmelik Firat, who is of Kurdish origin, and CHP executives Fehmi Isiklar, Halil Ibrahim Tutu and Atilla Hun. /All papers/ SECURITY FOR CIVILIANS A special centre is being set up in northern Iraq to make sure that security for civilians in the battle areas is not abused. Thirty-five thousand Turkish troops supported by heavy armour and air cover are in the region of northern Iraq, and there is both foreign and domestic concern that civilians might be harmed by the military pursuit of PKK terrorists hiding in the mountains. The special centre will take in hand complaints coming from civilians suffering loss or damage by the military, and will try to find a solution. Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Peterson said yesterday that Danish observers in a UN team following events in northern Iraq had reported that civilians were not being affected by the operation. In the meantime, the battle against the PKK has, if anything, intensified. One military representative said yesterday that the campaign will not be over in just a few more days. "We are taking new measures to provide more security, but the operation has spread over a wider area." The same official repeated that military forces deployed in northern Iraq will not be withdrawn until the last terrorist has been dealt with. Reports from military sources say that the region of Hakurg has been surrounded by Turkish troops. During the last 24 hours another 39 terrorists have been confirmed killed, bringing the total to around 128. The Turkish forces in northern Iraq are coming across pockets of resistence, despite the heavy bombing of PKK bases. There are reports of five separate clashes between PKK terrorist groups and the military forces. Traffic at the Habur border crossing point has once again been stopped, except for returning Iraqi trucks. /All papers/ EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL According to military spokesmen, Turkish forces have consolidated an area penetrating forty kms into north- ern Iraq. While heavy guns continue to pound the mountains at the further reaches of the incursion zone, support units have turned the area into a "security zone" -free of isolated groups of PKK terrorists. Specially trained forces are combing small communities around the PKK mountain strongholds in seek and destroy operations designed to rid the region of every last vestige of PKK control. Down in Incirlik, at the military base near Adana, officials there said yesterday that everything was "normal" and that AWAC and other air traffic was "routine" -nothing out of the ordinary. /Milliyet/ US CONTINUES TO SUPPORT TURKEY The US administration responded yesterday to some critics against the Turkish operation in northern Iraq and said: "We approve Turkish cross-border operation against the PKK terrorist organization". White House, State Department and Pentagon officials continue to support the operation as long as Turkey carries out within the border of its commitments. State Department Spokesman David Johnson said: "If one country is attacked by a terrorist organization settled in a neighbouring country, then this country has the right to protect its integrity". Former CIA official and Middle East expert, Graham Fuller also pointed out that northern Iraqi people are not administered according to international laws and said: "Thus, Turkey's operation is in line with international laws". /Cumhuriyet/ TURKISH DEFENCE MINISTER GOLHAN IN PARIS Mehmet Golhan, Defence Minister attended an unofficial meeting of the Western Europe Armament Group (WEAG) held in Paris yesterday. Attending the meeting as a guest of Francois Leotard, French Defence Minister, Mehmet Golhan met his Western European colleagues in a one-day seminar. Various issues of particular concern to France were taken up during the meeting which preceded France's two year term presidency. /Cumhuriyet/ YILMAZ CONTINUES HIS CONTACTS IN THE US Motherland Party Chairman Mesut Yilmaz said yesterday that he was ready for talks with any Kurdish group that was against terrorism and defended the territorial integrity of the country. Yilmaz has been holding talks with top-level officials from the US State Department, the Defence Department, Congress and Republican Party. Yilmaz has also had talks with US Assistant Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, and they discussed the latest developments in the Causcasus and in the Balkans,the Turkish military operation in northern Iraq and the latest developments in Turkey. Talbott told Yilmaz that he trusted in Turkish democracy, the Motherland Party and the leadership of Yilmaz. Yilmaz also held intensive talks with the possible new head of the CIA, Assistant Secretary of Defence John Deutch, Republican Senator Jesse Helms and one of the writers of the "Contract with America" programme, Dick Armey. Yilmaz attended a breakfast organized by the Carnegie Endowment Institution and answered the questions of representatives from the US State Department, the National Intelligence Council, the CSIS, Washington Institute, the Helsinki Commission and Amnesty International, about the Turkish coalition government, the Kurdish issue and Turkey's relations with her neighbours. At the breakfast, Yilmaz noted that Turkey was against a federal, autonomus independent Kurdish state. /Cumhuriyet-Milliyet/ NEW ATTACK AGAINST TURKS The police have arrested two PKK supporters in Singen, Germany evidently planning attacks against Turkish institutions by using molotov cocktails Police officials have said that it was still unknown whether or not the two suspects arrested in Singen had connection with the fire bomb attacks against a mosque on 11 August, 1994. /Cumhuriyet/ TURKEY COMBATS PKK TERRORISM IN NORTHERN IRAQ ============================================= THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE (March 23, 1995) "...this is an operation conducted by a legitimate, democratic government and a close ally of the West against a brutal terrorist organization. The PKK is one of the deadliest terrorist movements in the Middle East. What perhaps distinguishes the PKK from an organization like, say, Hamas, however, is the unwitting friends it has in the West. Though it by no means represents a significant portion of Turkish Kurds, much less other Kurds in the region, the organization is nevertheless seen in many Western circles as fighting for "Kurdish rights." The PKK's record of slaughtering Kurdish villagers loyal to the government should be evidence enough that the opposite is true. The PKK also makes money in Europe. europe is reportedly one of the main destinations for what is widely believed to be a lucrative PKK narcotics trade, from which it allegedly finances no small amount of its guerilla activities. Turkey's allies have a great stake in seeing this succeed. If Europe is to help Turkey, it must not push for early withdrawal from northern Iraq. Europe must recognize that terrorism today is sophisticated and savvy enough to use the West's principles against it. Turkey remains an important adjunct of Europe and a key member of the Atlantic Alliance. It remains our friend in a troubled region and deserves our support." THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (March 23, 1995) "The invasion by one country of another would normally occasion universal condemnation. That this has not been the case with the Turkish pursuit of Kurdish rebels into northern Iraq is due to the peculiar nature of the situation. Baghdad is in no position to prevent the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from using Iraq as a springboard for attacks into south-east Turkey. The PKK is a ruthless organization which threatens the integrity of the Turkish state. FINANCIAL TIMES, (March 23, 1995) "A spokesman for Mr. Hans van den Broek, EU commissioner for external affairs, justified Turkey's action on the grounds the Kurdish Workers' party was a terrorist group..." WASHINGTON TIMES, (March 21, 1994) After Mrs. Ciller briefed President Clinton during a 10-minute telephone call, White House Spokesman Michael McCurry said the president expressed "understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the PKK." ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE RICHARD HOLBROOKE (February 21, 1995) "With regard to the situation in the Southeast, we reaffirmed the fact that we believe that the PKK is a terrorist organization and that the Turkish government has a legitimate right to deal with it as such." MARCH 23, 1995 ITALY EXPRESSES UNDERSTANDING FOR TURKEY'S FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM Wrapping up a three-day visit to Turkey, Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro expressed his country's full understanding and support for Turkey in its fight against terrorism. From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 21:18:01 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 21:18:01 Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review TURKISH PRESS REVIEW MARCH 28, 1995 Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning. SEEK AND DESTROY OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ Turkish military forces are combing the hills in northern Iraq -flushing out pockets of PKK separatist resistence. Operations in and around the central point of Zakho continue at maximum intensity as military units try to block every avenue of escape. Some reports from the region say that more mobile units are being deployed to reach the more inaccessible areas in the mountains. Although reports do suggest that many PKK terrorists have already fled the region, Turkish forces are still finding large caches of weapons and other materiel. There are even some reports that military units penetrating deep into PKK country have discovered poppy fields being cultivated by the PKK, with a view to using the drug product as a way of financing their terrorist attacks. In the meantime, messages of concern about the deepening complications in northern Iraq and the likelihood of Turkish forces staying longer than first anticipated have come from the US and some European Union (EU) countries. So far in the military operations, 172 terrorists have been killed, and twelve have been taken alive. Losses in the Turkish forces are reported to be low. /All papers/ NATO'S CLAES TO VISIT TURKEY North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Willy Claes will visit Turkey on March 29-30 for official talks, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In his first visit to Turkey since he took office in September, Claes will confer with Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu, President Suleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, Deputy Prime Minister Hikmet Cetin and Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan. /All papers EU AND TURKISH YOUTHS MEET IN SILIFKE Silifke will welcome a group of 60 youths from European Union countries on June 26-29 for a "warming-up" meeting with young Turks, the Anatolian news agency reported. The TL 1 billion gathering, funded by the European Council, was the idea of the Council's Youth for Development and Cooperation (YDC) and the Turkish volunteer-run Friendly Surroundings Group (ACG). From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Wed Mar 8 19:46:03 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 08 Mar 1995 19:46:03 Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94 RESULT unmoderated group soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94 There were 959 YES votes and 94 NO votes, for a total of 1053 valid votes. There was 1 abstain and 7 invalid ballots. For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: soc.culture.kurdish People from Kurdistan and Kurds around the world. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only contact rdippold at qualcomm.com. For questions about the proposed group contact A.Stam . CHARTER This newsgroup will be established as a forum for sharing ideas and information about the culture, history, social and political devolepments in Kurdistan or related to Kurdistan. This newsgroup will provide open discussions on the issue of Kurdish Question, that is shared by different countries where Kurds currently live. This news group will also be accessable for other people from Kurdistan and others who believe that they have any kind of relationship with Kurdistan. The discussions will be in English or in different dialects of Kurdish (languages within Kurdish family). RATIONALE Periodically, interest in a group to discuss the Kurdish issue has been expressed. Questions concerning Kurdish problem have been posted in various newsgroups. It is widely felt that due to its context (the Kurdish problem) the other groups like soc.culture.turkish are inadequate for this purpose, not only because of different languages but also for the reason that just only one part of Kurdistan shares some common background with Turkey. So it is felt that a seperate newsgroup is suitable. This Newsgroup will virtually connect the vast scattered people from Kurdistan and hopefully it might contribute to bring the seperated dialects of Kurdish to a single national language. soc.culture.kurdish Final Vote Ack --- APS (Newsdesk) From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 8 22:26:48 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 08 Mar 1995 22:26:48 Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes References: Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Arm The Spirit Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94!! RESULT unmoderated group soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94 There were 959 YES votes and 94 NO votes, for a total of 1053 valid votes. There was 1 abstain and 7 invalid ballots. For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: soc.culture.kurdish People from Kurdistan and Kurds around the world. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only contact rdippold at qualcomm.com. For questions about the proposed group contact A.Stam . CHARTER This newsgroup will be established as a forum for sharing ideas and information about the culture, history, social and political devolepments in Kurdistan or related to Kurdistan. This newsgroup will provide open discussions on the issue of Kurdish Question, that is shared by different countries where Kurds currently live. This news group will also be accessable for other people from Kurdistan and others who believe that they have any kind of relationship with Kurdistan. The discussions will be in English or in different dialects of Kurdish (languages within Kurdish family). RATIONALE Periodically, interest in a group to discuss the Kurdish issue has been expressed. Questions concerning Kurdish problem have been posted in various newsgroups. It is widely felt that due to its context (the Kurdish problem) the other groups like soc.culture.turkish are inadequate for this purpose, not only because of different languages but also for the reason that just only one part of Kurdistan shares some common background with Turkey. So it is felt that a seperate newsgroup is suitable. This Newsgroup will virtually connect the vast scattered people from Kurdistan and hopefully it might contribute to bring the seperated dialects of Kurdish to a single national language. From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Thu Mar 9 00:33:33 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 09 Mar 1995 00:33:33 Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes References: Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94!! RESULT unmoderated group soc.culture.kurdish passes 959:94 There were 959 YES votes and 94 NO votes, for a total of 1053 valid votes. There was 1 abstain and 7 invalid ballots. For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: soc.culture.kurdish People from Kurdistan and Kurds around the world. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only contact rdippold at qualcomm.com. For questions about the proposed group contact A.Stam . CHARTER This newsgroup will be established as a forum for sharing ideas and information about the culture, history, social and political devolepments in Kurdistan or related to Kurdistan. This newsgroup will provide open discussions on the issue of Kurdish Question, that is shared by different countries where Kurds currently live. This news group will also be accessable for other people from Kurdistan and others who believe that they have any kind of relationship with Kurdistan. The discussions will be in English or in different dialects of Kurdish (languages within Kurdish family). RATIONALE Periodically, interest in a group to discuss the Kurdish issue has been expressed. Questions concerning Kurdish problem have been posted in various newsgroups. It is widely felt that due to its context (the Kurdish problem) the other groups like soc.culture.turkish are inadequate for this purpose, not only because of different languages but also for the reason that just only one part of Kurdistan shares some common background with Turkey. So it is felt that a seperate newsgroup is suitable. This Newsgroup will virtually connect the vast scattered people from Kurdistan and hopefully it might contribute to bring the seperated dialects of Kurdish to a single national language. From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Thu Mar 9 05:52:54 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 09 Mar 1995 05:52:54 Subject: PKK Offers Amnesty To Village Guard Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Arm The Spirit Subject: PKK Offers Amnesty To Village Guards KURD-A Documentation March 3, 1995 PKK Offers Amnesty To Village Guards The Central Committee of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), following its Fifth Party Congress, passed a resolution on February 25, 1995, offering a national amnesty. This amnesty is specifically aimed at village guards, who have been given until the end of May to decide whether or not to accept the amnesty. During the PKK's Fifth Congress, delegates agreed that village guards did not willingly take on their positions, but rather are forced to do so by the Turkish government. It is the Turkish government which is guilty of forcing Kurds to betray their own people. This is done in order to weaken the national liberation movement. The PKK is the only hope for the Kurdish people. That's why things cannot go on as they have in the past. Even though errors and mistakes were allowed in the past, the PKK can no longer give these people a chance. Treason to their own people is a sickness which manifests itself visibly. The village guard system has brought nothing but ruin, and this will continue unless something is done to stop it. That's why the PKK says: "Stop being pressured by the Turkish government! Don't believe their foolish propaganda! Don't become pawns of the Turkish government, which is only seeking to undermine the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan by any means! Stop carrying the shame of treason on your conscience!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit E-mail: ats at etext.org P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada WWW: gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Thu Mar 9 05:53:07 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 09 Mar 1995 05:53:07 Subject: Germany Bans Kurdistan Information Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Arm The Spirit Subject: Germany Bans Kurdistan Information Bureau KURD-A Documentation March 2, 1995 The ERNK European Representation issued the following statement concerning Germany's banning of Kurdish institutions: Today, several Kurdish institutions, including the Kurdistan Information Bureau, in various German cities were raided, searched, and banned by the police and state security forces. Materials in the offices were seized. The reason for the banning, according to police, were the attacks on Turkish travel agencies which occurred over the past few days, and that this action is a retaliation. In reality, this attack on Kurdish institutions is a continuation of a joint campaign by the German and Turkish governments against the national liberation struggle in Kurdistan. It is the result of the logic of banning, denial, and destruction. We would like to stress to the public that we were not in any way connected to the attacks on the Turkish travel agencies. We would like to stress that such accusations are being utilized as a means of justifying these bans and raids. In the name of the Kurdish people, we strongly condemn this action of the German government. The following is a statement by the Kurdistan Information Bureau, which has just been banned in Germany: Today, in the early morning, the Kurdistan Information Bureau in Cologne and Berlin as well as other institutions in Bavaria and North Rhein-Westphalia were search and banned by the German police on the orders of interior minister Kanther. During the police raids, publications, computers, files, and even the kitchen sink were taken away. The Kurdistan Information Bureau has followed the goal of publishing information regarding the situation in Kurdistan, but also about the persecution and criminalization of Kurds in Germany. Representatives of the Kurdistan Information Bureau across Germany have consistently argued for an end to the war in Kurdistan during their consultations with local, state, and federal officials. During the "International Kurdistan Conference" in Berlin on February 24-26, 1995, the Kurdistan Information Bureau once again attempted to express their desire that a peaceful solution to the Kurdistan conflict be found. The means employed by Germany to fight against politically- active Kurds increasingly resemble those used by the Turkish state. It was exactly one year ago that Turkey expelled the Democracy Party (DEP) MPs from the parliament in a putsch-like manner and arrested them. The Turkish government's aim in doing this was to prevent the MPs from carrying out their diplomatic and political work. During several foreign visits, these Kurdish MPs called on their European colleagues, especially the Germans, to force Turkey to respect human rights in Kurdistan. Today's banning of the Kurdistan Information Bureau is no coincidence. The interior minister's assertion that "the institutions were connected with the attacks of the last few days" and that they are the "successors of outlawed organizations" are identical to the reasons given by the State Security Court (DGM) for banning the DEP. The focus of the work carried out most recently by the Kurdistan Information Bureau was to inform the public about the creation of the Kurdish Exile Parliament and the upcoming Newroz festivities in Kurdistan and Germany. The exile parliament, when it is formed, will be responsible for representing the diplomatic and political interests of the Kurdish people living in exile and for seeking a political solution to the Kurdistan conflict. The resonance to this project from some European states has been very positive and many states have expressed their support for it. As in the past, Germany is not prepared to soften its hard- line politics with respect to the Kurds. The Bonn interior ministry's banning of Kurdish institutions in November 1993 has not stopped the Kurdish people from striving for their legitimate right to self-determination, neither dispersed abroad nor in Kurdistan. Developments, particularly the present ones, show that Germany wishes to remain Turkey's partner in the war against the Kurdish people. But the reality of 10 years of liberation struggle has made one thing clear: Nothing can defeat it. With its policies of the criminalization and persecution of Kurds living here, Germany is supporting the terrorist Turkish state, stirring up hatred between peoples, and worsening the war of destruction against our people. If Germany does not want this war, then why has it not declared its willingness to accept the countless proposals from the Kurds to act as a mediator between the two warring sides? Why can't Germany accept the exile parliament as a possibility for dialogue? The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has for years been making concrete proposals to end the internationally-sponsored special war against the Kurdish people. The General Secretary of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, in his letter of last November, called on Germany to work for peace in Kurdistan and Turkey. Why has there never been an answer to this letter? Cologne - March 2, 1995 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit E-mail: ats at etext.org P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada WWW: gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Thu Mar 9 21:17:28 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 09 Mar 1995 21:17:28 Subject: Iraq's Troop Buildup Against Kurdis Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: Iraq's Troop Buildup Against Kurdish Region 7 March 1995 IRAQ'S TROOP BUILDUP AGAINST KURDISH REGION Qala-Cholan, Iraq -- Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani today received a delegation from the UN Guard Contingent stationed in Iraqi Kurdistan. Mr. Talabani submitted a detailed account of the order of battle of Iraqi armed forces deployed on the fringes of the Kurdish region: Three army corps (the First, the Fifth and the Second) are massed against the Kurdish region. These three corps include a total of 17 divisions comprising nine infantry divisions, one armored division, two mechanized infantry divisions, four Republican Guard divisions including an armored division, and one Border Guard division. In addition to these, a further 25 tank units (katiba), eight armored regiments (fawj), seven mechanized regiments, four armored units and 27 infantry brigades are deployed. Mr. Talabani expressed his surprise at a recent statement by a UN official in Iraq underestimating the significance of Iraqi troop buildup against the Kurdish region, and pointed out that the strength of these forces equals that of the invasion forces deployed against Kuwait in August 1990. 7 March 1995 IRAQI AGGRESSION AGAINST KURDISH AREAS CONTINUES: HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS ATTACK KURDISH POSITIONS Iraqi armed forces continue with their agression and provocation against Kurdish communities and positions on the fringes of the Kurdish administered region. Amid continued artillery shelling of Kurdish positions, Iraqi infantry and armored units have engaged Kurdish and Iraqi National Congress (INC) forces in various locations. Kurdish forces in coordination with the INC are maintaining defensive positions against Iraqi offensives and provocation. Kurdish officials in Erbil confirmed that Iraqi helicopter gunships attacked Kurdish positions near Chemchamal throughout today. More Iraqi infantry and armored reinforcements have been observed taking up positions in the no-man's land near Chemchamal. Last night, in response to persistent shelling and provocation by Iraqi armed forces, Kurdish and INC forces gained control over the artillery regiment of the 38th Division in the Gwer district (northwest of Erbil). In this engagement, opposition forces captured eight 122mm artillery pieces and large amounts of light weapons and ammunition. Nearly 70 Iraqi soldiers and officers defected to the opposition side, including members of the 2nd and 3rd regiments of the 848th Brigade of the 38th Division. Sporadic clashes with Iraqi armed forces were also reported in the Kifri area last night. We call upon the international community to restrain the government of Iraq from persisting with its aggression against the Kurdish region. for more information, call (703) 354-3056 [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Sat Mar 11 22:34:11 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 11 Mar 1995 22:34:11 Subject: Anti-Terrorism Bill In U.S. Congres Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Arm The Spirit Subject: Anti-Terrorism Bill In U.S. Congress Omnibus Counterterrorism Bill - S. 390 and H.R. 896 New FBI Charter To Investigate Political Groups February 10, 1995 the Omnibus Counterterrorism Bill was introduced as S. 390 into the Senate and as H.R. 896 in the House. It was initiated by the FBI, and passed on by the Justice Department and the White House. Senators Biden (D-DE) and Specter (R-PA) initiated it in the Senate, Rep. Schumer (D-NY) and Dicks (D-WA) in the House. It has bipartisan support and could get expedited action. Summary * This is a general charter for the FBI and other agencies, including the military, to investigate political groups and causes at will. The bill is a wide-ranging federalization of different kinds of actions applying to both citizens and non-citizens. The range includes acts of violence (attempts, threats and conspiracies) as well as giving funds for humanitarian, legal activity. * It would allow up to 10 year sentences for citizens and deportation for permanent resident non-citizens for the "crime" of supporting the lawful activities of an organization the President declares to be "terrorist", as the African National Congress, FMLN in El Salvador, IRA in Northern Ireland, and PLO have been labelled. It broadens the definition of terrorism. The President's determination of who is a terrorist is unappealable, and specifically can include groups regardless of any legitimate activity they might pursue. * It authorizes secret trials for immigrants who are not charged with a crime but rather who are accused of supporting lawful activity by organizations which have also been accused of committing illegal acts. Immigrants could be deported: 1) using evidence they or their lawyers would never see; 2) in secret proceedings; 3) with one sided appeals; 4) using illegally obtained evidence. * It suspends posse comitatus - allowing the use of the military to aid the police regardless of other laws. * It reverses the presumption of innocence - the accused is presumed ineligible for bail and can be detained until trial. * It loosens the rules for wiretaps. It would prohibit probation as a punishment under the act - even for minor nonviolent offenses. Implications * Those who remember the McCarran Walter Act will recognize this bill, only in some ways this is broader and potentially more dangerous. * This bill is highly political: the President can determine who is a terrorist and change his/her mind at will and even for economic reasons. The breadth of its coverage would make it impossible for the government to prosecute all assistance to groups around the world that have made or threatened to commit violent acts of any sort. Necessarily its choices would be targeted at organizations the government found currently offensive. People to be deported would be chosen specifically because of their political associations and beliefs. * The new federal crime: international terrorism doesn't cover anything that is not already a crime. As the Center for National Security Studies notes: "Since the new offense does not cover anything that is not already a crime, the main purpose of the proposal seems to be to avoid certain constitutional and statutory protections that would otherwise apply." * While many provisions of this bill could well be found unconstitutional after years of litigation, in the mean time the damage could be enormous to the First Amendment and other constitutional rights including presumption of innocence and right to bail. The bill has been referred to judiciary committees of each house. Only the New York Times has as yet noticed the bill - a 2/24/95 Anthony Lewis column. Other papers should be alerted. For More Information: Kit Gage, Washington Liaison, National Lawyers Guild 3321-12th St., NE, Washington DC 20017 USA Tel: 202-529-4225 Fax: 202-526-4611 E-mail: kgage at igc.apc.org From IZFV at LINK-ATU.comlink.apc.org Fri Mar 17 18:42:04 1995 From: IZFV at LINK-ATU.comlink.apc.org (IZFV at LINK-ATU.comlink.apc.org) Date: 17 Mar 1995 18:42:04 Subject: Text zu Tuerkei englisch Message-ID: <93.6762@link-atu.comlink.de> ___________________________________________________________VIAS Verein zum infrastrukturellen Aufbau in Slumgebieten INFORMATIONSZENTRUM FUeR FREIE VOeLKER Josefstaedterstrasse 81-83/ 3/ Keller 1080 Wien Tel und Fax: 407 81 22 ________________________________________________________________ Istanbul in war Fascists and state work together! March 13th, 1995 - 18.00 p.m. Today 10.000 people have taken to the streets in Istanbul protesting against fascist attacks and not being supported by the police. In an district in Istanbul, in Gazi Mahalles, where live mainly Kurds, Alevits und people from Anatolia there robbed a group of konterguerilla an March 12th at 21.00p.m. a taxi, carried off the driver, went by this taxi to Gazi Mahalle and fired an four coffeshops and on one cakeshop. At this attack 25 people have been hurtes and a 70 year old man has been killed. The fascists killed the taxidriver too. Although there is a police- station nearbay (200m). The police appeard a half an hour later after this crime. That is an obvious proof for the support of the police for the attackers. 20.000 people demonstrated thereupon, they started a fire, built barricades and attacked the police station. The police opened the fire and killed two people. VIAS Verein zum infrastrukturellen Aufbau in Slumgebieten INFORMATIONSZENTRUM FUeR FREIE VOeLKER Josefstaedterstrasse 81-83/ 3/ KAe___V\__Z\__$ Around noon again two people have been killed by the police - a woman and a 14year old boy. The police imposed a curfew, nobody is allowed to enter the district. Party leaders are not anymore accepted by the inhabitants of this quaters because they don?t work for the interests of them. They try to show this incident who is an attack of the fascists together with the police to be a religious war. March 13th, 1995, at 21.00p.m. Army and police start the fire! Tanks against the people! In the last night there have been demonstrations in other districts. They shouted out slogans like: "We are the people, we are right, we will win!" and "Long live Gazi resistence!" At 15.00p.m. the police started the fire from tanks against the people. The number of deadly victims rised to ten, there has been many hurted persons too. Until evening police and army have massacred 17 people. Representives of the government exploited cynically "That?s an action of enemies of the state who want to prevent the customs union with Europe" March 15th, 1995 In Ankara there has been a demonstration of 10.000 people, where three people were killed. Thousands of people demonstrate in many quaters in Istanbul. In Gazi still 10.000 people fight behind the barricades. A commitee for defence against fascism was grounded. For dismantling the barricades they demanded: 1. the retreat of the army and the police 2. the handing over of the bodys of the killed comrades 3. medical care for hurted people 4. the release of the detained 5. stop of the looting and vandalizing Appeal for a delegation to Istanbul Gaziosmanpasa. If you are interested please answer immediately because the departure has to be as soon as possible for trying to prevent a massacre still more horrible! March 13th, 1995, at 21.00 p.m.____m ___ From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Sat Mar 18 05:20:10 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 18 Mar 1995 05:20:10 Subject: VOA: Germany/Kurds Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Germany/Kurds Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/17/95 byline= Evans Hays Intro: There have been more firebomb attacks in Germany directed at Turkish targets. Police believe the attacks are the work of Kurdish militants opposed to the government in Turkey. No casualties were reported. The German parliament, meanwhile, has approved an order from the federal interior ministry to begin the immediate deportation of Kurds living in Germany who have sought political asylum. VOA's Evans Hays in Bonn files this report. Text: In several German cities there was yet another night of violence, as Turkish businesses and cultural centers were hit by firebombs. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police say they have little doubt that the violence has been carried out by Kurdish extremists. And they fear there is more to come. There are more than two million Turkish residents in Germany, and about 400-thousand of them are of Kurdish origin. In Turkey, Kurdish militants are fighting to establish their own homeland. They claim that Turkish authorities have been persecuting and killing Kurds in the southeastern part of the country. Authorities in Bonn are worried that this conflict has now spilled over into Germany and may get worse. The Kurdish new year is to be celebrated next week. Police say they believe the violence will begin this weekend in advance of the new year celebration, which, in the past, has been the occasion for trouble. What makes matters worse now is an order from the German Interior Ministry to begin the deportation of Kurds from Germany to Turkey. The deportation was begun months ago, only to be halted pending an official investigation into allegations that the Kurds faced persecution or death on their return home. The German government has decided that the allegations have no merit and the deportations may now go ahead. The German parliament on Friday voted in favor of the deportations. But the Federal government view in Bonn is not shared by many of the state governments controlled by the main opposition Social Democratic Party. In those states, the deportation order is likely to take a long time to enforce. 17-Mar-95 9:55 am EST (1455 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Mon Mar 20 19:18:43 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 20 Mar 1995 19:18:43 Subject: Israel helps Turkey fight against K Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: Israel helps Turkey fight against Kurds 03/17 1156 Israel helps Turkey in fight against Kurds: report PARIS, March 17 (AFP) - Israeli military experts are helping the Turkish government combat Kurdish separatist guerillas, the weekly "confidential" newsletter TTU said Friday. The newsletter, which uses unnamed sources, said Turkey was hoping to benefit from Israeli expertise and claimed a delegation of about 50 Israeli military security officials recently went to Ankara to give the government there advice. They proposed that Turkey set up a security cordon like the one that Israel has established in south Lebanon against pro-Israeli Hezbollah guerillas, with mine fields and radar to detect intruders, according to the report, which could not be independently verified. Israeli spy planes have also intensified flights over the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, particularly in the Yanta area, near the Syrian border, where the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has training camps, said the newsletter, whose initials stand for Tres, Tres Urgent (Very, Very Urgent). hm/rp/ms From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Mon Mar 20 21:16:12 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 20 Mar 1995 21:16:12 Subject: Israel helps Turkey fight against K References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Israel helps Turkey fight against Kurds Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ---------------- Forwarded from : mchyet at library.berkeley.edu ------------------ 03/17 1156 Israel helps Turkey in fight against Kurds: report PARIS, March 17 (AFP) - Israeli military experts are helping the Turkish government combat Kurdish separatist guerillas, the weekly "confidential" newsletter TTU said Friday. The newsletter, which uses unnamed sources, said Turkey was hoping to benefit from Israeli expertise and claimed a delegation of about 50 Israeli military security officials recently went to Ankara to give the government there advice. They proposed that Turkey set up a security cordon like the one that Israel has established in south Lebanon against pro-Israeli Hezbollah guerillas, with mine fields and radar to detect intruders, according to the report, which could not be independently verified. Israeli spy planes have also intensified flights over the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, particularly in the Yanta area, near the Syrian border, where the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has training camps, said the newsletter, whose initials stand for Tres, Tres Urgent (Very, Very Urgent). hm/rp/ms ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From alberto at nodo50.gn.apc.org Tue Mar 21 07:52:54 1995 From: alberto at nodo50.gn.apc.org (alberto at nodo50.gn.apc.org) Date: 21 Mar 1995 07:52:54 Subject: Fax needed for action. Message-ID: Necesitamos los faxes del Ministerio de Interior Turco, o del de la Presidencia, para protestar por la detencion del grupo internacional de observadores el domingo 20 de marzo. We need fax numbers of the Ministry of Interior, or the Presidency's, to protest against the detention of a group of internacional observers on march 20th. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Tue Mar 21 13:18:18 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 21 Mar 1995 13:18:18 Subject: TURKISH RADIO HOUR NEWS Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: TURKISH RADIO HOUR NEWS Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------------------ Forwarded from : trh at netcom.com (trh trh) ------------------- ************************ Today's news was edited by Ahmet Toprak ************************ VIOLENCE IN ISTANBUL 03/17/95, TRH--Turkey was shook with violence last week after the shooting death of an individual and wounding of several people at a cafe in a district of Istanbul mainly inhabited by Alevis. In the ensuing riots that mainly erupted in Istanbul dozens of people got killed or wounded, mainly by gunfire from the security forces fending off the attackers. The exact motive and the whereabouts of the assailants at the cafe is still unknown, but the consensus is that the goal was to create anarchy and violence by provoking sectarian strife. Almost every Turk of varying political affiliation condemned the attack. Although there were two phone calls which alleged that the attack was carried out by a fundamentalist Moslem group, there was speculation that the attack could be the work of the separatist Kurdish Workers Party. Some members of the Turkish media even went further to allege that the attack was masterminded by Turkey's foreign enemies, and this claim was reiterated by the some of the cabinet members. On Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Minister went one step further and warned Greece about infiltrations of terrorists to Turkey from Greece. The previous day Greek officials refused and protested the Turkish prime and defense ministers similar accusations, and said that Turkey has always been blaming its internal politics on Greece. 21 PERCENT OF TURKS ILLITERATE 03/17/95, TRH--In a report given to the Turkish president, the Ministry of National Education said that 21 percent of the Turks are still illiterate. The bitter report mentioned also the following: * The compulsory education in Turkey is still 5 years whereas in Europe it is 9 to 12 years. A European youth starts choosing a vocational path at the age of 14, but in Turkey a youth dreams of attending a university until 18 to get into a profession. * 10 percent of the male and 31 percent of the female population are illiterate. * Turkey is behind its neighbor Syria in literacy, a much poorer nation. * Budgetary constraints in education is preventing even the day-to-day functioning of schools. Utilities of some schools are cut off due to inadequate funds. * $740 million more in funds are needed to improve the educational system. NATO AWARDS TURKISH PROFESSOR 03/14/95, HURRIYET--Prof. Ahmet Ucer, the head of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, has been awarded the Science Award 1995 presented by the NATO Aviation and Space Research Counsel, for his studies in aerodynamics and turbulence system as they affect aircraft. ECONOMIC BRIEFS * France is extending credit to Turkey for joint projects. * Textile exports from the Southeastern Anatolia Project region dropped by 6% to $16 million in 1994. * Foreign capital investments break new records, $235 million approved in February. * Exchange rate for the U.S. dollar was TL 41.706 when bought 41.916 when sold by banks. * The state-run Development Bank of Turkey (TKB) during 1994 made loans worth $35 million to 120 tourism companies. * International banks have given undertakings to provide $500 million in new credits to Turkey. * The T-1 irrigation tunnel, one of the most important investment projects within the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), is to start operations on April 11. * The Turco-American joint economic commission will have talks in Washington between 29-30 March. ATTACKS ON TURKISH INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY CONTINUE 03/17/95, TRH--Throughout the last week several attacks were reported on Turkish-owned businesses, establishments and a mosque in German cities. The attacks were blamed on separatist Kurds' anger at German government's decision to ban their activities, and allowing the deportation of their members to Turkey. Violence engulfing the Alevi community in Istanbul also sparked an excuse for more attacks in Germany. Elsewhere in Athens, Greece Kurdish separatist militants burned Turkish flags in front of the Turkish Embassy purportedly protesting the events in Istanbul and Turkish policies in the Southeast of Turkey. RELATIONS WITH EU 03/17/95, TRH--After the signing of the agreement to include Turkey in a customs union with Europe on March 6, there seems to be still some rough sees ahead between Turkey and the EU. Last week a Greek initiative to postpone the custom union was rejected in the European Parliament. Another proposal by the Socialist group for alleged human rights abuses in Turkey was also defeated. Next week the three European leaders in the so-called troika will come together in Ankara to discuss the further development of political dialogue with Turkey. In the wake of the Ankara meeting, the EU Commissioner Hans Van Den Broek will have talks with Prime Minister Ciller that will include issues like Balkan developments, Bosnia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and regional stability. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Tue Mar 21 19:16:39 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 21 Mar 1995 19:16:39 Subject: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push in Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq --------------- Forwarded Story --------------- Headline: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report) Date: Mon, Mar 20, 1995 ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, called the movement an "unjustified incursion" and appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces. "Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border through the main road into Zakho," it said in a faxed statement from London. "This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity," it said. Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in southeast Turkey. The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers. "The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho extensively," the INC said in a statement. The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds lived. Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air cover. REUTER From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Tue Mar 21 19:25:09 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 21 Mar 1995 19:25:09 Subject: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push in References: Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq --------------- Forwarded Story --------------- Headline: Iraqi Kurds condemn Turkish push into north Iraq Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report) Date: Mon, Mar 20, 1995 ANKARA, March 20 (Reuter) - Iraqi opposition groups on Monday condemned the cross-border move by up to 35,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), co-rulers of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, called the movement an "unjustified incursion" and appealed to the United Nations to ensure the withdrawal of Turkish forces. "Last night thousands of Turkish troops supported by 80 tanks, 100 APCs (armoured personnel carriers) and around 280 vehicles, crossed the border through the main road into Zakho," it said in a faxed statement from London. "This move is the most serious by the Turkish army in size and intention and it is a clear-cut violation of Iraq's territorial integrity," it said. Turkey says the operation is aimed at wiping out bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting the army for a homeland in southeast Turkey. The opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), which embraces many Kurdish groups, quoted their Zakho sources as saying Turkish troops had arrested hundreds of men and women, accusing them of being PKK sympathisers. "The Turkish army is (also) bombarding the villages around Zakho extensively," the INC said in a statement. The KDP said Turkish forces initially controlled Zakho, imposing a curfew for a few hours before heading east and surrounding two refugee centres, identified as Darkar and Hiezawa, where it said several thousands of Iraqi Kurds lived. Turks say the KDP has traditionally been closer to Ankara than the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shares power with the KDP in the de-facto Iraqi Kurdish government. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991. They are protected by Western air cover. REUTER From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Tue Mar 21 19:31:56 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 21 Mar 1995 19:31:56 Subject: New book: Kurdistan during the Firs Message-ID: From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Subject: New book: Kurdistan during the First World War This book can be helpful in providing background for an understanding of current events in Kurdistan. MLC ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________ Subject: New book: Kurdistan during the First World War Author: Michael Chyet at UCBLIB_LSO2 Date: 3/21/95 9:24 AM Dear friends: I am happy to announce the appearance in English of an important book: Kamal Madhar Ahmad. KURDISTAN DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR, translated by Ali Maher Ibrahim, with a foreword by Akram Jaff (London : Saqi Books, 1994), 234 p. ISBN 0 86356 084 9 >From the dust jacket: The author shows how, before and during the First World War, the political manoeuvring of the Allied powers, particularly Britain, concentrated on securing easy access to the region's oilfields and thus ignored the rights of the Kurds. The role and involvement of Germany and Russia are also discussed in detail. Of major importance are the chapters examining the role of the Kurds in the Armenian massacres. In his dispassionate analysis of this sensitive issue, the author sheds new lights on the involvement of the Kurds in the tragedy of the Armenian people under Ottoman rule. The Kurdish historian Kamal Madhar Ahmad received his academic training in Russia, and was until recently Professor of History at Baghdad University. He has published several books on the history of the Kurds and other historical events in the region. Table of contents: Foreword Introduction 1. Early Designs 2. On the Verge of War 3. In the Thick of Battle 4. Struggle and Casualties 5. The Kurds and the Armenian Bloodshed 6. Claims Take Shape Conclusion Index Saqi Books 26 Westbourne Grove London W2 5RH United Kingdom From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 17:34:04 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 17:34:04 Subject: VOA: Turkey/Kurds 2 Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey/Kurds 2 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/21/95 byline= Douglas Roberts Intro: Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and helicopters, are now in the second day of a major operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. VOA's Douglas Roberts in Geneva reports the offensive has prompted appeals for restraint from UN officials, concerned for the fate of more than four-thousand refugees in the area. Text: Officials of the UN high commissioner for refugees estimate that about 13-thousand Turkish Kurds have fled to northern Iraq during the past year. And more than one-third of them are living inside the strip of territory along the border that has now been sealed off by Turkish troops in their offensive against guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK. In a press communique issued late Monday, and again at a news briefing Tuesday, the UNHCR voiced concern for the refugees and urged the Turkish armed forces to show restraint. Spokesman Ron Redmond says the UN's concern was heightened by unconfirmed reports that Turkish troops are rounding up Kurds in the warzone and taking them back across the border. /// Redmond act /// If these are armed PKK fighters, that is one thing; but if they are unarmed civilian refugees, we would consider this a very serious matter indeed. So once again, we ask the Turkish military to take great care that they clearly distinguish between civilian refugees and armed activists. /// end act /// Mr. Redmond says UNHCR officials travelled to the warzone on Tuesday in an attempt to gain first-hand information on the fate of the refugees. The UN agency provides food and basic medical care for the Kurdish refugees. Late last year, most of them were transferred from the border region to a new facility 160 kilometers to the south. UN officials acknowledge that the move was carried out to ensure that the refugee camps would not be perceived as launching pads for guerrilla incursions into Turkey. 21-Mar-95 9:20 am EST (1420 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 17:44:21 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 17:44:21 Subject: VOA: Turkey/Kurds Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey/Kurds Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/20/95 byline= Victor Beattie Intro: American experts on Turkey says the latest military offensive into northern Iraq -- the largest in modern Turkish history -- will not solve the long-standing and complex Kurdish problem. VOA's Victor Beattie reports political and cultural issues must be dealt with to defuse the 11-year quest for an independent homeland: Text: Author Robert Kaplan says the Turkish military has gained increasing political control in Ankara at the expense of what he calls a weak civilian coalition government. While none of the experts expects a long offensive they do agree the offensives in recent years have involved more force. They say this latest offensive aimed at destroying the guerrilla bases of the marxist Kurdistan Worker's Party, which has been fighting for an independent homeland for 11 years at a cost of thousands of lives, does not address the political issue of autonomy. Mr. Fuller says Kurds have intermarried with Turks for over 600 years and they are everywhere in the country today: ///Kaplan actuality/// Federalism, giving them some autonomy will not work. That is a recipe for an even weaker Turkish state. There has to be some form of dual-nationalist or extremely subtle constitutional formulation for this. This is one of the hardest problems to solve because it cannot be solved territorially. ///end actuality/// Mr. Graham Fuller of the wellknown research group in Washington DC, Rand Corporation, says granting certain cultural rights to the Kurdish minority might ease their demand for separatism. The experts warn a resurgent Kurdish movement toward autonomy could result in a new form of Balkans conflict in the region. 20-Mar-95 9:56 pm EST (0256 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 17:53:45 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 17:53:45 Subject: VOA: Germany/Turks Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Germany/Turks Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/21/95 byline= Dagmar Breitenbach Intro: Arsonists attacked a newspaper office and Turkish banks in several German cities early today (Tuesday) in the latest of the firebombings of Turkish businesses and mosques in Germany. VOA's Dagmar Breitenbach reports police suspect Kurdish extremists are responsible. Text: No one was injured and little damage was done in the firebombings, but police detained two suspects in Gelsenkirchen, where petrol bombs were hurled at a Turkish bank. Another bank was attacked in Cologne, as well as a travel bureau and the offices of Hurriyet newspaper in Berlin. There have been similar incidents throughout Germany every night for the past week. With almost two-million people, the Turks are Germany's largest foreign community. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police suspect the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party -- the PKK -- is behind the arson. The party has been fighting the government in Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish ambassador to Bonn, Onur Oeymen, called on the German police to provide more protection for Turks living here. German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther has condemned the attacks, urging police in Germany's 16 states to increase their protection of Turkish premises. 21-Mar-95 7:36 am EST (1236 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 18:03:21 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 18:03:21 Subject: VOA: Iraqi No-Fly Zone Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Iraqi No-Fly Zone Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/21/95 byline= David Swan Intro: The Turkish offensive against Kurdish separatist rebels in northern Iraq has temporarily grounded the allied warplanes that usually patrol the area. VOA's Pentagon correspondent David Swan has details. Text: For a second day (Tuesday), coalition jets stayed out of the skies in the no-fly zone above the 36th paralell. The zone was created after the Gulf War to protect the Kurds from the Iraqi air force. Now, with the heavy fighting between Turkish and separatist forces, Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx says the mission has become more dangerous and may not resume until the campaign is over. // Boxx act // The theater commander there needs to make decisions about to what degree he wants to put his personnel at risk and I think that the view at this point is its simply better to not put those people at risk until this situation is resolved. // end act // Authorities are also worried about possible "Friendly fire" incidents -- especially after American fighters shot down US helicopters in the same region last April. The coalition is still keeping watch on the no-fly zone. So far, there are no reports the Iraqis are taking advantage of the allied standdown to send their own aircraft against the Kurds. 21-Mar-95 3:38 pm EST (2038 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 19:27:28 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 19:27:28 Subject: VOA: Turkey/Kurds 3 Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey/Kurds 3 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/21/95 byline= Daud Majlis Intro: A Rand Corporation expert on the Middle East, Graham Fuller, says Turkey's armed sweep into the northern Iraqi territories is a manifestation of Turkish anxieties about a separatist movement. The Rand Corporation is a private research institute. Mr. Fuller says Turkey has been uneasy about the existence of the Kurdish autonomous region of Kurdistan because it is seen as an encouragement for separatists inside Turkey. Many of these separatists are members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK. From Washington, VOA's Daud Majlis reports. Text: Dr. Graham Fuller described the present push by about 35 thousand Turkish troops into northern Iraq as an incursion and not an invasion. He makes that distinction because he sees an invasion as an intent to occupy the territory and to establish political control. // Fuller actuality // I think it was a military operation in principle anyway against PKK. But, as you know, there are Iraqi Kurdish elements that deny that there were PKK forces in that region. I cannot judge that but I don't think it was designed to be an invasion in that sense. But it was a very serious incursion with one of the largest military force that Turkey ever employed against that region (northern Iraq). // end actuality // Dr. Fuller said he thought the Turkish deployment warns the PKK and the Iraqi Kurdish forces that Turkey will not tolerate PKK's presence although Turkey has no desire to take over the region. The Rand Corporation expert said the United States is sympathic toward Turkey's desire to end PKK guerrilla activities. Dr. Fuller said most observers characterize the PKK as marxist-leninist in orientation. PKK guerrillas have been condemned for violence, including the killings of their own Kurdish people. // Fuller actuality // So no one, I think, particularly supports or admires the PKK. But I think the US also feels and it is quite clear that the US believes that even if the PKK guerrilla problem is solved there still remains a very distinct political problem with the Kurdish unhappiness inside Turkey. And that unhappiness cannot be settled by military solution. It must be treated by political means. // end actuality // Dr. Fuller said the Turkish incursion is not necessarily unacceptable under international law. He said northern Iraq has not been operating under normal international law and foreign military and civilian forces -- British, French, American, and Turkish -- are deployed there to protect Kurds from aggression by Saddam Hussein. The Rand Corporation expert also noted that a protected "No-fly-zone" is applicable to Iraqi aircraft only. The zone was designed to prevent Iraqi attacks. He said American, Turkish and other flights are allowed in the zone which he described as outside the normal law of sovereignty. 21-Mar-95 3:45 pm EST (2045 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 19:40:40 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 19:40:40 Subject: VOA: US/Turkey Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: US/Turkey Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/21/95 byline= David Gollust Intro: The United States is closely monitoring Turkey's military offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. As VOA's David Gollust reports, US officials say neither the Turkish incursion itself -- nor Turkey's probable use of American-supplied arms in the operation -- appears to violate international law. text: the clinton administration declines to flatly endorse the Turkish drive against bases of the Kurdistan workers party, or p-k-k, in northern iraq. But it does express "Understanding" for Turkey's motives in launching the attack. And it says state department lawyers believe the operation does not violate international law. france and the european union have criticized the offensive as a violation of iraqi sovereignty and of international law. But state department spokesman david johnson said u-s experts believe it can be defended as a legitimate exercise -- by Turkey -- of its right to self-defense -- given the history of p-k-k attacks from iraqi territory: ///Johnson actuality/// A country has the right to use force to protect itself from attacks from a neighboring country -- if that neighboring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territories for such attack. That right -- flowing from the right of self-defense -- is of course limited to such use of force as is necessary and appropriate to protect itself. //end actuality/// Mr. Johnson also said Turkey is not barred from using American weapons in military actions considered defensive in nature. Turkey's armed forces are largely equipped with weapons either supplied by the united states or made in Turkey under US license -- and officials here assume that some have been used in the Iraqi incursion. The spokesman stressed that the defense of Turkey's action in legal terms does not amount to a US endorsement of every facet of the operation. He said Turkey has committed itself to avoiding civilian casualties in the drive -- and that the united states expects it to live up to that commitment. The State Department officials say western relief flights from Turkey to Kurdish and other refugees in northern Iraq were suspended Monday when the Turkish offensive -- which included air strikes -- began. But they say the humanitarian airlift by the United States, Britain, France, and Turkey -- called operation provide comfort -- could resume as early as Wednesday. 21-Mar-95 3:48 pm EST (2048 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 23:33:21 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 23:33:21 Subject: VOA: US/Turkey References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: US/Turkey Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------------- Forwarded from : ig00 at jove.acs.unt.edu (Burak Epir) -------------- from HH the DemiGod: date=3/21/95 byline= David Gollust Intro: The United States is closely monitoring Turkey's military offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. As VOA's David Gollust reports, US officials say neither the Turkish incursion itself -- nor Turkey's probable use of American-supplied arms in the operation -- appears to violate international law. text: the clinton administration declines to flatly endorse the Turkish drive against bases of the Kurdistan workers party, or p-k-k, in northern iraq. But it does express "Understanding" for Turkey's motives in launching the attack. And it says state department lawyers believe the operation does not violate international law. france and the european union have criticized the offensive as a violation of iraqi sovereignty and of international law. But state department spokesman david johnson said u-s experts believe it can be defended as a legitimate exercise -- by Turkey -- of its right to self-defense -- given the history of p-k-k attacks from iraqi territory: ///Johnson actuality/// A country has the right to use force to protect itself from attacks from a neighboring country -- if that neighboring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territories for such attack. That right -- flowing from the right of self-defense -- is of course limited to such use of force as is necessary and appropriate to protect itself. //end actuality/// Mr. Johnson also said Turkey is not barred from using American weapons in military actions considered defensive in nature. Turkey's armed forces are largely equipped with weapons either supplied by the united states or made in Turkey under US license -- and officials here assume that some have been used in the Iraqi incursion. The spokesman stressed that the defense of Turkey's action in legal terms does not amount to a US endorsement of every facet of the operation. He said Turkey has committed itself to avoiding civilian casualties in the drive -- and that the united states expects it to live up to that commitment. The State Department officials say western relief flights from Turkey to Kurdish and other refugees in northern Iraq were suspended Monday when the Turkish offensive -- which included air strikes -- began. But they say the humanitarian airlift by the United States, Britain, France, and Turkey -- called operation provide comfort -- could resume as early as Wednesday. 21-Mar-95 3:48 pm EST (2048 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 22 21:33:17 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 22 Mar 1995 21:33:17 Subject: Turkish troops burn houses > Re Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turkish troops burn houses > Reuters Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ---------------- Forwarded from : igi at igrey.demon.co.uk (igi) ------------------ Reuters> Turkish troops burn houses in east By Ferit Demir TUNCELI, Turkey, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish troops have burned two settlements in eastern Turkey to deny shelter to rebel Kurds in anticipation of a big upsurge in guerrilla violence, residents said on Tuesday. They said the army had evacuated and burned at least two hamlets with a total of about 20 houses in Tunceli's western Cemisgezek district at the weekend in a return to tactics that made hundreds homeless late last year. The Turkish military declined to comment on the accounts but an army official, who declined to be identified, said "large numbers" of soldiers had been moved to most of Tunceli's remote districts to counter an expected offensive by rebel Kurds. "The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) has poured men into Tunceli and Bingol from other areas," he said. Sources close to the PKK said many rebels had been sent across the border from northern Iraq where Turkey launched an attack with some 35,000 troops backed by tanks and jets on Monday. Air strikes continued inside Iraq on Tuesday. The sources said the PKK got wind of the incursion, which was preceded by a major military build-up, and that most of those who crossed into Turkey had made their way to Tunceli. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said it was time to turn abroad now that the More? rebels had been virtually silenced at home. "Now the terrorist group (PKK) can no longer seek shelter at home, the time has come to finish them off abroad," she told reporters. But in Tunceli signs were that the PKK was far from silenced. "We expect an attack any minute, in line with reports the PKK will launch a massive offensive in the spring and summer, and have increased security all over," said an army source. Military officials say the PKK wants to keep control of the eastern Tunceli and Bingol provinces, where almost impenetrable terrain made it easier to operate. They said fighting continued in the region, particularly around the towering Munzur mountains in northern Tunceli and near Tunceli town, close to where rebels killed 18 soldiers in an ambush of a 40-vehicle convoy of 800 troops on Saturday. Military sources in Tunceli, citing intercepted radio conversations, said the PKK aimed to step up their attacks to an all-time peak in the spring and summer, to damage the government or force it to the negotiating table. Soldiers in Tunceli said elusive PKK regional commander Semdin Sakik -- alias "fingerless Zeki" after losing a thumb while firing a rocket in northern Iraq -- remained at large in the region to coordinate the attacks. "The presence of a commander experienced in major assaults points to the continued importance the PKK gives to the region, and indicates attacks to come" More? one army official told Reuters. Sakik led a group of 200 guerrillas in Saturday's ambush. The capture of Sakik has been the main aim of a concerted army offensive that began in the region last September and continued into winter. Soldiers said it was fruitless. REUTER > Is it just fate that the Regional Commander's name is Hasan Kundakci or Hasan "Arsonist?" Wow, what a coincidence!! 1,500 villages and hamlets torched and depopulated until now under Arsonist's command... ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Wed Mar 22 21:44:39 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 22 Mar 1995 21:44:39 Subject: cejna Newroz p^iroz Message-ID: From: "Michael Chyet" Subject: cejna Newroz p^iroz CCCCCCC EEEEEEE JJJJ NNN N AAA CC EE JJ N NN N AA AA CC EE JJ N NN N AA AA CC EEEE JJ N NN N AAAAAAAAA CC EE J JJ N NN N AA AA CCCCCCC EEEEEEE JJJJJ N NN AAA AAA NNN N EEEEEEE WW WWW WW RRRRR OOOOO ZZZZZZZ N NN N EE WW WW WW WW R RR O 0 ZZ N NN N EE WW W W WW R RR O O ZZ N NN N EEEE W W RRRRR O O ZZ N NN N EE W W R R O O ZZ N NN EE W W R R O O ZZ N N EEEEEEE W W R R 00000 ZZZZZZZ PPPPPP ^ RRRRR OOOOO ZZZZZZZ P PP ^ ^ R RR O 0 ZZ P PP II R RR O O ZZ PPPPPP II RRRRR O O ZZ P II R R O O ZZ P II R R O O ZZ P II R R 00000 ZZZZZZZ From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 00:49:19 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 00:49:19 Subject: mainstream news on the war in Kurdi Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: mainstream news on the war in Kurdistan Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (1) 35,000 Turk Troops Hit Kurds DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish jets and troops struck hard at Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq on Tuesday, the second day of an offensive aimed at wiping out the Kurds' 11-year-old insurrection. At least 200 guerrillas and eight soldiers died, the government said. The offensive, modern Turkey's largest military action ever, came after rebels killed 15 Turkish soldiers Saturday in an ambush near the Iraqi border. Troops penetrated at least 25 miles into northern Iraq and wiped out a major rebel base in the area where Turkey, Iran and Iraq converge, state television said. Despite their overwhelming numbers, Turkish troops still met fierce resistance at three of the 20 bases targeted, Gen. Hasan Kundakci told reporters. The government says some 2,800 Kurdish guerrillas operate out of the bases, staging hit-and-run attacks into Turkey. Some 35,000 Turkish troops were sent in after them, out of the 200,000 troops Turkey has stationed in the region. News footage showed soldiers in white camouflage manning emplacements on snowy mountains. Large amounts of ammunition, automatic guns and rocket launchers were seized, reports said. Turkey has carried out large operations before, but each time the guerrillas regrouped and continued their attacks. "The Turkish state is determined to eradicate this evil," said President Suleyman Demirel in Ankara. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said the operation would continue until all the Kurdish rebel bases were wiped out. The guerrillas belong to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, which has been fighting since 1984 for autonomy in Turkey's poor, rugged southeast. More than 15,000 people have been killed. Kurds make up one-fifth of Turkey's 60 million people. A suppression of their cultural rights and the harsh military crackdown has won the PKK hundreds of thousands of sympathizers over the past decade. The government allowed Kurdish to be spoken in public five years ago but prohibits its use in schools or broadcasting. Ciller, the prime minister, told the Cabinet the operation would be followed by a democratization process to increase freedom for Kurds, the daily Milliyet reported. "Then, the PKK will lose all its ground," she was quoted as saying. Hundreds of Kurds demonstrated in downtown Istanbul on Tuesday, the Kurdish new year, carrying banners in support of the PKK and burning tires. There was no immediate reaction from the Iraqi government, which has problems with its own Kurdish minority. The United States generally supported Tuesday's military offensive, but France sharply condemned it and the United Nations expressed concern about civilians caught in the fighting. Turkey has been criticized for alleged human rights violations in its war on the Kurdish guerrillas. "(Turkey must) respect the fundamental principles of human rights, democracy (and) sovereignty," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday. "These principles were not respected today." Turkey said it was trying to avoid harming civilians and denied U.N. reports that Kurdish refugees who fled previous fighting were forced back across the border into Turkey. Iraq's Kurds set up an autonomous zone under Western military protection after the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S.-led allied air force set up to protect them canceled routine flights Tuesday for a second day. (2) Turkish attack on Kurds goes as planned - Ciller By Suna Erdem ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey is pressing on with a huge cross-border attack against separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller says. Ciller told the nation on Monday the incursion was going as planned in what her government called the biggest military operation in Turkish history. Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said the troops would leave Iraq when they had "neutralised" Kurdish rebel forces, Iranian television reported. Turkey, claiming a right of hot pursuit, sent up to 35,000 troops backed by tanks and jets on a three-pronged attack across the undefended border aimed at suspected bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). "We want to clear out this area and rip out the roots of the (PKK) terror operations aimed at our innocent people," Ciller told reporters, adding that she had briefed Western leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, by telephone. "The operation is continuing exactly as planned," the prime minister said on television. Demirel has told Iran that Turkey was strongly committed to Iraq's territorial integrity, according to Iranian Television monitored by the BBC. He told Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a telephone call that the incursion sought to combat terrorism and establish stability in the border areas. "Mr Demirel underlined Turkey's strong commitment to the maintenance of Iraq's territorial integrity and assured our country's president that Turkish forces would leave Iraqi territory as soon as they have neutralized the disturbances caused by rebel forces...," the television said. Rafsanjani said he hoped "no harm would be inflicted on the innocent people of Iraq" in the course of the operation. The attack came two days after the PKK ambushed a 40-vehicle convoy carrying 800 troops in eastern Turkey, killing 18 soldiers and challenging government claims the rebels were all but finished. "This is the biggest military operation ever (in the history of the Turkish republic)," government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna told reporters. The assault follows weeks of a gradual build-up in the region and came on the eve of the Kurdish festival of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist protest. Some military officials in eastern Turkey suggested it was timed to prevent the entry of rebels to stir unrest during the festival. "The PKK would be wanting to send over men for Nowrouz," said an army official. "The army would be wanting to stop them." In 1992, 45 people were killed in Nowrouz clashes. The operation takes advantage of what Turkish officials call an "authority vacuum" in northern Iraq, as fighting between rival Kurdish factions undermines de facto Kurdish rule there. (3) Turkish troops occupy 40-km zone in north Iraq By Jonathan Lyons ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish forces secured positions about 40 km inside north Iraq on Tuesday, the second day of a cross-border assault aimed at wiping out suspected Kurdish separatist strongholds. Up to 35,000 soldiers, backed by air power and tanks, spent the traditional Kurdish new year holiday of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist unrest -- inside the Western-protected "safe haven" for Iraqi Kurds. Witnesses said F-16 jets from the 2nd Tactical Wing, based in Diyarbakir, flew early morning sorties into Iraqi territory. TRT state radio said troops, largely commandos, were already occupying the 40-km wide zone Ankara had previously set as the limit of the action -- dubbed by officials as Turkey's biggest military operation ever. Large weapon caches belonging to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, fighting for a Kurdish homeland inside Turkey, were now in the hands of the army, TRT said. Iraqi Kurdish groups, protected by Western air cover and in nominal control of northern Iraq, protested at the incursion and charged innocent civilians were being targeted. No deadline has been set for withdrawal of Turkish forces, but President Suleyman Demirel told Iranian leaders the troops would leave as soon as they had "neutralised" Kurdish rebels, Iranian television reported. In 1992, 10,000 Turkish troops spread across the border for four weeks and in partial collaboration with Iraqi Kurdish forces cleared the area of PKK rebels. In 1993, Turkey launched a major air strike against the Zeli camp, which had been revived by the PKK in the aftermath of the 1992 attacks. (4) Turkey planes destroy rebel Kurd camp -- radio ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish jets raiding targets inside northern Iraq have destroyed a Kurdish rebel camp at Bote, near the Iranian border, TRT state radio said on Tuesday. It said the cross-border operation by 35,000 Turkish troops, backed by tanks and artillery, had spread out east along the border from the Iraqi border city of Zakho toward Bote. TRT said the Bote camp was built by separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, after a 1993 Turkish air raid struck the nearby base at Zeli. Ankara says bases in north Iraq are used in support of the PKK's 10-year insurgency inside Turkey. "The aim is to cause as much destruction as possible," a military official in Diyarbakir, nerve centre of Turkey's struggle against the PKK, told Reuters. TRT quoted military spokesmen as saying bombing raids were accompanied by artillery and mortar fire. "The initial targets have been reached," it said. Turkish troops entered north Iraq before dawn on Monday to root out PKK guerrilla bases from a zone 40 km wide. (5) Turkey says it kills 200 PKK rebels in north Iraq ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish troops have killed as many as 200 guerrillas from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), during their two-day push into northern Iraq, Turkey's defence minister said on Tuesday. "According to the information we have received, about 200 PKK members have been killed so far. There are no casualties on the Turkish military side," Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan told Reuters. About 35,000 soldiers, backed by tanks and artillery, poured into Iraq before dawn on Monday in an operation aimed at rooting out PKK guerrillas bases used to attack Turkish targets. Turkish jets have also bombed targets identified as PKK bases. Iraqi Kurds, in nominal control of the border region, have protested against the incursion, saying innocent civilians are being targeted. (6) Russia says Turkish raid in Iraq one-off, limited MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuter) - Russia on Tuesday backed Turkey's military incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish separatists, describing it as an internal affair for the countries concerned. "We are talking about a one-off action, limited in time and space, which has as its goal the destruction of bases and strongholds of Kurdish extremists carrying out an armed struggle against Turkey," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin told a news briefing. "We consider it to be an internal affair of the states concerned." Turkish jets pounded Kurdish rebel camps and ground forces secured a zone 40-km deep inside north Iraq on Tuesday in the second day of a huge military operation. Turkish Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan said about 200 rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been killed but Turkish forces had suffered no losses. Karasin said Russia was counting on Turkey to comply with a statement issued on Monday pledging that Turkish units would be pulled back after completing their task without harming civilians or the territorial intergrity of Iraq. Russia's position on the incursion echoed that of the United States, which on Monday said it had received assurances from Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller that the operation would be limited and civilians safeguarded. White House spokesman Mike McCurry said President Bill Clinton expressed "understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the rebels. But the European Union has criticised Turkey's actions. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who heads the EU Council of Ministers, said the raids violated Iraq's sovereignty. (7) EU criticises Turkish raids against Kurds in Iraq PARIS, March 21 (Reuter) - The European Union on Tuesday criticised a massive Turkish military incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish guerrillas as breaking basic principles of international law. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking for the presidency, said the air and ground raids violated Iraq's sovereignty. "We support, in Turkey as elsewhere, the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty...This applies to all, including the current incursion of Turkish troops into Iraq," he told journalists after a two-day European stability conference. In contrast to the European reaction, The United States tacitly endorsed the incursion on Monday after receiving assurances from Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller that the operation would be limited and civilians safeguarded. Turkish troops used the Kurdish new year holiday of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist unrest -- to hunt Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist guerrillas inside the Western-protected "safe haven" for Iraqi Kurds. Juppe said that while the EU regarded the PKK as a terrorist organisation, Ankara had a duty, whatever its difficulties, to abide by the basic principles of legality and human rights as an associate member of the EU and a member of NATO and the Council of Europe. "We have drawn (Turkey's) attention to the fact that these principles are not currently being respected," he said. He pointed to the recent jailing of Kurdish parliamentarians tried for treason for allegedly sympathising with the PKK. Juppe is to head the EU troika of foreign ministers on a one-day trip to Ankara on Thursday to discuss human rights, Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus, and the implementation of a customs union accord signed this month with the EU. (8) Turkey to leave Iraq after disturbances end- IRNA NICOSIA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said his country would withdraw its forces from northern Iraq after they put an end to separatist guerrilla disturbances in the region, the Iranian news agency IRNA said on Tuesday. IRNA said Demirel made the comments in a telephone conversation late on Monday with Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "Turkish forces will withdraw from the Iraqi territory immediately after putting an end to the disturbances caused by the rebel forces in border areas," it quoted Demirel as saying. IRNA said Demirel told Rafsanjani the objective behind the incursion of Turkish forces into northern Iraq was "to fight terrorism, chase border rebels and establish stability in those areas." IRNA said Rafsanjani hoped innocent Iraqis would not be hurt and he "reiterated the need to preserve territorial integrity of Iraq and expressed hope that Turkish forces would withdraw from the Iraqi territory after the danger was repelled." (9) UN warns Turkey against abducting Kurdish civilians By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, March 21 (Reuter) - The United Nations refugee agency warned Ankara on Tuesday against seizing unarmed Turkish Kurd civilians in northern Iraq and taking them back across the border, saying it would be a "very serious matter." The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was investigating reports from local authorities near the Iraqi town of Zakho that Turkish forces had rounded up Kurds and abducted them to Turkey. It is not not known how many people are involved. Some 35,000 Turkish troops poured across the Iraq border on Monday in a drive to rout the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and suspected separatist strongholds. The PKK is fighting for an independent state in southeast Turkey. On Monday the UNHCR representative in Baghdad, Abdallah Saied, reached Dohuk, 80 kms south of Zakho, to try to check on 4,500 Turkish Kurd refugees in villages close to the border. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing on Tuesday: "Late yesterday, the UNHCR representative in Iraq...received information that Turkish Kurds were being seized in the Zakho area and taken across the border into Turkey. "If these are armed PKK fighters, that is one thing. If they are unarmed civilian refugees, it is a very serious matter indeed," he added. "So once again we ask the Turkish military to take great care that they clearly distinguish between civilian refugees and armed activists," the UNHCR spokesman told reporters. But the UNHCR stopped short of accusing Turkey of violating a 1951 convention under which refugees with a "well-founded fear of persecution" if returned to their homeland are entitled to international protection. Turkey has signed the 123-nation pact, as well as the 1967 protocol which extended the convention's coverage beyond Europe. The UNHCR oversees compliance with the two instruments. The agency assists a total of 13,000 Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. It also cares for 4,800 Iranian refugees in the north and 22,500 Iranian Kurd refugees west of Baghdad. Saied was heading on Tuesday for Zakho, 12 km from the border and was expected to try to confirm the reports with U.N. guards who have patrolled the zone since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, aid agencies and Iraqi opposition groups. "We have no reason to doubt the reports (from local authorities). But we want to see for ourselves," a UNHCR source told Reuters. "It is adding up to the same picture," he said. On Monday, the UNHCR issued a statement expressing concern for the safety of the Turkish Kurds, calling on Ankara to "show restraint in its military activities" in northern Iraq. It cited unconfirmed reports of two villages, Hizawa and Darkar, having been surrounded and subjected to house-to-house searches by Turkish forces, while hundreds were arrested. "While UNHCR does not consider all Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq to be refugees -- people involved in violent activities are not eligible for refugee status -- it is satisfied that the people in the five villages are civilians and in need of international protection," it said. The great majority were women and children. UNHCR said it was not the first time that genuine refugees had been caught up in Turkish military activity. In the final few months of last year the UNHCR relocated some 8,600 Turkish Kurd refugees to Atroush village, southeast of Dohuk and 160 kilometres from the Turkish border. This was to ensure that refugee settlements were not seen as "launch pads" for armed PKK operations inside Turkey, according to the agency statement. (10) Clinton endorses the move WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Allied flights designed to protect the Kurds of northern Iraq, suspended after Turkish forces invaded the area Monday, could resume Wednesday, U.S. officials said Tuesday. State Department spokesman David Johnson said the flights, which operate out of Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, had been canceled for a second day but "could resume as early as tomorrow". "We believe the Turks will do everything they can to accelerate the resumption of these flights, as they have during and after previous incursions into northern Iraq," Johnson told reporters. The flights, known as Operation Provide Comfort, are staged by the United States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect Kurds there against Iraqi air attack. They date from an Iraqi onslaught against Kurds who rebelled after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War in 1991. Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, Monday deployed some 35,000 troops in a land and air operation against separatist Turkish Kurds based in the area. President Clinton tacitly endorsed the Turkish move Monday, telling Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller of Washington's "understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But an influential senator introduced a bill linking U.S. aid to Turkey to Ankara's human rights performance, including actions against Kurdish citizens. "The simple truth is that Turkey is run by a group of thugs who systematically abuse the human rights of its own citizens, and those of neighboring nations, as cruelly and viciously as the world's most tyrannical regimes," Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the Banking Committee, said in introducing the bill. His legislation states that before Turkey can receive any U.S. aid in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, it would have to take action in several areas of human rights. Turkey would have to allow international human rights monitors on Turkish soil, cease any military action toward its 15 million Kurdish citizens and recognize their rights and take steps toward withdrawing troops from Cyprus. D'Amato said that under the bill, for every day Turkey failed to comply with these conditions $500,000 would be held from any U.S. grant or loan. The president could waive the restrictions by citing U.S. national security interests. The current-year U.S. budget authorized $365 million in loans for Turkey. At least one refugee, a young woman, was killed during a Turkish bombing raid in Baheri, near Zakho, last July, it added. (11) Amnesty urges Turkey to protect Kurdish prisoners LONDON March 21 (Reuter) - Human rights pressure group Amnesty International urged Turkey on Tuesday to safeguard any prisoners taken during its attacks on Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. The London-based group said it was concerned about the wellbeing of prisoners taken in Iraqi Kurdistan as it feared they would be tortured and killed in the same way as the Turkish army treated Kurdish rebels on their own soil in the past. "The organisation is concerned about the safety of any prisoners taken in Iraqi Kurdistan, given the Turkish government's disregard for human rights in its own territory," Amnesty said in a statement. "Amnesty International is appealing to the Turkish government to ensure the physical safety of all detainees and to clarify their legal status," it added. (12) Kurds Target Turkish Interests BONN, Germany (AP) -- Suspected Kurdish extremists and leftists firebombed banks and other Turkish targets in several German cities early Tuesday, starting the Kurdish new year with violence. It was the eighth straight night of attacks on Turkish interests in Germany. About 130 banner-waving Kurds demonstrated across from Chancellor Helmut Kohl's office Tuesday to protest Turkey's military offensive against Kurds in northern Iraq. Similar protests were held in several German cities Monday evening. Targets of the firebombs included a Turkish bank in Cologne, another in Gelsenkirchen, a Turkish travel agency in Berlin, and a Turkish cultural center in the Bavarian town of Erlenbach. At least two people were arrested. The German government has blamed most of the anti-Turkish attacks on the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for a separate homeland in southeastern Turkey since 1984. But police said bombers at two of Tuesday's targets left behind a flag bearing the letters DHKC, the initials of a splinte group of the far-left Turkish organization Dev Sol, which was banned in Germany in 1983. (13) Anti-Turkish violence continues in Germany BONN, March 21 (Reuter) - Arsonists attacked a Turkish newspaper office, a prayer room and two banks in German cities in the eighth day of violence blamed by Bonn officials on Kurdish militants, police said on Tuesday. Nobody was injured but the buildings were slightly damaged. The overnight incidents took place against a background of increasing alarm in Germany over violence among Germany's 1.8 million Turks, the country's biggest foreign community. Interior Minister Mafred Kanther said the attacks bore the hallmark of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and called for more protection for Turks and the speedy deportation of Kurds suspected of involvement in the violence. Tuesday was the Kurdish New Year or Nowrouz festival, a traditional focus for guerrilla activity by the PKK, which has been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey. In the latest incidents, petrol bombs were thrown at two Turkish banks in Cologne and the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen but the fires were quickly extinguished and little damage was caused. Police detained two people in Gelsenkirchen. Arsonists also set fire to the offices of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet in Berlin and hurled two petrol bombs at a prayer room in the Bavarian town of Erlenbach which failed to explode and caused little damage. Turkish ambassador Onur Oeymen said Turks living in Germany had the right to more protection by security forces and told the Berlin newspaper B.Z. armed guerrillas were responsible for the attacks. (14) Turkey asks Germany to protect its interests ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin said on Tuesday his country expected Bonn to protect its interests in German cities against increasingly frequent attacks largely blamed on Kurdish separatists. "It is regrettable that the attacks against our citizens have increased recently. There have been 80 such attacks this year alone," he said in a statement. Most of the attacks were aimed at Turkish tourism offices at the start of the travel season, he added. Turkish officials say the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) hopes to ruin Turkey's tourism revenues by attacking establishements in Turkey and abroad. Arsonists attacked a Turkish newspaper office, a prayer room and two banks in German cities in the eighth day of violence blamed by Bonn officials on Kurdish separatist militants, German police said on Tuesday. German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther said the attacks bore the hallmark of the banned PKK and called for more protection for Turks and the speedy deportation of Kurds suspected of involvement in the violence. Some German state governments have objected to the move saying Kurds with Turkish nationalities were liable to be prosecuted in Turkey. Conceding that Germany's federal government had limited powers over the states, Karayalcin said responsibility of international obligations against what he called "terrorism" lay with Bonn. ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 05:45:35 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 05:45:35 Subject: 02:TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: 02:TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald told Reuters. TRT quoted military spokesmen as saying bombing raids were accompanied by artillery and mortar fire. ``The initial targets have been reached,'' it said. Turkish troops entered north Iraq before dawn on Monday to root out PKK guerrilla bases from a zone 40 km (25 miles) wide. Iraqi Kurdish groups, in nominal control of the region, say innocent civilians have been targeted and they have demanded the immediate withdrawal of Turkish forces. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-21 05:03:09 EST Turkish attack on Kurds goes as planned - Ciller By Suna Erdem ANKARA, March 21 (Reuter) - Turkey is pressing on with a huge cross-border attack against separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller says. Ciller told the nation on Monday the incursion was going as planned in what her government called the biggest military operation in Turkish history. Turkish President Suleyman Demirel said the troops would leave Iraq when they had ``neutralised'' Kurdish rebel forces, Iranian television reported. Turkey, claiming a right of hot pursuit, sent up to 35,000 troops backed by tanks and jets on a three-pronged attack across the undefended border aimed at suspected bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). ``We want to clear out this area and rip out the roots of the (PKK) terror operations aimed at our innocent people,'' Ciller told reporters, adding that she had briefed Western leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, by telephone. ``The operation is continuing exactly as planned,'' the prime minister said on television. Demirel has told Iran that Turkey was strongly committed to Iraq's territorial integrity, according to Iranian Television monitored by the BBC. He told Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a telephone call that the incursion sought to combat terrorism and establish stability in the border areas. ``Mr Demirel underlined Turkey's strong commitment to the maintenance of Iraq's territorial integrity and assured our country's president that Turkish forces would leave Iraqi territory as soon as they have neutralized the disturbances caused by rebel forces...,'' the television said. Rafsanjani said he hoped ``no harm would be inflicted on the innocent people of Iraq'' in the course of the operation. The attack came two days after the PKK ambushed a 40-vehicle convoy carrying 800 troops in eastern Turkey, killing 18 soldiers and challenging government claims the rebels were all but finished. ``This is the biggest military operation ever (in the history of the Turkish republic),'' government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna told reporters. The assault follows weeks of a gradual build-up in the region and came on the eve of the Kurdish festival of Nowrouz -- a traditional time of separatist protest. Some military officials in eastern Turkey suggested it was timed to prevent the entry of rebels to stir unrest during the festival. ``The PKK would be wanting to send over men for Nowrouz,'' said an army official. ``The army would be wanting to stop them.'' In 1992, 45 people were killed in Nowrouz clashes. The operation takes advantage of what Turkish officials call an ``authority vacuum'' in northern Iraq, as fighting between rival Kurdish factions undermines de facto Kurdish rule there. The PKK has fought for a Kurdish state inside Turkey in a campaign that has killed more than 15,000 people since 1984. Most of northern Iraq is controlled by Iraqi Kurd guerrillas who split from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War. Western air cover shields them from Iraqi government forces, but fighting between Kurdish groups often plunges the area into chaos. Turkish television said no troops had been killed in the operation so far, but there was no other word on casualties. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-21 06:26:36 EST Fly Zone Enforcement Resumes Wednesday? WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Allied flights designed to protect the Kurds of northern Iraq, suspended after Turkish forces invaded the area Monday, could resume Wednesday, U.S. officials said Tuesday. State Department spokesman David Johnson said the flights, which operate out of Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, had been canceled for a second day but ``could resume as early as tomorrow''. ``We believe the Turks will do everything they can to accelerate the resumption of these flights, as they have during and after previous incursions into northern Iraq,'' Johnson told reporters. The flights, known as Operation Provide Comfort, are staged by the United States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect Kurds there against Iraqi air attack. They date from an Iraqi onslaught against Kurds who rebelled after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War in 1991. Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, Monday deployed some 35,000 troops in a land and air operation against separatist Turkish Kurds based in the area. Johnson did not say why the flights had been suspended and it was not clear whether his words meant Turkey planned to scale down its offensive Wednesday. Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx said: ``We'll just wait and see what the duration of the activity in northern Iraq is before we make any decisions.'' President Clinton told Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller in a telephone call Monday that Washington would like to resume the flights as soon as possible. Boxx defended Turkey's offensive when asked if the United States was uncomfortable with attacks on the Kurds while the U.S. air force was defending them against Baghdad. ``Well, these are not the same people,'' Boxx said. ``These are people certainly viewed by Turkey and much of the world as terrorist organizations.'' Boxx said there was no indication Iraq's military would respond to the raids by Turkey, or that Iraq was taking advantage of the no-fly operations suspension to reposition military forces. Clinton tacitly endorsed the Turkish move Monday, telling Ciller of Washington's ``understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively'' with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Johnson said Tuesday the Turkish action appeared to conform with principles of self-defense, which he defined as a country's right to ``protect itself against attacks from a neighboring country, if that neighboring state is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territories for such attack''. REUTER Transmitted: 95-03-21 18:10:50 EST -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Fri Mar 24 05:54:36 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 24 Mar 1995 05:54:36 Subject: SABRI THE TEACHER Message-ID: From: "Michael Chyet" Subject: SABRI THE TEACHER SABRI THE TEACHER Michael L. Chyet I called a Kurdish friend in Turkey on the Kurdish new year, Newroz [March 21], to wish him 'Happy Newroz'. I was told that he had been gunned down two months ago, another victim of nameless Turkish death squads. Sabri was about 46 years old, the father of six children. When I met him in 1988, he had brought one of his children to Ankara for a medical operation and was staying with mutual friends. Although we only spent a day together, I knew that I had found in Sabri the sort of Kurd I had dreamed of having as a teacher: someone whose knowledge of the language was so sound, and love of it so deep, that he could lapse into a poetic recitation at a moment's notice. When he described things -- words, concepts, ideas -- his bright, intelligent eyes sparkled, as he brought previously unclear images into sharp focus. In the short time we spent together on that first meeting, he opened up and shared with me several things that had happened to him. Someone reported him to the authorities for teaching a hand-picked group of Kurdish children to read and write in Kurdish -- in secret after school. For this he was imprisoned and tortured, and never again allowed to follow his life's calling -- teaching. Nevertheless, he was known to all as Sabri Hoja, i.e. Sabri the teacher. Although I dearly wanted to come visit him in his home town, on the road between Bitlis and Diyarbakir in Kurdistan of Turkey, by the end of my year stay in Turkey, when I passed that way, I was hesitant to risk another run-in with the police, and was worried about what might happen to Sabri Hoja after I left, if I was indeed being followed. When Sabri later learned that I had passed by and had not come to visit, he was deeply hurt. I resolved not to pass up the opportunity a second time, and in 1992 I spent five glorious days with him and his family -- but I am getting ahead of myself. When I returned to the United States, I did not hear from Sabri Hoja for a long time, and I eventually received a long letter in which he wrote me in detail about what had happened to him in the meantime. He and many other Kurdish men in the area had been rounded up and thrown into prison, where they were blindfolded, kept in freezing conditions, and tortured -- with cudgels and shock treatment. Their only crime was the fact that they were Kurds, and proud of it. The police who interrogated Sabri and his companions told them that they should either go to the mountains to join "their PKK friends" or leave. Sabri Hoja ultimately had to move from his home town to a nearby city, because the local authorities were making it impossible for him to earn his livelihood as a newspaper seller, by warning the townspeople not to buy from him. At the end of the letter, Sabri Hoja expressed concern for my well-being, having heard belatedly about the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. He had been in jail and incommunicado when the earthquake occurred, and only learned of it at New Years, from a television program reviewing the year's major events. When I read of his worry about me considering the cataclysm that had rocked his life that year, I could not keep back the tears. I felt it was my duty to translate his letter into English, and to make sure that it got the attention it deserved. A friend of my father's was able to connect me with Amnesty International, and they gratefully accepted the letter, stating that it was next to impossible to get that sort of information about the goings-on inside Turkish prisons. They also informed me that my friend Sabri already had the official status of a Prisoner of Conscience, a detail which he did not know until I told him during my visit in 1992. Another long period of silence ensued. I became worried, and asked an American friend who was living in Turkey at the time to try to track Sabri Hoja down for me. Shortly thereafter Sabri sent a letter with a business card, proudly informing me that his family had moved to the nearby city of Batman, where he had found a good job selling household utensils. From then on we were in touch by phone and letter, and I eventually came for a visit, during which Sabri took me to nearby Hasankeyf, now a picturesque town on the Tigris, and an important capital in past centuries, with its mosques, bridges, and cave dwellings which extend for miles in all directions. This lovely town is slated to be at the bottom of one of the man-made lakes which the Turks are building as part of the GAP water project on the Tigris and Euphrates. During our time together Sabri Hoja sang me Kurdish songs, recited poems for me, told me stories, and introduced me to his friends and relatives. His wife and daughters made wonderful home-cooked meals, which we ate while sitting crosslegged on the floor. Although the apartment was comfortable, it only had three bedrooms for eight family members, yet they insisted on giving me the largest one. The American gifts I brought for them pale in comparison with the intangible riches I came away with. When it came time to leave, I learned a Kurdish expression which I have had occasion to use since: "Your place will be empty", which means 'You will be missed'. Last year, during one of our phone conversations, Sabri sadly informed me that a dear friend of his, whom I had met during my stay, had been gunned down in front of his own home, just down the street. Sabri said although it had happened several weeks before, he was still badly shaken by it. Little did I know then that I would be saying the same thing about him a year hence. My friend Sabri Hoja was no terrorist. He didn't have a dishonest bone in his body. And yet he believed that the struggle of the PKK, the Kurdish Workers' Party, against the Turkish government was a just cause. He told me that while the Kurdish guerrillas were fighting up in the mountains, the life for Kurds down in the cities was made easier, more bearable. Now the Kurds -- who have reacted with violence to Turkish oppression, but have caused relatively few deaths -- will surely be labelled as 'terrorists', while the Turkish government, which has proudly boasted in recent days of killing people (PKK members, but people), and has also been slow to investigate death squads like the one that gunned down my friend Sabri, or his cousin last year, or the writer Musa Anter in 1992 (to name only three out of hundreds of such killings), gets off scot free. Turkey will no doubt continue to get American -- and Israeli -- support in its efforts to 'root out terrorism'. What is the definition of 'terrorism'? Why are some groups labelled as 'terrorists', while others are 'guerrillas' or 'freedom fighters'? Why is the PKK called a 'terrorist organization', but the Peshmergas of Iraqi Kurdistan are 'guerrillas'? Why are certain activities called 'terrorist' when performed by one group, but called something else when the same activities are performed by a NATO ally, for instance? No, my friend Sabri Hoja was no terrorist. And yet he was arrested several times in the past, and tortured by the Turkish authorities for such 'crimes' as secretly teaching Kurdish children to read and write in their own language. It was often enough through underground study of this kind that Jewish scholarship survived for 2,000 years. Are we completely sure that we as Americans are doing the right thing by supporting a regime that throws people into jail and tortures them for such activities? I have often been advised not to draw a parallel between the plight of the Kurds and the treatment of Native Americans in this country during the 19th and early 20th centuries, because this will make Americans feel guilty about the Indians, and hinder their ability to give the Kurds a fair hearing. Today I am going against that advice. American public opinion prevented the Bush administration from leaving the Kurds in the lurch during the Gulf War. If it happened before, it can happen again. There is one major difference between the Kurds and the Indians: it is too late to undo most of the damage done to the American Indians, but it is not too late to save the Kurds from a like fate. My fellow citizens ought to protest the use of American tax dollars to help the Turkish government's destructive campaign against the Kurdish people. My fellow Jews ought to disavow support to Israel if that government continues to share its military know-how with the Turkish state, in full awareness that this knowledge will be deployed against the Kurdish people. To those who claim that such aid is limited to the fight against 'terrorism' I say: If that is so, then explain the death of my friend Sabri Hoja. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 06:08:51 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 06:08:51 Subject: Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes To Turkey Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ---- Forwarded from : kcc at infoweb.magi.com (Kurdistan Committee of Canada) ----- Kurdistan Committee of Canada 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 Tel: (613) 733-9634 Fax: (613) 733-0090 Press Release March 22, 1995 Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes To Turkey Late last week, a CTV News report confirmed that the Canadian government is negotiating the sale of 39 refitted CF-5 warplanes to Turkey. The Canadian government seems to have a short memory. Just last year, the Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned Turkey's air attacks on Kurdish civilians. These attacks on civilians are still going on today, so why does the Canadian government want to aid in these murders? On Monday, Turkey launched the biggest military operation in its history when, according to the KURD-A News Agency, as many as 100,000 Turkish troops invaded South Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Now, refugees camps are being bombarded and hundreds of Kurdish civilians have been rounded up. And yet this region is supposed to be a UN protected "safe haven". It seems there is no safe place in the world for the Kurdish people. The world's 40 million Kurds are the largest people without their own country. The Kurdish people have been subjected to oppression and foreign domination for centuries. Over the last 10 years, however, the Kurdish national liberation struggle has given the Kurdish people a sense of pride and feelings of hope. In response to this, countries like Turkey have reacted with brutal force, and it is almost always the civilians who suffer. According to figures released by the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) in 1994, during the last 10 years of civil war, more than 5,000 Kurdish civilians have been killed, 2,000 Kurdish villages burned and destroyed by the Turkish army, and more than 3 million Kurds have been forced to become refugees. This killing is carried out with weapons supplied by Western countries, since Turkey is a member of NATO. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Andri Ouellet has stated that the planes will only be sold if Turkey promises not to use them against civilians - but such promises from Turkey cannot be believed. When the Federal Republic of Germany sold 300 BTR-60 battle tanks and other weapons to Turkey after the Gulf War, they were given assurances that the arms would not be used against civilians. But a series of parliamentary and human rights delegations brought back documented evidence which proved that the arms had been used to destroy several hundred Kurdish settlements. The Kurdish people are being faced with genocide. If Canada goes through with its decision to sell CF-5 warplanes to Turkey then they will be jointly responsible for the continued persecution of the Kurdish people. The Kurdish people want peace, not war. And the Kurdish people want to be free. We call on the Canadian people to support the struggle of the Kurdish people for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. And we call on the Canadian government: Do not sell CF-5 warplanes to Turkey! Send letters of protest to: Prime Minister Jean Chretien Room 309-S, House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Phone: (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900 Foreign Affairs Minister Andri Ouellet Room 314 WB, House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Phone: (613) 995-8872 Fax: (613) 995-9926 Defence Minister David Collenette 121 EB, House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Phone: (613) 995-4988 Fax: (613) 995-1686 Stop all arms sales to Turkey! Freedom for Kurdistan! The Kurdistan Committee of Canada ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Fri Mar 24 23:18:19 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 24 Mar 1995 23:18:19 Subject: VOA: Turkey's adventure into Ku Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey's adventure into Kurdish Iraq Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=03/23/95 byline= Andrew N. Guthrie intro: Several US newspapers are reacting with outrage against their own government's seeming complacency in the face of Turkey's military invasion of northern Iraq to destroy Turkish Kurd guerrilla bases. The guerrillas have long waged cross-border raids against the Turkish military as part of their campaign for a separate Kurdish state. We get a sampling now from ________________ in today's US opinion roundup. text: Almost every editorial so far on the subject has criticized the Clinton administration for, on the one hand, protecting Iraqi Kurds from attacks by Saddam Hussein's warplanes and ground troops, while not opposing the invasion by Nato-ally Turkey to attack Kurdish guerrilla bases. Some papers do suggest that outrageous acts by guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers' Party -- or PKK -- in Turkey give some justification for the action, but most consider it too strong a response. Other dailies also note the growing instability in Turkey as it struggles against a newly-invigorated Islamic fundamentalism as a partial excuse for Ankara to finally rid itself of Kurdish guerrilla attacks on the Turkish military. We begin our sampling in California, with "The San Jose Mercury News." voice: "[opt] Ever since the end of the Persian Gulf War, the Kurds thought Uncle Sam was on their side. But it turns out it's not your friends, but your enemies who count. [end opt] This week Turkey raided Kurdish villages in northern Iraq, an area guarded by US warplanes, while the US military stood by. ..... It appears that the victims were civilian Kurds, many refugees who had fled persecution in Turkey. The United States, which needs Turkey as an ally in Nato and against Saddam Hussein, mouthed a platitude about eradicating terrorism. ..... The raids are the latest chapter in Turkey's appallingly vicious war against the Kurds. ... To be sure, members of the PKK are no angels. They have been responsible for deliberate and arbitrary killings. .... Even if the raids missed their intended targets, at least they bared [revealed] US motivations in the region. the US runs 'operation provide comfort' in northern Iraq not to protect the Kurds. Rename it instead 'operation in your face, Saddam,' and forget the charade. [i.e., it is run only to challenge the authority of, or irritate, the Iraqi leader, and not to truly protect the Kurds.]" text: Across the continent, in Boston, "The Christian Science Monitor" is also upset, though in more restrained language: voice: "[opt] Having spent eight billion dollars last year on a war against Kurds in southeast Turkey, the Turkish military is attempting to stamp out the Kurds once and for all -- by attacking rebel bases in Iraq. [end opt] Kurdish rebels hoping to form a separatist 'Kurdistan' state through violence are a problem. But a Turkish government that refuses to acknowledge the level and degree of repression it has practiced against the Kurds for years is a problem. ..... the White House response to this latest brutal attack is to say that it is 'understanding.' [opt] ..... These statements seem inadequate. Moscow attacks Chechens and the United states 'understands.' Israel bombs and kills civilians in southern Lebanon and the US seems to approve. Now this. [end opt] to say, as the White House essentially did, to keep the killing down seems cheap." text: In Maine, "The Portland Press Herald" headlines today's editorial: "How long will world look away as Turks kill Kurds?" and notes: voice: "The killing is being done with US weapons, but we ignore it. The bloodbath being waged against the Kurdish resistance in northern Iraq by Turkish forces .... is bad enough. The outrage is heightened, however, by the milkquetoast [timid, weak] response from the US government so far. [opt] ..... Turkey is among the world's leading human rights violators, with a long, horrid record of persecution of the Kurds. ....... Already, the invading Turks have violated assurances they would be attacking only 'terrorists' of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). on Wednesday, they attacked villages housing members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which opposes the PKK and supposedly works with the Turkish government against the group. [end opt] ..... How long will the world look away? The longer it does, the greater will be the shame." text: The influential "New York Times" is also upset, as much by the victims of the attack as by the principle of the assault: voice: "...Sending troops across another nation's border is a violation of international law that deserves harsh condemnation. The world would become even more dangerous if countries with strong armies and border frustrations felt free to take the law into their own hands. France, which currently leads the European Union, a group Turkey desperately wants to join, has rightly condemned this invasion. The United States should have condemned it too. Instead, Washington, along with Moscow, has expressed understanding for the Turkish attack. [opt].....The Turkish government has been promising that its operations in Iraq will be quickly completed. But now it says the fighting could last a month. [end opt] ..... It is not too late for America to take a more principled stand." text: In Baltimore, "The Sun" says if the Turkish forces were strictly limiting their invasion to attacking guerrillas and their camps, it would be more easy to understand US support. voice: "The United States has forgiven Turkey much because it was a Nato bulwark against the Soviet Union. Now it is a bulwark against anti-western extremism posing as Islamic fundamentalism. .... it competes with Iran for influence in former Soviet republics of Central Asia. It has the most resilient democracy of the Islamic world, despite periods of military rule. [opt] But Turkey is also the target of Iran-style extremism. Its democracy has given the Welfare Party control of Ankara and Istanbul with a goal of overturning the secularism imposed by the nation's great revolutionary, Kemal Ataturk... [end opt] So it is easy to sympathize with President Clinton's acceptance of the invasion. .... (however) More tolerance of Kurdish publishing, Kurdish broadcasting, Kurdish education and Kurdish political identity in Turkey would make Ankara's military campaign easier to justify." text: And lastly, these thoughts from "The Washington Post." voice: "Whether it [the invasion] will succeed is open to question. They [the Turkish military] are operating in very rough country, which favors the guerrillas, and the military buildup that preceded the invasion apparently gave the Kurds plenty of warning. ..... Turks live at a great historical crossroads, and the army's strike against Kurdish separatism is part of the process in which they are deciding whether to turn eastward or westward." text: That concludes this look at some of the comment in the US press on the latest Turkish attack against Kurdish guerrilla bases in Iraq. 23-Mar-95 1:02 pm EST (1802 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sun Mar 26 00:22:36 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 26 Mar 1995 00:22:36 Subject: Statement From PKK General Secretar Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: Statement From PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan Kurdistan Committee of Canada 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 Tel: (613) 733-9634 Fax: (613) 733-0090 E-mail: kcc at magi.com March 24, 1995 Statement From PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan Concerning The Turkish Invasion Of South Kurdistan It is rather important to gauge correctly the recent provocations that are taking place in Turkey. A weakening government, faced with resignation, has formed a new coalition with the Popular Republican Party (CHP) and, in the meantime, is committing atrocities via dark circles to make itself invaluable. First there was the massacre in Zaxo, then came the unprecedented brutal attack on the residents of Gaziosmanpasa, and finally this latest operation, all designed to prolong a government in crisis. In their own words, this operation is far more comprehensive than the one the Turkish government undertook in Cyprus some two decades ago. It is part of a meticulous plan to achieve certain ends. Before the Turkish troops invaded Cyprus, the Turkish government had noted that "there was a state of war between the Turks and the Greeks; we moved in to secure peace". Again, in South Kurdistan, a state of tension was the moment of opportunity for the government in Ankara. In Zaxo, there was a powerful explosion, an act of barbarity was committed. Also, the Turkish government meddled in the internal affairs of the Federated Kurdish State, urging the warring parties to fight on so that its own entrance on the scene would be smooth. We also know that the government in Ankara was having secret meetings with the government in Baghdad. Its goal was to choke the Federated Kurdish State. The army got its way and the so-called civilian government of Tansu Ciller in Ankara was obliging in every sense, notwithstanding the loss of confidence the government was facing because of the worsening economy. In a sensitive city like Istanbul, in a poor shantytown like Gaziosmanpasa, where opposition to the government is the rule rather than the exception, the attack which culminated in a massacre was part of a plan to achieve certain ends. The logic was that "the government in Ankara should not be forced to resign; if it does, chaos will ensue". There was also the issue of the Alevi community, who were rapidly responding to the call of the Kurdish national liberation struggle. The message for them was: "If you continue doing what you are doing, you will be crushed." The attack on Gaziosmanpasa was a stepped-up version of the unsolved murders that are taking place in the country daily. The same logic was at work in Zaxo: "In a chaotic period, massacres do take place and the sane thing to do would be to move in to provide for the safety and security of the people. Just like in Cyprus, where there seemed to be a need for the invasion of the island by the Turkish army to provide security for the people." They seem to say that they are more effective at "protecting" the Kurds than are the forces of Operation Provide Comfort. The message is that Turkey wants to remain in the area. In their own words, "We will stay here so long as there is political instability." In other words, they would like to be the government in the area. Notwithstanding their claim, this is not a war to hunt down PKK fighters; the messages emanating from Ankara prove that. With these steps, they hope to prolong the life of the Ankara government; they want to silence the opposition. With this outward operation, they want to prevent the reactions of a population unhappy with its economic and social problems. In other words, they have assuaged the reaction. The upshot is that the government is in place and the army is content. What they want to leave behind are the economic, social, and political problems. It is not that they want to crush PKK bases, rather it is the crisis facing the Turkish Republic which has forced them to undertake this largest military operation in the history of the country in order to cover up their own mismanagement. We are urging the progressive and democratic international community not to remain silent to these acts of massacres and outright occupation by circles whose ideas smack of fascism. It behooves them to note the implications of such a blatant military act that condones the domination of one people over another. We want to emphasize that the United States government is secretly supporting this massacre by the fascist Turkish government. We want the United States government to withdraw its support from this dirty war and provide opportunities for a political solution to this problem. It is incumbent on the part of the mass media to bring out the truth behind these developments. These are the facts; the news that is emanating from the Turkish army does not dovetail with our observations. The occupation forces have not targeted our areas. The members of the Turkish armed forces have entered Zaxo, a city of civilians and Kurdish peshmergas. They have also surrounded the camps of Kurds who had fled Turkish state terror back in Turkey. These people are being terrorized. Those who are saying "the operation is limited in scope and will not harm civilians" are misleading the public. The outsiders who are saying "the operation should be limited in scope" are condoning the attack and watching it. These are double standards. Our resistance is primarily in the North. In South Kurdistan, there are revolutionary forces who are uniting behind a national front. They, too, have a history of resistance. They are becoming an alternative force in the area. We, the PKK, are supporting this development. We are not taking part in these developments but the democratic forces are enjoying our support. There are Kurdish patriots who would like to see their program implemented and their sovereignty secured. Also, it is not so easy to close in on the PKK guerrilla fighters. We are determined to fight a long-term guerrilla war, trap the enemy forces, and turn the area into a grave-site for them. As of now, a few hundred Turkish soldiers have been killed. Our losses stand at 11 fighters killed. We were prepared for this war and our morale is high. We were expecting this military operation. We responded in a language which the enemy understands but in a manner which they did not expect. In close battles, we have stopped the movement of the army and in some areas we have forced them to retreat. They will never be able to surround us completely or curtail our free movement. We can with certainty note that with our guerrilla tactics we will deny victory to the Turkish government's favored policy of a "military solution" whose basis has always been force. In this spirit, we wanted to inform you, the public, to draw your attention to the war, and to convey to you our greetings. Abdullah Ocalan, General Secretary of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sun Mar 26 00:23:01 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 26 Mar 1995 00:23:01 Subject: Statement From PKK General Secretar References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: Statement From PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan Kurdistan Committee of Canada 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 Tel: (613) 733-9634 Fax: (613) 733-0090 E-mail: kcc at magi.com March 24, 1995 Statement From PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan Concerning The Turkish Invasion Of South Kurdistan It is rather important to gauge correctly the recent provocations that are taking place in Turkey. A weakening government, faced with resignation, has formed a new coalition with the Popular Republican Party (CHP) and, in the meantime, is committing atrocities via dark circles to make itself invaluable. First there was the massacre in Zaxo, then came the unprecedented brutal attack on the residents of Gaziosmanpasa, and finally this latest operation, all designed to prolong a government in crisis. In their own words, this operation is far more comprehensive than the one the Turkish government undertook in Cyprus some two decades ago. It is part of a meticulous plan to achieve certain ends. Before the Turkish troops invaded Cyprus, the Turkish government had noted that "there was a state of war between the Turks and the Greeks; we moved in to secure peace". Again, in South Kurdistan, a state of tension was the moment of opportunity for the government in Ankara. In Zaxo, there was a powerful explosion, an act of barbarity was committed. Also, the Turkish government meddled in the internal affairs of the Federated Kurdish State, urging the warring parties to fight on so that its own entrance on the scene would be smooth. We also know that the government in Ankara was having secret meetings with the government in Baghdad. Its goal was to choke the Federated Kurdish State. The army got its way and the so-called civilian government of Tansu Ciller in Ankara was obliging in every sense, notwithstanding the loss of confidence the government was facing because of the worsening economy. In a sensitive city like Istanbul, in a poor shantytown like Gaziosmanpasa, where opposition to the government is the rule rather than the exception, the attack which culminated in a massacre was part of a plan to achieve certain ends. The logic was that "the government in Ankara should not be forced to resign; if it does, chaos will ensue". There was also the issue of the Alevi community, who were rapidly responding to the call of the Kurdish national liberation struggle. The message for them was: "If you continue doing what you are doing, you will be crushed." The attack on Gaziosmanpasa was a stepped-up version of the unsolved murders that are taking place in the country daily. The same logic was at work in Zaxo: "In a chaotic period, massacres do take place and the sane thing to do would be to move in to provide for the safety and security of the people. Just like in Cyprus, where there seemed to be a need for the invasion of the island by the Turkish army to provide security for the people." They seem to say that they are more effective at "protecting" the Kurds than are the forces of Operation Provide Comfort. The message is that Turkey wants to remain in the area. In their own words, "We will stay here so long as there is political instability." In other words, they would like to be the government in the area. Notwithstanding their claim, this is not a war to hunt down PKK fighters; the messages emanating from Ankara prove that. With these steps, they hope to prolong the life of the Ankara government; they want to silence the opposition. With this outward operation, they want to prevent the reactions of a population unhappy with its economic and social problems. In other words, they have assuaged the reaction. The upshot is that the government is in place and the army is content. What they want to leave behind are the economic, social, and political problems. It is not that they want to crush PKK bases, rather it is the crisis facing the Turkish Republic which has forced them to undertake this largest military operation in the history of the country in order to cover up their own mismanagement. We are urging the progressive and democratic international community not to remain silent to these acts of massacres and outright occupation by circles whose ideas smack of fascism. It behooves them to note the implications of such a blatant military act that condones the domination of one people over another. We want to emphasize that the United States government is secretly supporting this massacre by the fascist Turkish government. We want the United States government to withdraw its support from this dirty war and provide opportunities for a political solution to this problem. It is incumbent on the part of the mass media to bring out the truth behind these developments. These are the facts; the news that is emanating from the Turkish army does not dovetail with our observations. The occupation forces have not targeted our areas. The members of the Turkish armed forces have entered Zaxo, a city of civilians and Kurdish peshmergas. They have also surrounded the camps of Kurds who had fled Turkish state terror back in Turkey. These people are being terrorized. Those who are saying "the operation is limited in scope and will not harm civilians" are misleading the public. The outsiders who are saying "the operation should be limited in scope" are condoning the attack and watching it. These are double standards. Our resistance is primarily in the North. In South Kurdistan, there are revolutionary forces who are uniting behind a national front. They, too, have a history of resistance. They are becoming an alternative force in the area. We, the PKK, are supporting this development. We are not taking part in these developments but the democratic forces are enjoying our support. There are Kurdish patriots who would like to see their program implemented and their sovereignty secured. Also, it is not so easy to close in on the PKK guerrilla fighters. We are determined to fight a long-term guerrilla war, trap the enemy forces, and turn the area into a grave-site for them. As of now, a few hundred Turkish soldiers have been killed. Our losses stand at 11 fighters killed. We were prepared for this war and our morale is high. We were expecting this military operation. We responded in a language which the enemy understands but in a manner which they did not expect. In close battles, we have stopped the movement of the army and in some areas we have forced them to retreat. They will never be able to surround us completely or curtail our free movement. We can with certainty note that with our guerrilla tactics we will deny victory to the Turkish government's favored policy of a "military solution" whose basis has always been force. In this spirit, we wanted to inform you, the public, to draw your attention to the war, and to convey to you our greetings. Abdullah Ocalan, General Secretary of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sun Mar 26 00:23:42 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 26 Mar 1995 00:23:42 Subject: From Wall Street Journal, on PKK Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: From Wall Street Journal, on PKK WSJ Mart 24 Midwest Edition Page A12 "Review and Outlook" Here are some paragraphs from the article - "After a decade of bloody guerilla warfare, Turkish government forces are on a mission to wipe out PKK. It is a destructive terrorist group, and the Turks should be getting more support than the West, once again, has been willing to give an Islamic nation." - "PKK is one of the deadliest terrorist movemments in the Middle East" - "The group (PKK) by no means represents a significant portion of Turkish Kurds, much less other Kurds in the region, but the organization (PKK) is constantly described in many Western circles as fighting for "Kurdish rights". The PKK's record of slaughtering Kurdish Villagers loyal to the government should be evidence enough that the opposite is true" - "PKK makes money through narcotics dealing in Europe, under the protection of Syria and Iran. PKK channels its supplies from Bekaa valley in to Europe" - "The Turkish government still has to make improvements in human rights front and battle PKK with education and enfrachising, especially economically, the Kurds who the PKK uses as human shields and as PR material" Murat Duman (Oric) -+- + Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0) From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Sun Mar 26 00:23:43 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 26 Mar 1995 00:23:43 Subject: 02:TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: 02:TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review Refugees (UNHCR) that Turkish troops had rounded up Kurds who had taken refuge in Iraq last year and transported them back to Turkey, Ataman said such fears were unfounded. /All papers/ WARREN CHRISTOPHER " TURKEY WILL TAKE CARE OF THE CIVILIANS" US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, at a press conference following his contacts with his French counterpart Alain Juppe in Paris, said that the operation by Turkish Armed Forces in Iraq was a limited one and that civilians in the region would not be harmed. Christopher noted that it was also the wish of the US administration that Turkey should avoid harming civilians in the region. Afterwards, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe noted that the territorial integrity of all EU member countries should be respected. US Defence Department Spokesman Dennis Box added that the US described the Turkish operation in Iraq as "an effort to protect territorial integrity and maintain security." /Cumhuriyet/ TURKEY PLEDGES $12 MILLION FOR UN PROGRAMME IN N.IRAQ Turkey has pledged to contribute $12 million to this year's UN program for humanitarian aid to the people of northern Iraq living in precarious conditions, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Ministry Spokesman Ferhat Ataman told a weekly press briefing yesterday that Turkey had announced its decision to conribute to the fund at a UN meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. The only other country to announce a firm pledge to the UN fund was Japan, with $4 million. The UN wants to raise $183 million for the program. Ataman said the Turkish humanitarian aid will target 1.2 million civilians in northern Iraq. Teams from the Turkish Red Crescent will distribute aid materials to the needy in the cities of Dohuk, Suleymaniye and Erbil. The Turkish aid will include flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil and soap. Turkey will also provide Dohuk with 10 MW electricity each day. Turkey sent $13.5 million in aid to the region last year. /All papers/ DEFENCE MINISTER GOLHAN FLIES TO FRANCE Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan yesterday flew to Paris to attend ministerial meetings of Western European Union (WEU) member nations. Turkey is an associate member of the WEU. Golhan is also due to attend a meeting of the Western European Arms Group. He told reporters before leaving Ankara that global security issues and regional wars and tensions, like those in former Yugoslavia, Chechnya and Transcaucasia, would be among the top issues on the agenda. /All papers/ ALIYEV BACKS TURKEY'S OPERATION IN NORTHERN IRAQ Azeri President Haydar Aliyev said yesterday that Baku fully supports Turkey's military operation in northern Iraq to wipe out the PKK terrorist organization there. Meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Baku, Altan Karamanoglu, Aliyev said Azerbaijan was deeply disturbed by the PKK's subversive activities against Turkey. "I believe the Turkish Army will be successful in this operation against the separatists" he said. /All papers/ NEW ATTACKS REPORTED IN GERMANY Munich police late Tuesday raided clandestine offices of the PKK, which has been outlawed in Germany. In the raid, police arrested a 29-year-old alleged PKK leader, her husband and seven other Kurds and seized PKK propaganda, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Meanwhile, arsonists set fire to a Turkish culture centre in the northeastern city of Salzgitter in the latest attack on Turkish property, police said yesterday. Bernd Schmidbauer, intelligence aide to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, conceded for the first time that along with Kurds, German right-wing radicals have also likely been involved in the anti-Turkish violence. Meanwhile, Turkish Ambassador to Bonn, Onur Oymen stated that 83 attacks have been carried out since the beginning of January. Attacks have mostly been against travel agencies, mosques, culture centres and business offices. Oymen said that most of the attacks had been carried out by the PKK. /Milliyet/ OIL PIPELINE ESTABLISHED WITH UKRAINE A new joint project is going ahead between Ukraine and Turkey for the transportation of Ukraine petrol to the Mediterranean. A commission chaired by General Yuriy Gavrilov who is also the security adviser of Kuchman, Ukrainian President Kuchman, visited President Demirel yesterday and provided him with information about proposals for a new oil pipeline. Samsun port is now seen as an alternative route for the transportation of Caucasian petrol. This idea will be realized with this project. Tankers will carry petrol from Ukraine to new facilities in Turkey along the Black Sea. A new pipeline will connect the Samsun's port facilities to Kirikkale Refinery with a new pipeline. President Demirel said that he wanted Hayrettin Uzun General Director of the Botas Pipeline Authority to begin the project at once. /Hurriyet/ UNRESTRICTED TRAVEL FOR TURKISH WORKERS According to the terms of the Schengen Agreement, Turkish workers in Europe will be able to travel between seven European Union (EU) member countries without a visa starting from this Sunday. The agreement includes France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain and Luxemburg, and means that Turkish workers can travel between those countries, and stay and work in them for up to three months without a visa. Turkish workers wishing to stay longer will have to get permits. /Hurriyet/ TURKISH FLOWERS FOR BRITISH MOMS TURKEY COMBATS PKK TERRORISM IN NORTHERN IRAQ ============================================= THE TIMES (March 22, 1995) "...the PKK, a Stalinist terrorist movement which could fairly be compared to Peru's Shining Path... The PKK is poisoning Turkish democracy and even undermining Turkey's secularism. Kurdish families...are being forced to take sides. They are massacred by the PKK if they refuse to fight for them..." THE GUARDIAN (March 22, 1995) "President Clinton - after a telephone talk with Turkey's Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller - declared "his understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively with PKK terrorism"... No one would defend the terrorist atrocities of the PKK..." REUTER (March 21, 1995) "Russia on Tuesday backed Turkey's military incursion into Iraq to hunt for Kurdish separatists, describing it as an internal affair for the countries concerned. "We are talking about a one-off action, limited in time and space, which has as its goal the destruction of bases and strongholds of Kurdish extremists carrying out an armed struggle against Turkey," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin told a news briefing." MAC NEIL/LEHRER NEWSHOUR (March 20, 1995) Mr. HEATH LOWRY (Princeton University): I think first of all the Kurds that are being attacked are Kurds who are fighting a guerilla warfare against Turkey. And the distinction we're making there is between the Kurdish forces of Barzani and Talabani... Mr. MAC NEIL: Those are the good Kurds? Mr. LOWRY: That's right. They are our good Kurds. The PKK, on the other hand, is a self-avowedly Marxist organization, trained largely in the Bekaa, that uses Iraq, Syria and on occasion Iran as staging areas for cross-border attacks into Turkey. Mr. MAC NEIL: The Kurdish Democratic Party said today there are no PKK in the target areas, they're strictly populated by Iraqi Kurds. Mr. GRAHAM FULLER (Rand Corporation): I think that's unlikely to be the case. There has unfortunately been a fair amount of fighting in recent months between two of the key Kurdish factions, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Popular Union of Kurdistan... In the interval, I think it's probable that the PKK has been able to manage to establish a few positions along the border with which to attack Turkey. Mr. ROBERT KAPLAN (author): The problem is that Kurds don't live in the Southeast of Turkey. They're everywhere. They're in Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, in the shanty towns. Federalism, giving them some autonomy, will simply not work. That will be a recipe for an even weaker Turkish state... Mr. LOWRY: It's true well over half of the Kurds live in the West of the country. But this is not a new phenomenon. For 600 years, when the Ottoman Empire ruled all of that region, there were no bars, no religious bars, to intermarriages between Turks and Kurds, and for 600 years you've had a lot of intermarriages... Mr. MAC NEIL: You're saying a lot of Turks are as Kurdish as they are Turkish. Mr. LOWRY: That's right. And a lot of Kurds are as Turkish - vice versa. And that, I think, is what makes this a particularly complex problem. There's no question that the three to four, four and a half million Kurds who are in the Southeastern region have remained predominantly Kurdish in identity. Kurdish, for many of them, is the first language, their culture is Kurdish and so on. The further West one goes, the less one sees that, and this is where the real problem, I think, comes. MARCH 22, 1995 TURKEY, ITALY TO BOOST MEDITERRANEAN COOPERATION Turkey and Italy, two major Mediterranean countries, have declared that they will work together to boost cooperation in this region. "Turkish-Italian cooperation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance as the developments in this region effect both countries and Europe" Turkish President Suleyman Demirel told his visiting Italian counterpart Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Demirel welcomed Scalfaro at the Presidency Palace with a ceremony. Scalfaro called his visit to Turkey "a much delayed one", and said his visit primarily at aimed friendship. The Italian president, for his part, also stressed the Mediterranean dimension: "Our geostrategic location gives us a special mission in the Mediterranean for establishing peace and cooperation in this region" he said. "We support Turkey's integration with the EU, toward which the customs union is an important step" he added. Demirel stressed that Turkey was ready for customs union. "You will see this during your visit here" Demirel said. "Scalfaro's visit will open a new era in our relations" Demirel added. He also noted that the volume of trade between the two countries was $3 billion. "In our talks we will see how we can improve the balance of trade, which is presently in favour of Italy. I believe we have the potential to diversify our trade. Both countries have the political will for that" Demirel added. Scalfaro also visited Parliament Speaker Husamettin Cindoruk and Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. An accord of protection and encouragement of investment is expected to be signed today. The two presidents will also hold a press conference this morning to sum up their talks. Scalfaro will leave Turkey today. /All papers/ CRITICISM FROM CILLER TO PROVIDE COMFORT Prime Minister Tansu Ciller stated that the "Provide Comfort" mandate could not fill the lack of authority in northern Iraq and that the PKK terrorist organization had infiltrated Turkey from there. While replying to the questions of journalists, Ciller said that allegations claiming that during the operation of the Turkish Armed Forces in northern Iraq, civilians had been killed, were not correct. Noting that they knew where the PKK were located, Ciller pointed out that a delegation from the Foreign Ministry had gone to northern Iraq to make sure that civilians were not killed. Since the operation in northern Iraq, for the first time Ciller made a statement to a foreign TV channel, indicating that the operation aimed to prevent the infiltration of the outlawed PKK separatist organization and had not targeted civilians. The Anatolia news agency, quoting the AFP, reported that Ciller, in her statement on British BBC Channel 4, said: "We already had the information that the PKK intended to infiltrate Turkey to carry out terrorist activities during the Nevruz holiday. Nevruz was celebrated all around the country in peace yesterday. This proves that the Turkish army's operation was right". /Milliyet/ KARAYALCIN CALLS FOR SPECIAL SECURITY MEASURES IN GERMANY Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin said yesterday that the German government should take special security measures to protect potential Turkish targets in that country, the Anatolia news agency reported. He noted that there had been 80 attacks on Turkish targets in Germany since January, adding that Turkey trusted the German government in security matters and was sure it would do its best to protect potential Turkish targets and people in Germany. TURKISH TROOPS SURROUND PKK CAMPS Reports by military representatives about the incursion of Turkish armed forces into northern Iraq say that PKK terrorist camps in the region have been surrounded. According to Defence Minister Mehmet Gol- han, 200 terrorists have been killed and a large num- ber of others have given themselves up. Military officials say that the armed forces, including planes, tanks, helicopters and 35,000 troops on the ground will stay in the region "until all traces of the terrorists have been wiped out." On the other hand, Prime Minister Ciller has said that Turkey is filling the power vacuum that the "hammer"strike force deployed at Incirlik base near Adana has been unable to fill in northern Iraq. Deploying Cobra and Super Cobra helicopters, F-16 fighter planes and large numbers of ground forces, Turkish troops have carried out massive strikes against PKK strongholds in what is described as the largest Turkish military op- eration ever. Reports from the region say that strikes are continuing at the same high intensity. Reaction from abroad has been mixed, but US officials have described the action as being taken against "violent terrorists." /All papers/ NO EXTRADITION FROM GERMANY AFTER ALL Although the German government has recently suggested that it would extradite to Turkey political extremists arrested in Germany for acts of violence directed against Turkey and Turkish citizens in Germany, it now seems as though this will be unlikely. German officials say that although they have long lists of foreign offenders, none of them merit being returned to Turkey for trial as terrorists guilty of acts of terrorism. Commenting on the situation prevailing in Germany and Turkey, Turkish Ambassador to Bonn, Onur Oymen said in an interview with the "Berliner Zeitung" newspaper that Turkey would never deal with terrorists or yield to their demands. He also noted that in the current situation he feared that those acting against the in- terests of Turkey would not be dealt with according to the full strength of the law. /All From ww at wwp.blythe.org Sun Mar 26 15:10:21 1995 From: ww at wwp.blythe.org (ww at wwp.blythe.org) Date: 26 Mar 1995 15:10:21 Subject: Turkey/Iraq: An Invasion Washington Loves Message-ID: From: NY Transfer News Collective Subject: Turkey/Iraq: An Invasion Washington Loves From: Workers World Service Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 17:38:46 -0500 (EST) Workers World 3/30/95 EDITORIAL: AN INVASION WASHINGTON LOVES What is capitalist "international law" except noble-sounding documents to be shredded or shrugged off when they prove inconvenient to imperialist objectives? We heard all about international law, territorial integrity, and the inviolable rights of small nations when Iraq sent troops into the oil sheikdom of Kuwait. That was the excuse Washington wanted--and U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie helped create-- for a deadly high-tech war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. But now Turkey has invaded Iraq with 35,000 troops backed up by tanks and U.S.-supplied F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. It is occupying a 20-mile-wide swath of northern Iraq inhabited by Kurds. Remember when Washington posed as the defender of Iraqi Kurds? No such sentiments now. President Bill Clinton has expressed "understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for Kurdish self-determination. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, always the soft-spoken diplomat as he blinks and scurries from capital to capital, told the press, "We have urged [Turkey] to keep the operation limited in duration and scope, and to give full respect for human rights and international law." Limited in duration? "We have not put any time limits. It will be a final blow to the PKK," said Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. Respect for human rights? Turkey has jailed even elected Kurdish members of parliament and allows no expression of Kurdish identity. Turkey is a member of NATO. "This is not an Alliance matter," an unnamed NATO official told the press. If it's one of their guys doing the bombing, it's all right. There's no justice for oppressed nations in the imperialist world order. Workers and oppressed peoples of all nations have a common interest in fighting for a socialist world order that ends both national oppression and the violent and greedy rule of big capital. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at wwp.blythe.org. For subscription info send message to: ww-info at wwp.blythe.org.) -- + NY Transfer has moved! + + NY Transfer Blythe Internet + + 212-979-0464 <== NEW PHONE NUMBERS ==> 212-979-0440 + + 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 + + e-mail: nyt at blythe.org + From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Tue Mar 28 00:17:54 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 28 Mar 1995 00:17:54 Subject: Turkey/Iraq: An Invasion Washington Loves References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turkey/Iraq: An Invasion Washington Loves Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- From: Workers World Service Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 17:38:46 -0500 (EST) Workers World 3/30/95 EDITORIAL: AN INVASION WASHINGTON LOVES What is capitalist "international law" except noble-sounding documents to be shredded or shrugged off when they prove inconvenient to imperialist objectives? We heard all about international law, territorial integrity, and the inviolable rights of small nations when Iraq sent troops into the oil sheikdom of Kuwait. That was the excuse Washington wanted--and U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie helped create-- for a deadly high-tech war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. But now Turkey has invaded Iraq with 35,000 troops backed up by tanks and U.S.-supplied F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. It is occupying a 20-mile-wide swath of northern Iraq inhabited by Kurds. Remember when Washington posed as the defender of Iraqi Kurds? No such sentiments now. President Bill Clinton has expressed "understanding for Turkey's need to deal decisively" with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for Kurdish self-determination. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, always the soft-spoken diplomat as he blinks and scurries from capital to capital, told the press, "We have urged [Turkey] to keep the operation limited in duration and scope, and to give full respect for human rights and international law." Limited in duration? "We have not put any time limits. It will be a final blow to the PKK," said Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. Respect for human rights? Turkey has jailed even elected Kurdish members of parliament and allows no expression of Kurdish identity. Turkey is a member of NATO. "This is not an Alliance matter," an unnamed NATO official told the press. If it's one of their guys doing the bombing, it's all right. There's no justice for oppressed nations in the imperialist world order. Workers and oppressed peoples of all nations have a common interest in fighting for a socialist world order that ends both national oppression and the violent and greedy rule of big capital. -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at wwp.blythe.org. For subscription info send message to: ww-info at wwp.blythe.org.) -- + NY Transfer has moved! + + NY Transfer Blythe Internet + + 212-979-0464 <== NEW PHONE NUMBERS ==> 212-979-0440 + + 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 + + e-mail: nyt at blythe.org + ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Mon Mar 27 09:08:44 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 27 Mar 1995 09:08:44 Subject: Statement By PKK General Secretary Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Arm The Spirit Subject: Statement By PKK General Secretary On The Invasion Of South Kurdistan Kurdistan Committee Of Canada 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 Tel: (613) 733-9634 Fax: (613) 733-0090 E-mail: kcc at magi.com March 24, 1995 Statement From PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan Concerning The Turkish Invasion Of South Kurdistan It is rather important to gauge correctly the recent provocations that are taking place in Turkey. A weakening government, faced with resignation, has formed a new coalition with the Popular Republican Party (CHP) and, in the meantime, is committing atrocities via dark circles to make itself invaluable. First there was the massacre in Zaxo, then came the unprecedented brutal attack on the residents of Gaziosmanpasa, and finally this latest operation, all designed to prolong a government in crisis. In their own words, this operation is far more comprehensive than the one the Turkish government undertook in Cyprus some two decades ago. It is part of a meticulous plan to achieve certain ends. Before the Turkish troops invaded Cyprus, the Turkish government had noted that "there was a state of war between the Turks and the Greeks; we moved in to secure peace". Again, in South Kurdistan, a state of tension was the moment of opportunity for the government in Ankara. In Zaxo, there was a powerful explosion, an act of barbarity was committed. Also, the Turkish government meddled in the internal affairs of the Federated Kurdish State, urging the warring parties to fight on so that its own entrance on the scene would be smooth. We also know that the government in Ankara was having secret meetings with the government in Baghdad. Its goal was to choke the Federated Kurdish State. The army got its way and the so-called civilian government of Tansu Ciller in Ankara was obliging in every sense, notwithstanding the loss of confidence the government was facing because of the worsening economy. In a sensitive city like Istanbul, in a poor shantytown like Gaziosmanpasa, where opposition to the government is the rule rather than the exception, the attack which culminated in a massacre was part of a plan to achieve certain ends. The logic was that "the government in Ankara should not be forced to resign; if it does, chaos will ensue". There was also the issue of the Alevi community, who were rapidly responding to the call of the Kurdish national liberation struggle. The message for them was: "If you continue doing what you are doing, you will be crushed." The attack on Gaziosmanpasa was a stepped-up version of the unsolved murders that are taking place in the country daily. The same logic was at work in Zaxo: "In a chaotic period, massacres do take place and the sane thing to do would be to move in to provide for the safety and security of the people. Just like in Cyprus, where there seemed to be a need for the invasion of the island by the Turkish army to provide security for the people." They seem to say that they are more effective at "protecting" the Kurds than are the forces of Operation Provide Comfort. The message is that Turkey wants to remain in the area. In their own words, "We will stay here so long as there is political instability." In other words, they would like to be the government in the area. Notwithstanding their claim, this is not a war to hunt down PKK fighters; the messages emanating from Ankara prove that. With these steps, they hope to prolong the life of the Ankara government; they want to silence the opposition. With this outward operation, they want to prevent the reactions of a population unhappy with its economic and social problems. In other words, they have assuaged the reaction. The upshot is that the government is in place and the army is content. What they want to leave behind are the economic, social, and political problems. It is not that they want to crush PKK bases, rather it is the crisis facing the Turkish Republic which has forced them to undertake this largest military operation in the history of the country in order to cover up their own mismanagement. We are urging the progressive and democratic international community not to remain silent to these acts of massacres and outright occupation by circles whose ideas smack of fascism. It behooves them to note the implications of such a blatant military act that condones the domination of one people over another. We want to emphasize that the United States government is secretly supporting this massacre by the fascist Turkish government. We want the United States government to withdraw its support from this dirty war and provide opportunities for a political solution to this problem. It is incumbent on the part of the mass media to bring out the truth behind these developments. These are the facts; the news that is emanating from the Turkish army does not dovetail with our observations. The occupation forces have not targeted our areas. The members of the Turkish armed forces have entered Zaxo, a city of civilians and Kurdish peshmergas. They have also surrounded the camps of Kurds who had fled Turkish state terror back in Turkey. These people are being terrorized. Those who are saying "the operation is limited in scope and will not harm civilians" are misleading the public. The outsiders who are saying "the operation should be limited in scope" are condoning the attack and watching it. These are double standards. Our resistance is primarily in the North. In South Kurdistan, there are revolutionary forces who are uniting behind a national front. They, too, have a history of resistance. They are becoming an alternative force in the area. We, the PKK, are supporting this development. We are not taking part in these developments but the democratic forces are enjoying our support. There are Kurdish patriots who would like to see their program implemented and their sovereignty secured. Also, it is not so easy to close in on the PKK guerrilla fighters. We are determined to fight a long-term guerrilla war, trap the enemy forces, and turn the area into a grave-site for them. As of now, a few hundred Turkish soldiers have been killed. Our losses stand at 11 fighters killed. We were prepared for this war and our morale is high. We were expecting this military operation. We responded in a language which the enemy understands but in a manner which they did not expect. In close battles, we have stopped the movement of the army and in some areas we have forced them to retreat. They will never be able to surround us completely or curtail our free movement. We can with certainty note that with our guerrilla tactics we will deny victory to the Turkish government's favored policy of a "military solution" whose basis has always been force. In this spirit, we wanted to inform you, the public, to draw your attention to the war, and to convey to you our greetings. Abdullah Ocalan, General Secretary of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit E-mail: ats at etext.org P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada WWW: gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Mon Mar 27 20:04:56 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 27 Mar 1995 20:04:56 Subject: Children's book on the Kurds Message-ID: From: "Michael Chyet" Subject: Children's book on the Kurds Dear friends: The following children's book, in the series entitled THREATENED CULTURES, has just come to my attention: King, John. Kurds (New York : Thomson Learning, 1993). series: Threatened Cultures ISBN: 1-56847-149-1 Other books in the series include: Tibetans; Native Americans. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Mon Mar 27 20:05:07 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 27 Mar 1995 20:05:07 Subject: Headline News Summary: Operatio Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Headline News Summary: Operation N.Iraq Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl Headline News Summary: Operation North Iraq [The pros and cons of Turkey's operation into northern Iraq] March 27: Turkey is under fire by its western allies who suspect the operation aims to create a Turkish-controlled buffer zone in northern Iraqi territory. Germany investigates claims of use of German arms. Norway has already banned sales to Turkey. The USA has given a tacid approval though other NATO countries are sceptical. Lack of confidence in Turkish human rights leads the UNHCR to transport Kurdish civilians from the region. Reuters: 27-MAR 05:20 Turks bar foreign journalists from northern Iraq 27-MAR 04:38 "We won't let them get across of course," a soldier said. 27-MAR 04:05 Turkish troops must stay in Iraq - commander March 26: Despite the high cost of the operation and earlier claims that at least 200 PKK members had been killed in the first two days, the casualty figure is re-adjusted to show 185 PKK casualties. 16 Turkish soldiers have been killed and 66 others are wounded. Major PKK logistic supplies have been seized while two camps are under attack. The UNHCR moves over 1,400 Turkish-Kurdish civilians out of the region. First reports of "problems" appear in Turkish papers, including 2 meters of snow in the Khakurki region (Hakurk in Turkish). There are statements by politicians including Demirel which imply Turkish troops will EXTEND their stay in the region. Iraqi ambassador to Ankara "welcomes" Turkish invasion and says that Baghdad and Ankara could deal with the Kurdish problem together (Hurriyet). Reuters: 26-MAR 17:11 Turkey's Iraq offensive may have missed its aim 26-MAR 13:29 Arab League tells Turkey to get out of Iraq 26-MAR 13:22 Six Germans and Belgian held as PKK collaborators 26-MAR 11:34 Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks shelled civilians 26-MAR 11:30 Kurdish group denies it behind attacks in Germany 26-MAR 09:31 Turkish Kurd convoy arrives at U.N. refugee camp 26-MAR 08:24 Turkey says it can't allow PKK control in N.Iraq 26-MAR 04:33 Turkish planes ferry men to boost force in N.Iraq March 25: Another report that the crackdown in Tunceli has squeezed Semdin Sakik's PKK group of 1000 as the fifth day of the operation in Iraq is concluded. Reuters: 25-MAR 21:05 Turkey defends anti-Kurdish drive in Iraq 25-MAR 13:24 Bitter Iraqi Kurds say Turkish ex-allies mistreat them 25-MAR 12:25 Doctors say Iraqis killed, hurt in Turkish raids 25-MAR 11:12 Turks treat Kurds worse than animals-Bonn minister 25-MAR 08:51 Turks say Kurdish chief urges diversionary raids 25-MAR 07:59 UNHCR planning to evacuate Kurds to safety 25-MAR 04:33 Aid workers speed efforts to move Kurdish refugees 24-MAR 18:17 Turkey's Iraq offensive may increase Western ire March 24: Reuters: 24-MAR 02:34 Turkey's Ciller calls for international solution 24-MAR 15:06 Kurd raps U.S. "support" for Turkish offensive 24-MAR 15:04 U.N. says even PKK supporters protected as refugees 24-MAR 13:32 Turkish opposition leader criticises Boutros-Ghali 24-MAR 13:05 Double refugee Iraqi Kurds say Turks bomb village 24-MAR 10:56 Turkish army denies breaking German weapons ban 24-MAR 10:16 France says guns won't solve Kurdish problem 24-MAR 05:59 Turkey using German arms on Kurds, expert says March 23: Reuters: 23-MAR 18:12 Turkey's push has few successes, threatens image 23-MAR 15:46 Turkey tries to dampen Western fears over Iraq 23-MAR 14:48 Kurds say Turkish army suffering heavy losses 23-MAR 14:14 Kurd refugees in Iraq fear Turkish repatriation 23-MAR 13:48 U.N. urges Turkey to ensure civilians' safety 23-MAR 13:00 Iraq lashes out at U.S. for Turkish incursion 23-MAR 12:40 French Socialists oppose Turkey customs pact 23-MAR 11:40 Turkey's Iraq incursion another headache for West 23-MAR 11:24 France warns Turkey over EU customs pact 23-MAR 10:20 Kurdish rebels stage ambush in eastern Turkey 23-MAR 09:22 Russia expresses concern about civilians in Iraq 23-MAR 07:06 Turkish markets buoyant despite Iraq operation 23-MAR 06:02 Turkish jets leave for north Iraq bombing runs 23-MAR 01:53 EU ministers to seek Turkey's assurances on Iraq March 22: Reuters: 22-MAR 18:37 Turkey risks rift with NATO over Iraq incursion 22-MAR 17:53 NATO seeks to avoid disarray over Kurds 22-MAR 16:07 Norway bars arms sales to Turkey over Iraq raids 22-MAR 14:33 Red Cross urges Turkey to safeguard Kurd civilians 22-MAR 13:35 Refugee worry grows over Turkey's Iraq incursion 22-MAR 13:33 Germany concerned at Turkish incursion into Iraq 22-MAR 13:04 Britain joins chorus of concern over Kurds 22-MAR 13:02 Iraq denounces Turkish raid in north as violation 22-MAR 07:46 Turkey assures U.S. its Iraq incursion limited 22-MAR 06:22 Turkey's heavy-handed approach to guerrilla war 22-MAR 05:59 Turkish jets bomb Kurds in northern Iraq 22-MAR 04:08 U.S. calls on Turkey to safeguard civilians 22-MAR 03:42 "They were all Iraqi Kurdish civilians," PUK's Shazad Saib March 21: Reuters: 21-MAR 19:39 Turkey's north Iraq assault gives West concern 21-MAR 18:37 Amnesty urges Turkey to protect Kurdish prisoners 21-MAR 14:21 Turkey's Ciller says quiet,lovely Kurdish New Year 21-MAR 10:41 Turkey asks Germany to protect its interests 21-MAR 10:31 Istanbul index again hits all-time high close 21-MAR 10:28 Kurdish question long vexes Turkey, neighbours 21-MAR 10:14 Turkish troops burn houses in east 21-MAR 09:55 Russia says Turkish raid in Iraq one-off, limited 21-MAR 08:49 Turkey to leave Iraq after disturbances end-IRNA 21-MAR 08:37 EU criticise Turkish raids against Kurds in Iraq 21-MAR 08:35 UN warns Turkey against abducting Kurdish civilians 21-MAR 07:48 Turkey says it kills 200 PKK rebels in north Iraq 21-MAR 06:12 Cyprus criticises Turkey military operation in Iraq 21-MAR 05:43 Iraq ignores Turkish attack on Kurds Ends ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Tue Mar 28 14:57:55 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 28 Mar 1995 14:57:55 Subject: Paech Report Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Paech Report (This e-mail version does not have the footnotes. For a printed copy of this report, please contact us. - KCC) Expert Opinion With Respect To The Rights Of Peoples Concerning The Implications Of And Questions About The Interior Ministry's 22 November 1993 Decision To Ban Kurdish Organizations And Associations In The Federal Republic Of Germany Written By Dr. Norman Paech - Hamburg, Germany Translated By The Kurdistan Committee Of Canada The federal interior ministry justified its decision for banning all activities by 35 Kurdish organizations and associations, dissolving them - in so far as they are constituted within the Federal Republic of Germany - and seizing their assets with the notion that they were a threat to the peaceful coexistence of peoples, domestic security, the public order, and other considerable interests of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition to this, the activities of some of these organizations were also alleged to be in violation of the law. The report concerning the banning of the organizations - which explains the banning in three parts: against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), Berxwedan Verlag GmbH, and the Kurdistan-Haber Anjansi- News Agency (KURD-HA); against the Federation of Patriotic Workers and Cultural Associations from Kurdistan in the Federal Republic of Germany (FEYKA-Kurdistan); and against the Kurdistan Komitee e.V. - is of the opinion that all of these organizations identify with the goals of the PKK and that their activities are designed to further these goals. The goals and activities of the PKK are the primary focus of the report, and the banning of these organizations stems directly from this. The activities of the PKK are alleged to influence the feelings of security of uninvolved citizens and that they thereby influence the domestic security and public order of the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore, they disturb the peaceful coexistence of Kurds and Turks, both in Turkey and in Germany, and they are contrary to the peaceful coexistence of peoples. They cause considerable damage to Germany's public image as well as the bilateral relationship between Turkey and Germany, since PKK activities and propaganda which are tolerated on German soil cause destabilization to the southeastern region of Turkey. In particular, the PKK's struggle for an independent Kurdistan, which is waged using terrorist means, threatens the territorial integrity of Turkey. Since German foreign policy and the foreign policy of the entire Western world is concerned about the integrity of this important NATO, Western European Union, and European Council partner, in the interest of peace, any further toleration of PKK activities in Germany would undermine the credibility of this foreign policy. The group FEYKA- Kurdistan is deemed to have identical goals to the PKK/ERNK, and the Kurdistan Komitee e.V., on account of its aggressive agitation and propaganda, must be seen as the mouthpiece of the PKK. The object of this expert opinion is not to examine the question of to what degree these several organizations operate as partners, front groups, or propaganda organizations for the PKK. What will be examined are the countless accusations of conduct, crimes, and suspicions (for example, concerning extortion and drug trafficking) which the PKK have always firmly denied and which have remained largely without any evidence of any legal value whatsoever. More importantly, however, this text will examine the judicial qualification of the PKK/ERNK as a terrorist organization with a programme, agitation, and activities which are harmful to the peaceful coexistence of peoples, as well as looking at the general rules and fundamentals of the rights of peoples, which the Federal Republic of Germany has recognized in Article 25 of its constitution. It would appear that the interior ministry has not examined these questions at all. Rather its unilateral and isolated reference to its duty to heed Turkey's sovereignty and territorial integrity seems to reveal a layman's attitude toward the notion of the rights of peoples. I. The PKK defines itself as a revolutionary liberation movement which seeks to separate the ca. 12-15 million Kurdish people from the Turkish state and organize them in their own state. In this respect, the notions of the federal interior ministry are correct. But it must be added to this - something which is not insignificant for a judicial consideration - that the secessionist demand did not originate in the programme of the Kurdish rebel movement and the PKK. This demand is rooted in the about-face taken by Ataturk in his Kurdish policy following the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which essentially established Turkey's present-day borders. Ataturk's government denied the existence of an independent Kurdish nation and forced the Kurds to assimilate. Both of these elements have remained fundamental aspects of Turkey's policy with respect to the Kurds up until this day, and they have been enforced by means of repression and violence, such as the banning of the Kurdish language, literature, publications, and schools, as well as deportations and the destruction of hundreds of villages. These policies were not successful, rather they provoked several armed uprisings which were all bloodily crushed by the Turkish military. Although there had previously been committees and associations which called for an independent Kurdistan, they could not push towards this as a common Kurdish goal for very long due to inner-Kurdish conflicts. The consensus was a demand for autonomy and the recognition of Kurdish independence and self-government within the confines of the Turkish state. It was the lack of any willingness to compromise the incredible harshness of anti-Kurdish policies - all observers of Turkey agree on this point - which gave rise to the radical organization "Kurdistan Workers Party" (PKK), which launched an armed struggle in 1984 to make the creation of an independent Kurdish state its definitive goal. But the PKK, and its general secretary, Abdullah Ocalan, have repeatedly stated that an independent Kurdistan is not a unconditional demand and that a political solution to the Kurdish question would be possible if the government in Ankara would recognize the existence of the Kurdish people and prepare an autonomy statute. The path of Kurdish protest, from unrest and rebellions for the demand of ethnic autonomy and self-government to an armed struggle for the demand of an independent state, is nothing new or unusual in the context of the post-war development of nation states. The liberation struggles of former colonies and their liberation movements have provided us with countless examples. But the many successful and unsuccessful secessionist wars of the post-colonial era - here we need only point out the separation of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, from Pakistan in 1971, as well as the most recent example of a successful secession, namely that of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1992 after a 30-year war - have also provided us with educational lessons of the radicalization of oppressed peoples' movements and their concentration in liberation organizations capable of waging a strong fight. This development has not been without its effects on the rights of peoples, rather it has forced a fundamental reorientation which was expressed in a comprehensive resolution passed by the UN General Assembly, various international conferences and codifications, as well as several publications. In order to condemn the PKK, it is not sufficient to focus on their demands for independence and their armed struggle and the Turkish Republic's qualification of them as a terrorist organization. II. The starting point for this analysis is the demand for autonomy, that is, for state independence for the Kurdish people, something which is based on the fundamental principle of the rights of people, namely the right to self-determination. We will assume without taking the time to provide extensive proof - since this fact is not disputed in scientific literature and general discussion, only the Turkish government refuses to recognize this fact - that the Kurds are a distinct people. Because of their Indo-European heritage and their language, which is related to Persian Pharisee, but which is not at all similar to Turkish, they are a people which are especially distinctive with relation to the Turks. There are ca. 10-12 million Kurds in Turkey, thus making them a very sizeable minority in the country. The right to self-determination, despite its very early roots in the American War of Independence of 1776 and the French Constitution of 1791, only became qualitatively linked to the rights of peoples somewhat later on, although today it is generally accepted as a ius cogens. The notion travelled upon a long path before first being codified in Article 1 Section 2 and Article 55 of the UN Charter. But this rather vague mention in connection with fundamental equality made self-determination more of an unbinding programme rather than a recognized right. This only changed after the people living under colonial rule appeared on the world stage alongside the nations of the UN to demand their independence and state sovereignty from the colonial powers. The judicial lever of their struggle was the right to self-determination and the decolonization of the political field, thus strengthening the programme to a guaranteed fundamental right. The first step was taken on 14 December 1960 when the UN General Assembly passed the "Declaration Of The Independence Of Colonial Nations And Peoples" in Resolution 1514 (XV): 2. All peoples have the right of self-determination. They are free to politically determine the force of this right and to freely struggle for economic, social, and cultural development. 4. All armed actions and measures of repression, of any type whatsoever, against dependent peoples are to be halted in order to make it possible for them to peacefully and freely enjoy their right to full independence. The integrity of their national territory will be respected. But most states did not adhere to this understanding of collective rights. Rather they began to adopt a very individualistic notion of human rights and placed this notion at the top of both international pacts concerning civil and political rights as well as the economic, social, and cultural rights on 19 December 1960. In Article I of both pacts, it is unanimously stated that: 1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. They are free to determine the force of this right through their political status and their freedom of economic, social, and cultural development. Both pacts first went into effect in 1976. Prior to this, the states of the UN General Assembly had already given an authentic interpretation and detailed justification of the right to self-determination in Resolution 2625 (XXV), the "Statement On The Rights Of Peoples With Respect To The Foundations Of Friendly Relations And Cooperation Between States According To The Charter Of The United Nations", which was passed on 24 October 1970. In the chapter entitled "The Foundation Of The Equal Rights And Self- Determination Of Peoples" is written: In accordance with the foundations of equals rights and self-determination of peoples spelled out in the United Nations Charter, all peoples have the right, free and without outside interference, to decide their political status and to regulate their own economic, social, and cultural development, and all states are required to honour this right in accordance with the Charter. This resolution marks the time when the right to self-determination was made a fundamental law which all states had to recognize. This notion has been strengthened in several subsequent UN General Assembly resolutions. The Commission on the Rights of Peoples issued a report concerning this right in 1976 which listed several examples of its status as a binding law (ius cogens), and the International Court of Justice has upheld its binding status in a number of reviews and decisions. Finally, the final resolutions passed by the Committee for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) at their summits in Helsinki in 1975 and Vienna in 1989 contained the following formulation: All peoples have the right, in total freedom, when and how they choose, to decide their domestic and foreign political status without foreign intervention, and they are free to decide upon their political, economic, social, and cultural development in any way they desire. (VIII/2) Thus, the most significant changes to the rights of peoples had been set forth. For one thing, peoples which found themselves in a state of colonial dependence or under foreign rule, but also ethnic minorities as well, in so far as they are identified as peoples, were, for the first time, given the status of subjects of the rights of peoples, thus giving them the same rights which states enjoy. And furthermore, the territory of that people was granted a special status in relation to the sovereign areas of the "administering" state. In the words of the Declaration of Principles: The area of a colony or any other sovereign area without self-rule is, according to the Charter, sovereign territory belonging to whomever administers it, clearly distinct and with a different status; this distinct and different status, according to the Charter, will remain in place until the people of the colony of sovereign area without self-government are in possession of their right to self-determination as provided for in the Charter and, more importantly, its goals and foundations. The rights of peoples are expressed in the duty of all states to "refrain from any form of violence which...denies peoples their right to self-determination, freedom, and independence". The Declaration of Principles also insures all peoples the right to "give assistance to and help maintain" any resistance to such forms of violence. Furthermore, nothing is said with regards to the form or means of this resistance, but the goal and content of self-determination are dealt with in one significant passage: The founding of a sovereign and independent state, the free association with an independent state, or the voluntary integration into such a state or the creation of a new one by a people are possibilities of freely determined political status or the realization of the self-determination of a people. This sentence clearly justifies a people's right to secession. Even though UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they nonetheless affect the image and status of states which suppress such rights. It is unmistakable that this development of rights was only made possible by the pressure of decolonization struggles and the expanding ranks of the UN after states which had recently gained their independence became members. But it was also perfectly clear at all times that the right to self-determination did not just apply to peoples living under colonial dependence or foreign rule, but rather to all peoples, even those seeking to gain an independent state. This is especially true, not just of the many nation states in Africa, but also in Europe as well. In any case, there are characteristic modifications in content and degree for such non-colonial situations. Before discussing that, however, two problems need to be clarified which are relevant to the goal and instruments of the right to self-determination, namely the competition between the right to self-determination and the right to territorial integrity and sovereignty, and also the status of liberation movements and the right to use force. III. a. In order to realize the right to self-determination or even to separate from one state and form a new state or to integrate into another state, the question arises as to what possibilities are provided for under the fundamentals of "territorial integrity" codified in Article 2 Section 4 of the UN Charter. The Declaration of Principles deals with the conflict between these two fundamental principles and arrives at the following conclusion: The above-mentioned statements [concerning the possibilities for self-determination -ed.] are not to be interpreted as allowing for or encouraging measures which could partially or completely dissolve the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent states which, in their conduct, respect the above-mentioned fundamentals of equal rights and self-determination for peoples and which possess a government which represents the entire population of the region, regardless of race, religion, or skin colour. All states must refrain from conduct which aims at the partial or complete destruction of the national unity and territorial integrity of another state or country. The first passage clearly refers to peoples in a sovereign state and it denies them the right to separate from that state in cases where their self-determination and equal rights are guaranteed. In this instance, self-determination refers to the classic areas of autonomy such as language, culture, religion, and traditions, things which are necessary to maintain the identity of a people. If these are protected in a multi-ethnic state, then the principle of territorial integrity is given priority above the right to self-determination in the form of secession. Often times the opinion is expressed with regards to this that all "secessionist and separationist aspirations by national minorities are excluded from the general realm of the right to self-determination". In Article 27 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, ethnic, religious, or language minorities are only granted the right to their own culture, the ability to practice their religion, and the right to speak their own language. But the Kurdish people need not stay limited to such a definition of minority status, even when the issue here is only one part of Turkish territory. In some individual cases, it might be difficult to identify language, ethnic, or religious minorities as peoples, especially if the group only contains a few members or if the members are scattered across a wide stretch of territory throught the whole of the state. But if the people are of such a number which cannot be overlooked, with a territorial concentration with respect to the rest of the population which manifests their distinction - as is the case with the Kurds in Turkey, who settled in Anatolia earlier than the Turks did - then they are entitled to the right of self-determination in accordance with all contemporary law analyses. There can be no other conclusion if we examine the following five examples of "peoples" which were differentiated by Wilson's 14 Points between the two world wars: 1. Groups of minorities within a state who are ruled over by another "people"; 2. Ethnic minorities who don't have their own state and who live in more than one different state; 3. Groups of minorities who consider themselves to be part of the nation of a neighbouring state; 4. Peoples or nations who are forced by other influences to live in different states; 5. Peoples who are the majority in a territory yet who live under foreign rule. The Kurds in Turkey are part of group 2 listed above, since they are an ethnic minority who don't have their own state and who live in more than one different state. As a people they are also part of group 5 listed above, since they have historically always been under colonial rule. Such peoples can only be denied their right to self-determination in the form of secession if they enjoy the status of autonomy within an existing state. The fundamental principle which guarantees all peoples the right to self-determination is inalienable (ius cogens). The only doubts concerning this right could be, for example, whether the claims to autonomy should be expanded to a desire for secession or if they should remain limited to the protection of cultural, language, and religious freedoms. This must be decided depending on the concrete circumstances. The second sentence in the quoted passage concerns third-party states and it prohibits them from any activity which might bring about the collapse of a state or aid in a secession. This matter is already addressed by the general principle of non- intervention and the only question here is what is meant by supporting a people who are waging a legitimate struggle for their (self-determination) independence. The UN and the OAU have always rejected secessionist demands from peoples not under colonial or foreign rule. The examples of Katanga, Biafra, and Eritrea are proof of this. Behind this rejection lies the fear that the entire state system in Africa might become destabilized and splintered. To this must be added the consultations in San Francisco, which at that time did not include secession in the definition of self- determination. But this view changed over the next few years, and the Declaration of Principles of 1970 granted priority to secessionist demands over territorial integrity in certain cases. The state practice of the Federal Republic of Germany of recognizing the states which separated themselves from the Soviet Union, as well as the early recognition granted to Croatia and Slovenia, prove that there are situations where minority peoples can be granted the right of self-determination even in the form of secession. Such situations, according to UN commentator Aureliu Christescu, arise, for example, when "peoples, areas, or entities are joined together in ways which are damaging to peoples". Karl Doehring recognizes a right to secession "when the ethnic group is handled by the ruling state violence in such a manner that there are clear and evident violations of human rights, such as summary executions or unlimited prison detention without trials, the tearing apart of families, dispossession without consideration of minimum existence levels, or the banning of a religion or language and the enforcement of such bans with brutal means". A reference to Article 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights of 1966, which included the right to self-determination in with other forms of human rights protection, supports this interpretation of the right to secession as being the ultima ratio of protection in the face of massive human rights abuses. b. There is no shortage of updates, reports, and documentations from internationally recognized human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, medico international, Human Rights Watch, etc., concerning the massive yearly balance of human rights abuses committed by the Turkish security forces in the Kurdish regions of Turkey. These abuses far exceed what is allowed even under the suspension of various human rights by the state of emergency which has been almost continually in place since 1979. The reports unanimously document torture, murder, state terror, and oppression, all of which are aimed at destroying the ethnic identity of the Kurdish people. For example, one article in the September 1990 issue of Helsinki Watch Report, published by the American human rights organization Human Rights Watch, is entitled "Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Kurds of Turkey". Although these politics have a 70-year history, this text will only document examples from recent history which can be readily found in common publications. One of the most effective means of destroying an ethnic identity is forced resettlement and the depopulation and destruction of Kurdish villages. This aims to create security zones, as the Turkish government decreed on 13 March 1981 with law Nr. 8/2543, thereby establishing such a zone along the border with Iraq and Syria. To do this, villages and settlements were depopulated, forests and wooded areas were made off-limits, strategic villages were established, and forced resettlement was carried out on a massive scale. These last two were designed to Turkify the traditionally Kurdish settlement areas. The human rights organization medico international reported in November 1990 that only 9 out 37 villages in Sirnak province still existed and that 100,000 people had been forcibly evacuated. Even according to reports in the Turkish press - in the Turkish newspaper "Cumhuriyet", for example - a total of 9 million people have been affected by forced resettlement. There has also been a staggering number of villages destroyed, according to figures presented by the Kurdistan Komitee to the human rights commission of the 47th and 48th General Assembly sessions of the UN in 1991 and 1992. From 1984-1989, a total of 2,500 villages were destroyed. This number is realistic, considering that 300 villages were destroyed in 1993 and 100 in the first quarter of 1994. On account of the war situation in southeastern Anatolia, more exact figures are impossible to come by. But the picture of military conduct in the region described by the Kurdistan Komitee to the human rights commission speaks for itself: It is the Turkish army which is carrying out these operations. They prevent people from entering or leaving the villages and they exert pressure on all the villagers to make them afraid and to force them to become village guards. The men are hit and tortured, the women are mistreated and sexually assaulted in front of the eyes of their own children. The houses are wrecked, the fields are burned, the livestock are killed, and after the village has been evacuated it is planted with mines and turned into a no man's land. According to recent reports, there is nothing whatsoever to indicate that the Turkish government is planning to alter these politics in the future. Under such conditions, the right to self-determination can only be enjoyed through the creation of a separate Kurdish state. This form of the right to self-determination is admissable under contemporary principles of the rights of oppressed peoples. IV. Another question to be examined is what means are allowed in seeking and pushing through the peoples' right to self-determination. More specifically, whether the ban on violence in Article 2 Section 4 of the UN Charter is applicable in such situations and whether the accusations of terrorism are justified. It will take some time before the UN General Assembly expresses any opinion regarding the means of liberation struggles and the question of violence, but a definitive position on the matter was clearly expressed in public some time ago. First, the reality of the liberation struggle and its protagonists, the liberation movements, must be examined to arrive at their legal status in relation to the colonial power. In 1972, on the recommendation of the OAU and in consultation with this body, the liberation movements in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau of liberation struggles under the rules of the humanitarian rights of peoples in the First Protocol, another contentious discussion was raised: The question of the use of force. If a total ban on the use or threatened use of force by states is applicable under Article 2.4 of the Charter of the United Nations, then according to general opinion an exception of this ban exists today in the case of liberation movements. The UN General Assembly had a long and difficult time dealing with the recognition of this exception, especially because the Western states - the majority of the old colonial powers - strictly rejected the right by liberation movements to use force. In session XXV in 1970, the UN General Assembly for the first time spoke of "the inherent right of all colonized peoples...to use all the necessary means at their disposal to struggle against the colonial power, which oppresses their striving for freedom and independence". Three years later, an explicit recognition of the right to wage armed struggle was passed by the UN. A series of resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly legitimized the use of force in armed struggle. The most significant of these resolutions was passed in December 1973, despite resistance from the 13 Western states. Entitled "The Fundamental Principles Of The Legal Status Of Combatants Who Struggle Against Colonial Or Foreign Rule As Well As Against Racist Regimes", the resolution stated: 1. The struggle of the people under colonial or foreign rule or under a racist regime to gain their rights to self-determination and independence is legitimate and in full agreement with the Principles of the Rights of Peoples. 2. All attempts to suppress the struggle against colonial or foreign rule or against a racist regime are incompatable with the Charter of the United Nations, the Principles of the Rights of Peoples, the declaration concerning friendly relations and cooperation between states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the declaration guaranteeing independence to colonized nations and peoples, and such attempts pose a threat to international peace and security. One year later, the UN General Assembly passed a measure during consultations without a vote which defined aggression, and Article 7 clearly absolves the liberation struggle of the notion of aggression: No determination of this definition, in particular Article 3, can in any way influence the right to self- determination, freedom, and independence, as spelled out in the Charter, of those who have been violently denied this right, in particular peoples living under colonial, racist, or some other form of foreign rule, in accordance with the fundamentals of the rights of peoples and the friendly relations and cooperation between states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations; nor can it affect the right of these peoples to struggle toward these ends and to seek support in accordance with the fundamentals of the Charter and in accordance with the above-mentioned declaration. Even if, as was stated earlier, UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, they still give a general indication of the development of the rights of peoples, based on the practics of states and the degree to which they adhere to the law. The resolutions were all passed with by a sizeable majority of the member states. In addition to these, there have been several more resolutions which have called upon states to provide "all the moral and material support possible" to peoples struggling to achieve their rights to self-determination and independence. From this, it is possible to conclude that the overwhelming majority of states consider armed struggle by liberation movements to be legitimate and in accordance with the rights of peoples. But this position is put in danger when it becomes mixed up with discussions which seek to distinguish international terrorism from the rights of peoples. For example, up until very recently, the media described the PLO as a terrorist organization, although they had already been recognized in the 1970s as a liberation movement and, as the UN's official representative of the Palestinian people, the organization had been granted observer status in the UN. The PKK must also confront accusations that it is a terrorist organization or a vement have control over significant amounts of territory and be recognized by a regional international body are no longer accepted today. In any case, some commentaries recognize the tendency to only strictly apply the First Protocol to liberation struggles against colonial rule, foreign occupation, and racist regimes, in order to make the use of Article 1.4 of the First Protocol historicaly irrelevant following the resolution of the conflicts in South Africa and Palestine. But other authors correctly point out that it is wrong to limit the regulations to such classical forms of colonial or occupation conflicts. These should apply not only to conflicts in the closing epoch of classical colonial confrontations, but to all conflicts where people are trying to exercise their right to self-determination. The decisive demarcation are not the three case examples, but rather the exertion of the right to self-determination, without which the three examples could not be equated with international conflicts. Only this interpretation can secure the applicability of the humanitarian rights of peoples for future conflicts whose roots might lie in the colonial regime but which might not be anti-colonial struggles in the classical sense. The armed confrontation between the Turkish military and the PKK is an example of this kind of war. a) The mountainous region settled by the Kurds has been the boundary and border area of various zones of domination for centuries, between which the Kurdish dynasties were able to exist in relative independence. It was only as the Ottoman Empire began to decline at the end of the 19th century that rivalries between Kurdish princes started to intensify, thus leading to a series of disturbances and wars. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the victorious European powers began to carve up the Near East. In the Treaty of Svres in 1920 and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, they divided Kurdistan into four parts which spanned across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This initiated a period of several uprisings, the most significant of which were the uprisings in Turkey in Seyh Said (1925), Ararat (1930), and Dersim (1937/38). All of these ended in defeat for the Kurds, but the consciousness of the Kurds for their own identity and their desire for their social existence to be recognized were not destroyed. This refernce to history is important to fully understand the launching of the armed struggle by the PKK in the late-70s and early-80s and not see it as a purely new phenomenon without any historical basis. Not simply because the struggle has great similarities to the uprisings of the pre-war era and the 19th century, but rather there are deep historical roots to the treatment of the Kurds by the colonial powers after the fall of the Ottoman Empire when the Near East was subjected to colonial division - in this sense, this conflict is also a late-colonial conflict. Since its founding in 1978, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has propagated the use of armed struggle as a means of liberation against the Turkish state and also against large land owners in the region. Since 1984, it is fair to say that there has been a systematic and enduring military confrontation between the Turkish military and Liberation Units of Kurdistan (HRK), founded by the PKK in 1984, and the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), founded by the PKK in 1985. The fighting was only interrupted once, and that was after the PKK began a unilateral ceasefire in March 1993, but this didn't last long since the Turkish military never halted its attacks. Whereas the Kurdish fighters up until 1993 were generally trained outside the borders of Turkey, in the Bekaa Valley or in Iraq, today the guerrilla units constantly remain in the Turkish- occupied regions of Kurdistan and they control vast sections of territory there. The number of guerrilla fighters is estimated at 30,000. The almost daily reports in the German media about the fighting in the Kurdish regions of Turkey leave no doubts whatsoever that the country is in a long-lasting and very serious war situation: According to sourc feel that "the guerrilla war in the east is the most serious threat which Turkey has faced in the last 50 years". That is a clear expression of the fact that the guerrillas are anchored in the Kurdish population. Finally, the population recognize the fact that it is due to the activities of the PKK, not some "terrorist organization", that the situation of the Kurds has become an internationally-recognized problem and that the issue of freedom for the Kurdish people has been taken seriously. No other organization could have achieved this. Even the German press has written: "But the Kurds won't be quick to abandon their struggle for freedom. There are signs to indicate that the Kurdish question will take the place of the Palestine conflict in the next century." The most recent round of local elections in Turkey, held on 27 March 1994, have indirectly confirmed this. Depite compulsory voting, there was a wide-spread voting boycott in the Kurdish part of Turkey, as this author himself witnessed. The levels were between 40% of all eligible voters in the city of Batman, for example, and 58% in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in southeastern Anatolia, and 79% in Dersim province. The only party which directly represented the interest of the Kurds, the Democracy Party (DEP), pulled out of the elections shortly before they were scheduled to take place on account of threats, arrests, and the murder of several of its delegates and functionaries. Such a strong and demonstrative voting boycott can only be attributed to the support of the PKK, which, although illegal, is the only force which enjoys such unlimited trust from the people. Even an official survey ordered by Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) and carried out by the Domestic Society Institute (TIB) in November 1993 to get a sense of what the coming local elections would be like revealed that 87% of the people in the provinces of Diyarbakir, Sirnak, Mardin, BingOl, Mus, Siirt, Hakkari, Bitlis, Ufra, and Batman stated that they were in opposition to the state. A total of 63% stated that they were fundamentally pro-Kurdish, 9% were more or less pro-Kurdish, and 15% were undecided. Only 6% of the remaining 13% indicated that they would vote for the Welfare Party (RP), and 7% identified with other parties. Foreign observers who are well-informed about the situation in Kurdistan estimate that approximately 80% of the Kurdish population would vote for the PKK. The chairman of the Human Rights Committee of Britain's House of Lords also offered his support to the PKK in a parliamentary debate on 29 November 1993: It is therefore incorrect for the Foreign Office, and indeed the State Department in the United States, to regard the PKK as merely a terrorist organization. In the absence of an internationally-agreed definition of what constitutes a people within the meanings of the covenants, the claim by the Kurds to exercise the right of self-determination cannot be established legally. However, they possess all the attributes of a people - language, culture, history, and institutions - and the clear wish to be independent. The majority of the Kurds undoubtedly support the PKK, as the Parliamentary Human Rights Group found in three visits to the region over the past 18 months. That is not necessarily because the people share the Marxist ideology of the PKK or look with favour on the attacks that it mounts on non-combatants. They see the PKK as the only means of achieving their liberation from Turkish oppression. In a 1992 report on Turkish-Kurdistan issued by t terrorist organization whose struggle contradicts the notion of the peaceful coexistence of peoples. As an "organized armed group", the PKK has the right to demand that third-party states remain neutral in its armed conflict with the Turkish state. The PKK's demands for self-determination and the protection of human rights are legitimate and in accordance with the principles of the rights of peoples, and the Turkish government is systematically denying them these rights and is doing so by force. It is not the Kurdish resistance which is contradicting the notion of mutual understanding between peoples, rather it is the Turkish government and the Turkish military who are disturbing the peaceful coexistence between the Kurds and the Turks. Dr. Norman Paech Hamburg, 7 June 1994 ----- Kurdistan Committee of Canada Tel: (613) 733-9634 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Fax: (613) 733-0090 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 E-mail: kcc at magi.com ----- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Tue Mar 28 19:04:10 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 28 Mar 1995 19:04:10 Subject: VOA: Turkey/Germany Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey/Germany Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/27/95 byline= Al Pessin Intro: Turkey has expressed surprise at Germany's decision to suspend military aid because of its operation in northern Iraq designed to crush Kurdish guerrillas. VOA's Al Pessin reports from Ankara. Text: The German decision affects 105-million dollars worth of subsidies which were to help pay for two ships for Turkey's navy, to be built in Germany. Germany's Chancellor and Foreign Minister have agreed the aid will not go forward unless it is specifically approved by Parliament. Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel made it clear he believes such approval should be linked to a Turkish withdrawal from northern Iraq. Mr. Kinkel said he was "Shocked" by a statement by Turkish President suleiman Demirel that the troops could stay in place for up to a year. Mr. kinkel said Mr. Demirel promised the troops would be out quickly in a conversation last week. In an interview with the Associated Press, President Demirel said the operation will require more than just a few weeks, but probably not more than a year. Other Turkish officials have hinted at a time frame of perhaps a few months -- but no one is saying exactly how long the troops will stay. Turkey says the operation is needed to stop cross-border guerrilla attacks, and will not affect civilians. But Mr. Kinkel warned Monday a long-term operation will hurt Turkey's effort to improve relations with Europe. 27-Mar-95 12:39 pm EST (1739 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Tue Mar 28 19:10:42 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 28 Mar 1995 19:10:42 Subject: VOA: Turkey/Germany References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: VOA: Turkey/Germany Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar -------- date=3/27/95 byline= Al Pessin Intro: Turkey has expressed surprise at Germany's decision to suspend military aid because of its operation in northern Iraq designed to crush Kurdish guerrillas. VOA's Al Pessin reports from Ankara. Text: The German decision affects 105-million dollars worth of subsidies which were to help pay for two ships for Turkey's navy, to be built in Germany. Germany's Chancellor and Foreign Minister have agreed the aid will not go forward unless it is specifically approved by Parliament. Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel made it clear he believes such approval should be linked to a Turkish withdrawal from northern Iraq. Mr. Kinkel said he was "Shocked" by a statement by Turkish President suleiman Demirel that the troops could stay in place for up to a year. Mr. kinkel said Mr. Demirel promised the troops would be out quickly in a conversation last week. In an interview with the Associated Press, President Demirel said the operation will require more than just a few weeks, but probably not more than a year. Other Turkish officials have hinted at a time frame of perhaps a few months -- but no one is saying exactly how long the troops will stay. Turkey says the operation is needed to stop cross-border guerrilla attacks, and will not affect civilians. But Mr. Kinkel warned Monday a long-term operation will hurt Turkey's effort to improve relations with Europe. 27-Mar-95 12:39 pm EST (1739 utc) Source: Voice of America ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Tue Mar 28 21:19:29 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 28 Mar 1995 21:19:29 Subject: re village evacuations Message-ID: From: "Michael Chyet" Subject: re village evacuations ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________ Subject: re village evacuations Author: martin.vanbruinessen at let.ruu.nl (Martin van Bruinessen) at AA_GRAPELINK Date: 3/28/95 9:10 AM The Netherlands Kurdistan Society has just published a detailed report on forced evacuations and destructions of villages by Turkish security troops during the autumn 1994 operations in Tunceli and western Bingoel: FORCED EVICTIONS AND DESTRUCTION OF VILLAGES IN DERSIM (TUNCELI) AND THE WESTERN PART OF BING"OL, TURKISH KURDISTAN, SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1994 (Amsterdam, Netherlands Kurdistan Society, March 1995. 68 pp, tables, maps) The report includes an overview of earlier village evacuations and destructions and gives a detailed account of the autumn operations and their effects on local society and the natural environment. It contains lists and maps of all villages in the affected region, indicating for each whether there were forced evictions, whether houses were burned down and whether the surrounding forests were set alight during the military operations in the region. The report costs 27.50 Dutch guilders (including postage and handling), and can be ordered from: Netherlands Kurdistan Society, PO Box 10183 101 ED Amsterdam, Netherlands fax +31 20 627 91 74 phone +31 20 626 80 77 Payment preferably by credit card (Access, Mastercard, or Eurocard) From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Wed Mar 29 05:27:55 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 29 Mar 1995 05:27:55 Subject: Di, 28.03.1995 19:00 MESZ Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Di, 28.03.1995 19:00 MESZ Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl ------ Forwarded from : German News ------ - Verteidigungsministerium: Keine deutschen Waffen im Kurdengebiet Bonn. Die Auswertung von Fernsehfilmen aus dem Nordirak hat nach Darstellung des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums keinen eindeutigen Beweis dafuer ergeben, dass die tuerkische Armee im Kampf gegen die kurdische PKK auch Waffen deutscher Herkunft einsetzt. In einer Expertise fuer das Ausawaertige Amt heisst es, bei keinem der Kampffahrzeuge sei eine Zuordnung zu nur aus Deutschland geliefertem Kriegsgeraet moeglich. Aussenminister Kinkel hatte dies bereits gestern abend in den "Tagesthemem" versichert. Ein ehemaliger NVA-Oberst hatte dagegen erklaert, die gezeigten Schuetzenpanzer stammten ganz klar aus Bestaenden der Nationalen Volksarmee (NVA) der ehemaligen DDR. Bonn hatte 300 dieser Panzer im Golfkrieg an Ankara verkauft. Unterdessen hat die Koalition einstimmig die Empfehlung von Aussenminister Kinkel gebilligt, 150 Mio. DM Zuschuesse zum Bau von zwei Fregatten fuer die Tuerkei zu sperren. Union und FDP erklaerten, es mache einen gravierenden Unterschied, ob ein Staat eine Terrororganisation zerschlagen wolle oder ob er den Teil eines anderen Staatsgebietes besetzt halte. Die endgueltige Entscheidung ueber die Sperrung der Mittel trifft der Bundestag. - Berlin: Abschiebestop fuer Kurden endet am 01. April Berlin. Der Abschiebestop fuer kurdische Fluechtlinge wird fuer das Land Berlin zum 01. April aufgehoben. Darauf einigten sich die Koalitionsfraktionen von CDU und SPD. Nach einem Bericht der "Berliner Morgenpost" sollen allerdings bei Kurden aus den zehn als gefaehrlich eingestuften Provinzen vor den Abschiebungen Einzelfallpruefungen stattfinden. - Rechtsextremistische Schriften in Tuebingen sichergestellt Tuebingen. Bei der Suche nach rechtsextremistischer Literatur sind die Staatsanwaltschaft Tuebingen und das baden-wuerttembergische Landeskriminalamt fuendig geworden. Im Rahmen einer Durchsuchungsaktion wurden ueber 2.000 Exemplare eines Buches mit nationalsozialistischen Tendenzen beschlagnahmt. Ziel der Aktion waren ein einschlaegig bekannter Verlag in Tuebingen und die Arbeitsstelle eines 30jaehrigen Diplomchemikers im Kreis Esslingen. Das Buch, das Beitraege verschiedener Autoren enthaelt, erfuellt nach Auffassung der Staatsanwaltschaft durch die Leugnung des Massenmordes an den Juden die Straftatbestaende der Volksverhetzung und der Beleidigung. - Boerse: Schwach ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From mchyet at library.berkeley.edu Wed Mar 29 05:28:25 1995 From: mchyet at library.berkeley.edu (mchyet at library.berkeley.edu) Date: 29 Mar 1995 05:28:25 Subject: New Kurdish movie: "The Silent Trav Message-ID: From: "Michael Chyet" Subject: New Kurdish movie: "The Silent Traveller" Dear friends: A new Kurdish movie has just appeared, entitled "The Silent Traveller" [Karewanek^i b^edeng]. It is in Badinani Kurdish with excellent English subtitles. Made in Greece, this films recounts the story of the peshmerga Mahm^d^e Yezid^i and his band in Kurdistan of Iraq during the period of the Baathist regime [late sixties and early seventies]. If I am not mistaken, it is adapted from a story by the Kurdish writer Ibrahim Selman. The directors and producers are from the Bamerni family. From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 29 17:31:29 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 29 Mar 1995 17:31:29 Subject: Infodesk Statement #11 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Infodesk Statement #11 Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #11 March 29, 1995 We received the following communique from the Press Office of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) in Botan, Kurdistan. It was titled, "To The Press And The Public Opinion, Statement Number 2". Below, you will find it verbatim: Turkish Army Afraid Of Mountains And Guerrillas It has been some 9 days since the Turkish troops invaded northern Iraq, South Kurdistan. Just like in North Kurdistan, we have had frequent and close encounters with the enemy forces. Employing guerrilla tactics and being familiar with the terrain has enabled us to have superiority in the war. The results follow for your perusal. We have ambushed the enemy forces in many places and in some of the battles the fighting continued for days. To date, we have had 69 encounters with the enemy forces. In addition, in four different places, the enemy forces have stepped on mines. While we have been able to monitor the results of 25 battles, we do not have accurate results for the upshot of the remaining 44 clashes. Also, although we know that the enemy has stepped on our fields that were mined, we do not have the number of their casualties. Our mobile forces in a border area some 300km long report that in 25 encounters the enemy losses are 515 soldiers killed and as many troops injured. We have also put 4 of their tanks out of commission and 8 of their armoured vehicles as well. Of the soldiers that were killed, 183 lost their lives in the Haftanin region between Hezil and Habur, 302 lost their lives in the Gandura valley near Hiror, Kele Kurmiye, and Metina, and the remaining 30 lost their lives in Xankurxe between Zap and Avasin. Our losses to date are 21 killed and 12 injured. Of those killed, 18 were fighters, 2 were platoon leaders, and 1 was the commander in charge of three platoons. The massive and indiscriminate Turkish attack has also resulted in civilian casualties. The troops have not entered the highlands, instead they have concentrated in and around Zaxo. In several places, they have tried to airlift their troops, but to no avail. In other words, the Turkish troops are landlocked in urban areas. We continue to ambush them continuously. In our nightly attacks, we are wearing them out day in and day out. It is not going to be possible for the Turkish soldiers to withstand our assaults. They already shows signs of low morale and utter clumsiness. South Kurdistan is a terrain we are well familiar with. With our light and mobile forces, the Turkish troops are perfect targets. Before they can decide to move back we will rout them out of South Kurdistan. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:13:22 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:13:22 Subject: Infodesk Statement #11 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #11 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #11 March 29, 1995 We received the following communique from the Press Office of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) in Botan, Kurdistan. It was titled, "To The Press And The Public Opinion, Statement Number 2". Below, you will find it verbatim: Turkish Army Afraid Of Mountains And Guerrillas It has been some 9 days since the Turkish troops invaded northern Iraq, South Kurdistan. Just like in North Kurdistan, we have had frequent and close encounters with the enemy forces. Employing guerrilla tactics and being familiar with the terrain has enabled us to have superiority in the war. The results follow for your perusal. We have ambushed the enemy forces in many places and in some of the battles the fighting continued for days. To date, we have had 69 encounters with the enemy forces. In addition, in four different places, the enemy forces have stepped on mines. While we have been able to monitor the results of 25 battles, we do not have accurate results for the upshot of the remaining 44 clashes. Also, although we know that the enemy has stepped on our fields that were mined, we do not have the number of their casualties. Our mobile forces in a border area some 300km long report that in 25 encounters the enemy losses are 515 soldiers killed and as many troops injured. We have also put 4 of their tanks out of commission and 8 of their armoured vehicles as well. Of the soldiers that were killed, 183 lost their lives in the Haftanin region between Hezil and Habur, 302 lost their lives in the Gandura valley near Hiror, Kele Kurmiye, and Metina, and the remaining 30 lost their lives in Xankurxe between Zap and Avasin. Our losses to date are 21 killed and 12 injured. Of those killed, 18 were fighters, 2 were platoon leaders, and 1 was the commander in charge of three platoons. The massive and indiscriminate Turkish attack has also resulted in civilian casualties. The troops have not entered the highlands, instead they have concentrated in and around Zaxo. In several places, they have tried to airlift their troops, but to no avail. In other words, the Turkish troops are landlocked in urban areas. We continue to ambush them continuously. In our nightly attacks, we are wearing them out day in and day out. It is not going to be possible for the Turkish soldiers to withstand our assaults. They already shows signs of low morale and utter clumsiness. South Kurdistan is a terrain we are well familiar with. With our light and mobile forces, the Turkish troops are perfect targets. Before they can decide to move back we will rout them out of South Kurdistan. ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 29 17:31:29 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 29 Mar 1995 17:31:29 Subject: Infodesk Statement #8 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Infodesk Statement #8 Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #8 March 28, 1995 We have received the following news from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the Kurdish-German news agency, KURD-A, in Zaxo, South Kurdistan: Intense fighting has continued between Kurdish guerrillas and members of the Turkish army. Between Amediye and Serpil, due to favourable foggy weather conditions, a Turkish military convoy was ambushed with rockets and automatic weapons. One vehicle went up in flames and many others were put out of commission. Early reports indicate that 83 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 wounded. In this battle, the Kurdish forces lost 1 fighter. This raises the number of Turkish soldiers killed to 261 soldiers. The Kurdish guerrilla losses now number 18. In the Metinan highlands, the Turkish troops wanted to airlift troops using helicopters but they met with stiff resistance from well-placed Kurdish guerrillas. As a result, the landing was called off. As of this writing, no casualty figures were available. The city of Zaxo has been under the occupation of Turkish troops since the very beginning. Many of the villages surrounding the town have been bombed and a considerable number of civilians have been arrested. A group of Kurdish fighters entered this city and attacked Kurdish collaborators in two different locations. In these attacks, 1 Turkish agent was killed and 2 were wounded. In another incident in the vicinity of Zaxo, 3 Kurdish collaborators who had donned Turkish military clothes were also gunned down. They were acting as guides for Turkish troops who are not familiar with the terrain. There are reports that the Haftanin region is under heavy bombardment. After the bombing, the Turkish army wants to land in the area and move towards the Gare region. In Kesan, a number of houses were hit by Turkish fighter planes. 1 Kurd was killed and 2 were injured. In the village of Derkar, a house belonging to a sympathizer of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was searched and then set on fire. There was also some irony. The arsenals of the forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were displayed in the village square for the members of the Turkish media and these were described as weapons confiscated from Kurdish fighters. The people of South Kurdistan are clearly against this Turkish incursion into their Federated State. In Ebril, work is underway for a major demonstration. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:13:47 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:13:47 Subject: Infodesk Statement #8 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #8 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #8 March 28, 1995 We have received the following news from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the Kurdish-German news agency, KURD-A, in Zaxo, South Kurdistan: Intense fighting has continued between Kurdish guerrillas and members of the Turkish army. Between Amediye and Serpil, due to favourable foggy weather conditions, a Turkish military convoy was ambushed with rockets and automatic weapons. One vehicle went up in flames and many others were put out of commission. Early reports indicate that 83 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 wounded. In this battle, the Kurdish forces lost 1 fighter. This raises the number of Turkish soldiers killed to 261 soldiers. The Kurdish guerrilla losses now number 18. In the Metinan highlands, the Turkish troops wanted to airlift troops using helicopters but they met with stiff resistance from well-placed Kurdish guerrillas. As a result, the landing was called off. As of this writing, no casualty figures were available. The city of Zaxo has been under the occupation of Turkish troops since the very beginning. Many of the villages surrounding the town have been bombed and a considerable number of civilians have been arrested. A group of Kurdish fighters entered this city and attacked Kurdish collaborators in two different locations. In these attacks, 1 Turkish agent was killed and 2 were wounded. In another incident in the vicinity of Zaxo, 3 Kurdish collaborators who had donned Turkish military clothes were also gunned down. They were acting as guides for Turkish troops who are not familiar with the terrain. There are reports that the Haftanin region is under heavy bombardment. After the bombing, the Turkish army wants to land in the area and move towards the Gare region. In Kesan, a number of houses were hit by Turkish fighter planes. 1 Kurd was killed and 2 were injured. In the village of Derkar, a house belonging to a sympathizer of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was searched and then set on fire. There was also some irony. The arsenals of the forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were displayed in the village square for the members of the Turkish media and these were described as weapons confiscated from Kurdish fighters. The people of South Kurdistan are clearly against this Turkish incursion into their Federated State. In Ebril, work is underway for a major demonstration. ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 29 17:32:33 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 29 Mar 1995 17:32:33 Subject: Infodesk Statement #9 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Infodesk Statement #9 Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #9 March 28, 1995 Some 300 Kurds have occupied the United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland to draw the members' attention to the Turkish war in their homeland. We received the following fax from their representatives which was submitted to UN officials: To The Members Of The United Nations On March 20, 1995, some 70,000 Turkish troops with their armoured vehicles, tanks, and fighter planes invaded northern Iraq, South Kurdistan. Nine days have passed and neither the international press nor foreign observers have been allowed into the actual site of the war. There is only one reason for that: Turkey wants to hide the ugly truth from the international public, namely the villages that have been bombed by its air force and the civilians that have been murdered by its ground troops. On the face of it, the Turkish state has indicated that its invasion was prompted by the presence of Kurdish guerrilla fighters. This is simply falsifying the true nature of its intentions. In essence, the operation, which violates international law, is designed to silence the Kurds once and for all. This is not a secret. Many international organizations, including the United Nations, have remained silent regarding the Kurdish question. Yet, in many other parts of the world, upheavals much smaller in scale have attracted the intervention of the United Nations. And much has been done to secure peace. The situation of the Kurds has been a source of instability for a long time now. In Turkish Kurdistan, for the last 15 years, the Turkish army has declared a war on the Kurds. This is because the very laws of the land make them persona non grata as Kurds in their own land. It is a policy that has led to the destruction of more than 2,200 Kurdish villages. 5 million Kurds have been deprived of their homes and livelihood. 3 million of them have migrated to western Turkish cities. Seeing that nothing is uttered in the international community relative to its campaign of subjecting the Kurds to utter pain and suffering, the emboldened Turkish state has this time attacked the Federated Kurdish State in order to strangle it. It behooves the United Nations to stand against these racist and militarist policies of the Turkish government. Left alone, this problem has the potential to turn the whole region into a source of instability. For these reasons, we ask that: 1. The Security Council convene immediately to consider ways of ending the military occupation by the Turkish armed forces and seek a political solution to the problems of the Kurds; 2. The United Nations pass a resolution condemning this Turkish incursion and urging the government of Turkey to retreat from northern Iraq, South Kurdistan; 3. The United Nations send a fact-finding delegation to the war scene to account for the civilians casualties and damage inflicted on their property; 4. The United Nations impose economic sanctions and an arms embargo on Turkey until it agrees to seek a political solution to the Kurdish question. The Kurdish Community of Europe From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 17:31:57 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 17:31:57 Subject: Infodesk Statement #9 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #9 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #9 March 28, 1995 Some 300 Kurds have occupied the United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland to draw the members' attention to the Turkish war in their homeland. We received the following fax from their representatives which was submitted to UN officials: To The Members Of The United Nations On March 20, 1995, some 70,000 Turkish troops with their armoured vehicles, tanks, and fighter planes invaded northern Iraq, South Kurdistan. Nine days have passed and neither the international press nor foreign observers have been allowed into the actual site of the war. There is only one reason for that: Turkey wants to hide the ugly truth from the international public, namely the villages that have been bombed by its air force and the civilians that have been murdered by its ground troops. On the face of it, the Turkish state has indicated that its invasion was prompted by the presence of Kurdish guerrilla fighters. This is simply falsifying the true nature of its intentions. In essence, the operation, which violates international law, is designed to silence the Kurds once and for all. This is not a secret. Many international organizations, including the United Nations, have remained silent regarding the Kurdish question. Yet, in many other parts of the world, upheavals much smaller in scale have attracted the intervention of the United Nations. And much has been done to secure peace. The situation of the Kurds has been a source of instability for a long time now. In Turkish Kurdistan, for the last 15 years, the Turkish army has declared a war on the Kurds. This is because the very laws of the land make them persona non grata as Kurds in their own land. It is a policy that has led to the destruction of more than 2,200 Kurdish villages. 5 million Kurds have been deprived of their homes and livelihood. 3 million of them have migrated to western Turkish cities. Seeing that nothing is uttered in the international community relative to its campaign of subjecting the Kurds to utter pain and suffering, the emboldened Turkish state has this time attacked the Federated Kurdish State in order to strangle it. It behooves the United Nations to stand against these racist and militarist policies of the Turkish government. Left alone, this problem has the potential to turn the whole region into a source of instability. For these reasons, we ask that: 1. The Security Council convene immediately to consider ways of ending the military occupation by the Turkish armed forces and seek a political solution to the problems of the Kurds; 2. The United Nations pass a resolution condemning this Turkish incursion and urging the government of Turkey to retreat from northern Iraq, South Kurdistan; 3. The United Nations send a fact-finding delegation to the war scene to account for the civilians casualties and damage inflicted on their property; 4. The United Nations impose economic sanctions and an arms embargo on Turkey until it agrees to seek a political solution to the Kurdish question. The Kurdish Community of Europe ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 29 17:44:12 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 29 Mar 1995 17:44:12 Subject: Infodesk Statement #7 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Infodesk Statement #7 Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #7 March 26, 1995 We received the following communique, "To The Press And Public Opinion, Statement Number 1", from the Military Council of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) in Botan, Kurdistan: We Will Expel The Turkish Army From Kurdistan This is a five day summary of what has happened in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan. The Turkish army has undertaken an all-out operation using armoured vehicles, tanks, helicopters, and fighter planes. In this massive attack, including residential areas, much of rural Kurdistan has been bombed. Since we knew of the impending invasion, our mobile forces were prepared to resist the attack and we have inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish forces. On March 19-20, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles moved into Zaxo and then proceeded towards Haftanin. We then ambushed the advancing units between Zaxo and Haftanin and we halted their movement and inflicted losses. During the day, our forces came in contact with enemy forces in the Sinaht, Hezil, and Habur regions along the border and again the enemy forces were encircled, some of them were killed and many others were bewildered. Between Habur and Zap in the Kendora valley, at Hirror, Ciyaye Kulli, Derkar, and the Zap bridge, the Turkish soldiers were attacked six times and again they suffered losses. These hit and run tactics have slowed down the enemy forces and hampered their movements on the ground. Finding themselves landlocked on inhospitable terrain, the enemy forces have airlifted their forces into the Xapuske region between Kari and the Metina mountains. On the night of March 23, they airlifted some more troops into the Kandine region. Here, our guerrilla units encircled the headquarters of the Turkish troops and forced them to retreat from the area. The enemy forces have not been able to move into the Zap and Avasin regions. There, Turkish fighter planes have exacted heavy losses in the residential areas. On March 21, in the Basya valley, our fighters ambushed another Turkish military convoy. Some of the military vehicles, along with their occupants, found themselves in the Avasin river. Local residents noted that the enemy forces suffered heavy losses. As a result, the enemy movement on the ground has come to a standstill. In the air, they are ineffective against our mobile forces. To date, as of Friday, March 24, our losses stand at 17 and we also have 10 injured fighters. We have no exact information on the enemy losses, but we estimate the number to be some 300 soldiers and their officers. There are probably as many injured troops as well. For example, at Xanxurke, the enemy had 4 of its soldiers killed and 3 of them injured. During the Basya valley attack, some soldiers were killed in the fighting and others drowned in the Avasin river. In Kendora region on March 20, 15 enemy soldiers were killed and more were injured. At the Kandine headquarters, close to 50 soldiers were put out of commission. On the hills of Derkar, the enemy has yet to pick up its dead from the ground. Unlike the "good" news which is emanating from Ankara, the Turkish soldiers are unable to fight a guerrilla war. Many of the soldiers are displaying clumsy behaviour. They are still doing what they are best at: killing Kurdish civilians and telling the world that these are "terrorists". If this is the truth then why aren't they showing these supposedly killed Kurdish fighters to the media? The people of Zaxo have been subjected to intimidation and torture since the beginning of this operation. The region between Hezil and Zap has been bombarded heavily and the residents of Derkar, Devgerli, and Holina have fled their villages. In the Zap valley, the villages of Gare, Sili, and Edi have also been bombarded from the air. All the villages between Zap and Avasin have been evacuated. In Gazine village, a shepherd was murdered by the invading forces. At Orke and Banya, Turkish planes have hit some of the houses, killing a 6-year-old girl and wounding 6 other people. The villages of Kale and Baluka have been searched and 3 residents were killed. The people of South Kurdistan have been rallying against the Turkish invasion of their state. In Dohuk, the residents of the city have demonstrated against the presence of the enemy. There are reports that a larger demonstration has also taken place at Sulaymania. The Turkish government has received the blessings of the international community, especially that of the United States of America. Their mission, Operation Provide Comfort, has become a guise to choke the Kurds. Notwithstanding the international support which Turkey enjoys, this is the last foray of Turkish soldiers into South Kurdistan. We will expel them soon - and for good. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 17:30:43 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 17:30:43 Subject: Infodesk Statement #7 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #7 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #7 March 26, 1995 We received the following communique, "To The Press And Public Opinion, Statement Number 1", from the Military Council of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) in Botan, Kurdistan: We Will Expel The Turkish Army From Kurdistan This is a five day summary of what has happened in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan. The Turkish army has undertaken an all-out operation using armoured vehicles, tanks, helicopters, and fighter planes. In this massive attack, including residential areas, much of rural Kurdistan has been bombed. Since we knew of the impending invasion, our mobile forces were prepared to resist the attack and we have inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish forces. On March 19-20, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles moved into Zaxo and then proceeded towards Haftanin. We then ambushed the advancing units between Zaxo and Haftanin and we halted their movement and inflicted losses. During the day, our forces came in contact with enemy forces in the Sinaht, Hezil, and Habur regions along the border and again the enemy forces were encircled, some of them were killed and many others were bewildered. Between Habur and Zap in the Kendora valley, at Hirror, Ciyaye Kulli, Derkar, and the Zap bridge, the Turkish soldiers were attacked six times and again they suffered losses. These hit and run tactics have slowed down the enemy forces and hampered their movements on the ground. Finding themselves landlocked on inhospitable terrain, the enemy forces have airlifted their forces into the Xapuske region between Kari and the Metina mountains. On the night of March 23, they airlifted some more troops into the Kandine region. Here, our guerrilla units encircled the headquarters of the Turkish troops and forced them to retreat from the area. The enemy forces have not been able to move into the Zap and Avasin regions. There, Turkish fighter planes have exacted heavy losses in the residential areas. On March 21, in the Basya valley, our fighters ambushed another Turkish military convoy. Some of the military vehicles, along with their occupants, found themselves in the Avasin river. Local residents noted that the enemy forces suffered heavy losses. As a result, the enemy movement on the ground has come to a standstill. In the air, they are ineffective against our mobile forces. To date, as of Friday, March 24, our losses stand at 17 and we also have 10 injured fighters. We have no exact information on the enemy losses, but we estimate the number to be some 300 soldiers and their officers. There are probably as many injured troops as well. For example, at Xanxurke, the enemy had 4 of its soldiers killed and 3 of them injured. During the Basya valley attack, some soldiers were killed in the fighting and others drowned in the Avasin river. In Kendora region on March 20, 15 enemy soldiers were killed and more were injured. At the Kandine headquarters, close to 50 soldiers were put out of commission. On the hills of Derkar, the enemy has yet to pick up its dead from the ground. Unlike the "good" news which is emanating from Ankara, the Turkish soldiers are unable to fight a guerrilla war. Many of the soldiers are displaying clumsy behaviour. They are still doing what they are best at: killing Kurdish civilians and telling the world that these are "terrorists". If this is the truth then why aren't they showing these supposedly killed Kurdish fighters to the media? The people of Zaxo have been subjected to intimidation and torture since the beginning of this operation. The region between Hezil and Zap has been bombarded heavily and the residents of Derkar, Devgerli, and Holina have fled their villages. In the Zap valley, the villages of Gare, Sili, and Edi have also been bombarded from the air. All the villages between Zap and Avasin have been evacuated. In Gazine village, a shepherd was murdered by the invading forces. At Orke and Banya, Turkish planes have hit some of the houses, killing a 6-year-old girl and wounding 6 other people. The villages of Kale and Baluka have been searched and 3 residents were killed. The people of South Kurdistan have been rallying against the Turkish invasion of their state. In Dohuk, the residents of the city have demonstrated against the presence of the enemy. There are reports that a larger demonstration has also taken place at Sulaymania. The Turkish government has received the blessings of the international community, especially that of the United States of America. Their mission, Operation Provide Comfort, has become a guise to choke the Kurds. Notwithstanding the international support which Turkey enjoys, this is the last foray of Turkish soldiers into South Kurdistan. We will expel them soon - and for good. ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 17:31:26 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 17:31:26 Subject: Infodesk Statement #7 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #7 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #7 March 26, 1995 We received the following communique, "To The Press And Public Opinion, Statement Number 1", from the Military Council of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK) in Botan, Kurdistan: We Will Expel The Turkish Army From Kurdistan This is a five day summary of what has happened in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan. The Turkish army has undertaken an all-out operation using armoured vehicles, tanks, helicopters, and fighter planes. In this massive attack, including residential areas, much of rural Kurdistan has been bombed. Since we knew of the impending invasion, our mobile forces were prepared to resist the attack and we have inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish forces. On March 19-20, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles moved into Zaxo and then proceeded towards Haftanin. We then ambushed the advancing units between Zaxo and Haftanin and we halted their movement and inflicted losses. During the day, our forces came in contact with enemy forces in the Sinaht, Hezil, and Habur regions along the border and again the enemy forces were encircled, some of them were killed and many others were bewildered. Between Habur and Zap in the Kendora valley, at Hirror, Ciyaye Kulli, Derkar, and the Zap bridge, the Turkish soldiers were attacked six times and again they suffered losses. These hit and run tactics have slowed down the enemy forces and hampered their movements on the ground. Finding themselves landlocked on inhospitable terrain, the enemy forces have airlifted their forces into the Xapuske region between Kari and the Metina mountains. On the night of March 23, they airlifted some more troops into the Kandine region. Here, our guerrilla units encircled the headquarters of the Turkish troops and forced them to retreat from the area. The enemy forces have not been able to move into the Zap and Avasin regions. There, Turkish fighter planes have exacted heavy losses in the residential areas. On March 21, in the Basya valley, our fighters ambushed another Turkish military convoy. Some of the military vehicles, along with their occupants, found themselves in the Avasin river. Local residents noted that the enemy forces suffered heavy losses. As a result, the enemy movement on the ground has come to a standstill. In the air, they are ineffective against our mobile forces. To date, as of Friday, March 24, our losses stand at 17 and we also have 10 injured fighters. We have no exact information on the enemy losses, but we estimate the number to be some 300 soldiers and their officers. There are probably as many injured troops as well. For example, at Xanxurke, the enemy had 4 of its soldiers killed and 3 of them injured. During the Basya valley attack, some soldiers were killed in the fighting and others drowned in the Avasin river. In Kendora region on March 20, 15 enemy soldiers were killed and more were injured. At the Kandine headquarters, close to 50 soldiers were put out of commission. On the hills of Derkar, the enemy has yet to pick up its dead from the ground. Unlike the "good" news which is emanating from Ankara, the Turkish soldiers are unable to fight a guerrilla war. Many of the soldiers are displaying clumsy behaviour. They are still doing what they are best at: killing Kurdish civilians and telling the world that these are "terrorists". If this is the truth then why aren't they showing these supposedly killed Kurdish fighters to the media? The people of Zaxo have been subjected to intimidation and torture since the beginning of this operation. The region between Hezil and Zap has been bombarded heavily and the residents of Derkar, Devgerli, and Holina have fled their villages. In the Zap valley, the villages of Gare, Sili, and Edi have also been bombarded from the air. All the villages between Zap and Avasin have been evacuated. In Gazine village, a shepherd was murdered by the invading forces. At Orke and Banya, Turkish planes have hit some of the houses, killing a 6-year-old girl and wounding 6 other people. The villages of Kale and Baluka have been searched and 3 residents were killed. The people of South Kurdistan have been rallying against the Turkish invasion of their state. In Dohuk, the residents of the city have demonstrated against the presence of the enemy. There are reports that a larger demonstration has also taken place at Sulaymania. The Turkish government has received the blessings of the international community, especially that of the United States of America. Their mission, Operation Provide Comfort, has become a guise to choke the Kurds. Notwithstanding the international support which Turkey enjoys, this is the last foray of Turkish soldiers into South Kurdistan. We will expel them soon - and for good. ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU Wed Mar 29 17:46:03 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU (kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU) Date: 29 Mar 1995 17:46:03 Subject: Infodesk Statement #6 Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.UCSD.EDU From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Infodesk Statement #6 Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #6 We received the following news from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the Kurdish-German news agency KURD-A, in Zaxo, South Kurdistan: The Turks Are Targeting The Civilians Members of the Turkish armed forces surrounded the Atrush camp near Zaxo and took its residents away. Numbering some 700 families, these people had fled from Turkish state terror a year ago. Recognized by the United Nations as refugees, there is still no word as to what the Turkish officials did with them. There are unconfirmed reports that they may be taken back to Turkey against their will. There was heavy fighting in the Kapiske region near Haruk where Kurdish guerrilla fighters and Turkish soldiers fought in close proximity. In three different areas, the fighting lasted all day yesterday and there are reports that 54 Turkish soldiers were killed. At the end of the day, the Kurdish forces reported 1 guerrilla wounded and another 1 killed. In Kamis and Amediye regions, Kurdish guerrillas ambushed a military convoy, killing 17 soldiers and wounding many others. Two of the military vehicles were put out of commission. Encounters with Turkish soldiers were also reported near Basyan village and at Metina, Batufa, Kela, and Xankurke. The reports that the Turkish soldiers are not harming the civilians are simply untrue. In Hirzaya, Derkar, and Tilkebar, about 100 Kurds from North Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) were arrested and 7 of them were taken back to city of Silopi where they had lived before fleeing to the south. Mehmet Aksoy, a 35-year-old Kurd, was among those taken prisoner by the Turks. In the village of Eredinan near Bamerli, Turkish soldiers searched all the houses, harassed most of the residents, and mishandled some of the village leaders. They also insulted the women and made passes at them. The village shepherd was beaten so badly that he died. In Zaxo, the house of Xalid Sexo was searched and then destroyed and Mr. Sexo, a supporter of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was taken away. On Turkish TV screens, much is said about weapons captured from Kurdish fighters. But local sources note that the army took over the arsenals of the PUK in Dekara village and showed them as weapons confiscated from Kurdish fighters. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 17:32:47 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 17:32:47 Subject: Infodesk Statement #6 References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Infodesk Statement #6 Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------- Forwarded from : Kurdistan Committee of Canada --------- Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #6 We received the following news from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the Kurdish-German news agency KURD-A, in Zaxo, South Kurdistan: The Turks Are Targeting The Civilians Members of the Turkish armed forces surrounded the Atrush camp near Zaxo and took its residents away. Numbering some 700 families, these people had fled from Turkish state terror a year ago. Recognized by the United Nations as refugees, there is still no word as to what the Turkish officials did with them. There are unconfirmed reports that they may be taken back to Turkey against their will. There was heavy fighting in the Kapiske region near Haruk where Kurdish guerrilla fighters and Turkish soldiers fought in close proximity. In three different areas, the fighting lasted all day yesterday and there are reports that 54 Turkish soldiers were killed. At the end of the day, the Kurdish forces reported 1 guerrilla wounded and another 1 killed. In Kamis and Amediye regions, Kurdish guerrillas ambushed a military convoy, killing 17 soldiers and wounding many others. Two of the military vehicles were put out of commission. Encounters with Turkish soldiers were also reported near Basyan village and at Metina, Batufa, Kela, and Xankurke. The reports that the Turkish soldiers are not harming the civilians are simply untrue. In Hirzaya, Derkar, and Tilkebar, about 100 Kurds from North Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) were arrested and 7 of them were taken back to city of Silopi where they had lived before fleeing to the south. Mehmet Aksoy, a 35-year-old Kurd, was among those taken prisoner by the Turks. In the village of Eredinan near Bamerli, Turkish soldiers searched all the houses, harassed most of the residents, and mishandled some of the village leaders. They also insulted the women and made passes at them. The village shepherd was beaten so badly that he died. In Zaxo, the house of Xalid Sexo was searched and then destroyed and Mr. Sexo, a supporter of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was taken away. On Turkish TV screens, much is said about weapons captured from Kurdish fighters. But local sources note that the army took over the arsenals of the PUK in Dekara village and showed them as weapons confiscated from Kurdish fighters. ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Wed Mar 29 23:00:09 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 29 Mar 1995 23:00:09 Subject: Newroz Piroz Be! Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Arm The Spirit Subject: Newroz Piroz Be! Sender: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Newroz Piroz Be! Newroz Piroz Be! Every year on March 21st, the Kurdish people celebrate Newroz. In the Kurdish language, Newroz means "new day", by which the Kurds mean the first day of spring. The Kurdish calendar begins on this day. Newroz, therefore, is the new day, the first day of spring, the first day of the new year. The Kurdish nation has been celebrating Newroz since the time of ancient history. This tradition dates back to the myth of Kawa the Blacksmith. On March 21st in the year 612 B.C., Kawa killed the Assyrian tyrant Dehak and liberated the Kurds and many other peoples in the Middle East. Dehak was an evil king who represented cruelty, abuse, and the enslavement of peoples. People used to pray every day for God to help them to get rid of Dehak. On Newroz day, Kawa led a popular uprising and surrounded Dehak's palace. Kawa then rushed passed the king's guards and grabbed Dehak by the neck. Kawa then struck the evil tyrant on the head with a hammer and dragged him off his throne. With this heroic deed, Kawa set the people free and proclaimed freedom throughout the land. A huge fire was light on the mountain tops to send a message: firstly to thank God for helping them defeat Dehak, and secondly to the people to tell them they were free. This is where the tradition of the Newroz fire originates. Today, Newroz is not just a day for remembering, it is also a day for protest and resistance against the oppression which the Kurdish people continue to suffer from. Since the recent struggle for national liberation began, some Kurdish martyrs used their own bodies to carry the flames of Newroz, including Mazlum Dogan and the woman named Zekiye, who burned themselves to death to protest against the barbarism inflicted on the Kurds by the Turkish government. And last year, in 1994, Ronahi and Berivan burned themselves to death in Germany to protest the interior ministry's decision to ban the PKK/ERNK more than 30 other Kurdish organizations and to protest the violent attacks by German police on Kurdish Newroz celebrations. In Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, resistance actions from the civilian population have given the Newroz festival new life. But year after year, the Turkish state reacts to Kurdish cries for self-determination with violence and massacres. During Newroz in 1992, demonstrations and celebrations were attacked by the Turkish military and more than 100 people were killed. Shortly before Newroz in 1993, PKK General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan announced a unilateral cease-fire to initiate a political dialogue with the Ankara government and to prevent a repeat of the massacres in 1992. But despite this, a Newroz festival in Adana was attacked by the Turkish state and 4 people were killed and 54 Kurdish villages were destroyed by Turkish bombardments. Newroz 1994 coincided with Ankara's attempts to hold local elections in the civil war provinces. But after the offices of the Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) were repeatedly bombed and several DEP officials murdered, the DEP pulled out of the elections, although they surely would have won an absolute majority if the elections had been fair. International observer delegations reported wide-spread human rights violations during Newroz 1994. It is important that the international public recognize the realities of Turkish state terrorism. In the last few years, more than 2,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed by the Turkish military and more than 3 million Kurds have been forced to become refugees. And what about democracy in Turkey? The Kurdish DEP party MPs, who were officially elected to the Turkish Parliament, saw their party banned in 1994 and their constitutional immunity lifted. One DEP MP, Mehmet Sincar, was murdered. Six managed to escape to Europe. But seven others, including Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman ever elected to the Turkish Parliament, faced the death penalty last December in front of Turkey's highest court before being given jail terms as long as 15 years. What was their crime? They were Kurds who tried to defend the Kurdish people's basic democratic rights. Democracy to Turkey, however, means the imprisoning, torturing, and killing of journalists (in the last three years alone, 32 journalists and newspaper distributors have been killed in Turkey, the country which also has the highest number of journalists in prison, 74), the bombing and closure of all pro-Kurdish news agencies - such as Ozgur Gundem (Free Agenda) and Ozgur Ulke (Free Land), whose offices were completely destroyed in a bomb attack in December 1994 before being officially banned in February 1995 - and the elimination of Kurdish lawyers, intellectuals, and human rights workers. All of these activities are sanctioned by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. This is how Turkey fulfills its promise to the West to promote democracy and respect human rights. Newroz 1995 started off with bad news for the Kurdish people. The Canadian government announced that it plans to sell 39 CF-5 warplanes to Turkey, planes which will certainly be used to bomb Kurdish civilians. And on March 20, the day before Newroz, Turkey launched the biggest military operation in its history. At this moment, more than 50,000 Turkish troops are in South Kurdistan. Turkish warplanes are bombing refugee camps throughout South Kurdistan, and hundreds of refugees and civilians have been arrested. It seems that Tansu Ciller and Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein, with the support of the United States and other NATO countires, have made a plan to wipe out Kurdish autonomy in South Kurdistan and crush the Kurdish national liberation struggle. Turkey's invasion of South Kurdistan - an area which is supposed to be a UN-protected "safe haven" for Kurdish people - shows that the Turkish government is not interested in dialogue; they continue to insist on a military solution to the Kurdish question. At present, the world's 40 million Kurds, the largest people in the world without their own state, are a persecuted nation living under foreign occupation. The Kurdish situation today is similar to their situation back in the days when King Dehak enslaved the ancient Kurds. Saddam Hussein of Iraq is much worse than Dehak. He is carrying out genocide against the Kurdish people in Iraq. The army and police in Turkey are no better than Dehak's thugs. And officials in Iran exploit and enslave the people of the Kurdish regions of Iran just as Dehak's agents did in the past. Kurdistan must be free. The Kurdish people need a voice in international affairs. With the banning of the Democracy Party in 1994 and the imprisonment and exile of its MPs, the Kurdish people decided to find a way to represent themselves. With all democratic channels and freedom of expression blocked in Turkey, the Kurds have decided to establish a Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile. This Parliament will be opened in Brussels, Belgium on April 12. The opening of this Parliament is proof that the Kurdish people want to find a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Let us raise the flag of freedom and justice! We cannot remain silent in the face of the massacres which the Kurdish people are suffering. Now is the time for all people to show their solidarity and support the national liberation struggle in Kurdistan. This struggle is not just for Kurdistan, it is for all humanity. No one can be free until we all are free. We are calling on everyone to celebrate Newroz according to its original spirit of resistance. Newroz does not just belong to the Kurdish people, it is a possession for all oppressed peoples and for all of humanity. We believe the spirit and actions of Newroz can give strength to all humanity to end injustice and oppression. We say "Newroz Piroz Be! - Happy Newroz!" to all our people and to all our friends and to all of humanity. Newroz Piroz Be! Long live the Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile! Long live the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)! Long live the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK)! Long live the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK)! Long live Serok Apo! From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:14:20 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:14:20 Subject: Newroz Piroz Be! References: Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Newroz Piroz Be! Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl Arm The Spirit writes: >Sender: Kurdistan Committee of Canada >Subject: Newroz Piroz Be! > >Newroz Piroz Be! > > Every year on March 21st, the Kurdish people celebrate Newroz. In >the Kurdish language, Newroz means "new day", by which the Kurds mean the >first day of spring. The Kurdish calendar begins on this day. Newroz, >therefore, is the new day, the first day of spring, the first day of the >new year. > The Kurdish nation has been celebrating Newroz since the time of >ancient history. This tradition dates back to the myth of Kawa the >Blacksmith. On March 21st in the year 612 B.C., Kawa killed the Assyrian >tyrant Dehak and liberated the Kurds and many other peoples in the Middle >East. Dehak was an evil king who represented cruelty, abuse, and the >enslavement of peoples. People used to pray every day for God to help >them to get rid of Dehak. On Newroz day, Kawa led a popular uprising and >surrounded Dehak's palace. Kawa then rushed passed the king's guards and >grabbed Dehak by the neck. Kawa then struck the evil tyrant on the head >with a hammer and dragged him off his throne. With this heroic deed, Kawa >set the people free and proclaimed freedom throughout the land. A huge >fire was light on the mountain tops to send a message: firstly to thank >God for helping them defeat Dehak, and secondly to the people to tell >them they were free. This is where the tradition of the Newroz fire >originates. > Today, Newroz is not just a day for remembering, it is also a day >for protest and resistance against the oppression which the Kurdish >people continue to suffer from. Since the recent struggle for national >liberation began, some Kurdish martyrs used their own bodies to carry the >flames of Newroz, including Mazlum Dogan and the woman named Zekiye, who >burned themselves to death to protest against the barbarism inflicted on >the Kurds by the Turkish government. And last year, in 1994, Ronahi and >Berivan burned themselves to death in Germany to protest the interior >ministry's decision to ban the PKK/ERNK more than 30 other Kurdish >organizations and to protest the violent attacks by German police on >Kurdish Newroz celebrations. > In Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, resistance actions from the >civilian population have given the Newroz festival new life. But year >after year, the Turkish state reacts to Kurdish cries for >self-determination with violence and massacres. During Newroz in 1992, >demonstrations and celebrations were attacked by the Turkish military and >more than 100 people were killed. Shortly before Newroz in 1993, PKK >General Secretary Abdullah Ocalan announced a unilateral cease-fire to >initiate a political dialogue with the Ankara government and to prevent a >repeat of the massacres in 1992. But despite this, a Newroz festival in >Adana was attacked by the Turkish state and 4 people were killed and 54 >Kurdish villages were destroyed by Turkish bombardments. > Newroz 1994 coincided with Ankara's attempts to hold local >elections in the civil war provinces. But after the offices of the >Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) were repeatedly bombed and several DEP >officials murdered, the DEP pulled out of the elections, although they >surely would have won an absolute majority if the elections had been >fair. International observer delegations reported wide-spread human >rights violations during Newroz 1994. > It is important that the international public recognize the >realities of Turkish state terrorism. In the last few years, more than >2,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed by the Turkish military and >more than 3 million Kurds have been forced to become refugees. And what >about democracy in Turkey? The Kurdish DEP party MPs, who were officially >elected to the Turkish Parliament, saw their party banned in 1994 and >their constitutional immunity lifted. One DEP MP, Mehmet Sincar, was >murdered. Six managed to escape to Europe. But seven others, including >Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman ever elected to the Turkish >Parliament, faced the death penalty last December in front of Turkey's >highest court before being given jail terms as long as 15 years. What was >their crime? They were Kurds who tried to defend the Kurdish people's >basic democratic rights. Democracy to Turkey, however, means the >imprisoning, torturing, and killing of journalists (in the last three >years alone, 32 journalists and newspaper distributors have been killed >in Turkey, the country which also has the highest number of journalists >in prison, 74), the bombing and closure of all pro-Kurdish news agencies >- such as Ozgur Gundem (Free Agenda) and Ozgur Ulke (Free Land), whose >offices were completely destroyed in a bomb attack in December 1994 >before being officially banned in February 1995 - and the elimination of >Kurdish lawyers, intellectuals, and human rights workers. All of these >activities are sanctioned by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. This is how >Turkey fulfills its promise to the West to promote democracy and respect >human rights. > Newroz 1995 started off with bad news for the Kurdish people. The >Canadian government announced that it plans to sell 39 CF-5 warplanes to >Turkey, planes which will certainly be used to bomb Kurdish civilians. >And on March 20, the day before Newroz, Turkey launched the biggest >military operation in its history. At this moment, more than 50,000 >Turkish troops are in South Kurdistan. Turkish warplanes are bombing >refugee camps throughout South Kurdistan, and hundreds of refugees and >civilians have been arrested. It seems that Tansu Ciller and Iraq's >dictator Saddam Hussein, with the support of the United States and other >NATO countires, have made a plan to wipe out Kurdish autonomy in South >Kurdistan and crush the Kurdish national liberation struggle. Turkey's >invasion of South Kurdistan - an area which is supposed to be a >UN-protected "safe haven" for Kurdish people - shows that the Turkish >government is not interested in dialogue; they continue to insist on a >military solution to the Kurdish question. > At present, the world's 40 million Kurds, the largest people in >the world without their own state, are a persecuted nation living under >foreign occupation. The Kurdish situation today is similar to their >situation back in the days when King Dehak enslaved the ancient Kurds. >Saddam Hussein of Iraq is much worse than Dehak. He is carrying out >genocide against the Kurdish people in Iraq. The army and police in >Turkey are no better than Dehak's thugs. And officials in Iran exploit >and enslave the people of the Kurdish regions of Iran just as Dehak's >agents did in the past. > Kurdistan must be free. The Kurdish people need a voice in >international affairs. With the banning of the Democracy Party in 1994 >and the imprisonment and exile of its MPs, the Kurdish people decided to >find a way to represent themselves. With all democratic channels and >freedom of expression blocked in Turkey, the Kurds have decided to >establish a Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile. This Parliament will be >opened in Brussels, Belgium on April 12. The opening of this Parliament >is proof that the Kurdish people want to find a peaceful and democratic >solution to the Kurdish question. > Let us raise the flag of freedom and justice! We cannot remain >silent in the face of the massacres which the Kurdish people are >suffering. Now is the time for all people to show their solidarity and >support the national liberation struggle in Kurdistan. This struggle is >not just for Kurdistan, it is for all humanity. No one can be free until >we all are free. > We are calling on everyone to celebrate Newroz according to its >original spirit of resistance. Newroz does not just belong to the Kurdish >people, it is a possession for all oppressed peoples and for all of >humanity. We believe the spirit and actions of Newroz can give strength >to all humanity to end injustice and oppression. We say "Newroz Piroz Be! >- Happy Newroz!" to all our people and to all our friends and to all of >humanity. > >Newroz Piroz Be! >Long live the Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile! >Long live the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)! >Long live the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK)! >Long live the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK)! >Long live Serok Apo! > > > ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From EUGENE at zodiac.rutgers.edu Wed Mar 29 18:08:56 1995 From: EUGENE at zodiac.rutgers.edu (EUGENE at zodiac.rutgers.edu) Date: 29 Mar 1995 18:08:56 Subject: Sinn Fein (Ireland) on Turkish invasion Message-ID: Subject: Sinn Fein (Ireland) on Turkish invasion from An Phoblacht/Repubican News news and views of the Irish Republican Movement published in Belfast and Dublin, Ireland March 28, 1995 No 'comfort' now for Kurds World View BY DARA MAC NEILL ANYBODY REMEMBER the Gulf War? Apparently it had a lot to do with toppling tyrants and protecting the human rights of subject peoples. One of the key events in that whole campaign was the establishment by the US-led forces, in April 1991, of Operation Provide Comfort. Operation Provide Comfort apparently had one basic premise: to protect the long-suffering Kurdish population in northern Iraq from the excesses of Saddam Hussein's military. As a result, a huge swathe of northern Iraq became a no-go area for any Iraqi military personnel and, in order to ensure compliance, the region was policed by the US military. There are some 25 million Kurdish people scattered between Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. During the carve-up of the Middle East after the First World War, nobody paid any heed to Kurdish demands to be treated as a separate national entity. The same carve-up resulted in the creation of Kuwait, simply to maintain a western foothold in the region and ensure its bounteous oil supplies would not fall into 'the wrong hands.' Since then, the Kurds have lived largely as refugees and they are, effectively, he largest displaced nation on earth. Demands for the establishment of a separate Kurdish state have met with equal ferocity and brutality from the rulers of the countries in which they reside. Indeed, the Turkish government even refuses to recognise the Kurdish people within their own borders as a separate ethnic identity. Finding all other avenues closed the Kurds have resorted to armed struggle which today is led largely by the PKK. Since the establishment of Operation Provide Comfort some 44 months go, the only people who appear to be in any way comforted are the Turkish military. Using the absence of any Iraqi military presence in northern Iraq, they have struck at both rebel bases and civilian centres in the region. In the process, an estimated 15,000 Kurds have been killed. In this the Turks have been aided and abetted by the US, who regard Turkey as a key ally in the region. Thus, although George Bush was willing to play politics with the lives of the Kurds in 1991 and make noises about protecting them from Saddam Hussein, he repeatedly refused to meet Kurdish representatives for fear of upsetting Turkey. On 20 March, Turkey took their brutal campaign against the Kurds a step further when they launched a wholesale invasion of northern Iraq. The operation, involving up to 35,000 troops, is the biggest ever in Turkey's history, outstripping even their 1974 invasion of Cyprus. So where are the self-styled protectors of the Kurds? Standing on the sidelines making comforting noises. Bill Clinton has endorsed the operation and expressed ''understanding'' of Turkey's need to ''deal decisively'' with the Kurds. Apparently, Clinton was initially hesitant about the whole affair, but was reassured when the Turkish government informed him they expected the operation would be a short one. I'm sure the Iraqi Kurds will be immensely comforted by that news. As a result, according to one US news report, the US-led airforce which is charged with protecting the Kurds has ''halted its routine flights in the area, which are designed to protect Iraqi Kurds.'' The news report which carried the story appeared to find nothing even remotely strange, unusual, or even slightly contradictory abut this. But then they wouldn't, would they. Once again, the Kurdish people have become the victims of ''strategic necessity''. From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 08:42:15 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 08:42:15 Subject: Mi, 29.03.1995 19:00 MESZ Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Mi, 29.03.1995 19:00 MESZ Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl - Bonn stoppt Ruestungslieferungen an die Tuerkei Angesichts der tuerkischen Militaeraktion gegen Kurden im Nordirak hat die Bundesregierung in Bonn alle noch ausstehenden Ruestungslieferungen an Ankara vorerst gestoppt. Nach einer Sondersitzung des Auswaertigen Ausschusses des Bundestages teilte Minister Kinkel vor der Presse in Bonn mit, dass unter anderem Berge- und Brueckenlegepanzer zurueckgehalten wuerden. Er appellierte nochmals an die Tuerkei, sich so schnell wie moeglich aus dem Nordirak zurueckzuziehen. Er forderte auch die Beachtung der Menschenrechte und den Schutz der Zivilbevoelkerung. Die Europaeische Union und die Vereinigten Staaten seien sich einig, dass das Kurdenproblem nur mit politischen Mitteln zu loesen sei, betonte Kinkel. Dazu sei auch internationale Hilfe erforderlich. Bereits gestern hatte sich die Koalition in Bonn darauf verstaendigt, 150 Millionen DM an Zuschuessen fuer die Lieferung von zwei Fregatten an die Tuerkei einzufrieren. - Niedersachsen verlaengert Abschiebestop fuer Kurden bis Ende April Niedersachsen hat den Abschiebestop fuer Kurden in die Tuerkei um einen Monat bis Ende April verlaengert. Das Land wolle zunaechst die Anhoerung des Bundestags-Innenausschusses am 26. April abwarten, begruendete ein Regierungssprecher in Hannover heute die Entscheidung. Gestern hatten bereits Bremen und Hamburg die Frist verlaengert. Berlin will dagegen abgelehnte kurdische Asylbewerber ab dem kommenden Samstag wieder in die Tuerkei zurueckschicken. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Fragen zum Inhalt / technische Probleme: GERMNEWS at vm.gmd.de | ----------------------------Subscribe-------------------Unsubscribe----------- | Mail an LISTSERV at vm.gmd.de mit dem Body | | Deutsche Ausgabe : SUB GERMNEWS Egon Mustermann | UNSUB GERMNEWS | | English edition : SUB DE-NEWS Jesse James | UNSUB DE-NEWS | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Thu Mar 30 19:02:16 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:02:16 Subject: Kurdish Guerrillas Attack Turkish T Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Kurdish Guerrillas Attack Turkish Troops In Turkey/Iraq Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #12 March 30, 1995 We received the following news today from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the KURD-A news agency in Zaxo, Kurdistan: Kurdish Guerrillas Attack Turkish Army In Turkey And Iraq Kurdish fighters increased their attacks on the invading Turkish forces both in Northern and Southern Kurdistan. Units belonging to the Turkish air force had landed in the Metina highlands, but the Kurdish fighters forced them to retreat. In Amediye region, the Turkish troops are now stationed in a well- fortified castle built by Saddam in Iniske. There are reports that some of these troops are now on their way back to Turkey. In the Begov region, retreating Turkish soldiers were ambushed yesterday and 3 Turkish soldiers were killed. Late last night, Kurdish fighters also attacked Saddam's castle in Iniske. There are no reports of casualties. In Begalte, Kurdish fighters attacked Turkish soldiers who were trying to open tents and take a break from their long walk. Eight tents with soldiers inside were hit with rockets and there are reports that many were killed and injured. At Haftanin, in Derya Sin, Kurdish fighters ambushed Turkish soldiers and, according to well-placed guerrilla sources, at least 20 Turkish soldiers were put out of commission. In Northern Kurdistan, there were skirmishes between Kurdish fighters and Turkish soldiers on the Zagros mountains. Units belonging to the Turkish air force landed on a site suspected of belonging to Kurdish fighters, but the search proved to be futile. While the search was continuing, a storm hit and there are reports that these soldiers, numbering about 150 people, are stranded and some fear possible frostbite. Also at Midyat, in Lice, Bagok, and Omerli, Kurdish guerrillas attacked units of Turkish soldiers and their Kurdish collaborators. In Midyat, 5 government officials were killed and 4 soldiers were injured. In Bagok, 2 Kurdish collaborators were killed. In Lice and in Omerli, there are reports that 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and 3 were injured. In Omeryan, there was another Turkish casualty who stepped on a mine placed by ARGK guerrillas. While the fighting continues, the reaction of the Kurdish community in Diaspora, as can be expected, has taken on many forms, including rallies, hunger strikes, and demonstrations at Turkish consulates in all major European cities. One such demonstration is planned to take place in Dusseldorf tomorrow, April 1, 1995. Sabri Sahin, spokesperson for the committee in charge of the rally, noted that the Turkish invasion was not to chase out the PKK fighters but rather to strangle the Federated Kurdish State. ----- Kurdistan Committee of Canada Tel: (613) 733-9634 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Fax: (613) 733-0090 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 E-mail: kcc at magi.com ----- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:10:52 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:10:52 Subject: Turks poised to attack rebel Ku Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turks poised to attack rebel Kurd camp in Iraq Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Turks poised to attack rebel Kurd camp in Iraq By Hidir Goktas ZAKHO, Iraq, Mar 25 (Reuter) - Turkish troops were poised to attack a key Kurdish guerrilla post in Iraq Saturday in an anti-rebel drive that has forced the United Nations to plan moving up to 2,000 Kurdish refugees from the conflict zone. Kurdish sources said several hundred Kurds, who originally fled fighting between Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) rebels and the army, moved from near the border town of Zakho to two U.N. camps at Atrush, 100 miles from Turkish territory. That would put them outside the 25-mile-deep zone that Turkish authorities have mapped out as the limit of their anti-PKK operation. The UNHCR has repeatedly expressed concern for the fate of around 4,500 Turkish Kurd refugees in and around the border town of Zakho, who it fears may be caught up in the Turkish thrust. Turkish troops near a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) mountain camp at Haftanin, 19 miles east of Zakho, said they were close to taking the position. But it was unclear whether any PKK fighters remained in the camp. Aid workers said most had left the region weeks ago. Inside Turkey, guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan has ordered his forces to launch diversionary attacks to undermine Ankara's push into Iraq. ``You must continuously carry out actions to distract the Turkish soldiers (in north Iraq),'' one security official quoted Ocalan as saying in a radio message intercepted by the army. The cross-border operation, involving about 35,000 troops, is causing growing concern in the West for the safety of Iraqi Kurdish civilians and Kurdish refugees. In a guest column for the Bild am Sonntag weekly in Bonn, German Labour Minister Norbert Bluem accused Turks of treating minority Kurds worse than animals and said NATO could not stand idly by while Kurds' human rights were trampled. He did not elaborate. The Iraqi National Congress (INC), which groups opposition to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Turkish shells on Saturday killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded two in the village of Kashan, near Zakho. Turkish authorities have said they are taking precautions to ensure the safety of Iraqi Kurds but residents said Friday Turkish jets had bombed their village, wounding one person. Six houses in the village of Dergele, 60 miles east of Zakho, were badly damaged and residents said Friday that one person had been injured in air strikes earlier in the week. Turkey has denied the reports. Dozens of trucks and armored personnel carriers rolled towards the mountains for what troops said would be a final push on Haftanin, one of the main targets of the six-day-old drive. The army has killed 168 PKK fighters while 16 soldiers have died, Anatolian news agency said Saturday. The PKK has put its own death toll at either 11 or 13 against 178 Turks killed. Washington has pledged to keep daily watch on possible human rights abuses by Turkish troops and leading European Union nations have urged Turkey to put a swift end to the incursion. The Kurdish refugees in Zakho are among about 13,000 people who streamed into Iraq last year, saying they fled fighting between the army and the PKK. Some say their villages were attacked by Turkish troops. Ankara maintains they were forced over the border by the PKK to sully Turkey's image abroad. A convoy of 50 vehicles including trucks and minibuses was ready to move the refugees to Atrush under U.N. guard Sunday, said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville. ``Some are afraid to move. They have a real fear that they will get mixed up with the fighters.'' Colville said the UNHCR was cooperating with Iraqi Kurd authorities in Zakho and was informing Turkish authorities of its intentions. About 10,000 other Turkish Kurds refugees are encamped at Atrush, outside the zone Turkish authorities have mapped out as the limit of their anti-PKK operation. REUTER Reut12:22 03-25 Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service -- + NY Transfer has moved! + + NY Transfer Blythe Internet + + 212-979-0464 <== NEW PHONE NUMBERS ==> 212-979-0440 + + 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 + + e-mail: nyt at blythe.org + ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:11:43 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:11:43 Subject: Turkey pulls veil over falterin Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turkey pulls veil over faltering Iraq operation Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Turkey pulls veil over faltering Iraq operation By Aliza Marcus ZAKHO, Iraq, Mar 27 (Reuter) - Turkey Monday tried to pull the veil over its huge anti-guerrilla operation in Iraq which troops on the ground said was yielding sparse results against elusive Kurdish rebels. Foreign journalists were blocked from entering the Iraqi border from Turkey in an apparent bid to curtail reports of civilian casualties in the week-long drive, the largest military campaign of Turkey's modern history. Military authorities in Diyarbakir, nerve center of the operation, cancelled a news briefing Monday without explanation for a second day in a row. Turkey launched the operation, sending 35,000 soldiers into northern Iraq, to try to smash bases of the rebels -- guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- fighting for a homeland in southeast Turkey. It's Western allies have expressed fears of civilian casualties and concern for human rights. Secretary of State Warren Christopher Monday warned Turkey against keeping troops in northern Iraq for an extended time and about reported attacks on innocent civilians. The remarks, conveyed to Turkey's leaders over the weekend and later to reporters at the State Department, indicated a growing U.S. unease with Ankara's incursion into Iraq. ``Over the weekend I sent a message to both the prime minister and the foreign minister telling them that we were concerned about the passage of time, concerned about reports we have had with respect to human rights violations,'' Christopher said. ``We told them that we thought the support of the United States and the international community would be forthcoming only if troops were promptly withdrawn and they lived up to statements they made at the time the troops were first sent in,'' Christopher said. Washington is in a dilemma over Turkey because of its importance as a NATO ally and base for the U.S.-led operation to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq -- ironically to protect Iraqi Kurds against attack by Baghdad's forces. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel and other European ministers have criticized the Turkish action from the start and Monday, Bonn temporarily froze grants it had promised to give Turkey for the purchase of German frigates. But the initial U.S. response was decidedly sympathetic, with President Clinton saying he understands the need to act against ``terrorists'' -- the term Washington uses for the PKK. Turkish troops preparing to move on a rebel camp at Haftanin, about 18 miles east of the Iraqi border town of Zakho, said most inhabitants probably fled deep into the mountains on the Iraqi-Turkish border weeks ago. ``They will probably come back when we leave but our goal is to clean this area for now,'' an officer told Reuters. The army has poured in dozens of M-60 tanks and artillery pieces into the area around Haftanin, a key target in Turkey's cross-border push against the PKK. Turkish border guards said they received a new directive requiring permits for journalists to enter northern Iraq. ``No one can come in without a pass,'' said an officer at the main crossing point at Habur in Turkey. But it was unclear how the necessary passes could be obtained. Reut16:24 03-27 Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:11:50 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:11:50 Subject: Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks s Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks shelled civilians Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Wounded Iraqi Kurds say Turks shelled civilians By Aliza Marcus DOHUK, Iraq, March 26 (Reuter) - Turkish tanks appeared at early morning in the hills around the Iraqi Kurdish village of Kashan before launching their attack, resident Anwar Mustafa said from his hospital bed on Sunday. Villagers assured the tank commanders they had no connection with the Kurdish guerrillas being sought in a Turkish offensive and yet they still opened fire, he said. ``We didn't expect anything like that,'' he told Reuters in a dimly lit hospital room in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk. ``Earlier that morning we went to the soldiers and told them there were no rebels in our village and they promised not to do anything to us,'' Anwar said. They began shooting in the afternoon, he added. One person died and several others were wounded on Thursday in four hours of tank shelling of Kashan, 15 km (10 miles) from the Turkish border, doctors said. Anwar, 28, was among the casualties. But Iraqi Kurds and Western aid workers charge at least seven villages have been damaged by Turkish fire in a drive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels based in north Iraq. The offensive has raised concern in the West for the safety of Iraqi Kurds but Turkey denies harming any civilians at all. After the bombardments, Anwar's brother Khalid spoke to Turkish soldiers as he took the wounded to hospital. ``They said they didn't know there were civilians there and that they were sorry,'' Khalid said. He accused the soldiers of knowing Kashan was not a military target. ``We told them beforehand they could search our village (for rebels) but they said they didn't want to. We told them there were only women, children and civilians,'' Khalid said. Iraqi Kurdish leaders, who assisted Turkey in a similar sweep in 1992, condemned the military operation but have not resisted it. Iraqi Kurds battling Baghdad rely on Turkey for a lifeline to the outside world. International aid workers said development projects in Iraqi Kurdish villages were being hindered by the assault, involving 35,000 Turkish troops. An Iraqi Kurd wounded in the shoulder during a Turkish air strike on the now-abandoned village of Dergele, was being treated in the same Dohuk hospital. ``We saw the Turkish planes fly over our village two or three times and then the next time they flew over they dropped bombs,'' said Ismael Sabri, 55. Six houses were badly damaged in that attack on Wednesday. Concerned the fighting may engulf refugee Turkish Kurds in Iraq, the United Nations began evacuating more than 1,000 of them out of the conflict zone on Sunday. They set out in a convoy of 40 trucks and minibuses, escorted by U.N. guards, to a refugee camp outside the area declared by Turkish officials as the limit of the operation. Most of the refugees orginally spilled across the border last year to flee fighting between Turkish forces and the PKK. Some of them said their homes had been attacked by troops. REUTER Reut08:49 03-26 Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:12:15 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:12:15 Subject: Turks battle Kurds near Iraqi-S Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turks battle Kurds near Iraqi-Syrian border Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Turks battle Kurds near Iraqi-Syrian border By Suna Erdem ZAKHO, Iraq, March 27 (Reuter) - Turkish troops battled both rebel Kurds and adverse news reports in northern Iraq on Monday, fighting to keep their enemy from fleeing to Syria while making it harder for journalists to cover the conflict. Turkish soldiers in the Iraqi town of Zakho told of frequent clashes with the rebels near Iraq's border with Syria. Rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is believed to be based in Damascus or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. ``We won't let them get across of course,'' a soldier said. Turkey launched the largest military campaign of its modern history a week ago, sending 35,000 troops into northern Iraq, mainly around the border town of Zakho, in a bid to smash bases of the Kurds fighting for a homeland in southeast Turkey. Turkey toughened press restrictions at the Iraqi border on Monday. Border guards said they received a new directive requiring permits for journalists to enter northern Iraq. ``No one can come in without a pass,'' said an officer at the main crossing point at Habur in Turkey. It was not immediately clear how the necessary passes could be obtained. ``The border has been closed to the foreign press because they are wandering around irresponsibly (in Iraq),'' Colonel Ahmet Yuksel, a military spokesman, told Reuters in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, nerve centre of the operation. He did not say how long the restriction would last. The new policy appeared aimed at curtailing reports, largely by the foreign press, of civilian casualties from Turkish artillery, tanks and air raids. Despite Turkish denials, Iraqi Kurds and Western aid workers said two civilians were killed and about nine were wounded. Turkish soldiers said themselves that most of the rebels -- guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- had already fled the border region, warned off by a slow, visible build-up before the troops moved in. The mission commander said his troops should remain in Iraq indefinitely, citing ``certain practices in international law'' to support occupation of another sovereign country. ``There are some critical points where we could stay and must stay,'' Liutenant-General Hasan Kundakci told the Milliyet daily in remarks published on Monday. Authorities have so far placed no time limit on the operation. Turkey, which this month took a key step towards membership of the European Union by signing a customs union with Brussels, has come under harsh criticism from its Western allies over civilian casualties and human rights. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel last week warned things would get tough for Ankara the moment the world saw pictures of civilian casualties. Little or no footage of such incidents has so far appeared on major television networks. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Turkey its military offensive jeopardised the customs union, still to be approved by the European Parliament. Journalists, mostly television teams with cassettes, milled around on the Iraqi side of the Habur crossing, unable to leave for fear of not being allowed back in. Turkish and foreign media rely on the crossing to file stories and television footage of the incursion. Northern Iraq has virtually no international telephone connections. REUTER Reut06:48 03-27 Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:12:47 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:12:47 Subject: Turkey says it kills 16 rebels Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: Turkey says it kills 16 rebels in Iraq clash Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Turkey says it kills 16 rebels in Iraq clash ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - Turkish airborne troops parachuted into a Kurdish rebel position, killing at least 16 guerrillas as part of a week-old incursion into northern Iraq, Anatolian news agency said on Monday. ``Sixteen bodies have been recovered in the region until now. The search is continuing,'' the agency said in its report on the clash with rebels in the mountainous Khwakurk district near the Iranian border. It was not immediately clear when the clash took place. There was no independent confirmation of it. Earlier, a Turkish military spokesman said 172 rebels had been killed for the loss of 17 soldiers in the operation that began on March 20. The rebels put their own death toll late last week at up to 13 against 178 troops killed. Turkish security sources had said rebels were taking on troops in Khwakurk and a large number of guerrillas were holed up in almost inaccessible caves and other hideouts. After an initial clash with a group of 40 to 50 rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, airborne troops parachuted in and surrounded them, the news agency said. ``All of their escape points were cut off and they couldn't save themselves,'' it quoted a high-ranking military official as saying. Turkey launched the operation, sending 35,000 soldiers into northern Iraq, to try to smash bases of the rebels fighting for a homeland in southeast Turkey. REUTER Reut13:33 03-27 Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 19:14:54 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 19:14:54 Subject: Report on Apo Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: Report on Apo By Alistair Bell ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, a revolutionary of the 1970s who has fought successive Turkish governments since 1984, has never given up his Cold War brand of nationalism mixed with Marxism-Leninism. ``Even if 100,000 people die this year, our movement cannot be disrupted,'' Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group, told a Turkish newspaper in 1992. More than 15,000 people have been killed since the PKK, at first only a few hundred dedicated followers of Ocalan, took up arms 11 years ago for a separate Marxist-Leninist state. The group is now a well-oiled guerrilla army of 5,000-10,000 men and women with urbane representatives in Europe and battle-hardened fighting units in both Turkey and northern Iraq. Turkey has launched the biggest military expedition in its modern history, involving 35,000 troops, to drive the PKK out of mountain bases in northern Iraq. A thick-set man in his mid-40s with a bushy black moustache, Ocalan has said he prefers a federation with Turkey over a separate state but PKK literature emphasises independence. Also known as Apo, Ocalan is believed to be based in Damascus or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa valley in Lebanon. In 1993 journalists saw him arrive in the Bekaa in a car bearing Syrian diplomatic licence plates. Late last year he launched a diplomatic offensive to secure a ceasefire and international mediation to end the insurgency. ``International organisations can play a major role in finding a solution,'' he wrote to Western leaders in November. Successive Turkish administrations have ruled out a political solution or talks with the PKK, arguing that Kurds have equal rights in Turkey and are not an ethnic minority. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller flatly turned down the ceasefire offer, branding Ocalan ``a terrorist,'' and Western governments showed no willingness to act as peace brokers. Just over a week after Apo's peace overture, two PKK gunmen shot dead a teacher in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin, raising doubts over his sincerity to halt the campaign. The PKK, using mostly hit-and-run tactics against the much larger Turkish army, has defied frequent government assertions it is all but defeated inside Turkey. Ciller says a final push in Iraq will finish them for good. Ocalan, born to a poor peasant family in the Kurdish village of Omerli in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, developed his revolutionary ideas amid the violent political turmoil of Turkey in the 1970s. He fled to Syria before Turkey's 1980 military coup, which disrupted a secret movement he founded in 1974 after dropping out of Ankara University's political science faculty. He later acquired a reputation for ruthlessness in the southeast with killings of suspected collaborators, pro-government tribespeople and left-wing rivals. Alliances he has forged with the main Kurdish groups in Iraq have fallen apart because of the Iraqi Kurds' anger at the PKK's willingness to kill Kurdish civilians. REUTER From root at newsdesk.aps.nl Thu Mar 30 21:18:34 1995 From: root at newsdesk.aps.nl (root at newsdesk.aps.nl) Date: 30 Mar 1995 21:18:34 Subject: APRN: the Kurds Message-ID: From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam) Subject: Re: APRN: the Kurds Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl -------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) -------------- Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 08:23:31 -0500 Reply-To: IRELAND%RUTVM1.BitNet at pucc.PRINCETON.EDU From: Eugene Mcelroy from An Phoblacht/Repubican News news and views of the Irish Republican Movement published in Belfast and Dublin, Ireland March 28, 1995 No 'comfort' now for Kurds World View BY DARA MAC NEILL ANYBODY REMEMBER the Gulf War? Apparently it had a lot to do with toppling tyrants and protecting the human rights of subject peoples. One of the key events in that whole campaign was the establishment by the US-led forces, in April 1991, of Operation Provide Comfort. Operation Provide Comfort apparently had one basic premise: to protect the long-suffering Kurdish population in northern Iraq from the excesses of Saddam Hussein's military. As a result, a huge swathe of northern Iraq became a no-go area for any Iraqi military personnel and, in order to ensure compliance, the region was policed by the US military. There are some 25 million Kurdish people scattered between Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. During the carve-up of the Middle East after the First World War, nobody paid any heed to Kurdish demands to be treated as a separate national entity. The same carve-up resulted in the creation of Kuwait, simply to maintain a western foothold in the region and ensure its bounteous oil supplies would not fall into 'the wrong hands.' Since then, the Kurds have lived largely as refugees and they are, effectively, he largest displaced nation on earth. Demands for the establishment of a separate Kurdish state have met with equal ferocity and brutality from the rulers of the countries in which they reside. Indeed, the Turkish government even refuses to recognise the Kurdish people within their own borders as a separate ethnic identity. Finding all other avenues closed the Kurds have resorted to armed struggle which today is led largely by the PKK. Since the establishment of Operation Provide Comfort some 44 months go, the only people who appear to be in any way comforted are the Turkish military. Using the absence of any Iraqi military presence in northern Iraq, they have struck at both rebel bases and civilian centres in the region. In the process, an estimated 15,000 Kurds have been killed. In this the Turks have been aided and abetted by the US, who regard Turkey as a key ally in the region. Thus, although George Bush was willing to play politics with the lives of the Kurds in 1991 and make noises about protecting them from Saddam Hussein, he repeatedly refused to meet Kurdish representatives for fear of upsetting Turkey. On 20 March, Turkey took their brutal campaign against the Kurds a step further when they launched a wholesale invasion of northern Iraq. The operation, involving up to 35,000 troops, is the biggest ever in Turkey's history, outstripping even their 1974 invasion of Cyprus. So where are the self-styled protectors of the Kurds? Standing on the sidelines making comforting noises. Bill Clinton has endorsed the operation and expressed ''understanding'' of Turkey's need to ''deal decisively'' with the Kurds. Apparently, Clinton was initially hesitant about the whole affair, but was reassured when the Turkish government informed him they expected the operation would be a short one. I'm sure the Iraqi Kurds will be immensely comforted by that news. As a result, according to one US news report, the US-led airforce which is charged with protecting the Kurds has ''halted its routine flights in the area, which are designed to protect Iraqi Kurds.'' The news report which carried the story appeared to find nothing even remotely strange, unusual, or even slightly contradictory abut this. But then they wouldn't, would they. Once again, the Kurdish people have become the victims of ''strategic necessity''. -- + NY Transfer has moved! + + NY Transfer Blythe Internet + + 212-979-0464 <== NEW PHONE NUMBERS ==> 212-979-0440 + + 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 + + e-mail: nyt at blythe.org + ----------------------------- End forwarded message -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- * Activists Press Service (Newsdesk) * newsdesk at aps.nl !Power to the people! ------------------------------------------------------- From newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl Fri Mar 31 17:31:30 1995 From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl) Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:31:30 Subject: Iraqi operation at verge of downfal Message-ID: From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl) Subject: Iraqi operation at verge of downfall Subject: Iraqi operation at verge of downfall > Debate/Imset Turkey's week-long incursion into northern Iraq appears to have failed to meet expectations, putting pressure on Ankara and the military to justify their further presence in the region. The operation was launched by Ankara last weekend in violation of international laws and with no obvious reason for "hot persuit." PM Ciller's government failed to consult with Parliament on the issue, depending on authority granted to the administration during the Gulf War. The said authority was granted in protest of Ciller's own party, the DYP, and her coalition partner SHP. Although Ankara aimed at justifying the attack in the eyes of its Western allies by claiming it targeted to crush the PKK, there is growing concern that civilians are suffering more than the rebels. Turkey "revised" its initial PKK casualty toll this week from 200 to 14 and later increased it to 182. It was notable, though, that it did not display the body for journalists as was traditional. In fact, as foreign media concern on the plight of civilians grew, Turkey blocked all access to Turkish and foreign reporters to the region. On Tuesday, Reuters quoted Turkish military officers saying that the PKK militants had escaped from their bases into the rugged border region where tracing them down would be very difficult if not completely impossible. Iraqi Kurds said the PKK had left its camps two weeks prior to the incursion and left behind only a token force which 35,000 Turkish troops seem to have difficulty in dealing with. The high cost of the operation, the coverage of the issue by a military manipulated media, and promises made by government and military to crush the PKK "once and for all" now make it even more difficult for an early withdrawal to take place. Both the military and government have to consider Turkish public opinion alongside western pressure. They are bound to try to justify this uncalled for incursion in the eyes of the electorate and this in itself could lead to an extensive stay. The only bodies of people killed by Turkish troops to be seen by third parties have been those of two civilians. Another nine were also reportedly wounded when troops conducted house-to-house searches in Kurdish villages. Turkey's own human rights record is riddled by such searches which often end, in its own territory, with the torching of houses and a complete depopulation of the settlements. Yet, in view of western concern, the architect of immense human rights violations in the southeast, Gen. Hasan Kundakci, appears to be more careful in Iraq. Kundakci has been branded a supreme commander by the motivated press which reports "destruction of PKK camps" on a daily basis without offering any new casualties. As of Tuesday, several major Turkish newspapers have instructed their staff to look into the background of the incursion, reflecting their own inconfidence that it aims the PKK alone. Some newspapers have also contacted the PKK, asking for direct channels to be open so as Turkish information can be re-checked. At the verge of its entry to the EU, Turkey has once again proven its major qualification: That to shoot itself in its foot. Not only has it turned the international spotlights on its poor human rights, but it also has alienated many of its prominent allies -- a major source of investment. Despite its claims of "independence" and the traditional Turkish argument that western powers have interests which conflict with Turkish sovereignty, much of Ankara's ruthless campaign against the Kurds depends on foreign military aid and grants. Although there is no evidence that german weapons are currently being used for the cross-border operation, it is unlikely that such an incursion against international laws could be carried out without US support and weapons. The disillusion that the Kurds do not exist and that the PKK is not a product of the Kurdish crisis but only a foreign-supported terrorist group has forced Turkey to deny the most principle rights to its Kurdish population. PKK atrocities, in the form of attacks against civilians and unarmed government employees, have been systematically used by Turkish forces as smoke screens to cover up their own atrocities, i.e. opening fire on mass demonstrations, torching 1,500 villages, displacing 2 million civilians and attacking villages, towns and cities. Thus many Turks, acting under the assumption that the national press is reporting the truth, are inclined to end the crisis through military means -- replying to guns with guns. This policy, instigated by the ANAP government in the late 1980s, is the policy responsible for the death of over 15,000 people in the past decade. Turks in general believe in the existence of a sinister foreign plot to divide the country and base their argument on the assumption that giving principle rights to the Kurds will be the first step towards such a division. This view has for years been carefully instilled in every house by a systematic propaganda effort carried out by the National Security Council which --on paper-- only has advisory powers. The council, as in the case of state security courts, is a remnant of the 1980 military coup era and stands as evidence that Turkey does not belong to the democratic league. As for the current status of the Ankara government, a rubber stamp management for the military as far as the Kurdish issue goes, it is caught now in between western fire and the downfall of expectations in Iraq. Turkey continues to ignore the fact that the Kurdish problem and the PKK problem is WITHIN its territory and not ABROAD. But how could it not be ignored, given its record of "successes" against the PKK? At the end of 1994, 40,000 troops were moved into Tunceli province where, from the free time they had from torching villages and conducting mass arrests of civilians (sometimes bumping off muhtars) they tried to eradicate the PKK. 40,000 troops challenged 1,000 PKK militants for four months on the Tunceli mountains and the operation ended with zilch. This was INSIDE Turkish territory! Now the terrain is different, the area is regarded as "enemy soil" and 35,000 troops, conventional troops, are chasing 2,000 militants, unconventional guerillas. Scenario: It appears the PKK has ordered for a temporary halt of all military activities and is waiting the current crisis out. The possible scenario on the PKK front could be to allow the Turks to settle in the area. There are reports in Turkey's own press that instead of fighting it off on the border mountains, Turkish troops are actually moving into the summer resort palaces of former Iraqi leaders and just settling them. Once the settlement comes to an end, the PKK may then attempt to launch a Vietnam-style harrassment campaign, harrassing troups with sporadic attacks, mining, ambushes and sabotage. Being a guerilla movement, it has a hardened staff in the mountains and much expertise in this field. Turkey's own SAT commandoes, often wearing caps with skulls inscribed in the front, are equally or even better trained but lack the experience. Moreover, as part of military expenditure cuts, Turkey last year brought down the number of live ammunition which could be used in commando training -- producing a less experienced force. The PKK has taken to the hills as Turkish officers have said but has also melted among the people. Restrictions on HR thus make it difficult to differentiate --once again-- the innocent from the guilty. Moreover, despite Turkey's own backward laws, the operation is conducted in the territory of another country and thus CANNOT target any PKK "sympathizers" as the act of sympathizing is not a crime for the more developed world. The operation must target PKK activists, as the UNHCR has expressed and that too is almost impossible. The result of this operation may thus be an extensive war between the two sides if Turkey extends its stay in the region and such a conflict will undoubtedly spill in time to other regional Kurdish groups and lead to a destabilization which the world cannot afford. The only face-saving move I can see for the government, now entrapped in its own mistake, is to move out of the region as soon as possible, at the cost of blaming foreign pressure -- which is, after all, a routine incident for many Turkish minds. Otherwise, the downfall of operation north Iraq could soon lead to the downfall of Government Ciller. (Not a bad idea at that). A second argument is that even if 2,000 PKK guerillas were killed in this operation, it would neither change the current state of the overall Kurdish crisis nor seriously effect PKK activities within Turkey. In fact, the operation will soon reflect itself as an increase of economic hardships in Turkey (with its high cost) and boomerang back in the form of further social turmoil. Imset From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Fri Mar 31 17:41:34 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:41:34 Subject: Turkish Army Is On The Defensive Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Turkish Army Is On The Defensive Information Desk - The Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan Tel: +32-2-230-9233 Fax: +32-2-230-9208 Press Release #13 We received the following news today from Ahmet Yigit, a correspondent for the Kurd-A news agency in Zaxo, Kurdistan: The Turkish Army Is On The Defensive Kurdish forces continued to pound units belonging to the Turkish army yesterday. In Haftanin region, the Turkish forces were ambushed on the Sehit Mustafa hill. Of the 50 or more soldiers targeted, 6 were killed on the spot and many others were wounded. On Kesan hill, also in Haftanin, a larger group of Kurdish fighters surrounded a group of Turkish soldiers and fired rockets and automatic weapons on them. The soldiers, after a brief resistance, panicked and ran away. 24 dead bodies were strewn all over the place and some of their weapons were confiscated. The Kurdish fighters were able to collect the following weapons: 1 MG-3 gun, 1 B-7 rocket launcher and 7 B-7 rockets, 4 G-3 guns, and a considerable amount of bullets and hand grenades. A select group of Kurdish fighters were also sent on a mission to mine the heavily guarded Habur bridge area the previous night. The next day, yesterday, a tank was blown up and its occupants were also killed instantly. In Semdinli region there were ambushes as well. At Erdebil, as the Turkish soldiers were leaving their positions, the Kurdish fighters attacked the congregated crowd of enemy troops with hand grenades and automatic weapons. One Kurdish fighter was slightly wounded in this battle. From the conversations heard on the enemy walkie-talkie radios, one could hear them say that they had 17 losses. In Begalte, a Turkish solider lost his life after stepping on a mine that the Kurdish fighters had planted. ----- Kurdistan Committee of Canada Tel: (613) 733-9634 2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203 Fax: (613) 733-0090 Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9 E-mail: kcc at magi.com ----- From kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu Fri Mar 31 17:41:49 1995 From: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu (kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu) Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:41:49 Subject: Letter To The Toronto Star Message-ID: Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada Subject: Letter To The Toronto Star Editorial Page Editor Mr. M. Haroon Siddoqui The Toronto Star March 27, 1995 Dear Mr. Siddiqui, We are writing in response to your editorial of March 22, 1995, where you claim the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are terrorists who attack diplomats and traffick heroin in Europe. We would be interested to know how you can substantiate such claims. The Kurdish community, the majority of whom support the PKK's military actions against the Turkish government, are a family- oriented community who are not terrorist, do not engage in drug running, and who are not attacking diplomats across Europe. The members of the PKK are Kurds. They cannot be separated from the Kurdish community. The PKK/ERNK have tried for several years to alert the world to the terrible atrocities being committed by the Turkish state - to no avail. As you said in your editorial, the Turkish state has no interest in providing the Kurdish community with even the most basic human rights. It is not even prepared to pay lip service to the principle. The Turkish state has used its membership in NATO to further persecute the Kurdish community. While the Western powers have stood by and watched, the Turkish state have made fools of them. They have now marched into Iraq and we believe they will not be willing to give up their position there. The PKK are engaged in a war that has been long and arduous. They are accused of many wrong-doings, but these accusations have never been substantiated. Kurdish communities are scattered all over the world. All we are asking for is the right to self- determination, a right which is taken for granted by nations much smaller that ours. The Canadian media speaks of refugees in northern Iraq, but little is mentioned of the reasons why they are there. These refugees are there because they have had their villages destroyed and their friends and family have been arrested, tortured, and killed. All of this is done on the orders of the Turkish state. Finally, we, the Kurdish community, would like the Canadian public to know that the PKK is the army of the Kurdish people. They are fighting in the mountains of Kurdistan to win our freedom. Your sincerely, Hassan Chrakseher Kurdistan Committee of Canada (613) 733-9634